The team has wrapped up their fieldwork at Snow Hill, and is now working at Esperanza. Kati Lindström is filling us in on the details.
After 14 days on Snow Hill and ticking off almost all boxes in the work plan, it was time for the team to move on in a dramatic series of helicopter flights that took them from Snow Hill to Marambio Base and, after a very short overlay there, on to Esperanza Base on January 24. It is very rare for the Antarctic fieldwork to have so good luck with the weather as to be able to finish most of the planned work. But it is equally rare for the logistics to be so quick and smooth. So the team considers itself twice lucky!
We will be revisiting the intensive working days at Snow Hill even in upcoming blog posts. The days were so long and loaded that we we hardly found time to write the necessary field notes! We left behind a functioning weather station, data-loggers for temperature and humidity in the house and in the permafrost, a well-ordered storage of historical objects. We droned the coast in and out, photographed, scanned, documented, filmed, inventoried, measured, drew, did some emergency fixes on the roof, took wood samples of the building and in between all of it, managed to cook, laugh and have fun.
Esperanza Base welcomed us with open arms and - extremely appreciated - warm shower. Coming here also meant a farewell with Valeria and Emmanuel who returned to Buenos Aires.Today, Saturday, is the time for the team to load batteries, both personal and of the equipment. Tomorrow, the team will begin to work with the stone hut of the Esperanza Bay. But already today we have sneaked down to the historic remains left by Andersson, Duse and Grunden, amidst a penguin colony. We can't tell you how much We can't tell you how much we appreciate our own living quarters now after seeing theirs!
Snow Hill Hut. Photo: Kati Lindström
Esperanza base and the remains of the hut. Photo: Kati Lindström
Esperanza base and penguins. Photo: Kati Lindström
