Snow Storms at PEA while Perseus Expedition Begins
The gorgeous weather we had these past few weeks finally came to an end. For two days we we visited by a mighty snowstorm. The storm left us with a lot of work to remove snow from the terrace and grooming it. In addition to dealing with routine things like snow removal, we've been up to much more exciting things.
Our whole team completed the necessary medical field training to handle emergency situations. It was a good preparation for our upcoming mission to prepare the Perseus Airstrip for the arrival of the first scientists of the season. The airstrip is located just 60 km north of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica. Before any plane can land on it, it must be well groomed and we have to make sure the infrastructure is up to speed.
Six members of the team went on the expedition, leaving the rest of us at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica. For those us who stayed behind, it was a quiet, but productive week. We installed the scientists’ new workshop and partitioned the room for to store new field equipment. We also started up the wastewater treatment system and almost completed maintenance on the wind turbines.
All of this work aroudn the staiton was necesary as the arrival of the scientsits and new team mebmers is approaching. Even as we temporarily got used to having a smaller team at the station, we know that we have to prepare ourselves for our numbers to triple in the coming days.
While making preparations, we learned from our colleagues at the Perseus Airstrip that the anticipated arrival of the scientsits had been moved from December 7th to December 9th due to bad weather conditions. The weather has been getting worse and worse lately, so this is not surprising at all! A massive amount of snow piled up in the station's garage, making it difficult to level it off, as we have to do each season.
We can't wait to see what the next week will bring!
Picture: Containers, the Perseus expedition, Decemeber 2021 - © International Polar Foundation