Soundman at Trajer Ridge

The location was locked in for Trajer Ridge for which there were no complaints and we were off to spend a day recording ice forming and the sounds from within the ice or crevasses. After landing on the ice we had quickly had a bit of an exploration towards some of the known crevasses and dropped a microphone down to the bottom of the crevasse on a ten metre cable. The sound guy was very excited about this chance as it was a blue sky day with no wind. Something that he has not had very much of so was relieved and ready for all he could get his ears on! Leaving the microphone in place we headed for some fresh water ice on the nearby lake.

 Gingerly stepping out onto the lake to see if it was strong enough I took out the gear and then got him to come out turn it all on after I was satisfied that the ice was indeed thick enough. Leaving it to in place there was nothing left to do but sit and wait quietly as the recorders did there thing. Coming back after a hot drink we moved on to a small stream of water trickling down a creek over ice and rock to another lake lower down the hill.

 After getting to the bottom of the stream we found that the second lake was actually very audibly active and was really making a song and dance as it formed. Being a larger body of water it had been open water until recently when it started to freeze. Now it was about thirty centimetres thick and easily capable of holding our weight. The question was could I hack through it with an ice axe to get a hydrophone in?

After much swinging, hitting and chipping away at the ice I had managed to create a hole in the ice! Had I known about the likelihood of having to do this I would have just brought the sea ice drill with me, but alas I was destined to do it with my axe. In the process of doing this there comes a time when most of the hole fills with water and you still need to hack away at it so it can be a rather dampening experience and requires a full Gortex covering.

 Job done! We recorded over 6 hours of sound for the day and the hole and the second lake were by far the most amazing noises that I have heard in nature. It did get me thinking about some of George’s music at one stage with almost electronic duff noises and the sounds of high tensile cable splitting and breaking. Good fun and very rewarding as a different way to know the place that is Antarctica.

Another clear night with the LIDAR on and an amazing aurora to boot!