So, it’s been a pretty eventful few weeks and I have been snowed under (pardon the pun) with heaps of photos and videos to sift through. We have completed our third and final census of the Taylor Rookery emperor penguins and we had our largest group ever of people out in one expedition so far this year with seven of us taking part. The lead up to the trip took a lot of planning and prayers to the ‘Gods of Sea Ice’ as prior to commencing the trip we had a period where the temperatures soared to a sweltering +3 degrees for about 5 days in a row. This increase in temperature was a bad sign as far as how reliable the sea ice would be to travel on, with visible melt pools forming on top of the ice. Even though these pools were just the very surface of the ice melting off slightly, it was evident the sea ice will be decreasing quite rapidly from this point onwards. We made a couple trips of about 30kms from station out to the Rookery Islands and where the Forbes Glacier pushes out into the sea to measure the sea ice there, as this point is the least reliable and renowned for breaking out first. We had hoped to wait for as long as possible before commencing the trip to Taylor so to get the most accurate representation of the success of the rookery but it was evident, we were at the turning point in the sea ice. So, the seven of us packed the haggs and left early on the Monday morning and headed straight to Taylor Rookery to complete the journey of 90km and the census all in one day. It takes a little over 6 hours to get there in a hagg but there was plenty of wild life to look at along the way especially as every now and then we came across seals lying next to a hole in the ice with a pup snuggled up close. Once at Taylor I was pretty happy to stretch my legs and as the four people conducting the census headed off into the Rookery, myself, Brett and Matt all headed off to a small nearby island which had a decent (but distant) view of the rookery and surrounding area. To get to the island we had to cross essentially what is the penguin’s highway from the rookery out to the ocean to feed. There was a constant but fairly well spread-out flow of penguins making their way either away from or back to the rookery. I tried to leave my GoPro in their path but unfortunately it was quite hit and miss, a few passed it at first but a lot of others preferred a path off about 20m off to the side. We then made our way round to the back side of the island where the Taylor Glacier pushes past the island with a little melt there were some really awesome stalactites of ice and crazy blue melt ponds at its base. After slowly making the journey all the way round the island we just parked up and sat down in the snow and watched the steady stream of penguins making their way past. When the census was completed after a couple hours we packed up and headed off to Colbec hut where we would be staying the night, only a few kilometres from the rookery. There are actually two huts at Colbec, both sleep four people but there is one hut which is slightly bigger than the other and this one is used for cooking and eating. With seven people in the hut it is quite crowded but after spending the last nine months together we are all pretty cosy anyway. After dinner and the washing up is done we separate the groups. I went for a quick walk up the hill right behind the hut and took one last long look at the surrounding island and bergs acknowledging this could be my last time there. The next day we quickly set about packing up the huts and getting the haggs ready to travel as we expected the weather to turn later on in the day and we wanted to keep ahead of it. Despite the forecast the morning was actually really clear with hardly any wind so took the time to stop and take photos whenever we passed particularly awesome looking bergs or anything that looked like a good photo opportunity. We seemed to time it quite well as about an hour after we returned to the station the sky had become overcast and we started getting blowing snow.
The next notable experience on my list is a trip to Macey hut a couple weeks ago. There was an old fuel cache there that needed to be removed as well as the chippies needed to perform some repairs on the floor of the hut. Two haggs and five blokes set off on very borderline conditions. We had low winds but the day was very overcast which is problematic because everything covered in snow becomes the same colour and shade as the clouds above. This makes it nearly impossible to read the ground we are travelling on or even distinguish where the horizon is. I have included a couple photos of what this looks like when we stopped. This low light makes it quite a slow trip but we arrived unscathed in about three hours. Will and Hamish, two of our chippies, set about completing their repairs while Dave, Mark and myself began trying to remove the two old fuel drums which had over time melted further into the ice. It took a bit of work to break them free as the drums were rusted at the bottom and we didn’t want to puncture them. Also making it slightly more difficult was we had to try and reduce the noise we made so as to not disturb the Adelie penguins which were nesting quite close to either the hut or the two-person polar ‘Apple’. After a bit we did finally get the drums free and even had an inquisitive Skua come over to see if we had dug it up a meal. Unfortunately, we had to leave the hagg and sled a fair way away because we had not wanted to scare the Adelies causing them to panic and expose their eggs – the Skua’s are constantly waiting for them to make this mistake. This meant we had to hand roll these drums of fuel a couple hundred meters over soft snow to be able to load them onto the sled. This was pretty tough work but we felt better knowing we finished before the chippies did. Once all the work was completed we retired into the hut for a cheese platter and beers – this seems to be a field trip staple. This also always seems to be a mistake because after all the cheese and biscuits no one ever really seems hungry for dinner anyway. After dinner the sky had begun to clear and we all had a quick walk around Macey island. This was pretty neat watching the icebergs around the island almost appear out of nowhere as sunlight came through and they became visible.
As there are no scientists coming down to Mawson this year because of COVID we have been asked to step in and help out with a little bit of data collection so scientists back home can still continue parts of thier research. Groups of people have been heading out to the nearby island and counting numbers of penguins nesting on each island. As well as going to Beche Island and retrieving data from the weigh bridge and scanning Adelie penguins which have been chipped. I was recruited to help Will do a seperate survey though and the two of us went out trying to locate Skua nests and birds that have been tagged. So over two days we spent riding around on quads between the islands following GPS waypoints guiding us to where the birds nested last year. The Skuas keep their nest right next to the nesting Adelies providing them with the opportunity to briefly leave the egg to go and feed if the partner happens to steal an egg off an unfortunate Adelie. It was actually a nice change to focus on something that wasn’t a penguin for a while. Though it was quite funny since the Skuas are very well camouflaged to look like rocks and the nest in small crevasses and fault lines in the rock it was not uncommon to get a decent fright as when I was walking along and suddenly a rock would grow wings and start screeching at me. Same with the moment you stopped trying to pick a path in between the nesting Adelies to focus on a possible skua site, I would be startled by an Adelie suddenly popping its head up and making a noise similar to a cat about to get in a fight. We did quite well over the two days, finding most of the nests that were way pointed as well as finding several more brand-new nests which I’m sure the scientists will be quite chuffed about.
Now that the weather is getting reliable/better and the sea ice is on its way out, we have started to focus more on plateau-based trips and this last weekend, Mark, Brett and Myself Climbed Mount Henderson. The Mountain is about an hour away in the Hagg but with a little bit of wind it was still a really nice day. The peak of Mount Henderson is 951m above sea level but the climb itself was approximately 600m. With probably only the last 80m requiring us to be roped up and belaying each other. With only slightly more than fair winds it was pretty amazing to be up on the summit on a clear day overlooking such a wide expanse all around us. It took us just under three hours to complete the climb and then retrun to the hagg at the base of the mountain, was a pretty amazing experience for just a half day trip.
Guy's Antarctica Adventure 2020 