Page 38 - RAFMA Winter 2003

A day in the life of a Field Assistant working in
Antarctic
Paul Torode is a Field Assistant working at the British Antarctic Survey’s Hailey Research
Station in Antarctica.
The alarm clock buzzes, and my eyes open to the orange glow of a pyramid tent. The fringe of ice around the edge of the sleeping bag and the biting cold soon reminds me that I'm living in Antarctica. Outside is a remote and hostile expanse of ice, but it s also my place of work.
My home for the past twelve months has been the British Antarctic Survey's Hailey Research Station - a small cluster of raised platforms on a pristine expanse of floating ice shelf. Hailey entered the public awareness through the discovery of the 'ozone hole in the mid eighties, but science has continued here on the ice shelf for nearly fifty years now. My work supports the work of the scientists and contributes to the running of the station.
The life of a Field Assistant can be split into two broad roles: facilitating science projects during the summer season; leading recreational trips for station staff and servicing the field equipment during the winter period. That's about as defined as the job description goes. On a station with a winter complement of only fourteen, the ability to be a 'jack of all trades' becomes a necessity. The result is a variety of work and sense of autonomy makes working in Antarctica incredibly rewarding.
A few ‘snapshots’ may help to illustrate the breadth of the Field Assistant’s work:
The warm summer months (and the summer is a short one) allows scientific work to be taken further afield. Skidoos are prepared, along with the sledges: one to carry equipment for a survey, the other to transport equipment in the event of an enforced camp. Navigation across often featureless ice is by a combination of GPS, compass and dead reckoning; although superlative visibility often allows marker flags to be spotted several kilometres away. Travel is only ever undertaken in good contrast due to the ever-present danger of crevasses, and skidoos are linked by ropes for this reason. The ice resembles a vast, frigid ocean, rippled by the wind into a mosaic of tightly packed sastrugi. With the Field assistant responsible for safe travel over the ice, the scientists are free to ply their arcane skills.
After midwinter, a party travels out on four skidoos towing sledges, and sets up the familiar orange tents. Roping together, the fractured ice sheet is negotiated to the edge of the ice cliffs. An abseil leads onto the winter-hardened sea ice, where uncomfortably large Weddell seals are waiting to pup. The landscape is a chaotic jumble of fractured ice blocks, now resolutely frozen in place despite the efforts of a surging sea to displace them. Further exploration reveals monumental gaps in the ice cliffs - smooth chambers of ice whose walls will soon form the ramparts of icebergs. For the moment they are locked in place and form silent chasms: deep blue, broodingly silent and festooned with rime ice. The temperatures during winter can reach fifty below, making even simple travel frustratingly difficult. The challenges though, are almost always outweighed by the awesome beauty of this unforgiving environment.
The long Antarctic winter is the time to service field equipment and prepare for the following season. Servicing Nansen sledges and pyramid tents along with a plethora of field equipment takes time and employs a range of skills. Hawser ropes, cotton, canvas and wood are usually used in preference to more modern materials, but the systems employed work well in this very unique environment. The dark polar days do confine people to the station, but even the depth of midwinter offers twilight to work by. This is complemented by a mesmerising serenity, which is hard to imagine if not experienced.
There is one aspect of working here that never appears on the job description though. Despite the lack of snowfall (much of Antarctica is technically a desert), winds transport snow in boggling quantities, which continually threatens to bury anything left on the surface. Clearing the snow is a constant task. Life down here can be summed up by this phrase: 'In Antarctica, everybody digs'!
3 B
RAFMA
Journal 2003
Field parties are deployed by De-Havilland Twin Otter aircraft which have skis to land on ice.
Hailey
Research Centre.