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From its labs over its offices to its scientific shelters on the ridge, the Princess Elisabeth Station offers scientists a wide array of well-equipped facilities to conduct their research. This support also head into the field with them with the entirely outfitted lodging containers and mobile laboratories.

This movie details the Princess Elisabeth Station project from the plans to the end of the building phase. It is a short version of a movie created to present the station at the 2009 Baltimore ATCM. The International Polar Foundation would like to thank T.A.G.E.O. for the video soundtrack.

Irina Gorodetskaya is a Post-doctoral Research Scientist at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium). In previous years, she was responsible for installing the instruments to be used at the Princess Elisabeth Station in the framework of the HYDRANT project, a project aimed at measuring various parts of the hydrologic cycle of Antarctica.

The Ivan Papanin, used to transport the equipment and material needed to build the station, is an Ice-class cargo ship. To reach Antarctica, the ship had to break the ice that covers the ocean several times. After having left Cape Town, the first stop along her trip was near the Norwegian Troll Station. Here is some footage filmed during the ship's journey to Troll station.

Frank Pattyn is a Glaciologist and Ice Sheet Modeler at the Glaciological Laboratory of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (Université Libre de Bruxelles). Travelling to Antarctica for the seventh time, he will be heading the BELISSIMA (BELgian Ice Sheet-Shelf Ice Measurements in Antarctica) project with colleague Jean-Louis Tison.

Having returned from their field campaign in the Sør Rondanes, the team of the Japanese JARE 51 expedition, along with Steven Goderis from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, is able to reflect on a successful meteorite exploration. With the largest sample weighing over 5 kilograms, the team is delighted with the discovery of some extraordinary examples.They have been greeted at Utsteinen by Alain Hubert, who provided both warm welcome and celebratory drink to the success of the 2009-2010 campaign, during which they gratefully received the full support of the BELARE team.

The last containers carrying the last missing parts of the station such as the walls or the ceilings or some other technical part such as the bioreactors or the cabinets are slowly arriving in Utsteinen from the coast.

Guests who arrived to attend the inauguration of the Princess Elisabeth station were welcomed by the shining sun. With such nice weather, the inauguration ceremony was moved from 6:00 P.M. to 1:00 p.m. After a short speech and an inaugural ceremony, the guests proceeded to take a tour of the station

After the successful offloading of the Mary Arctica and the Shirase at Crown Bay, the Belgo-Japanese expedition departed on its traverse. Within the framework of the collaboration with JARE 51 (Japanese Antarctic Research), the Belgian BELARE team provided the Japanese expedition with logistical support.During the traverse, the convoy faced white-out conditions and large crevasse zones, before passing by the former Japanese Asuka Station that was abandoned in 1991. This return to the past was a very emotional moment for those like Professor Tsushiya Noriyoshi, leader the JARE 51 expedition, who knew the base while it was still in use.On January 2nd, the convoy finally reached the research site of the Japanese team at Balchenfjella Glacier, where the Belgians left a Prinoth with a driver and a mechanic to help with moving material.