Archive for category: Antarctic Blog

When I talk to people about what it is like to visit and live in Antarctica, everyone’s imagination is that Antarctica is an incredibly remote, beautiful and stunning environment.

While no truer words have been spoken, Antarctica has left a very different, and for me, even more special impression. It was the environment that the people created, one of collaboration, hard work, friendship and happiness. Nowhere else have I ever experienced something more powerful than being surrounded by people where everyone was living the life that made them happy.

I feel humbled to have worked alongside some of the most incredible people I have ever met. Al, Lizzie, Geoff and Diana were such an amazing team to work with. It was hard not to feel inspired just working and spending time alongside them.

Antarctica itself still seems such a surreal place, full of magic and wonder. Stepping into the historic huts flung striking pictures of the struggles of the men no older than myself into my mind. The vivid history of the surroundings envelopes you in emotion, it is impossible not to form a connection. To work on and help preserve the legacy of the heroic explorers that I idolise was such a rare treat and one that I will treasure for the rest of my life.

Experiencing the grandest and most dramatic landscapes on the planet, I am now only beginning to realise the effect that Antarctica has had on me. I am truly excited by the possibilities of life, and feel so privileged to have experienced this amazing continent with the crew from AHT. I definitely have the Antarctic bug!

Written by Sir Peter Blake Trust Antarctic Youth Ambassador Chris Ansin

The team is back at Scott Base now and enjoying the relative luxuries (bathrooms, meals being served up for us, mattresses instead of roll mats).

I have been working in the lab here on some objects that need conservation before they can be placed or re-placed into their original locations in the historic huts.

Of special interest are a small group of objects that have been donated to the Trust this year. We have several cans of cocoa, a bottle of cod liver oil, a lacquered matchbox that still contains matches, and a jar of table salt. What these objects have in common is that they all came from one of the historic huts, but were removed during the 1950s and 1960s before the areas were protected by the Trust, often by people who were working or sheltering in the bases at that time. It is great to have these objects returned so that they can be put on display in their original context.

This bottle of cod liver oil is in really good condition, and that is mainly due to the fact that it is unopened and made from glass, which is a relatively stable material when compared to the metal artefacts. The bottle has also been sealed around the cork stopper with wax at some point, to make sure it doesn’t leak. Some little repairs to the label and a general clean-up were all it needed, and now it can be packed up and returned to the Terra Nova hut at Cape Evans next season.

Adjusting back to life at Scott Base is like returning home from a long holiday. There are regular meal times, feasts would be a more accurate description.  At 7, 10, 12, 3, and 6 you are fed with mounds of food with plate sizes starting at large. There is a running joke that you have to eat more than your body weight in food as you are in Antarctica and you never know when your next meal is going to be. If you are not careful you will end up looking like the seals out on the sea ice.

Life at Scott Base is not just all about the food. As it is essentially a giant box and going outside takes a significant amount of effort, there are often activities and events to keep the spirits high. During the first week back there was a barn dance with live bagpipes and a line instructor, it was the last place that I would expect to see a bagpipe. We spent the Sunday on a field trip exploring Castle Hill where you harness up to climb to the top, quite exhausting but the views are spectacular. From the top we could see cloud rolling in across the ice shelf so we quickly turned around to get back to base.

Stuck for nine days due to several storm cycles, some of the people at Scott Base were very keen to leave. I couldn’t think of a better place to be stuck! On the bright side, the storm cycle produced some of the nicest snow Antarctica has seen for a long time. It was bizarre to see people amazed at snow in Antarctica, what I thought would be the home of snow. The snow gods had delivered nearly a foot of fresh powder, and what better way to celebrate by going out skiing cross country.

We have started work on replacing the roof on Hillary’s (TAE/IGY) Hut, and it is about time that I became a roofer. I was always told by my father to get into a trade when I was younger. Here is my chance to live that dream and see if my dad was right.

Written by Chris Ansin, Antarctic Heritage Trust and Sir Peter Blake Trust Antarctic Youth Ambassador.

From Cape Royds we moved on to Cape Evans, camping near the Terra Nova hut where we spent four days on the monitoring and maintenance work. There was a lot more snow at this site and the team have been very busy, excavating the snow away from the hut and exterior objects and checking the roof for snow ingress.

Part of my job was the conservation cleaning and treatment of mould growth around the hut, and this was particularly important around the exterior walls and bunk spaces. The environmental conditions inside the hut are very cold, but in the summer temperatures can rise high enough to allow mould growth; this would be damaging to the organic artefacts like the wooden boxes and the clothing and bedding on the bunks. We have also been monitoring and recording the condition of the artefacts, which has been great because I have been able to handle some amazing objects.

My favourite thing about this hut (which is all utterly wonderful!) is the wardroom table. It sits at the centre of the living space and appears in so many iconic photographs from the Terra Nova expedition, such as the one of Scott’s birthday dinner. Looking at it closely you can see the worn and scratched surface from years of intensive use in a really crowded space; for me this brings the warmth of life into the room, much more than if everything were in pristine condition.

It is important to remember in conservation that signs of use on artefacts are a huge part of their history and telling the story of the expeditions, and the AHT have done a wonderful job of preserving these living objects.

We have now had a whole week out in the field, visiting the historic huts. Our first trip was to Cape Royds by helicopter, as the sea ice is already too unstable to travel over. We came here to complete the annual maintenance and monitoring work on the hut, starting off by digging away all the snow and ice that had built up around the hut walls over the last year.

Stepping into the hut was an amazing experience, and for me this was a very long-anticipated moment. What really struck me was that even after so much time reading the accounts of the expedition and thinking about this trip, that it was still surprising. The artefacts and the furniture in the hut really brought home the domestic aspects of what life was like for Shackleton and his team, and for me that brought them off the page and into reality.

The stove at the centre of the hut is like the beating heart of the space, and is immediately comforting, even though the temperature inside the hut was -11 Celsius when we arrived. There were so many other little joys inside, and it is difficult to pick out the most special objects, but it was amazing seeing Shackleton’s own handwriting on the walls where he had marked out each man’s bunk space with their names.

The team worked in this hut for three days, checking for snow ingress, recording the condition of the objects and doing some conservation cleaning to remove the dust and scoria deposits from the last season. It’s wonderful to contribute, even in just a few days, to conserving this amazing piece of Antarctic history. Thanks AHT!

Written by AHT Conservation Ambassador Diana McCormack