This week’s post is about one instance of challenging weather conditions faced by the AP3 team. Written by Dr. Eric Gorscak, AP3 team member and titanosaur specialist at the Field Museum of Natural History.
One morning, Chris Torres, Steve Salisbury, Matt Lamanna, and I made the lengthy hike to Sandwich Bluff, only to find our prospecting sites to be covered in snow. The snow coverage prevented us from doing any meaningful prospecting work for the day but we had to make the trek to be sure… we only had so much time during the trip to maximize our exploration.
Image: Two views of the Antarctic Peninsula in radically different conditions. Top: A weather front moving in over the Antarctic Peninsula, as seen from Vega Island on the day of the trek. The peninsula is visible as dark mountains across the channel, with an ominous bank of white snow clouds above. Icebergs are gathering near the shore of the island, pushed there by the wind. Bottom: A view of the peninsula from Sandwich Bluff on a clear, relatively calm, day. Photos copyright Eric Gorscak, 2016.
The weather report had informed us of an incoming front from the west that would last from the afternoon well into the night; it was already gloomy with sporadic winds during our morning trek out but nothing could prepare us for the trip back. This was when the winds really picked up, much earlier than we anticipated given the weather report. Honestly, the winds never stopped… and blowing directly at us the entire way back… on top of a 2-hour hike across harsh terrains (hills, rubble, snow, angry skuas). The winds were strong enough to hold me up as I leaned into them. If I didn’t have my beard, my face would have frozen off.
I guess you could say we walked up hills both ways in the snow and into the wind to and from Sandwich Bluff that day…
A fresh pair of socks and hot cocoa never felt so good afterward.
Image: Scenes from the return trek to camp from Sandwich Bluff. Top, example of the wind affecting the snow, driving it across the ground. Bottom, example of the wind affecting standing water. Normally walking by this ‘pond’, the water would have been quite still. As you can see, there was plenty of wave action. Photos copyright Eric Gorscak, 2016.