First Day in the Field - Cape Hallett

We were able to get out in the field for the first time on Monday. When we arrived last Wednesday we were asked if we would be ready to go by Monday. Generally, the rule of thumb is one week before you are ready to go out into the field. We said we'd do what we could and we were ready by Saturday. On Saturday we were told that we were moved to the backup flight because Saturday's primary flight was not able to go due to weather problems. That happens a lot. That meant it was a little uncertain if we'd be going on Monday. We packed and prepared Sunday evening for going. At 6:45 AM on Monday we received a call that our flight was activated because the primary flight could not go again because of weather. We left McMurdo Station by 7:30 AM to take a shuttle (van) to Willie Field, a ski runway about 10 miles outside of McMurdo that is used for landing planes equipped with skis.

Loading the Twin Otter plane with equipment at Willie Field prior to the flight to Cape Hallett.

Our journey for this initial field visit was to Cape Hallett, which is located on the northern extent of the Transantarctic Mountains on the northern edge of Antarctica. Cape Hallett used to have a year-round staffed base from 1957 to 1964 and then a summer-only camp until 1973. It is now best known as an Adelie penguin colony and it has special protected status because of that. The combination of the long flight along the Transantarctic Mountains, as well as going to a penguin colony, results in it being a very special day in the field. The weather was not the best when we left Willie Field but it cleared as we went north and it provided spectacular views along the way, as well as at Cape Hallett.

To get to Cape Hallett we flew in a Twin Otter ski-equipped airplane. The Twin Otter is one of the workhorses in the Antarctic to provide transportation around Antarctica for field logistics and support. On the Twin Otter were the two pilots, myself, Dave (the AWS field work group member) and three people from Environmental. The people from Environmental were using our flight to Cape Hallett to evaluate the status of the penguin colony and to look at the remains from the old Cape Hallett camp. Our flight was in the air by 9:00 AM and by 10:15 AM we had to make a stop at Cape Royds to add more fuel to the plane. Fuel caches (locations with pre-stationed barrels of fuel) are placed in a number of key locations to provide support for long flights such as this. We added two barrels of fuel to the Twin Otter and we were on our way again to Cape Hallett. We made it to Cape Hallett by about 12:40 PM, or approximately a 3 1/2 hour flight.

Transferring the fuel at the Cape Reynolds fuel cache.

The work we did at Cape Hallett was to change the transmission equipment at the AWS site. The change was to send the data through a satellite telephone modem. Basically, you can think of it as the AWS site sends a text message with the weather observations every 10 minutes. The Twin Otter had to land a fair distance away from the weather station so we had to carry the equipment, tool bags, and extra bags with cold weather clothing from the plane to the weather station. From there we changed the equipment and connected the power. We then called a colleague in McMurdo to verify the transmission. The transmission was sent and we were done with our work. We spent probably about an hour and a half working on the weather station prior to beginning the walk back to the plane. We had some extra time before we were going to leave so we took advantage of that time by taking a large number of pictures.

Working on the AWS at Cape Hallett. The tower section for this site is slight abnormal for the typical University of Wisconsin AWS. Otherwise, the AWS is fairly typical. The sights at Cape Hallett are a little extra special.

Once we got back to the plane it was the same process in reverse, including the refueling stop at Cape Royds. We got back to Willie Field by about 7:15 PM and into McMurdo by 8:00 PM. That made it a very long day but also an extremely rewarding day. I have been fortunate to go out into the field probably around 20-25 times over my now four visits to Antarctica. The combination of mountains, sights from the plane, and penguins makes Cape Hallett easily one of the best field visits. The others will still be special and a great experience but they don't have all of the elements of Cape Hallett. Unfortunately, when we got back to the lab we learned that there were some problems with the transmissions from the weather stations. We spent most of today troubleshooting those problems. There is a possibility that we will have to return to Cape Hallett for another visit. As much as it will be nice to do that journey again, it is never a good thing to have to return to the same site in the same year.