More rescue practises, and winter camping

Well, yesterday was another day of throwing Toddy down a crevasse and having him wait while I pull him out. This time, I did it in just over 30 minutes. This is a reasonably ok time, and I didn't screw anything up in particular. Probably, I can shave another five or ten minutes off that time, when I start to build up some muscle memory.

This time, we were working in a crevasse that was a bit of an ice cave. Quite nice; I have a picture or two that's pretty poor:

Toddy took better pictures than me, so I'll get those from him and post them later. The top of the crevasse also provided a good look at the entire Rothera base:

That's it; runway, a couple buildings, ocean, and some mountains. After we finished the crevasse rescue, we went back to base, packed up some equipment, and went camping. The BAS camp hasn't changed too much in the last 30 years, I believe - HF radios with 20m wire antennas, kerosene Tilley lamps, and kerosene Primus stoves, so we may shake hands with beef. Or freeze-dried chicken pieces in a balti sauce, as the case may be. Setting up camp takes about 2 hours, and I'm not looking forward to doing it in heavy winds and snow. It was great on this day, though - you can see the weather in the above picture. Some of the other guys came up in the evening to ski, and then we packed it in at about 11pm. We then woke up at 6:30am, took down the tent, and were back at base in time for breakfast.

Now, today is Saturday, a half-day for work. I'm starting to pack things up, because word is that the Halley flight may be on Monday. Tomorrow, Sunday, is our full day off. Might kick back and watch a movie, perhaps. A nice relaxing finish to my week of Rothera.