2017 / 2018 Field Season – Page 4 – ANSMET, The Antarctic Search for Meteorites

On the smooth ice at the edge of Lonely Ridge

January 8, 2018

It was one of those days you dream of, especially on those cold windy nights at Nodtvedt. Not a breeze to be felt, not a cloud in the sky. It was, by all accounts, a perfect Antarctic summer day. Our helicopter trip was pushed to tomorrow (Tuesday), presumably due to...

Barbara the barber

January 7, 2018

One disadvantage of being in the deep field is that you can't shower, bath, or wash your hair in the normal way. To stay clean (and as I said before, we don't really get dirty) we use baby wipes. 4 to 5 baby wipes per day are allocated for...

The Icetronauts

January 7, 2018

'It's another beautiful day' came John's voice through the tent fabric at 6.40 am this morning, 'we should begin searching again at 9'. 'Okay' I croaked, woken from another dream. I seem to dream an awful lot here. Aside from this disturbance, last night was wonderfully silent and still. I...

The day of the snotcicles

January 6, 2018

We woke up to an eerie stillness and calmness. No winds. At all. We were utterly excited and started getting dressed right away since this meant we would go out searching again. We hurried through our morning routine and were out tending to our skidoos at 8:40am already. At...

In the shadow of a mountain

January 6, 2018

We started searching today at 09:30 JSST. Much of our route took us by the mountains separating us from the Nilsson Plateau. Lots of blue ice was covered and at an instance or two we found ourselves in shadow - a strange sensation given how long it has been...

Amundsen Day 1

January 5, 2018

Day 1 of searching at Amundsen is in the books. We started at 09:00 JSST (John Schutt Standard Time = Kiwi Local + 0:15) and returned to camp 6 hours later. We covered some of the most scenic 23 mi I could imagine. There were no upper-body-only jumping jacks...

A typical day in the field

January 4, 2018

When we get out to search and recover meteorites our day starts at 7am with the alarm. At that point we are huddled up in our puffy down sleeping bags and even peeling out an arm to turn off the alarm is unpleasant because the tent has cooled off...

Amundsen Glacier Arrival!

January 4, 2018

We have arrived at Amundsen Glacier. Greeted by calm winds (by the last two weeks' standard) and stunning scenery, camp is up and we're fully ready to start searching the vast swaths of blue ice tomorrow morning. The flight here was only 3 minutes, basically a hop across a...

Nødtvedt, Wrapped Up

January 3, 2018

That's a wrap for Nødtvedt. The weather was fine in terms of visibility so we were able to get out this morning and do a final search of the remaining ice and moraine(s). Tomorrow if all goes well, we hope to relocate to Amundsen Glacier for the remainder of...

New Icefields and enchanted mountains

January 3, 2018

Last night I woke up to our tent shaking and rattling like I never had heard or felt before. I was certain we would get blown away but at 7am when the alarm went off we were still here. Phew. The wind was still howling and we could hear...

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