international
polar
foundation

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.

Stéphane Dubois, building coordinator for the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Station, returned to Belgium earlier than foreseen. Mr. Dubois, an inhabitant of the Rochefort region, was supposed to stay in Antarctica until March 9, 2008. The atmospheric conditions, particularly the extreme dryness, forced him to return prematurely: he was back in Brussels on December 21, after having spent 52 days on the white continent.

1/ What is a typical day like in Utsteinen?

Paul, the early bird, always wakes up the first and turns on the fuel stove in the mess tent around 6 am. Then comes Fons, Base Camp Manager, who gets the honk going by using a pear attached to a skidoo: it is 7 am. The "non military" regime means that everyone is free to get up whenever he wishes to do so. Having said that, everyone is usually up and ready to work on the ridge by 8 - 8 30 am.

Depending on the tasks that need to be done and on the time needed to accomplish these, we generally gather in the mess tent for dinner between 6 and 8 pm. There, we relax and stock up on calories before it is time to go back to our tent for a well-deserved sleep. Lights are turned out: its is 11 pm.

2/ What kind of problems do you face in your day-to-day life?

First problem is the cold, wind and sun. We have to dress to protect ourselves from the wind and the cold, which thereby reduces our mobility and makes us perspire as soon as we move. We also have to protect ourselves from the sun that burns our faces continuously.

Second problem is linked to comfort. Although it is all relative, it is difficult to raise our level of comfort to that which we are used to. The comfort offered by the organisation allows us to live decently but the slenderness of the tents, the toilets, the outside average temperature and the "basic" bathroom do provoke a few discomforts which can alter a little our daily life.

3/ What are your daily meals made up of?

Breakfast: fresh bread cooked the previous evening (the kitchen has a 21-litre kneating trough), jam, chocolate spread, cheese, cereal, milk, coffee, hot chocolate, yogurt...

Lunch: soup is served almost every day, a light warm meal, bread, cheese, ham... Nothing is thrown away, everything is transformed: we generally heat up the previous day's left-overs.

Dinner: Served with a little white or red wine, we are fed a warm balanced meal (noodles, rice, potatoes, mixed vegetables, meat or fish) with, most of the time, some dessert (cake, truffles, fruit salad, tiramisu or something other).

Cereal and fruit bars, chocolate or dryed fruit are served between or before meals.

4/ If you were to go back to Antarctica, what would you take that you did not bring with you the first time?

An inhaler ha ha ha! No, but an I-Pod, a portable computer or a small bassin, perhaps....

This Ivan Papanin arrived in Cape Town during the night of December 28. Unloading operations lasted through December 29. Several waste containers and a few heavy drilling pieces were brought back to Cape Town to be disposed of or stored.

In Antarctica, the sixth traverse set out for the coast on December 31. While some of the team members will be on the road, others will continue work progression on the construction site. There are 6 days left to finish up the concrete work (drying and setting) before the Prefalux construction crew arrives on Sunday January 6.

The cooks have prepared a special New Year's meal for the brave convoy haulers, packing it up carefully into a box to be eaten anytime along the way. Spending New Year's Eve in the middle of the white continent or along the coast is going to be quite an experience. Happy New Year to all!

Seven people left the base camp on December 27th to start the 5th traverse. Meanwhile, the rest of team is working on re-assembling the cranes and finishing the garages and the station's foundations.

The new team is now fully integrated within the rest of the members on site (carpenters, drilling team...). Adjt Olivier Grasselli, Gaëlle Hubert, Daniel Mercier, Didier Goedgebuer, CPC Philippe Herman, Frédéric Diez and Jurgen Van Obberghen have gone back to Crown Bay with the Prinoth tractors to haul back the next containers. They dropped Alain Hubert off in Vesthaugen for some surveying and will pick him up on their way back. A huge crevasse had been detected in the area which Alain intends on securing for the following traverses.

After the severe Christmas storm, the sun is back to dazzling all night on. The Ivan Papanin saw some pretty scary waves reach 9 metres high, but is due back safe and sound in Cape Town this evening around 7 pm (local time). They will undoubtedly be in for a nice meal once they arrive!

The party began with, in stead of the usual hot chocolate that is served on the working grounds, warm wine from "Château Migraine" vintage.

The rest of the evening was all the more successful in that the entire new team was gathered for the first time around a long banquet. The mess tent was decorated with garlands made from tea bags and rocked by John Lennon's "Merry Christmas".
Menu:

• Aperitif: sangria served with hors d'oeuvres
• First course: cheese and shrimp croquettes on a bed of lettuce
• Main course: stuffed turkey roulades with whiskey sauce, vegetable terrine (sort of vegetable pie), "pommes duchesses" (fried mashed potatoes with a spiral shape) and marinated peppers
• Desert: chocolate and speculoos ice-cream duo topped with hot chocolate

Christmas was celebrated on the night of December 24th, close to the way it is feasted in Belgium. The coast team made it back to the base camp on time, after several hours of severe weather.

In Belgium, such as in many other countries, the Christmas meal is traditionally served on the day before Christmas, on December 24th. It is not known yet what they had to feast on, but what is sure is that the BELARE team members were all together that night and that it was a very nice party.

On December 25th, the wind had dropped and the storm had moved on. Alain and a few other people went to fetch the containers they had left behind, 130 km away from the base camp. They are expected back today with the third traverse of containers, carrying everything that is needed to fix concrete (in some places, the station's feet will be mounted on concrete blocs). The rest of the team was also back to work on the 25th, in order to finish reassembling the crane before the station modules arrive.

The second convoy reached Utsteinen on December 21st (7 30 pm), carrying part of the crane and frozen food to last through mid-March 2008. Strong winds and heavy snow falls are coming down on the Eastern region of Antarctica, announcing a white Christmas for the BELARE 2007-2008 team.

The heavy storm has been raging over the Antarctic continent since this morning and is forecasted to last until Wednesday. Alain and the other ten members of the coast team were making their way back to the base camp to celebrate Christmas but were forced to leave the third convoy of containers along the way, just 130 km from Utsteinen. Visibility was down to zero during their traverse, making progression very slow and dangerous. Driving the tractors was almost impossible, as the GPS was down and the drivers could barely make out each other and the snow crevasses! They made it back to the base camp this morning, arriving safe and sound at 9 30 am.

Winds are forecasted to last through Wednesday. Once the weather is better, the team members will go back and pick up the container convoys left behind. But before they do that, a Christmas dinner will bring the BELARE team members together, a chance to celebrate the fantastic work they are accomplishing.

The coast team has now finished unloading all the containers and machines from the Ivan Papanin. Everything has been neatly arranged in rows up on the ice shelf. The ship is due to leave Crown Bay today, Friday December 21.

The biggest challenge occurred yesterday, with the unloading of the Potain crane from the cargo ship. It measures 14 metres long when it is folded up and weighs 10 tonnes. Needless to say that the coast team was a little worried about how the snow would hold up under this heavyweight material. They waited for the night to come and for the air temperature to drop, so that the ramp would become hard enough to support the crane's weight up to the ice shelf.

The last containers to be unloaded were the fridge and freezer containers, which require power to function. It is hoped that during the 20 hours of the traverse during which they will be unplugged, they will maintain a cold enough temperature so as to not defrost.

With three Prinoth tractors driving the convoys, it is expected that a total of 14-15 traverses, carrying 9 containers, will be needed to haul all the material to the base camp. That's roughly 60 days or so of work, without counting the time needed for refuelling and any mishaps.