The C-shaped wooden side beams have now all been mounted. Next step involves tackling the exterior metal panels, as soon as the weather permits to do so.

The current weather (windy) has somewhat restrained current work on the station, but that does not mean all activities have come to a haul. In waiting for the wind to drop in order to mount the exterior metal panels, cabling between the wind turbines and the station has been carried out at the foot of the rocks. The cables are threaded inside a sort of metal pipe, built above ground level to prevent snow drift accumulation and allow easy access.

The fast progress of these past few weeks goes to show that the building exercise at Tour & Taxis (Brussels) this past September 2007 really paid off. Apart from a few recurrent problems with the Prinoth tractors, no other trouble has been reported so far.

Weather Information from Utsteinen

Date 24.01.2008
Time 17 38 UTC

• Wind Direction : 90 deg
• Wind Speed : 17 - 25 km/h
• Visibility : 10 + km
• Cloud ceiling : 2000 feet
• Temperature : -10.4°C
• Pressure (QNH) : 825 hPa

The building team spent just 5 days building the station's floor. That's roughly 500 m² of pine wood resting upon the metal struts. This rigid progress puts the building team a few days ahead of schedule! Progress has been such that the building team earned a day's rest over the week-end.

Watching the station's evolution is like following the assembly of a giant puzzle. Every new piece brings us closer to the completed picture. Already, a sheet of EPDM liner is being placed on the underside of the wooden panels, to isolate the wood from the exterior environment.

Over the next few days, while they await the stainless steel panels to arrive from the coast with the next traverse, the team will put up the wooden beams composing the roof's structure. The team hopes to start mounting the C-shaped wooden side beams this Wednesday.

Weather Information from Utsteinen

Date 21.01.2008
Time 14 31 UTC

• Wind Direction: 90 deg
• Wind Speed: 6 km/h
• Visibility: +10 km
• Cloud ceiling: 4500 feet
• Temperature: -5.7 C
• Pressure (QNH): 830 hPa

The building team spent just 5 days building the station's floor. That's roughly 500 m² of pine wood resting upon the metal struts. This rigid progress puts the building team a few days ahead of schedule! Progress has been such that the building team earned a day's rest over the week-end.

Watching the station's evolution is like following the assembly of a giant puzzle. Every new piece brings us closer to the completed picture. Already, a sheet of EPDM liner is being placed on the underside of the wooden panels, to isolate the wood from the exterior environment.

Over the next few days, while they await the stainless steel panels to arrive from the coast with the next traverse, the team will put up the wooden beams composing the roof's structure. The team hopes to start mounting the C-shaped wooden side beams this Wednesday.

Weather Information from Utsteinen

Date 21.01.2008
Time 14 31 UTC

• Wind Direction: 90 deg
• Wind Speed: 6 km/h
• Visibility: +10 km
• Cloud ceiling: 4500 feet
• Temperature: -5.7 C
• Pressure (QNH): 830 hPa

It is snowing lightly, the sky is overcast, but the sun still pierces through the clouds. A fresh breeze rises now and then upon the Utsteinen ridge, cooling any extremity that has not been covered. It is -12°C, but who knows what the wind chill is.

Another traverse set off on January 17th. Only 53 containers are left waiting at the coast to be picked up. The driving team, however, is exhausted in trying to keep up with the speed of construction. We have been informed that the construction crew would have to take a day off some time soon, in order for the traverse team to catch up with progress. It is impossible for the Prinoth tractors to go any faster than 41 hours round trip (the local record) and unsafe to attach a fourth trailer onto the tractor.

The floor has started being positioned into the wooden skeleton of the station. Everyone is working like ants around the station and eager to see each piece slot into place. A sigh of relief is released with every step the team accomplishes. Lately, the workmen have simply been shooting ahead.

Weather Information from Utsteinen

Date 18.01.2008
Time 06 54 UTC

• Wind Speed: 0-2 km/h
• Visibility: +5 km
• Temperature: -5.1°C
• Pressure (QNH): 828 hPa

Building on site continues, no matter what the weather is like. When one activity slows down, another one picks up speed. There are always more than 20 people working up on the ridge and round abouts, and 6 who are out on a traverse between Utsteinen and Crown Bay. More than half the containers are now in Utsteinen.

The wooden scaffolding has now been finished, and the first upright beams put into place. For some reason, there is an enormous amount of wood left over. It will be put to good use in making other structures, such as the workshops and storage spaces in the hangar/garage. Extra rock has had to be broken at the base of the ridge to make room for the tower. The team has had to come up with more ingenious methods to remove a few cubic metres of solid granite.

The 44kVa generator has come into play and, since the 22kVa is no longer necessary on the construction site, it has been brought down to the base camp to heat water for the bathroom and power the cookers in the kitchen, the fridge container and the computers in the Command and Control Centre.

More medical supplies have arrived on site, allowing Dr. Jacques Richon to operate the medical centre like a hospital. He has already had to place a plaster cast on Gregory Diez's fractured wrist and remedy a few cuts and burns, and a painful lumbago.

Weather Information from Utsteinen

Date 16.01.2008
Time 09 00 UTC

• Wind Direction: 120 deg
• Wind Speed: 15 km/h/ Gust : 25 km/h
• Visibility: 2 km
• Cloud ceiling: 3000 feet
• Temperature: -9.8°C
• Pressure (QNH): 824 hPa

Since the metal struts have been mounted on the Utsteinen ridge, work on the station has been advancing fast. Neither the weather nor the hard physical work has slowed the workmen down.

Up until now, the workmen had been working down against the rock ridge. This is a physically demanding and horribly dirty job, that doesn't offer much recognition to the authors. As the station is mounted, these anchoring points are no longer visible to the bare eye. However, it is surprising to know that the station's precise foundation work (drilling, anchoring, fixing the anchor bars with resin, mixing the concrete, and preparing the scaffolding and the concrete's core grid) was accomplished over two months by a small team varying between four and ten people.

The cold has started to bite harder during the day and night. Temperatures drop sooner in the evenings now and have been bringing the workmen back to the mess tent earlier. The temperature at night recently reached -20°C!

Weather Information from Utsteinen

Date 14.01.2008
Time 08 00 UTC (Universal Time Coordinated)

• Wind Direction: 80 deg
• Wind Speed: 20-30 km/h
• Visibility: +10 km
• Temperature: -10.7°C
• Pressure (QNH): 825 hPa

The Station's metal struts have emerged from the Utsteinen rock in just 3 days. With only two struts left to place, the early stages of the station's pre-construction in Brussels are now fully recognizable.

Varying between 2 and 6 metres in length, the 14 metallic struts anchored into the Utsteinen rock are made up of steel. Alain Hubert is very happy with the progression (no delay in schedule) and especially with the anchoring points which lie within 4 mm of perfection.

The toil of drilling and fixing the 50 anchoring points for the metal struts during the month of December are now paying off. Not much time for contemplation, though, because the team has now to prepare the scaffolding for the remaining construction work.

Down at the base camp, Bernard and Paul continue to work on the new sanitary facilities. The BELARE team is also promised a new dispensary, with a bed and heating. Things keep getting better by the day!

Seven people have left on another traverse. The rest of the team is either working on the ridge, filming those working on the ridge, building new bathroom facilities or cooking away to feed the team.

The building team has begun raising the steel structure which will support the station's platform. A mechanical adjustment system is then used to adapt the positioning of the metal bars with millimetre accuracy. Being that the anchoring stage is unable to carry out such precision, these "crescents" are applied afterwards to correct the inclination of the bars.

With the new rotation of people having come in to the base camp, the need for hot water has increased. Another bathroom is thus being built with a new hot water system thanks to the metal heating rods that had been used for drying the concrete.

Concerning the recent break down of a Prinoth tractor, the team found that water had leaked into the gas tank and reached the engine. The tractor is fully operational again, the team members relieved.

Seventeen new team members arrived on site yesterday, Sunday January 6th. The building of the station starts today.

The building crew made it to Utsteinen in just 4 days of travel from Brussels. They could not have made it any faster! From Troll, the plane left immediately and landed on the Utsteinen airstrip in no time. Ten other members will return to Brussels on January 14th.

After the base camp manager went through the conventional arrival speech presenting the general dos and don'ts on site, the new team members settled into their tents and went to work. First operation entails mounting the metal structure before getting started on the wooden structure.

One Prinoth tractor, used for the convoy traverses between Crown Bay and Utsteinen, is down. It is not sure yet how much delay this will cause in the traverses' progression schedule. We hope to keep you informed over the upcoming days.

The Utsteinen crew had a costume party on New Year's Eve. Everyone took part in the fun.

"The Nieuwe Blanc" theme was chosen to represent the three spoken languages at the base camp. The idea behind this costume party was to decorate "as fun as possible" their white overalls from head to toe. The results of their creativity will be posted online as soon as the satellite connection allows the BELARE team to send us their pictures.

On the menu, the team had vegetable pie and salmon trout. The most exciting elements of the dinner party were the 200 hand-made "momos", Nepalese raviolis of unequal relish that Man Ram had prepared. At midnight, a huge sticker of the "Belgian Antarctica Research Expedition" was signed by everyone, under the popping sounds of the champagne bottles being uncorked.