Waking up in Antarctica can sometimes feel like the most normal thing in the world. Some days are a bit epic and remind you how unique this opportunity is.

A Sunday ski trip to Vals was definitely that. 6 of us got kitted up with skis and skins, layers and snacks, rope and harness. Getting kitted out is an adventure in itself, as you get to practice being a ski technician, adjusting the skis bindings and DIN settings. Once ready we climbed up the ramp out of base. At the edge of the ramp we roped together to cross the glacier. The glacier has been surveyed a lot throughout the season with ground penetrating radar to understand the movement of the ice and where crevasses are. At one point when traversing we had a crevasse 5m either side of us. 

After about 30mins traversing the glacier below Reptile Ridge, we got to where the snowmobiles are parked. We loaded three of them and journeyed to the caboose. The clouds were sitting low and visibility was poor. When we arrived to the caboose a cup of coffee was in order. The hut is a comfortable base to get warm and relax, but once refreshed we set about lapping the ski terrain. Someone would drive the snowmobile up, and lifts would be caught, either in the basket or towed up by rope. The snow was silky smooth but the visibility hung low until the very end of the run where the ocean came into view. Magical. 

Another Sunday rec was the opportunity to go Ice climbing. We didn’t have to go far from station as the glacier begins just behind the hangar. Kitted up with layers, ice axes, ropes, crampons and snacks, we set up for the afternoon. There were 4 routes, ranging from gentle to overhanging, a great place to practice kicking in and swinging axes. 

Each Saturday on base different teams train for their relevant extra responsibilities. There are oil spill responders, marine rescue, breathing apparatus (fire response) and search and rescue. A few times throughout the summer, major incidents will be staged to test the response. This time the incident was that the wintering team, who take over air traffic control for the last flight out and first flight in each season, experienced a major incident of the first plane of summer arriving back. The plane was to crash into the sea, with people trapped on board. I volunteered to be a casualty. The mystery flight was announced as if real, and the response levels were called, and then escalated until the ‘crash landing’ into the water. As a casualty, I was rescued from the beach via inflatable slide and put into a gator to be driven to the surgery. My fake injury saw me be put into a hospital bed and triaged. All in a mornings acting. 

Another scenario that needed training for was an oil spill. The ability to respond quickly to any leak when refuelling was met with containers of PPE and a boom which could be deployed across the water to hold the oil either in to land, or capture and isolate it away from our water intake point. Water is drawn in from south of the station and used both salinated and desalinated to run the base. Once the oil is contained, a generator runs a wet mop which is dragged through the water, collecting the oil from the surface. 

Any opportunity to receive training from our talented field team was seized. Mod 3 was an opportunity to get further to grips with crampons, roped up travel and fall arrest with an ice axe. We travelled down into the wind scoop at the top of the ramp and practiced falling about.  We used ice screws to make a stable base. 

Mod 4 took place indoors and got nerdy with knots and pulleys. We learnt what to do to rescue someone from a crevasse, including if we needed to abseil in to help them. We then had a go rescuing ourselves up lines with jumars.

The world of possibility was expanded more with the advent of Rope Geek Club.  By expressing my interest to Katie, a field coordinator working towards her mountain climbing instructor qualification, I got to be a test student/victim and learnt lots of rescue techniques. It’s not just the place but the eclecticly brilliant mix of people you find down here! 

When snow settled on the runway, I had a go at Nordic skiing. A lap of the runway was much more of a workout then I expected the kick slide motion to be!

Adventures ended as they started, with another trip up to the Caboose, this time to winterise it. Once again crossing the glacier to emerge at the skidoo park, we dug out the skidoos and continued on to the caboose to warm up. The afternoons work was building a depot of sledges, skidoos and kit which would be well marked and causing minimal drift to be dug out again in spring. We worked until the quickly approaching dusk, before skiing back home!