Location: Mavericks, Ulvetanna Base Camp, S 71 49.146′, E 008 21.867′

Temperature: -5 C, sunny and clear, 10 knots.

Date – 25/12/12

A BRIGHT WHITE CHRISTMAS – David

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Christmas Day and the boys are off on their first reccy to the mountain itself. Despite heading off on just a day mission and packing pretty light there was still much faffing to be had. Leo trying to colour co-ordinate everyone, Stanley looking everywhere for his 40 litre rucksack, Jason hassling me for toothpaste, Chris trying to figure out his ski bindings and of course Al distributing half his camera kit for Chris to carry. Fun Fun in the Antarctic Sun

Over the past few days the weather has been amazing and at the same time it has not been so great. But despite the warm, wet, snowing and flat light conditions we have made the most of the time by turning our camp into a pimp easterly stronghold with 3 to 4ft high snow walls around all our tents, hopefully the wind does not pull a sneaky one and attack from the flanks.

Our camp comprises of 8 tents of which the main one is an amazing clamshell style dome tent. Filled with fur lined chairs, tables, Christmas decorations, a stonking  sound system, more daily food rations than you can actually eating and a nifty Carbon monoxide sensor (which has already turned black, setting off the alarms, evacuating and leaving Chris behind to manage the indoor BBQ and wafting the fumes away) Steak and Boere Wors for Christmas Dinner followed by a chocolate and fudge platter (Chopped up Mars Bar)… Good Times!

One of the other main feature tents is the Posing Productions Polar division office which is a massive dome tent which has been dedicated as a studio, charging station and equipment storage area. Pretty nice setup.

Everyone has their own sleeping tents which is great as it allows those noisy sleepers to be banished to the far.

side of the camp. So yesterday was Christmas Eve, and we have already had our first visitors. A couple French guys that flew in on the same plane as us (that are camped several hours away and below Holtana Peak) decided to come stay the night and celebrate Christmas with us. A great couple of guys who we might be visiting in the near future when exploring the rest of this amazing range of mountains.

Signing off

David Reeves, (expedition grip-in-chief and first solar officer).

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