The challenges of conserving scientists fed and joyful in Antarctica

(CNN) — No place on Earth is colder than East Antarctica. As a consequence of its larger elevation, not even West Antarctica can contact its hostile temperatures.

Princess Elisabeth, a polar analysis station within the Queen Maud Land area, faces wind speeds of as much as 155 mph (249 kph) and temperatures as little as -58°F (-50°C). A aptitude for consolation meals is understandably a requisite talent for any chef working on this setting.

“As individuals are exterior in extraordinarily chilly temperatures and harsh circumstances, I wish to make one thing good and heavy for the physique, like fondue and raclette. Numerous it,” says chef Thomas Duconseille, who mans this distant Antarctic submit for a number of months every year.

When there is a group of chilly scientists round 3,100 miles from the closest metropolis and no less than 9,900 miles from dwelling, it is sensible that sizzling cheese goes a great distance. If solely the remainder of Duconseille’s culinary duties had been this simple — cooking in these circumstances comes with distinctive challenges.

Seven seasons in Antarctica

Princess Elisabeth is anchored to the ridge beside Utsteinen Nunatak, a mountain often known as “the outer stone,” within the Sør Rondane mountain vary. Outdoors Duconseille’s workplace window lie icy granite mountains and vibrant white lowlands dotted with in-field lodging models, laboratory containers, and wind generators that sprout from the snow.

Throughout the summer season months of November to February, the glacial, mountainous panorama is bathed in fixed gentle — the solar slips behind the ridge for simply three hours a day. Throughout this time, researchers from Belgium, France, Germany, Turkey, India and the US use the encompassing 124 miles of mountains, shoreline, glaciers, and the Antarctic Plateau to conduct scientific analysis and to develop methods to handle local weather change. Some keep for a couple of weeks and others would possibly keep for the season. Duconseille, the resident chef at Princess Elisabeth, is there for the complete 4 months. This 12 months is his seventh season in Antarctica.

Princess Elisabeth, operated by Brussels-based Worldwide Polar Basis, has been in service since early 2009, making it one of many newer polar analysis stations. Although it could be younger, it is the world’s first zero-emission polar analysis station, relying solely on renewable power in one of many world’s harshest environments. It is also a sight to behold. Resting atop the ridge, Princess Elisabeth resembles a freshly landed hexagonal spacecraft, its smooth silver panels reflecting the intense whites of the polar panorama.

It is arduous to consider that inside, there’s brioche baking.

“We put together our personal bread and cook dinner it right here. Contemporary bread is essential. I wish to make brioche for breakfast with chocolate inside,” says Duconseille. As a Frenchman, good bread is as a lot a lifestyle at his submit in Antarctica as it’s again dwelling in Normandy, or within the Alps, the place he spends the higher a part of the 12 months catering to a different breed of explorers on Mont Blanc.

As Princess Elisabeth is a six-hour flight from the closest metropolis — Cape City, South Africa — Duconseille ensures meat, fish and greens are frozen to final the season and that eggs are saved in five-liter crates with the whites and yolks separated. As for the recent substances, a bundle of those treasured items is flown in each month from Cape City — offering the climate is not too wild.

The challenges of recent meals for a distant outpost

Regardless of its altitude — 4,475 toes above sea degree — Princess Elisabeth stays comfortably heat and shielded from the weather due to a sturdy mixture of woolen felt, heavy-duty Kraft paper, aluminum, wooden panels, polystyrene, waterproofing membrane, polyethylene foam, and chrome steel.

“Throughout the summer season months, we need not use heating contained in the station, as a result of all of the radiation from the solar, and our personal presence contained in the station, is sufficient to preserve an inner temperature of 20-21°C (68-69.8°F),” says Henri Robert, a science liaison officer at Princess Elisabeth.

By a hybrid system of 9 wind generators and 408 photo voltaic photovoltaic panels, the power of 100 days of round the clock sunshine and ferocious gusts of wind is harnessed to energy the station.

“We at the moment have the solar all day lengthy as we’re decrease than the Antarctic Circle. Fortunately, there’s this mountain to the south of us, so the solar goes behind it and we get a little bit of shade for a few hours, after which the solar rises once more. But it surely by no means goes beneath the horizon,” says Robert, a local of Belgium.

The station is the world’s first zero-emission polar analysis station, relying solely on renewable power in one of many world’s harshest environments.

Courtesy Worldwide Polar Basis

To achieve Princess Elisabeth, the crew flies from Cape City on a DC-3 aircraft, an plane well-suited to transporting cargo and maneuvering icy runways. The flight takes just a little over six hours after which it is a 90-minute journey from the airstrip to the station. Contemporary meals together with greens and milk can be transported utilizing the DC-3, and this operation is repeated each month (climate allowing).

It is a set-up which may strike concern into the hearts of those that frequently depend on that last-minute sprint to the grocery retailer for that forgotten handful of recent herbs or cup of thickened cream, however Duconseille has tailored to the trials of the job.

“An increasing number of, I’ve grown used to ready a month between recent meals deliveries. Years in the past, after I first began the job, it was troublesome as a result of recent meals wears quick. With expertise, I do know what is going to go dangerous first, so for the primary week, we now have loads of recent salads. I handle it so I could make these substances final so long as potential. Over these 4 weeks, I’m able to handle, and till the fourth week I can nonetheless supply one thing appetizing to eat,” says Duconseille.

Sustenance and meals storage

The meals Duconseille prepares at Princess Elisabeth are various, together with soups, meats, pizza, salads, quiches, and desserts. “There’s all the time a vegetarian or vegan possibility — so all people has a spread to select from,” says Duconseille. For particular events, like Christmas and New 12 months’s, the chef prepares dishes together with foie gras, turkey with stuffing, and iced nougat.

“As a client, I can say it is like being in a restaurant. It is fantastic — it is a full dinner,” says Robert.

The station usually sees between 20 to 30 crew members without delay, however through the years the amenities have expanded to assist 45 to 50 individuals. Crew members alternate serving to Duconseille within the kitchen by setting the desk, drying and storing dishes, or peeling giant portions of potatoes. Sustenance is a gaggle effort.

Given the isolation of the station and the fluctuating crew numbers, it is essential {that a} reserve of staple meals is maintained from season to season. Transporting long-lasting and non-perishable gadgets like grains, beans, and tinned tomatoes to the station is a distinct beast to the month-to-month recent meals drops.

Some provisions arrive in delivery containers from Belgium.

Courtesy Worldwide Polar Basis

“From Belgium, we replenish delivery containers with a considerable amount of dried and frozen meals and each different 12 months, a ship arrives and provides us with these substances,” says Duconseille.

On the station, meals is saved downstairs, the place there’s a giant room with shelving for the dry meals, a freezer in regards to the measurement of a delivery container (-13°F), and a smaller fridge (41-44°F). “We even have fridges that we have to heat up as a result of many substances like sure fruits can’t be frozen,” says Duconseille.

Duconseille does not plan meals upfront, however maintains a robust meals stock, so he is aware of precisely what’s within the financial institution. The dear nature of the recent substances implies that the place requires adaptability and creativity.

“I cook dinner by feeling — relying on the variety of individuals there, or what meals will likely be going dangerous quickly. All of it is determined by what we now have,” says Duconseille.

As there’s a vary of polar landscapes to be studied in jap Antarctica, scientists at Princess Elisabeth head out on common area journeys. The chef performs a significant function within the success of those expeditions.

“These area journeys can take two-three weeks and contain 4 to 6 individuals. For this, I have to estimate the meals they may want away from the station. Each time I cook dinner a big meal, I freeze parts in order that researchers can take these, defrost, and revel in, while not having to waste beneficial time within the area,” says Duconseille.

Crew members on the station conduct scientific analysis and develop methods to handle local weather change.

Courtesy Worldwide Polar Basis

‘I’ve all the time been drawn to atypical landscapes’

For the previous decade, Duconseille has been a supervisor at numerous mountain huts within the French Alps, together with Mont Blanc’s Goûter Hut, the very best wardened mountain hut in France.

“I’ve all the time been drawn to atypical landscapes, stunning areas, locations at altitude. It is a small world — the world of people that do that work in these areas — so one other cook dinner instructed the station’s director about me. Working at one place can open new doorways, and that is how I acquired from the Alps to Antarctica,” says Duconseille.

Outdoors of the Antarctic summer season, he continues his work within the French Alps, offering meals, lodging and help to individuals mountain climbing one of many 5 routes up Mont Blanc, which rises to fifteen,771 toes (4,807 meters).

The Princess Elisabeth crew works six days every week. Relying on the circumstances, Sunday is enjoyable day. The crew is free to accompany area guides and go to the neighboring nunataks, the mountain ridges that emerge from the ice like bony plates on a stegosaurus’ again.

Circumstances at Princess Elisabeth station may be brutal.

Worldwide Polar Basis

“I get pleasure from strolling within the mountains with the remainder of the group, and I am additionally a runner, so I like going for a run on the 1.2-mile-long airstrip. However often, on Sunday, I will learn, take a nap, and put together for the week forward,” says Duconseille.

A few of the crew get pleasure from cross-country snowboarding. Some take it up a notch, and head to the big slope, for alpine snowboarding. In fact, there are not any ski lifts, so what goes down should come up — that’s if you’d like a second lap. Robert, a biologist and birdwatcher, seizes the chance of getting such uncommon entry to the White Continent.

“We have now 124 miles of ice earlier than we attain the coast. All through this space, we now have stunning wildlife, colonies of birds breeding proper right here — so we aren’t completely alone. It’s all the time thrilling to come back right here as a result of I am enthusiastic about birds. When I’ve the possibility, I am going to the nunatak and observe the birds which can be breeding there, or I will relaxation on Sunday. All of it is determined by the climate,” says Robert.

Meals and morale are intertwined

Contemporary meals together with greens and milk arrives through DC-3 each month (climate allowing).

Courtesy Worldwide Polar Basis

Duconseille’s expertise managing remoted mountain refuges has ready him for the a part of the job that goes past offering sustenance: creating a house removed from dwelling.

With subglacial lakes, katabatic winds, and a 300-mile-wide crater rumored to be hidden beneath the jap ice sheet, Antarctica is extra than simply the world’s most remoted continent: it could appear to be one other planet completely. Whereas the station is comfy and effectively geared up (Robert described it as being “very nice… like a chalet in Switzerland”), the intense isolation, unpredictable polar climate, and months away from dwelling and family members can put on down even essentially the most intrepid.

“In Antarctica, meals is essential for crew morale — it is very important guarantee individuals are joyful across the desk and collect collectively after an extended day. I wish to cook dinner desserts and truffles so that individuals may be joyful on the finish of the day,” says Duconseille.

If the chef spends his time bringing pleasure to the crew within the type of golden brioche and molten cheese, what’s it that brings him pleasure?

“It is arduous for the primary few days after I go away my household. However when you arrive, you are on this setting the place you are work-focused and captivated by the gorgeous environment. Life is thrilling, there’s all the time one thing taking place. We’re taking good care of lots of people and scientific actions.”

Leaving Antarctica once more is bittersweet.

“On the finish of summer season, we’re joyful to come back dwelling, however it’s a blended feeling: we’re unhappy to go away Antarctica,” says Duconseille. “It is an unbelievable setting and a singular life that we now have right here.”