Landing Bluff, Tuesday, 11th December 2001
Finally, the blizz had cleared. After a couple of hours of cloud and drifting snow at 18 knots, the sky cleared to a cerulean blue, with astonishing visibility in the intense dry atmosphere. I rustled a group together and we climbed up to the GPS site, to check how it was going and download a few files, level the barometer, calibrate Rob and Margies' altimeters (marginally successfully) and gather some cosmogenic samples for Derek back at RSES. This is new technique whereby the date when rocks (especially quartz) were exposed to cosmic radiation can be dated with some accuracy. In the Antarctic this is a very useful tool to determine when rock surfaces where exposed by de-glaciation. The rest of the day was a sort of extended jolly in the sun. Margie and I went for a walk around the Bluff, down to the sea-ice edge and heard the rumbles and thuds as the tide was shifting the fast ice up at the tide crack. The Russians had dumped an extraordinary load of empty drums off the helipad into a wind scour at the sea edge, very unsightly and unsavoury. Further along was a delightful rockface where the warm afternoon sun was melting icicles into trickles running down into a wind scour at the sea edge, divine. I walked up around the old Russian buildings, discovering a perfect Roman style bath house with a full sauna !! In the afternoon Doug, Adam and Shavawn arrived from overcrowded Sansom Island to lodge with us (like refugees I guess). At the moment they arrived, Gerald finally managed to fire up the Soviet tank and started driving it around until one of the tracks started to dislodge. Gerald was over the moon with enthusiasm, as we were in fact. Cold war machinery that really growled impressively. The Russians really did things to the extremes. After dinner, the newcomers and I climbed back up to the GPS site, to enjoy the spectacular late evening light. By midnight the sun had illuminated the cliffs off the Amery Ice Shelf like a thin beam of white light receding to the horizon some 50 miles distant. I returned via the west side of the bluff, a precipitous cliff where the snow petrels roosted. Down below the Amery Ice Shelf came to a sudden stop, with waves of ghastly looking crevasses and exposed blue ice. I dragged out the chanter and played a few quick tunes as the sun reached its nadir at about 1.30. The light was spectacular, all sorts of shapes and silhouttes coming in and out of view as the sun traversed around the southern horizon. What a perfect day after two days of blizzards. the good weather was forecasted to continue through Wednesday, so the AMISOR guys might finally get deployed after a tedious wait !!

Landing Bluff (LDBF) Technical Inspection


Landing Bluff (Druzhnaya IV Station) S 69°44'48" E 73°42'35"


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