Tuesday 3 February 2004
Camping trip
I've just got back from a camping trip at another one of the remote science stations. We flew out to one of the Automated Geophysical Observatories (AGOs) at 80 degrees south, which are just south of the Shackleton mountains. While we were there we camped in pyramid tents heated by primus stoves and tilly lamps. Our food was stored in manfood boxes (as opposed to dogfood boxes back in the days of huskies) and our radio call sign was sledge papa, even though there wasn't a sledge in sight. It's safe to say that camping in the field hasn't changed a great deal since the early explorers first stepped foot on Antarctica.
Although it might seem a bit behind the times, there are pretty good reasons why things are done the way they are. The only moving part in the primus stove is a small hand pump, yet they are able to generate an enormous amount of heat: enough to keep you warm in a tent at -40C when more modern stoves would surely fail. And because they are so simple there's very little to go wrong. As long as you have a few tools and spares you can fix just about any problem on the spot. Pretty important in a place where you could get caught in bad weather and be stuck in your tent for a week or more.
Fortunately for us the weather was a little kinder. The temperature got down to -20C, but the wind was fairly light so it didn't feel too bad. We ended up staying for three days and successfully replacing the two wind generators which power the science instruments. We even found some time to build our first igloo, although we had to leave in the plane before we got a chance to try it out!
Posted by simon at 8:47 AM