The Summer Season Begins

By Lizzie Meek

The AHT summer conservation team is here at Scott Base, and well and truly settled in for the season. We touched down on a perfect Antarctic spring day at Pegasus runway, and hitched a ride with the Americans back to Scott base from the airfield.

For Ciaran it’s his first trip to the ice and for Sue and myself a welcome return to a familiar place.

We’ve been working hard to set up all of our lab spaces so we can begin work on this summer’s project: conserving Ed Hillary’s Trans Antarctic Expedition hut – the first building to be erected at Scott Base nearly 60 years ago. Over about three days we cleaned, packed and moved all of the artefacts from the TAE hut, and began working on conservation treatments in the lab. Our colleagues, Programme Manager Al, and Heritage Carpenters Martin, Doug and Geoff have also arrived and started work on the building structure. Watch out for photos and blogs for them over the next few weeks.