Winter Trip No 2 - Sunday

Mc Callums Pass.

Map showing what is where.

And it is already time for winter trips again. I had set my mind of having really bad weather again on the trip as the last two trips were not really able to get off base for very long. So, I was very surprised when Steve said on Sunday morning that we were able to leave and maybe even get through the pass this time around as the contrast was looking good. We left base at around 11am after I finally managed to get moving, being totally absorbed by the new jigsaw I started. On top of that I was quite tired as I stayed up the night before until midnight in the bar and it took me 1 ½ hours afterwards to pack (it is really not that difficult ...). We drove about 1 ½ hours to McCallums Pass and were lucky to be there at the sunniest moment of the day. We drove through it (which is down a slope, around

And the tents are up, just before it started getting windy.

the corner and up the slope on the other side through a minefield of crevasses – hence the good contrast is required). When coming up the slope we had to tow the sledges one by one as they would have been too heavy otherwise (skidoo with Steve – rope – skidoo with Sabrina – rope – sledge). Than we had another 1 ½ drive (roughly) and got to the campsite called Myth (due to the nearby big mountain called the same).

Pretty view on the way:)

The camp was set up surprisingly quickly. Last time we had to dig a square for the tent to go in. This time we didn’t as the snow was hard enough, yay! For dinner I had all-day- breakfast and some pasta. The all-day-breakfast was so called manfood and consisted of baked

The tent chef preparing the 5* dinner

beans, sausages and omelette (I think). The term manfood originates from the days when they still had dogs down here. On trips food boxes for dogs and man had to be taken and were called dogfood and manfood. Nowadays, our electrical dogs are fed with petrol, but we still have manfood (until leftovers from dinners are defrosted).

View from the tent: It was so bright in the
evening, it was nearly like daylight.
(Photo: Steve)

Issy (our chef) and Malcy (another fieldassistant) talked to us on scheds (see first winter trip blog entry for explanation). The weather is looking brilliant not only for tomorrow but more or less for the next couple of days (could this winter trip have more days out than in the tent??). On another note: this time, the other 2-men-party is not camping at the same site, so no evening visits.