Author: Lizzie

Date: 29 January 2013

Temperature: -5.5C

Wind Speed: 11 knots

Sunrise: N/A

Sunset: N/A

The summer team and I have recently arrived back at Scott Base. Something of a shock to be around so many people once more, but we have dredged up our rusty social skills and have been enjoying catching up with the many science teams and support staff inhabiting the base at this time of year. January at Cape Evans seemed to fly by as we worked hard to complete all the tasks on the work programme. A lot of long days and evening work were put in,  but we had the satisfaction of completing the conservation of over 100 wooden and plywood boxes used by the Scott Expedition to store fuel and food. Back in their original locations on the hillside, their ability to withstand the fierce storms of winter has been ensured for the next few decades.

Historic fuel boxes, conserved, Cape Evans

January saw huge changes at the site as the melt season continued. Previous work by the Trust means that meltwater is diverting well away from the hut itself.  As these small streams melt the sea they create meltpools in which Adelie penguins and seals became our frequent visitors.

Adelie penguins heading for the meltpools, Cape Evans © AHT/Lizzie

A magical time to be out in the field, and we were all sad to leave. The next blog you read will be courtesy of the incoming winter team who we meet this week at Scott Base to introduce to their season ahead. There are some fantastic artefacts in store for their winter so check back in to see what they are conserving in the months ahead.

Author: Karen

Date: 11 December 2012

Temperature: -1.5C

Wind speed: 5 knots

Sunrise: N/A

Sunset: N/A

The hagglund arrived at 10.15am to pick us up and take us back to Scott Base.  But first Martin and Kevin had to identify two safe routes down to the sea ice, in order for us to stage (put all the items in one place) our cargo.  This would make it much easier when loading the Hagglund.  One route was identified from the carpentry workshop/field laboratory area and another from Scott’s hut.  Kevin made a temporary wooden bridge across one of the tide cracks as it was just a little too big to step across safely.

The temporary bridge across one of the tide cracks © AHT/Karen

The ice had just started to break up around our camp and there were many tide cracks, which you could easily fall down and twist an ankle, so great care was required, especially when carrying artefacts.  We had our first lunch of soup and bread and proceeded to load the hagglund.  It took around 2½ hours.  We were taking artefacts from Scott’s hut back to Scott Base for our winter conservation team to conserve during the Antarctic winter season (Feb - Aug 2013).

Jana loading artefacts © AHT/Karen

It was a very sad time, my final visit to Scott's hut, it truely is an amazing place, Scott's hut is very powerful and I found it extremely difficult to walk down to the sea ice and climb into the Hagglund.  The journey back to Scott Base was slow and took approximately 3 hours; this was because we had to travel at 10km per hour, due to having artefacts on board.  On arrival at Scott Base, we unloaded the artefacts and headed for the showers.  After showering, we met in the dining room for dinner. It had been a long, exhausting but very rewarding day and we all slept extremely well that night.