MK Ambassadors Head to Antarctica and South Africa

“Greetings all! It’s been a while since the Katabatic crew has checked in from the field. We have been busy with Everest and Antarctica over the past few field seasons and we are gearing up for yet another expedition to Antarctica. This one is a little different from the past gigs and I think its going to be an interesting one.

 

Last season a Russian DC3 crashed in the Queen Maud Land region of Antarctica. Thankfully no one was injured and all that was hurt was the airframe. So, Kenn Borek Air, LTD., from Canada has been hired to go down and recover the aircraft. The idea is to establish a base camp beside the plane, send down 8 engineers and field crew, repair the plane and fly it back to its airbase in South Africa. I know they can do it as I witnessed them do it 2 seasons ago with one of their own planes. Anywho, Kenn Borek has hired Katabatic Consulting (Kristin and I) to provide medical, base camp and mountaineering support for the project. To say the least we have been busy getting ready to depart. We take off for Cape Town South Africa in November to catch up with the rest of the crew and to make sure all of our equipment has arrived and is ready to go. From Cape Town we will fly down with ALCI to the Queen Maud Land region of Antarctica and stage from the Russian research station Novo. From Novo we will fly via Twin Otter to the crash site and get base camp established.

The camp will be located on the Antarctic Plateau at around 3500 meters with pressure altitudes around 5000 meters (15,000 feet).  After all is good, the engineers will fly in and do their magic to the plane. If all goes well, we should be out of the field by 20 December. Here is the catch, if we are delayed or the project runs past the 20th we will miss the last place from the area until LATE JANUARY! WE are taking lots of books and DVD's just in case.  We are also taking th enew MK Flannel-Lined OMP for the -40 degree temperatures.  

 

As Always, thanks to MK for all of their support on our expeditions.  It is always good to know we can trust the MK brand when we are a long way from th elocal mountain ship."

Comments

[twitter.com/mountainh2o]

Tough job, but someone's got to do it. Ski Resort work for us this winter season so very happily committed through Mid April, 2010, but sure would get in on something like this! Awesome story! Took us away. http://www.fulltimervers.net/rvforum

[Rita and Bill]

If anyone can get base camp set up and ensure everyone is safe and fed during this trek it is Kristin and Tayloe.....we'll miss them while they're on their new adventure, but will keep checking the blog for updates.