Princess Elisabeth Antarctic Station: a successful site preparation expedition

The main objective of the expedition was to unload the first set of containers and to validate an unloading site suitable for next year major shipment. After securing everything on the coast, two convoys of Prinoth tractors transported the goods to the basecamp while mapping the route from the coast to the Utsteinen construction site.

 

A windturbine was erected and the tests that were ran provided Utsteinen with its first kilowatts of clean energy. Final anchoring points of the station building were identified and mapped during a detailed topographic survey. Two small field expeditions were undertaken: one to blue ice fields for a topographic survey, and another one to the abandoned Asuka station (60km) to collect some materials and equipment.

Scientific work such as measuring the ice movements, material tests and a microbiology survey on and around the building site was another achievment of this BELARE 2006/2007 site preparation expedition.

Several news were posted by the team during the expedition and are available in the news section