Beach Party

What with it being winter and there being no sun Lizzie decided that it was the perfect time to have a beach-themed party. It was an excellent idea - it gave us all the chance to air our shorts and t-shirts and Jim the perfect excuse to create some great cocktails.

Sun

The route we attempted on Middle Stork

Lizzy and I went for a climb on Middle Stork today, unfortuantely we had to cut it short as the snow / ice was making very unusual sounds which we weren't completely happy with! Just as we got back to the skiddos we noticed that Vals (our local skiing area) was looking very unusal and realised that it was because the SUN was shining on it. We've not seen the sun for 2 months now as it has not been high enough in the sky to peek over the mountains. So we jumped onto the skidoo and made it over to Vals just in time to experience the sun on our faces and be re-united with our shadows! Sadly it was sort lived, lasting only a few minutes but it'll be back again tomorrow :)

Making the briefest of appearances above Stork Ridge

Reptile Ridge in sunlight

Nacreous Clouds

Nacreous clouds (sometimes called mother of pearl clouds) form high up in the atmosphere (at altitudes of 15,000-25,000 metres). Due to their high altitude they recieve sunlight from below the horizon causing them to shine brightly before dawn or after dusk. Displays like this aren't common but are seen occasionally throughout winter.

These photos were taken around 10am, it's great being able to see such fantastic sunrises and cloud displays without having to get up at an unsociable hour!

Live Earth Antarctica

Back in April the Rothera wintering band (Nunatak) were asked if we'd like to preform for the Live Earth concerts. Apparently we weren't their 1st choice (really?!) but the organisers hadn't realised that it's pretty much impossible to get people into Antarctica during winter. So, after months of practise and what seemed like endless interviews we finally recorded our 2 songs and on 7th July 'played' to our biggest audience so far, 2million, which was quite a jump from 50 people in the sledge store!

Unfortunately there's a lack of roadies down here so we had to set up our own kit

Filming

If anyone wants to hear what we sounded like just search for 'nunatak' on www.youtube.com

Following the success of our 'world-wide tour' we recieved a total of 6 e-mails from avid fans, had a Nunatak facebook site created in our honour and politely turned down 3 recording offers - ahh the pain of fame. Back to our day jobs it is then ...

A little bit chilly....

Today has been the coldest day at Rothera since I've been here, temperatures plummeted to -18 degrees C. The winds have averaged 38 knots with maximum gusts around 58knots, at these speeds the windchill factor means it feels around -45 degrees C. A few of us took a walk up the cross on Rothera Point to experience the elements, we were only out for 15-20 minutes but Dickie's nose started to turn white with the cold, a scary reminder of what these extreme temperatures can do. However, compared to most of Antarctica we're pretty warm, it was -57 at the South Pole today!

Apologies for the lack of posts lately - I'll do my best to get things up to date soon. We've been pretty busy with Midwinter celebrations and rehearsing for Nunatak's Live Earth appearance on 7th July.