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Here are all news related to Princess Elisabeth Antarctica
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BELARE 2010-2011 Season
24.11.2010
The southern hemisphere winter is over, and as the Antarctic warms up, the members of the BELARE (Belgian Antarctic Research) 2010-2011 expedition have headed to Antarctica to re-open the Princess Elisabeth Station for its first complete “zero emission” season. Departing from Cape Town (South Africa), they landed at Utsteinen on November 11th.
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BELARE 2009-2010: The New Season has just begun
21.10.2009
At a briefing on Friday October 16th at the headquarters of the IPF, the new season for the Princess Elisabeth Station officially started! Fourty-four people will take part in BELARE this season, staying between one and five months at Utsteinen. The objective for this year is to finalize the tests of all the technical systems of the station. Moreover, a…
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First BELARE 2008-09 Team Members Landed in Utsteinen
19.11.2008
The 14 "First In" members of BELARE 2008-09 arrived in Utsteinen, Antarctica, safe and sound. Following a stop-over at the Russian polar station Novo, they reached the Princess Elisabeth research station on November 11th, in the late afternoon.
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BELARE 2007-2008: Last Module Goes In
12.02.2008
We just lived a historical moment here in Brussels, as we received a phone call from Utsteinen base camp. Alain Hubert phoned to say that the last exterior module was mounted on the Station this afternoon.
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BELARE 2007-2008: East Façade Up
30.01.2008
The Utsteinen workaholics have now completed mounting the exterior modules on the Station's East side.
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BELARE 2007-2008: Waiting for Better Weather
25.01.2008
The C-shaped wooden side beams have now all been mounted. Next step involves tackling the exterior metal panels, as soon as the weather permits to do so.
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BELARE 2007-2008: Flooring Goes On
21.01.2008
The building team spent just 5 days building the station's floor. That's roughly 500 m² of pine wood resting upon the metal struts. This rigid progress puts the building team a few days ahead of schedule! Progress has been such that the building team earned a day's rest over the week-end.
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BELARE 2007-2008: The Team Earns a Sleep In for Fast Progress
21.01.2008
The building team spent just 5 days building the station's floor. That's roughly 500 m² of pine wood resting upon the metal struts. This rigid progress puts the building team a few days ahead of schedule! Progress has been such that the building team earned a day's rest over the week-end.
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BELARE 2007-2008: The Floor Goes In
18.01.2008
It is snowing lightly, the sky is overcast, but the sun still pierces through the clouds. A fresh breeze rises now and then upon the Utsteinen ridge, cooling any extremity that has not been covered. It is -12°C, but who knows what the wind chill is.
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BELARE 2007-2008: Reaching for the Sky
16.01.2008
Building on site continues, no matter what the weather is like. When one activity slows down, another one picks up speed. There are always more than 20 people working up on the ridge and round abouts, and 6 who are out on a traverse between Utsteinen and Crown Bay. More than half the containers are now in Utsteinen.
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BELARE 2007-2008: Cold Winds, Chilly Tents
14.01.2008
Since the metal struts have been mounted on the Utsteinen ridge, work on the station has been advancing fast. Neither the weather nor the hard physical work has slowed the workmen down.
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BELARE 2007-2008: Mounting the Metal Structure
09.01.2008
Seven people have left on another traverse. The rest of the team is either working on the ridge, filming those working on the ridge, building new bathroom facilities or cooking away to feed the team.
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BELARE 2007-2008: “The Nieuwe Blanc”
04.01.2008
The Utsteinen crew had a costume party on New Year's Eve. Everyone took part in the fun.
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BELARE 2007-2008: A Sixth Traverse for the New Year
02.01.2008
This Ivan Papanin arrived in Cape Town during the night of December 28. Unloading operations lasted through December 29. Several waste containers and a few heavy drilling pieces were brought back to Cape Town to be disposed of or stored.
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BELARE 2007-2008: Interview with Stéphan Dubois, Back from Utsteinen
02.01.2008
Stéphane Dubois, building coordinator for the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Station, returned to Belgium earlier than foreseen. Mr. Dubois, an inhabitant of the Rochefort region, was supposed to stay in Antarctica until March 9, 2008. The atmospheric conditions, particularly the extreme dryness, forced him to return prematurely: he was back in Brussels on December 21, after having spent 52 days on…
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BELARE 2007-2008: Securing the 5th Traverse
28.12.2007
Seven people left the base camp on December 27th to start the 5th traverse. Meanwhile, the rest of team is working on re-assembling the cranes and finishing the garages and the station's foundations.
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BELARE 2007-2008: Christmas Menu
27.12.2007
The party began with, in stead of the usual hot chocolate that is served on the working grounds, warm wine from "Château Migraine" vintage.
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BELARE 2007-2008: Merry Christmas
26.12.2007
Christmas was celebrated on the night of December 24th, close to the way it is feasted in Belgium. The coast team made it back to the base camp on time, after several hours of severe weather.
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BELARE 2007-2008: Stormy Weather Hits East Antarctica
24.12.2007
The second convoy reached Utsteinen on December 21st (7 30 pm), carrying part of the crane and frozen food to last through mid-March 2008. Strong winds and heavy snow falls are coming down on the Eastern region of Antarctica, announcing a white Christmas for the BELARE 2007-2008 team.
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BELARE 2007-2008: Containers Parked up on the Ice Shelf
21.12.2007
The coast team has now finished unloading all the containers and machines from the Ivan Papanin. Everything has been neatly arranged in rows up on the ice shelf. The ship is due to leave Crown Bay today, Friday December 21.
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BELARE 2007-2008: First Convoy Reaches Utsteinen
20.12.2007
The first convoy of containers reached the base camp in Utsteinen today (December 19) at 5 pm. The most needed equipment was brought first, comprising of the remaining wood to complete the garage construction.
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BELARE 2007 2008: Ivan Papanin Has Made it to Breid Bay
17.12.2007
The Ivan Papanin cargo ship started making its way through the sea ice on Friday December 14. She was anchored to the sea ice near Breid Bay around 7 pm that night. The exact location has been named Crown Bay (70°S 23°E), because of the shape of a nearby iceberg.
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BELARE 2007-2008: Ivan Papanin Soon to Reach Breid Bay
12.12.2007
The Ivan Papanin ice-class cargo ship carrying aboard the 120 containers of the Princess Elisabeth Station reached 5° East on December 11th. She is progressing smoothly towards the South and is expected to come into Breid Bay around December 14th.
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BELARE 2007-2008: Drilling and Fixing Anchoring Bars into the Ridge
11.12.2007
Working on top of the Nunatak is not an enviable job: the wind comes in from the east and constantly blows your way. Some time ago, the thermometer on top of the rocks indicated -24 degrees Celsius, with gusts of wind reaching 50 km/hour.
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BELARE 2007-2008: Exploring, Measuring and Drilling around Utsteinen
06.12.2007
Alain and Dieter have been measuring geodetic points for the National Geographic Institute of Belgium, and are happy with their results to date. Geodesy is the study of the size and shape of the Earth, its field of gravity, and such varying phenomena as the motion of the magnetic poles and the tides. Apart from having measured existing points that…
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BELARE 2007-2008: The Ivan Papanin Ship Leaves Cape Town
04.12.2007
At the end of November, the Ivan Papanin arrived in Cape Town for a last stop-over before leaving for Antarctica. The ice-class cargo ship filled up on fuel and food supplies for the crew and loaded the last containers full of frozen goods, fresh fruits and vegetables, gas for the vehicles at Utsteinen, wood and other small elements of use…
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BELARE 2007-2008 : Expedition Program
29.11.2007
Scheduled over 4.5 months, the BELARE 2007-2008 expedition aims to build the Princess Elisabeth Station's outer shell and set up the seven remaining wind turbines.
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BELARE 2007-2008: Daily Life at Usteinen
29.11.2007
Another day in Utsteinen, another day of work. Greeted by the sunlight early in the morning, the working men climb out of their tents as early as 6 am.
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BELARE 2007-2008: A Visit to Asuka Station
23.11.2007
The building team has been working away securing the anchoring points of the station and making headway on constructing the garage. Alain Hubert and a few other team members have retrieved some useful material from the abandoned Japanese station, Asuka. The Ivan papanin should arrive at Breid Bay in less than a month.
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BELARE 2007-2008: A Trip through the Mountains
20.11.2007
With a work schedule ranging from 7 am to noon and 1 pm to 7 pm, work is progressing at a fine pace in Antarctica. Sunday, however, is a day for relaxation, laundry and travel.
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BELARE 2007-2008: a “Comfortable” Base Camp
19.11.2007
Four new team members have reached Utsteinen Base Camp: Gaëlle, Toto, Daniel and Francis. Twenty-four people are now on site, bringing the team to a fully operational number to complete the first phase of the expedition.
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BELARE 2007-2008 Take Off
18.11.2007
On October 15th, the new BELARE (Belgian Antarctic Expedition) team gathered in Brussels for an informative meeting at the Belgian Military Hospital. BELARE 2007-2008 will build the new Belgian research station in Antarctica: Princess Elisabeth Antarctica.
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BELARE 2007-2008: Summary of Activities
15.11.2007
In our last report, it was mentioned that all the containers had been recovered from Breid Bay and that the camp site was slowly filling up with equipment. The building team is preparing the Utsteinen Ridge for the station's anchoring points and making progress on constructing the wind turbines.
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BELARE 2007-2008: Hammar Side Loader Back on Track
13.11.2007
Yesterday, the Hammar side loader had gotten stuck in a small crevasse. It is has now been successfully freed.
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BELARE 2007-2008: First Progress in Utsteinen
12.11.2007
A first report was received from Alain Hubert and the building team in Antarctica. Twenty-one people are now on site, working away on the wind turbines and getting started on the station's anchoring points.
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BELARE Field Course in Svalbard
06.10.2007
On request from the IPF, the Norwegian Polar Institute office in Longyearbyen kindly organised a field training course for some of the BELARE 2007-2008 team at the beginning of October 2007.
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BELARE 2006/2007 - Close of another chapter for the Utsteinen Saga
02.02.2007
Despite the poor weather report from Neumayer, the flight to Novo on Sunday will go ahead as planned, ALCI informs us. The preparations for closing down the camp for the winter are in full swing.
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BELARE 2006/2007 - A 3 days expedition to the NIPR depot (part 3)
01.02.2007
Everything looked much better on the first of February. The sun was back, and the mountains looked fresh and inviting in the cold, clear, air. The morning passed quickly, unloading some drums onto the rock, so they wouldn't sink into the ice, and moving the sledge into an equally good position. Then we took pictures of the depot to send…
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BELARE 2006/2007 - First wind turbine erected on the Utsteinen nunatak
01.02.2007
For two days, harsh wind conditions were slowing down work on the wind turbines. Yesterday, good news came from the front: the BELARE team probably had the best weather of the whole expedition with clear skies and no wind. Vincent, Bernard and Johan worked hard and were able to erect the first wind turbine late in the afternoon.
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BELARE 2006/2007 - A 3 days expedition to the NIPR depot (part 2)
31.01.2007
On the 31st of Januray we learned that it was Philippe's 40th birthday ! The morning quickly passed fixing the vehicles onto the Lehmann sledges, moving the fuel onto the NIPR sledges, and preparing the fuel that we had to drop at the Bratnipene depot for the Japanese traverse of the next season, as instructed by Prof. Kazuyuki Shiraishi of…
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BELARE 2006/2007 - A 3 days expedition to the NIPR depot (part 1)
30.01.2007
The traverse arrived in the evening bringing the desperately awaited containers with the wind turbine tower and sails. As it has already been reported, the wind turbine is up now and functioning, although the electrical circuitry has still to be completed, and has already fallen once on Bernard's foot. Vincent has promised our first cup of tea on clean energy…
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BELARE 2006/2007 - An Utsteinen Summer
27.01.2007
It's been six days since the second traverse party set out for the coast landing site, and things have been less than easy for them. As expected the Prinoths had to cross the crevasse zone on the way to the coast camp, and then again on the way out, but the passage of the machines has caused a lot of…
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BELARE 2006/2007 - The coast party as arrived: first traverse completed!
21.01.2007
For two days the brooding sense of ominous change was carried to us by the evershifting inconsistent winds, while we sat and waited for the calls from the traverse. Gradually the convoy coming from the sneaked closer. Finally, the call arrives, and I throw the Iridium to Jos to talk as my voice is still not back. Apparently they are…
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BELARE 2006/2007 - Waiting for the coast party at Utsteinen
20.01.2007
The days are beginning to stretch out but are so full of unusual events that it is difficult to say whether one day has passed or one week. We are waiting for the coast party to arrive, and Vaska has planned a nice warm dinner for them as they will surely be frozen, particularly Alain and Benjamin who are on…
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BELARE 2006/2007 - Presentation of the team (part 1)
19.01.2007
By now, you must be getting a little curious about the people on this crazy expedition, who they are what drives them, why are they taking so much punishment? Hobby or passion? Insanity or masochism? So dear reader, to abate your unhealthy curiousity, I have compiled a short introduction to the protagonists in the Utsteinen Saga, with more to follow…
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BELARE 2006/2007 - Preparing the traverse
18.01.2007
Fortune continues to favour the braves. The crevasse zone was crossed yesterday from the landing site of the "breaking ice" (Alain's Ramp) with much trepidation. The Prinoth encountered several ice bridges and Alain had to go ahead on foot to sound out the thickness with a long stick. Sometimes low tech is the best solution. At one point the ground…
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BELARE 2006/2007 - Everything has been brought ashore and secured
17.01.2007
Today, the Gods have smiled down on us. After a grasse matinée soaking up the sun, I am aroused by the Iridium beeping discreetly in my ear. Alain is calling from the unloading point. The ship is 800m off the ice cliff, and moving in to make the last attempt. The two Prinoths are off the ship, but there are…
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BELARE 2006/2007 - Another lesson from Antarctica
15.01.2007
The ship is in the new position off Breid Bay. Brian and the Basler are on stand-by waiting to see whether he should go to collect Philippe Herman and Dieter Callaert from the Coast camp in order to ferry them to Utsteinen and Troll (with the group of Japanese visitors from Syowa, and S17 airbase).
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BELARE 2006/2007 - Flights in and flights out
15.01.2007
The brilliant sunshine on Utsteinen today sent our thermometer soaring to 18°C, boys and girls. We were as amazed as you. The day began with the confirmation from Brian that the Basler flight would take place as had been foreseen for the 15th. The runway team (Jos, Dieter and Damien) heads off to clean up the black bags lining the…
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BELARE 2006/2007 - The Ivan Papanin is now closer
13.01.2007
The Ivan Papanin is now closer to the coast. The distance across the ice is only 100m. Finally, it looks like the unloading can begin, and the Coast party, 34km away, will be collected by Alain.
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BELARE 2006/2007 - The tension is mounting
12.01.2007
The Coast party too has a sleepless night. They land towards the west end of Breid Bay, where the ship is anchored offshore, around 2.30 in the morning. At 5.30 am Alain calls from Breid Bay to give the position of the Coast Camp. He has been scouting around and there are numerous ice cliffs on which the ship could…
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BELARE 2006/2007 - The Expedition finally arrived at Utsteinen
11.01.2007
The BELARE Expedition finally arrived at Utsteinen. The buzz of excitement mounted as the plane overflew the landing site twice to gauge the ground conditions and test the wind, and then we came in to land, shuddering as the plane threw its engines into reverse. The first view of Utsteinen is always breathtaking - the nunatak, the blue wind scoop,…
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BELARE 2006/2007 - Windy days at Novo
09.01.2007
The outlook is grim. The wind has steadily picked up during the night, and the weather has sharply deteriorated. We will use the time to re-assemble the two skidoos that were waiting at Novo for us since last season. We also use the occasion to set up the iridium data connection (which allows us to send this e-mail). The Immarsat…
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BELARE 2006/2007 - Getting started
08.01.2007
The Expedition with ten members (Alain Hubert, Johan Berte, Gigi Amin, (IPF), Jos Van Hemelryck, Joris Wouters, Dieter de Decker (VRT) Benjamin Luypaert (RTBF), Bernard Bleeckx,Vincent Piret (Aeriane) and Damien Ertz (UGhent) left Brussels on the evening of the 5th of January 2007. A number of family, friends, and well wishers were at hand to see them off.
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BELARE 2006/2007 - Flight briefing before a cold night
08.01.2007
We spent the morning at the ALCI pre-flight briefing and talking with the pilots about our plans for the coming days. The call finally came at 18.00H – the flight would depart as planned at 23.00H tonight. We were collected at the Lady Hamilton hotel and arrived at the airport for the passport and immigration controls. Heavily laden with our…
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BELARE 2006/2007 - Troll station
09.07.2006
Morning broke early in the Southern Hemisphere for our sleep deprived group. The cockpit lay open at the front of the plane, and as the cargo was loaded mainly in the back, there were no restrictions to moving forward to visit the pilots, which at first we did a little uncertainly, unused to such familiarity, and such a departure from…
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Before the BELARE 2005 expedition
08.12.2005
Somehow surprisingly the Belare 2005 Logistic Survey expedition kicked-off in warm Cape Town South Africa with Johan Berte attending the Dromlan meeting. In this pre-Antarctic season meeting last arrangements are made for air-support and other logistics in the Droning Maudland area of East Antarctica. Traditionally Cape Town is also the last chance to acquire supplies for the different expeditions.
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BELARE 2004 : Antarctic site survey team arrived in the Sor Rondane Mountains
27.04.2005
Prospecting for a site for new Antarctic summer station in the foothills of the Sör Røndane mountains began on Saturday 27 November. The team split into two parts, seven members heading towards the targeted "Usteinen Nunatak" area, the other two for the old Japanese "Asuka" station.
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BELARE 2004 : Antarctic site survey team on the way to Sor Rondane Mountains
25.11.2004
The IPF will participate in the building of a new Antarctic summer station in the foothills of the Sor Rondane Mountains, where Belgium has a historical presence, with the previous base, the Roi Baudouin. On February 6th 2004, the Belgian Council of Ministers confided to Alain Hubert (IPF) the planning, conception and financing of the project.
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BELARE 2004 : Station site chosen
29.08.2004
On Monday 29 November 2004, the Belare 2004 team located the optimal site for the new Antarctic summer station in the Sör Røndane Mountains, 200 metres north of the Usteinen Nunatak. The geographical coordinates are: S.71°56'47" and E.23°20'44", altitude: 1368m.
