Approaching the end

Greetings iSTAR blogreaders, and Happy New Year. I write to you as we bounce once more over Pine Island Glacier’s sastrugi (“dunes” of snow formed by wind) en route to our 20th site of the overall 22. Yes, the finish of the traverse is approaching fast …

Read Full »

New Year update

We can see mountains on the horizon! Or are they just mountain-shaped clouds? After many weeks on the ice plains of Pine Island Glacier, our eyes sometimes deceive. However, whilst driving one of many radar lines away from camp, Damon pointed his camera north yesterday, and took a picture of dark silhouettes rising from the flat surface, with clouds draping the peaks – they must be the Hudson Mountains!

Read Full »

The team is complete

With the arrival of the iSTAR C team at Pine Island Glacier the traverse is now at full capacity. Our journey to the field camp site at iSTAR 06 was simply stunning. Our Twin Otter stopped to refuel at Fossil Bluff and Sky Blu field stations passing over nunataks piercing through crevasse scarred ice. As we closed in on the iSTAR camp the footprint of the previous day’s campsite appeared below with tracks of Polar 1 and 2, the traverse snow tractors providing us with a road leading us to their current location.

Read Full »

The traverse begins

After one day of bad weather layup in British Antarctic Survey’s Rothera Research Station and four consecutive days of howling wind out in the field, the forecast finally gave a 50:50 chance for a successful flight onto the traverse. This season a 50:50 chance is good enough so we took to the sky.

Read Full »

First Dash 7 flight to Sky Blu being loaded.

Ready to fly out

With the weather clearing up, the skies around Rothera have been busy with Twin Otters and Baslers, but the most important flight to get everything moving for iSTAR was made on Sunday.

Read Full »