02 Summer begins at Mawson

2	First Half of Summer - 12 October 2002 / 1 January 2003 - Page 1

14 October 2002

De-blizzing (removing snow) from the traverse van

Hi everybody,
This summer started quite early compared to some other years. Normally we try to arrive before the birds do (around October 16 - 20) so this meant that we were able to do a lot of work on Beche that cannot be done later in the season. Making up the Beche team this summer was Colin, Megan & myself. The first thing we did was to de-blizz (remove snow) from the traverse van and the apple hut, and then go through all the equipment to see what could be returned to station. Coming in early meant also the sea ice was firm enough to use Hagglunds on so we could carry a lot of fresh water to Beche (about 400L). We need fresh water for later in the season when we are stranded on Beche and there is no snow around to melt. As well as water, we also restock the supplies of food and equipment which we need for the summer. I also have to check all the Automatic Penguin Monitoring Systems (APMS), to make sure the weighbridges are calibrated and ready for the arrival of the first birds.

15 October 2002

Colin and myself erecting the weather station

Another thing that needs attention is the automatic weather station which we use to record the wind speed, direction, air temperature (at ground level and 1.5m above the ground), air pressure and sunlight. The weather station had been left out over winter for the past few years so it needed a bit of repair work and battery replacement.

16 October 2002

Megan using the Cobra rock drill on Verner Island

Another reason for coming in early before the penguins arrive is so we can do activities like rock drilling without having to worry about upsetting the birds. This season we had to drill a few holes on Verner Island which we will use later in the season for anchoring the boats. Quite often the combination of the sea swell, cold water and cold wind makes it difficult to secure the boats, so having eye bolts will help make things easier. The rock around Mawson is very similar to granite in that it is very hard so we had to use the "Cobra" petrol powered rock drill which is a heavy, noisy and vibrates your hands a lot.

24 October 2002
Megan skiing in West bay		Trevor skiing in West Bay
Who needs a ski lift when you have a quad!		In the evenings we tried some skiing on the slopes to the west of the station. The snow around Mawson is very hard and very compact so it is quite easy to get a lot of speed up, and as you do the ride is usually very rough. We are not allowed to have proper downhill ski's so we to make do with cross country ski's. I hadn't done any skiing on such hard snow before so I didn't get much speed up, but luckily didn't fall over much!. Getting back to the top of the slope was easy with the quad to tow us.

October 2002
Arriving early at Mawson also meant that the nights were still relatively dark. One of the things I wanted to try was to see how well some of the new digital cameras performed in low light conditions, and for photographing things like the Aurora Australis. I had contemplated buying a new digital camera (Canon D60) but decided not to. Luckily somebody else on station had bought the same one that I was looking at, so one night with little wind Jeremy and I went outside to see how well we could capture the Aurora. The results you can see on the right, which compares quite well with 400 ASA film, but still not quite as good. The advantage of course is the instant feedback because it took awhile to get the right combination of exposure and aperture settings. The sun was still setting in the evenings allowing the true blue pastel colours of the ice to come out so I walked out to West bay in the evening to capture the sunlight reflecting off the ice.		Weak Aurora Australis over East Bay
		Weak Aurora Australis over East Bay

Evening light on the West Bay Cliffs

26 October 2002

A panorama of the PCMEGA Traverse train just before departure

One of the big programs this summer is called PCMEGA, or "Prince Charles Mountains Expedition of Germany and Australia". It involves a lot of scientists (geologists mainly) in the Prince Charles Mountains which are about 800km south of Mawson. The program involves a lot of aerial surveying, and ground work requiring helicopter and fixed wing aircraft support. There is one Twin Otter aircraft and two squirrel helicopters as well as Hagglunds, quads and skidoos. With all this machinery there is a corresponding requirement for fuel, and given the distance from Mawson or Davis the only way to get all the equipment and fuel there was to do a over land traverse from Mawson. A traverse is a big exercise and to get approximately 200 fuel drums (200L each) to the base camp requires approximately 300 tonnes of machinery and sledges. The traverse consisting of 3 D7 tractors (28 tonnes each) and 6 sledges left Mawson on the 26th of October. Travelling time about 3 weeks at a breakneck speed of about 5kph! The D7 tractors consume so much fuel that a previous traverse had to be conducted to dump fuel depots on the way.

On the 26th, a lot of people from station travelled up to Gwamm just above Mawson to say goodbye to the team who would not be returning until mid February 2003. It took about 3 weeks for them to get to their base at Mt Cresswell and setup. You can see much more information and photos at the official PCMEGA website or the PCMEGA Photo album

The PCMEGA Traverse team - Dave, Trevor, Jim, Lindsay, Alan

27 October 2002

Playing cricket on the sea ice in front of the station.

As part of Active Australia Day all the Antarctic Stations made some special arrangements to get outside and take part in an activity. At Mawson we chose cricket on the sea ice in front of the station. Playing cricket on the slippery sea ice was a challenge. Running after the ball was difficult and also diving to catch it was a hazard since the sea ice is as hard as concrete. After being wicket keeper for awhile, I switched to 'deep outfield on a quad' to retrieve all the balls that were missed by the inner field. After an hour of cricket I checked the odometer on the quad and found that I had travelled at least 2.5km in the pursuit of the ball!

7 November 2002

Small group of Emperors at Auster Rookery

Taking a short break from out work activity, Colin, Megan, Marilyn, Malcolm and myself headed off to Macey Island and Auster for the day. On the way we stopped at a number of islands to check to see if they had any Adelie Penguin colonies which could be used in future for penguin monitoring sites. It didn't take too long to get to Auster which, this year, was quite different to when I last visited in September 2000. There seemed to be the same number of birds (roughly 12,000) but they were spread over a much larger area. The chicks were also quite large and nearing their fledging (growing feathers instead of down) stage. The sky was overcast and the light was very flat, making photographs of the birds difficult so I spent more time just sitting and admiring them as they came up to see what we were.

16 November 2002
Panorama of the wind turbine site 3 foundations as the pour was nearing completion

On station the big work program this summer is the construction wind turbine foundations followed by the erection of the wind turbines when they arrive on V5 and all the necessary electrical modifications to the Main Power House. The plan is to have 3 large wind turbines generating all the power for Mawson, and the current diesel generators as a backup for when there is not enough wind power. To erect the wind turbines a large (55 tonne) crane was purchased (about $1 million) and shipped down along with new concrete agitator trucks and a host of other equipment. The foundations for the wind turbines are made from approximately 160 tonnes of concrete. The concrete must be poured in a single stage and it must be kept warm and monitored for at least two weeks to make sure it cures properly. A lot of time and effort went into preparing the three sites. A lot of drilling and blasting with explosives was required to get down to a solid rock surface. I was asked to help out with the concrete pour on wind turbine site 3. My job was to be the "dogman" to load the cement bags onto the excavator which would then put the cement into the agitator truck. The whole pour went for at least 8 hours, consuming 55 x 2 tonne cement bags and a few 1000 litres of warmed water (heated in a portable 'spa'). My secondary job was to be the official photographer.

Pouring concrete from the kibble into the formwork		Concrete dust blows everywhere as it is poured into the back of the agitator truck
Pouring concrete from the kibble into the formwork
The team shot

We had to do the pour on a day when there was little wind (less than 20kph) and it was not too cold. While the concrete bags were being loaded into the agitator truck the cement dust blew out across the site as if the truck was on fire. At the end of the day almost everything was covered in cement dust, and it took a fair bit of rubbing to wash it off my face. The concrete power was a success, with the formwork being taken off a few weeks later to reveal the finished foundations for the wind turbine tower. The picture below shows the finished foundations with the 100+ 10mm diameter bolts which are used to hold the tower to the foundations.

The finished foundations without the formwork

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