UNION GLACIER

Before driving on a new road, we carefully study satellite images, radar data, and observe how the snow is sliding down the mountains. Then we drive along the road and scan the area to find the best path between the cracks, which is quite difficult to work out, because, in many places, cars can easily get through, but heavily loaded sleds no longer can. Even a person can’t get through. But we also drive very slowly, at a speed of 6-8 kilometers per hour, while keeping an eye on the scanner data. If you need to venture into this area, then it is imperative to tie yourself to the car with a safety rope, and only leave it if you have no other option.

The most extreme situations happened to me not during tourist trips, but when we were providing support to workers who were setting up fuel depots in the mountains. This was during the time that White Desert was building its runway. Two polar explorers in the mountains lost one of their tents and almost lost contact with Novo. We had to come to their assistance quickly. The main problem was in the road—it was a new path, still poorly explored, and there were quite a few crevices.

When I’m on a trip, I have almost no free time. Sometimes, I manage to read a couple of books, but mostly I am busy preparing the trip, making sure everything is in order while we’re on the way, planning out the next day, and making notes in the diary of the day's events. It takes up all my time.

We usually arrive in Antarctica on the first flight and leave on one of the last. Since even just getting a person here is very expensive, each team member does as much work as possible. I don’t even notice how time flies by here—for the last 3 months I have hardly had any breaks. Between trips, there is always preparation required for things like packing; collecting spare parts, tools, and equipment; and checking vehicles over. By the beginning of the expedition, everything should be in order. It’s much easier to fix any issues on base where there is a garage and tools, than to try and fix them in the middle of a white desert at -40 °C. Also, if we understand that something is missing, we have to order it in from the continent. This can be very expensive and takes a lot of time—at least two weeks. So the main thing is to be organized.

On the Union Glacier, we have a small camp with tents, where all the tools for the machines are kept. At some point, this camp, of course, looks more like a garage sale, as we have not yet put everything in order. We eat in the communal ALE tent with everyone else. And in Novolazarevskaya we stay in a camp in mobile containers.

Another of our tasks is maintaining the Arctic Trucks machines which are at the disposal of scientific expeditions and other companies. They usually require quite a lot of attention, since no one checks them during the winter months.

During my trips, we had very few extreme situations. Once our cooling system broke down on a plateau—the liquid leaked out and we overheated the engine. That time, there were three cars and six people on the expedition, and we, in the end, just abandoned the broken car, falling short of our destination by 750 km. We returned after 3 weeks to tow the car for the remaining 750 km. I remember this road. You’re driving, the engine is not working, there is fog around because there is no heating, and there is silence. And it lasted for three days.