On Friday the 28th of December, the Swedish Ambassador to Argentina, Anders Carlsson, received the CHAQ 2020 team at the embassy in Buenos Aires. The team presented te expedition and the ambassador expressed his support for the project and future Swedish engagement with the co-management and conservation of the Nordenskjöld historical remains.
From left to right: Gunnar Almevik, Pablo Fontana, Kati Lindström, Johnathan Westin, Dag Avango and Anders Carlsson
While the Swedish team is packing in Stockholm and Gothenburg and frantically looking for last remaining pieces of personal equipment, in Buenos Aires packing has other dimensions. Pablo has spent days, nights and weeks in packing these huge boxes in the wear-house of the Argentine Antarctic programme that are now already on their way towards Marambio station. Antarctic logistics is not your regular trip to beach!
Mientras el equipo sueco está empacando en Estocolmo y Gotenburgo y está juntando lo ultimo que les falta del equipamiento personal, en Buenos Aires el empacar tiene otros dimensiones. Pablo ha estado días noches y semanas enteras embalando estas tremendas cajas, aquí el foto todavía en el almacén de la programa Antártica Argentina. En momento de publicar este, las cajas deberían estar en su camino hacía el base Marambio. ¡La logística Antártica es bastante más complicada que un viaje familiar a la playa!
And the team is on their way! With loads of luggage.
“A pig on a skewer stick” according to the wrapper. Automatic Weather Stations do not fit into ordinary luggage!
Dag and Kati with one of the trolleys.
And more trolleys…
Dag Avango’s 5 must-have’s for Antarctic archaeological fieldwork
01 : High quality camera
02 : Rite-in-the-rain note book
03 : Measuring tape
04 : Drone with extra batteries
05: GPS and compass
Dag Avango taking archaeological fieldnotes during the Sorgfjorden expedition (2017) on the Norwegian Arctic island group, Svalbard. Also pictured is Camilla Winqvist, PhD student at KTH.
Photo: Lize-Marié van der Watt
The team is busy making final preparations before they leave for Argentina on the 26th of December. This means a lot of careful packing - not only for the inclement conditions they will face in the field, but also to arrive in Buenos Aires during high summer. They are also taking field-equipment and instruments. Dag Avango, who has considerable polar fieldwork experience, always makes sure to take measuring tape and notebooks, the reliable option when the weather is terrible or modern technology fails.
Jonathan Westin (center) and Gunnar Almevik (right) testing radio equipment and satellite phones with which the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat supplied the expedition. On the left is Ola Erikson from the Secretariat.
Photo: Kati Lindström
