24.12.2024 | SLF News
SLF scientist Sergi González-Herrero is conducting research in Antarctica for two months. From there, he regularly reports in Catalan for the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation (FCRI) to get young students aged between twelve and sixteen involved in science. The SLF also publishes his articles.
I have already arrived in Antarctica. I could write now lines and lines about this continent, but we will talk about that later and for now focus on explaining the long journey that has brought me here. Right now, I am 13300 km from Switzerland, and I have arrived after crossing half the world in three trains, four planes and a short journey in a motorized snow vehicle (see interactive map). I am not particularly proud of using so many planes, it is a very polluting form of transport, but to get to know the continent better we must take measures and carry out experiments in situ that involve a small impact. That is why I have to obtain very good information to make this whole journey worthwhile.
To reach Antarctica, one must first travel to one of the three gateways to the continent, depending on the sector of Antarctica we are heading to: Ushuaia (Argentina) or Punta Arenas (Chile) in southern South America to go to the Antarctic Peninsula, Hobart (Australia) or Christchurch (New Zealand) to reach the Ross Sea area and the bases east of the Amery Ice Shelf, and Cape Town (South Africa) to reach the Queen Maud Land region. The latter is where I headed.
The trip began on December 16 in Davos, where I took 3 trains to reach Zurich airport and catch the plane that took me to Cape Town after a stopover in Istanbul, with delays included. Upon arrival in Cape Town, I had the first anecdote of the expedition. Already on the plane I knew that it were some of the Belgians who were going to the station with me and I tried to look for some sign of them without success. Once at the airport I meet Allen, our point of contact, and my flight companions. We introduce ourselves one by one and when the last one, a Belgian named Alexander heard my name he said “Sergi?, I know you from Juan Carlos”. And he was right, I didn’t recognize him at first, but we had met at the Spanish base Juan Carlos I during the 2018 Antarctic campaign, where I worked as a weather forecaster while he was installing some instruments. What a coincidence! Or maybe not, I think the Antarctic world is very small.
We spent three days in Cape Town. Normally you arrive on time but the few planes or ships that are heading to the continent can be ahead or behind depending on the weather and we have to be prepared. We also take advantage of these days to make the last preparations and catch up with our fellow campaigners and the logistics team. We dedicated the first day to getting to know the team and resting. On the second day we chose the warm clothes that the expedition made available to us and we had the flight briefing where they explained to us what the procedures to follow. Finally, we had the third day free since the flight left on the scheduled day and I dedicated it to sightseeing near Cape Town, specifically in the Table Mountain National Park, known for its meteorological phenomena and its famous cloud that all meteorologists recognize (although it did not form there these days).
Finally, on December 20 in the morning we went to the airport to take the plane to Antarctica. The procedure for taking the plane is exactly the same as for going to any other part of the world. First, we get our boarding pass and go through the usual controls, including customs to leave the country. The only difference is on the plane. Instead of boarding a comfortable passenger plane, we board a Russian Ilushin-76 transport plane with a few seats prepared to carry passengers. The plane is very noisy and you need earplugs to endure the 5 and a half hour journey. However, before this plane was more uncomfortable. Now we share it with some tourists who are going to the continent for a few days and they have made it more comfortable with passenger sits. One hour before landing the crew told us to put on our polar clothes. Once changed, they turned down the heating to prevent us from getting a thermal shock when we go outside.
Finally, 4200 km and 5:30 minutes later we arrived to Antarctica, and I get off the plane at a pleasant -4 °C on a prepared landing strip near the Russian base Novolazalrevskaya and set foot on the inhospitable plain of East Antarctica for the first time. There we were invited to wait a few minutes, or hours (in Antarctica you never know when the next transport will leave) in the canteen of the airfield, where Dima, the Russian cook, gives us food. Much earlier than we thought, we were told to go to our next plane. An old but very reliable DC-3 from 1937, a plane that was used for transport during the Second World War. The only passengers this time were the 6 members of the expedition heading to the Belgian station Princess Elizabeth with a large number of scientific material and supplies for the station. We took off on the last flight of the long trip and I spent it looking out through the window at the white infinity of the continent, but especially at the different forms that the snow takes. It seems incredible that in such a flat place the snow changes so much. We will talk much more about that later. An hour and a half later we finally arrived at the base, unloaded the plane and got on a motorized transport with our luggage, material and supplies, that took us the last two kilometers to the Antarctic station Princess Elizabeth.
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Team of scientists and technicians going to Princess Elizabeth with the Ilushin-76 plane.
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Boarding pass for the Antarctic aircraft (Photo: Sergi Gonzales / SLF)
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Typical landscape of West Antarctica, a flat ocean of snow and ice. (Photo: Sergi Gonzales / SLF)
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Last motorized transport to the station. (Photo: Sergi Gonzales / SLF)
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