Antarctic conservation blog

Lucy, Monday 26 October 2009

Temperature: -26°C
Windspeed: 10 knots
Low cloud and poor visibility.

A few weekends ago I had a sudden urge to dig snow. Donning cold weather clothing, with saws and shovels in hand, I searched out a spot with thick windblown snow and began the construction of a Norwegian 75 block igloo along with one of the scientists, Mark.

The idea was to saw blocks from a snow quarry next to the building site, so you don’t need to carry the blocks very far, and stack them up in a spiral pattern.  Each layer of bricks has to overhang the last in order to get the correct profile to the roof. 4 hours and a couple of rebuilds later we had completed a charming little igloo which we have christened Trollheimen (meaning the Trolls’ home, in Norwegian) and with great pride, pushed a flag into the roof.

Constructing the igloo © Antarctic Heritage Trust

Crawling down through the little entrance, we quickly realised that there was no way on earth we would both be able to sleep inside. It was far too small. Hence the decision was made to build 2 slim tunnel-like bedroom extensions, one on either side of the living room.

Finally, a week later, we got up the courage to sleep inside our Troll hole. I found that the most taxing part of the whole procedure was actually inserting myself into the bright green double sleeping bag and then wiggling a bit like a Weddell seal, into the constricted little entrance to the bedroom.  Once inside, it felt ever so snug and I slept very comfortably indeed.  When I awakened in the morning, looking up, only 30 centimetres above my head was a beautiful forest of dainty little icy feathers hanging down from the ceiling.

A good night’s sleep © Antarctic Heritage Trust

Our  snow building activities attracted a lot of interest from other Scott Base residents, and Paul the electrician decided to come and keep us company and turn the area into a little igloo village by building his own. Being about 6 times larger and much fancier than our little creation, the neighbouring igloo almost put ours to shame.  But I like to compare our Norwegian snowy home with the Norwegian explorer Roald Armundsen’s dash to the pole.

Neighbouring igloos © Antarctic Heritage Trust

Trollheimen was fast to build and serves its purpose very well, without being over glamorous.  Armundsen was over a month faster to the pole than Captain Scott’s team. He achieved this using teams of huskies to pull his sleds in a traditional way as opposed to Scott who man-hauled his sledges after the two motorised vehicles he was attempting to use broke down and the ponies died in the inhospitable Antarctic climate.

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