December 16, 2017

The drill tent stands alongside the drill trench. The ends of the drill tent have not yet been attached.

It's been 5 days since the final cargo flight to Mt Brown, and the time has been spent setting up tents, digging a hole, preparing camp for a blizzard and getting the drill tent set up. We are now at maximum camp population of 6, and we have 5 toilets across camp - these vary in size, comfort and quality of facilities. The aforementioned hole is the trench that we will use for the drilling - it has to be 1.5m below the snow surface so the raised drill tower will fit inside the drill tent.

Yesterday the weather was ideal for setting up the drill tent - no wind and no horizon to distract us. The tent was erected and moved over the drill trench by mid-afternoon. We then continued on the drill trench, straightening the walls and cutting them to fit the tent perimeter. Extra anchors have been used to tie down all of the main tents (Kitchen tent, Diesotorium tent and Drill tent) so they will not be damaged or disturbed by the blizz.

Just now the blizzard has arrived at Mt Brown. Winds are about 50 kt and we have spent the morning using snow blocks to build walls around our tents. The walls will deflect the winds and ensure that snow drifts do not accumulate around the doors of our tents. The snow blocks came from the drill trench, so we are making sure to recycle the natural resource we have available to us here.