Fedor Konyukhov and the support team on Smolensk Island (Livingston). Photo courtesy of Fedor Konyukhov's expeditionary headquarters
The first ever one-person seasonal station in Antarctica has begun its work. Fedor Konyukhov will be its only employee for four months. The day before, the support team had erected four tents on Smolensk Island (Livingston) and installed communication equipment. And on the evening of November 21, they left the island, leaving the famous traveler in the company of penguins against a backdrop of amazing landscapes.
Fedor Konyukhov and his colleague were very lucky with the weather. It was stormy during the Drake Passage crossing, but they approached Livingston Island itself in calm weather with clear skies. As the expedition’s chief of staff, Oskar Konyukhov, noted, two days of such weather on the 62nd parallel of south latitude was a rare occurrence, and the team had tried to use this opportunity as efficiently as possible.
But first, the expedition team visited the Russian Antarctic Bellingshausen Station on Waterloo Island. The 70th anniversary Russian Antarctic Expedition is currently working there. The guests also visited the southernmost Orthodox church on the planet, the Church of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity.
On November 20, the team landed on Smolensk Island (Livingston). A few years ago, Fedor Konyukhov chose a place for a future station here, and now a traveler’s support team has erected a tent camp in a couple of days. The station consists of four tents specially made for Konyukhov: the main one is designed for sleeping, the second is a work tent (it is also a radio room, an office, and a creative workshop), the third is a storage tent, and another, collapsible, is a camp chapel with a dome.
The nuance of the site itself is that it is impossible to put tents directly on the ground here, since melt water from glaciers can fill them. The solution was thought out in advance. These are wooden podiums and platforms on which the tents themselves are installed.
«We worked in calm weather conditions, but the captains of the schooners warned us: in these places, even in summer, the winds blow at a speed of 50–70 km/h, and it was important to secure all structures as well as possible, ” said the head of the expedition headquarters.
It took two incomplete days to finish the station. After that, the satellite and radio equipment were set up and a test call was made to Moscow.
Against the background of the Church of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity. In the front row, Father Aleksandr, Fedor Konyukhov, and the head of Bellingshausen Station, Andrey Voevodin. Photo courtesy of Fedor Konyukhov's expeditionary headquarters
This is what the first one-person Antarctic station in history looks like. Photo courtesy of Fedor Konyukhov's expeditionary headquarters
Fedor Konyukhov’s main task over the next four months is to work within the framework of the scientific program of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute to determine the content of microplastics in coastal waters.
The traveler, and now the head and the only employee of the one-person seasonal Antarctic station, intends to devote his free time to creativity.
«We have delivered 25 canvases, Fedor Filippovich will paint, and we plan to organize an exhibition upon his return to Moscow,» Oskar Konyukhov said. «In addition, he is writing a book about the journey on the rowing boat 'AKROS’ from Cape Horn to Australia.»
And there is more. It seems that the station now has a name. It is still a provisional title, but the story has only just begun. And it is, of course, is «Smolensk», in honor of the original Russian name of the island on which it is located.
Ayvar Valeev