Bad weather

The bad weather that chased us back home on the last journey has lasted all today. We have had to dig the doorway of the Weatherhaven several times and the door keeps getting stuck open with ice that we have to chip off regularly.

 

Clearing the doorway

 

Claire chipping the ice off above the tracks in the blizzard.  After a journey, the snow freezes to the underneath of the skidoo. This ice then breaks off and gets carried round on the tracks. Big bits last year bent the undercarriage, so we now have to regularly chip it off.

 

The toilet shed. A bit of a mission when the weather is bad.

 

In the middle of the day, the stove went out. This was potentially quite serious because with no heat, we had nowhere to live or cook as all the water would freeze. We checked the fuel flow though all the connections and eventually found a blocked central jet in the center of the stove. All fixed now and the heat is back on!

First Journeys

 We've had a couple of days of good weather, which allowed us out to recce some routes that we need to take clients on. The first was into a valley across the fjord called Sodal and we wanted to get to the foot of the glacier which would allow us access across Liverpool Land ans to the east coast. Normally the moraine to the glacier snout has a rocky ridge that usually bars access but this year with the amount of snow, this ridge was just a small cornice.

Skidoos at camp in early morning and -20

 

Moving up the slope to the rocky ridge which usually bars the way to the glacier

 Checking out the route ahead. Below our feet is the cornice; we could drive down it, but could we get back up?

 

Driving back up the cornice. I got stuck just here and had to find another way round for the skidoos with sledges.

 

Finding an alternative way round the cornice for the sledges up a small side valley.

Setting off on the next 200 km journey to North Liverpool Land. Snow conditions were good, but bad weather chased us back.

Arrival

Claire and I arrived a few days ago to Constable Point. Paul and co. who got there the week before had done a great job setting up camp and servicing the skidoos.

Yesterday we did our first journey to get across to Sodal to try and recce a route into the valley, but had to turn back when the weather closed in. Simon's team who were to go there, still wanted to go when we got back to camp, so we turned round and took them to the valley entrance. By this time it was full blizzard and white out so we were driving on GPS and a bit of hope and got back all snowed up.

 

The Weatherhaven tent is now our home since we are not allowed to use the Hilton airport accommodation

 

Our toilet is a wooden shed, but it has heating - and WiFi!

 

We had a bit of a storm last night and all the skidoos got snowed up

 

The sleeping containers also got snowed up and the Weatherhaven door, so we all took radios to bed so we could talk in the morning to see who could actually get out. Cardboard boxes at placed at the doorway helped reduce the snow piling up against it

 

Digging the sledges out for the season

 

Dragging the sledge out of the hole with the skidoo

All the sledges and people carriers out - a good morning's work

The weather was much better today and forecast is good for tomorrow, so we are planning to get out and do some recces.

Sea Ice and Tents 2015

Bad weather at Constable Point right now so we are stuck in Akureyri in Iceland for the day waiting for the Twin Otter to take us out to Greenland. The weather is looking better for tomorrow so hopefully better luck.

The satellite photo below shows the state of the sea ice on the 18th March 2015, so  things are not looking too bad for travel. However, I think the snow cover hides some fairly large areas of thin ice.

This is a satellite photo taken on the 1st February, only 2 months earlier showing large areas of open water just south of Syd Kap. It still looks thin only a month ago so we will have to keep an eye on it.

 

Paul and the team have been out before us for a week and sent some pictures of the first views of the camp. The Weatherhaven and containers below, are completely snowed up and they have spent the last week digging everything out.

 

A close up of the Weatherhaven, our main living tent, shows that the windward tensioning straps have all broken and the skin has slipped off the windward frame. (The orange skin should be over the white end panel on the left of the picture) This has let snow in and buckled the frame, so everyone has been digging to get it put right. It's all sorted now and the skidoo mechanic has all the skidoos serviced, so progress is being made.