The day started with a stunning sunrise, and stayed clear all day. I was on kitchen duty with Chef Andrew (Bongo) all day today, but in the afternoon, Mat came in and suggested that we should take a run out to the Jack's Line and check that the route marking canes, that we installed last week survived the weekend blizzard.
The Jack's Line or J-Line as it is known is a route that leads out to Jack's Hut. With Mat and I in the blue hagg, and Chef Bongo and Jimmy the aviation plant operator on quads, we headed out on the blue ice to check the canes. The canes are to help give us a visual reference along our crevasse free travel routes. They comprise a bamboo cane, with a flag, and a recycled steel food can from the kitchen as a radar reflector. They actually show up pretty well on the GPS radar units in the Hagglunds!
We installed one new cane, and the rest looked ok.
To install a cane we line up the hagg directly on our GPS travel line and measure out a distance of 15 m with a rope tied to the hagg, whilst the other person drills a hole into the ice to install the cane. We backfil the hole, water our bamboo tree and voila! one track marker cane installed.
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| Everyone loves power tools! Photo: Mat Callaghan |
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| Crack cane line installation team. Photo: Mat Callaghan |
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| Backfilling the drill hole. Photo: Mat Callaghan |
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| Blue hagg on the blue ice. Photo: Jacque Comery |
