19th November
Temperatures are too low today to head out to do Science. It isn’t necessarily the temperature that’s the problem (-15.2 deg C) it’s the wind, which is averaging 14.5 mph and gusting to about 25 mph. The wind is bringing experienced temperatures down to -30 deg C and below, this makes standing around doing Science pretty harsh work.
Later tonight when the sun gets on to the slopes we want to investigate. We may well head out if the wind has dropped, but for now it’s tea-drinking and eating in our mess tent.
While I have the time I thought I would send back some results so that you can compare what we’re experiencing to what you’re experiencing back home.
Weather:
16/11/07: -19 deg C, wind spd av 0.3 mph, wind spd max 0.9 mph, cloud cover 0 octares, pressure 892 mbar, visibility to horizon (about 40 km).
17/11/07: -13 deg C, 0.1 mph, 0.7 mph, 0 octares, 891 mbar, vis to horizon
18/11/07: -16 deg C, 9.2 mph , 10.8 mph, 4 octares, 890 mbar, vis to horizon
19/11/07: -16 deg C, 14.5 mph, 23.8 mph, 0 octares, 887 mbar, vis to horizon
Diet: 3240 Kcal
Breakfast: 755 Kcal
- Half a packet of alpen: 600 Kcal
- Coffee with sugar: 25 Kcal
- Alpen cereal bar: 130 Kcal
Lunch: 1360 Kcal
- 2xDairy Milk: 510 Kcal
- Mars Bar: 284 Kcal
- Nuts: 295 Kcal
- Jordans superfood bar: 171 Kcal
- Packet Haribo: 100 Kcal
Dinner: 1125 Kcal
- Spag Bol boil in bag: 700 Kcal
- Quarter pack of Pemmicam: 125 Kcal
- Haribo: 150 Kcal
- Hot Chocolate: 100 Kcal
- Cup-a-soup: 50 Kcal
Reaction times:
Method: friend holds ruler so that the 0cm line is lined up with my fingers. When the friend drops it I catch it and record at what cm mark it’s at. In the UK my average was 15cm. I tried the test three times with gloves off and then three times with gloves on, look not only at the results, but also the trend:
- Gloves off: 1: 9cm, 2: 11cm, 3: 17 cm
- Gloves on: 1: 15cm, 2: 14cm, 3: 9cm
Friction:
Method: record how far an empty water bottle slides across a surface with the thrust being over the distance between your feet when feet are shoulder width apart. Test was done with a following wind averaging 14.5 mph.
- Hard smooth snow: 25.2 m, and it would have carried on if it hadn’t hit sastrugi. Without the wind it would have gone about 12 m.
- Hard sastrugi: 1.2 m
Nearest living person (other than people in our team):
60 km away (at Patriot Hills base, which we flew into).