Today should be the last day on the ice at our remote location. The survey work is is just about completed so its necessary to carry out some checks on the data to ensure there are no gaps in the DTM and it contours as expected. Its a long way back if we’ve missed anything….

Mike identified some areas which would be useful to survey at the far extremes of the runway area so I skidoo’d off to add these areas to our survey while Seth went back to the mountain to collect the base station which was left logging overnight.

David had spotted some old glacier markers on his wider inspection of the area so we went over to investigate. One of the poles had tipped over, but we recorded the locations and hight of the poles above the ice to reference against the data recorded when they were installed. This long time data comparison should help confirm the movement of this glacier.

When we returned, the camp was full of activity with the team packing up their tents. So I joined in to pack up my own kit and take down the tent. The first job was to dig away any drifts of snow that had built up, then clear the tent skirts. I was surprised how easily it was to  clear the snow we had shovelled on to the tent skirts to keep the wind out. It is so dry that the snow had not “stuck fast” as expected and it didn’t take long at all.

It was a team effort to pack the larger mess tents which is more like a big banana when packed with its poles staying in place.

It took a while to pack up all the kit and load the skidoos and all other items in to the plane. Nothing was left behind (except the weather station of course) so any snow which had got contaminated despite our careful existence was shovelled in to a bag and came out with us.

I have no idea what time it was when we took off as we had all been busy,  of course it was still daylight and time for a quick team photo.

After getting airborne, Jim made a low pass along the line of the proposed runway which we filmed from the cockpit for future reference.

Jim also made a flypast at a nearby lake which was a stunning deep turquoise. A truly amazing sight in a sea of white and mountains.

We flew a direct line for a few hours and had time to enjoy the inflight catering kindly provided by Alex before approaching the Ellsworth Mountains which were endless and spectacular.

Part of the Ellsworth Mountain Range

Approaching Union Glacier camp which can just be seen as dark specs in the snowfield near the centre of the image. With crystal clear vistas the distances to the surrounding mountains are easy to underestimate as demonstrated by the camp distance to the mountain on the left from the air and the ground.

The camp ground staff were waiting for us and helped us unload before we went to the mess tent for dinner (or breakfast – I was lost to the time by now) but we were back at UG.