The Beep Test

On Saturday, some of the fitness crazy people of Davis opted to subject themselves to the Multi-Stage Fitness Test, also lovingly referred to as the Beep Test. Did you do this in high school? I did, but I can't remember what score I got.

If you can't remember, here's a summary: you stand at start line and wait while Hellboy presses play on his iPod. A voice comes from a speaker telling you to get ready. You prepare for the pain. Three beeps sound and you jog to another line, 20m away, and turn around. You wait for the next beep, then run back. This is done repeatedly for about a minute, and then three beeps issue again from the speakers, indicating that the next level will commence. The next level has shorter beeps, another minute goes past and three more beeps are heard and the next level starts. The higher the level, the faster one must run between the lines. This means that higher levels require one to run the 20m more times. Before you know it, you're running flat out and the next beep happens about that same time you put your foot down to finish the previous run. It's not long after that that you physically can't continue and have to bow out.

We had 8 people turn up on the day out of the 17 that were on station this weekend. Our names were drawn out of a hat and Spaggers and I were chosen to go first. Here's a picture of us in action:

Spaggers opted out at the respectable level of 10.1, and I managed to push through the pain for a little bit longer to reach 11.4 before opting out.

Next up was Hellboy and the Doc, both renowned for their cardiovascular fitness. Here's a pic of them about to plant their foot and wait for the next beep.

The first to go in this duo was Ben (left). As the test progressed, you could see in his contorted face that he wasn't going to give up without a fight, but he had to let it go at 12.10, which is an amazing effort. Hellboy kept going to attain a score of 13.8, which is on par with a lot of professional athletes. Very impressive.

Next up was Geoff (left) and Tommy. It was truly excellent to see this old diesel mechanic having a go and he ended up pushing his way to 6.6 without even breaking a sweat. That's enough to join the NSW police. Tommy pushed on to get 8.4, which means he's right if he wants to join any of the 3 armed forces.

Next it was Matt Azza (left) and Nick the Rodent. These two are right into their fitness and so it wasn't surprising that they both cracked level 10. Matty came through with a solid 10.4, while Roden broke the goal-worthy level 13, spot on 13.0.

I was really impressed with how everyone went. For posterity I took photos of everyone that I could right after they'd finished up. Here's a collage of pain that I've created.

And so, after all, it was Nick "hellboy" Helmore that took out the trophy/milk-urn-with-eyes. Here's the proud lad holding his award high for everyone to see.

The beep test. It was actually a lot of fun, when you weren't actually doing it. Now we're all going into training to beat our personal records.

Until next time, I've got my sights set on that milk-urn.

Voting in a Suit and Sorels

The other day our Station Leader, Ali, was contacted by the Antarctic Division's media officer asking her to volunteer (v.trans?) an expeditioner from Canberra to speak to a journalist from The Canberra Times about voting in remote locations. Being the only dude from Canberra on station I was dobbed in to pose for some photographs and speak to said journo about who I will be voting for in the up-coming federal election and why.

Yesterday I spoke with this guy on the phone. That was okay and I'm still waiting to see how what I said is used in the article that gets written. Then today I went and grabbed a Hagg. I attached to the back of it "Digger's Rest", the portable toilet that served our traverse-goers so well many weeks ago. Digger's rest was to be our polling booth for the shots.

 I went inside the ops building and there was Ali, setting up the polling box.

She'd also printed out some labels to put on the polling booth. These served the dual purpose of labelling the cubicle for the photos and masking the fact that the box is usually a crapper.

Now we were all set up, it was just up to our photographer and director, let's call him Rodent, to set up that winning shot. He is an enigma of legendary skill and does not abide by the usual laws of the the rectangular photo. Nobody has ever seen his face. Here he is in action:

Rodent took a few photos and we ended up with some good ones. Did I mention I was wearing a suit with some Antarctic accessories? This one of Pete and me has got to be the winning shot for the newspaper:

but for my money, I really dig this other one of Pete and me:

I like to imagine that the guy in the suit (me) has just parachuted out of a jet fighter to deliver his vote and there's a speedboat waiting to pick him (me) up nearby.

Well done, Rodent, you've done it again. The denizens of Canberra are in for a treat.

Well that's some of the news from today. I also went out ice-drilling again and completely lost sight of station in a mini-blizzard but was saved by the magical GPS. No problem, we have radios too and everyone knows where I go to drill but still, it's crazy to think that I had no idea what was around me or which direction I was facing. Two guys, two quads, one bamboo marker stick, and oblivion...

On that note, I've a speedboat to catch. Stay safe, keep visible, and look out for the article in this Sunday's Canberra Times.

Moving Rooms

Today, I had to move rooms.
I was asked to do this because the station Sleeping and Medical Quarters (SMQ) is being re-painted and -carpeted over the Winter. We have our resident painter, Frank the Tank, down here with us to make sure this happens (and to shout out 'PARTY!').

Here's a photo of my old room after I had moved most of the furniture, but not the little things and big books.
The mess extended out into the hallway. How do I go to Antarctica and still manage to have so much stuff?!

Here's my new room, at this point a sort of proto-room; the essence of the Davis expeditioners room without much of my own stuff. This was taken moments after the last photo. Everything can be moved. Even the shelves hang up on the wall on a strip of metal that acts like a long hook. It's magic.
I still had lots of stuff to move, including heavy books.
Eventually, after hours of dawdling and drinking coffee, I moved into my new digs. I'll have to do it all over again when they've finished with my old room, but this gave me the chance to re-arrange things and I like the new setup.

Walk to Anchorage island

Last night Adam agreed to run the lidar in preparation for a monster clear patch and correspondingly long lidar observation. It ended with some cloud coming over this morning after I had taken over, which meant that I had the shut the thing down by midday. So I was granted half a day out of nowhere. What would I do with this half day? Well, I decided to take a solo walk out to Anchorage Island.

Here's a photo of Anchorage Island from the sea-ice I trekked across to get there.

I don't know if you can make them out, but there are three crosses on the top of the island to commemorate the three people who have passed away at Davis Station over the years.

It was great to get out by myself. I had a nice sense of freedom as I walked across the open plain of ice. When I stopped I heard, above my tinnitus and the low hum of the powerhouse from station, the deep cracking sound of the ice being constantly pushed around by tidal forces. When I walked, the crisp sound of my shoes crunching in the hard-packed snow layer.

I soon arrived and trekked up the relatively sheer front of the island.


When I got to the top, I could see over the other side. There are some beautiful icebergs out the front of the station and it was awesome to see them from an elevated perspective for the first time since Summer. Here's a photo of one iceberg view.

Here's one of the crosses on the top of the island with the lens extremely close to one of the guy-ropes to give a perspective effect that I like.

and here's me looking deep in thought with a lucky shot of the cross in the background. I was actually thinking about cereal.


I then looked back to the base and could make out almost every building from the top of the island. This is a great shot for anyone back home. If you want to know what each building does, I can tell you. I think little things like that are surprisingly interesting.


After that I walked around the island a little bit and spotted Nick Roden commuting out towards the icebergs. You can't really tell from this, but the man is only wearing lycra!


It was -28 degrees and on my bottom half I wore jeans and thermals and by this time I was worrying whether I was getting frostbite on my bum. I did a bit of my patented 'ice-sprinting' to get the blood flowing to my rump again but my whole lower half was pretty cold by the time I got back. It was a small price to pay for an adventure off station.