Refueling Halley Station - Michal Krzysztofowicz Photography

Michal Krzysztofowicz Photography

Refueling Halley Station

153/366

We had a reasonable amount of outside activity today with two melt tank pushes (one in the morning and then another one, to top the melt tanks up, just before dinner) as well as the refueling of the main modules and the garage.

During the winter, when it's so cold out there, we try to plan all activities requiring the use of the dozer for one day, so that the vehicle can be warmed up once. It takes about an hour to warm the vehicle up in these conditions, and once warm, we don't turn it off until we're done with all the jobs. Similarly with Skidoos - in these conditions it can take up to 10-15 minutes for it to start and then another 30 minutes before it's warm enough to be used. Add to that another 15-30 minutes of digging it out of the snow and clearing the snow from the engine bay and the tracks and quickly it turns out that from when the need arises to use the doo until it's ready to be driven, it takes at least an hour.