Just playing, getting the hang of night shots

Better ones to come, getting ready to take advantage of the lack of light while I still can. Looking forward to the upcoming meteor showers.

Meanwhile, Davis with Lidar going and slight aurora.

The Dip Itself

Vids speak louder than words, sorry about the swearing :)

Midwinter

This post will just be a brief run down until I can get some other peoples additions and slap them in. Mid winter celebrations went something like this:-

-Brunch (delicious!!! Eggs Benedict or Florentine, I cant remember which)

-The dip, hilarious!!! 95% of the crew got wet, this is meant to be pretty rare with only 75% the usual. Vid to come.

-Dinner. Amazing, 24 dish banquet. Each dish was assigned to one person for table delivery and done so specifically with them in mind. Mine was a veal dish with hydro salad. Well chosen for me I think. My dish...

-Presents. Everyone made a present for another person here in Kringle type hat draw. I got Hoops and gave him the Davis beard achievement award with a stencil drawing likeness of his face based on my screen printing days techniques. I got a Hellraiser style puzzle box with a "B2" mini hip flask hidden inside. WIN

-Festivities, Bands, poems, videos. FUN, a great night was had.

Anchorage Island, sans tripod

There was a lunar eclipse visible down here but I slept through it!!!

Well, realizing this once I had awoken today, I decided to go for a walk. Anchorage Island is roughly north west of Davis and about 2km away. A bit before smoko I took ice axe, radio and camera in hand and went for a wander. With the sea ice lit clearly by the bright moon I had a rare experience, a quiet moment to myself. Funny that we 24 expeditioners have come to a place considered the most isolated on the planet and yet sometimes it can can feel so crowded. I had a light in my pocket to negotiate the tide cracks at the base of the island and made my way to the top where there are three memorial crosses for each of the expeditioners that passed away down here between 1985 and 2005.

Apologies for the "hyper-shake" No tripod and cold hands made for fun with long exposure. Added bonus that my point and shoot camera is not flat bottomed so tends to want to fall over a lot when you sit it down. These were the best shots I could manage.

At the base of the island

Cross to south of island

Cross to north of island

View of Davis from Anchorage

Davis Plateau Skiway

Ok, I am just sick of writing WoopWoop, WhoopWhoop and WPWP. This place is the where we have international flights arrive once the sea ice has melted out. It is situated 40km from base and until 9/8/2011 I had only flown there in a a squirrel helicopter. To get there over land requires a trip out of Davis around Anchorage Is. North-ish to Long Fjord, past Brooke's Hut and to The Ramp (not the ramp... The Ramp). After that it is a trip across the Plateau to the airstrip. Part of my job requires that I maintain the Automatic weather station that is situated there so when an opportunity to go there springs I will often jump on it. Because we're in the the heart of winter though, and currently the station is only solar powered there is little point in taking all my equipment up to calibrate the gear. Realizing that this would be a problem I was still justified in my going up as I am fully qualified to operate the D-1 'Dozer AKA a shovel (qualified but not very good :D).

The team for the trip was Rob, Dieso; Craig, Comms tech and Trip leader for the outing; Corey, Dieso; Myself; and one yellow Hagglund

Snow reflects, having no tripod doesn't help, only snowbanks to pop the camera on.

Corey

Rob

Me

Craig

WoopWoop

Well, it seems the merest mention of this destination conjures up Blizzards. Our 0800 start has been pushed back to lunch time, we'll see how the weather is going then and make the call. The pin is already half pulled though, time will tell.

Ohh, another bit of news, I know how to poach an egg proper like now... you guys got NUTHIN!!!!

B2

Night time

We are now going into 6 weeks of no sun. We still have a couple hours of dusk so it is not pitch black as you might expect. I have been out on quads again for a day jolly, am going up to Woop Woop by Hagglund which I can now drive due to being inducted and getting close to our midwinter celebrations.

I was a bit restless last night and decided to go out and take some photos. This is Davis in almost all day night (errrr, so to speak HAHA)

Marine Plain Melons

Cheers to Corey for the pics

Corey, Rio and Brian AKA Pigbucket

Inside the melon

Lounging around

Well, plans change

OK, last weeks trip wasn't to Woopwoop, Platcha and Bandits after all. The threat of a potential blizzard changed our plans and so instead we rode out to Marine plain melons for a night. Corey Rio and I settled in for some grub, a drink or many and a relax. After sched'ing into base we got feedback that the blizzard might instead hit at 10:00 the next morning so paying attention to the wind against the hut throughout the night we made the call to be up and ready for Davis early. I am waiting on a photo of us at the hut from one of the guys so in the mean while check out these cool clouds I took a photo of at the end of summer some 2 odd months ago.