02/11/2025
Winter in Antarctica.
My time living down south has almost approached 1 year, and with that we've just come to the end of working through the Antarctic winter here at Rothera research station.
I began the year supporting a science project deep field, spending much of the summer working and living on the ice with a great team of scientists, supporting their work and their main goal of drilling ice cores on the glacier about 800km south of the station.
This winter past I moved back to Rothera research station where our role as field guides was to mostly facilitate winter trips for staff on base. We spent much of the winter planning, preparing, and guiding folk on their week long trips out into the mountains.
Its been an incredible winter, spent with a fantastic bunch of people. A lovely team of about 40 made life on base a really enjoyable place to work and live. I had a nice balance of spending time working on station and also camping and travelling out in the mountains working with a great team of field guides. The scenery has been breathtaking, from living by frozen seas, climbing snowy mountains, and exploring icey worlds beneath the snowy surface of the glaciers.
Mid winter we saw the sun disappear and reappear weeks later. The light through those months was magical. We saw the the last ship leave the station in June. The sea went through cycles of freezing and thawing, with icebergs ever present, and it wasn't until last month we saw new people arrive on station by Twin Otter. We've had spells of beautiful weather, and spells of absolutely horrendous weather. We've seen wildlife come and go, following their migratory journeys throughout the year as they disappear and reappear from around station and the the local waters. Weve had plenty of time spent out in the mountains in the weather, and also some enjoyable time on station learning some new skills and enjoying some down time out of the elements. What an incredible few months it has been!
Now we look to the summer of work out on the ice away from station, supporting science projects once again.
