British scientists head to remote Antarctica base Halley
A team of British scientists and support staff has begun arriving at one of the world's coldest and most remote research bases.
The team of 16 will spend the next 18 months at the British Antarctic Survey's Halley Research Station, 850 miles from the South Pole.
They will have to endure 105 days of darkness during the Southern Hemisphere's winter, with temperatures dipping to -55C and winds reaching 80mph.
The conditions will be so hostile that rescue, even in a medical emergency, is almost certainly out of the question.
Station leader John Eager, who will be spending his second winter on the base, told Sky News: "It is easier to get back from the International Space Station than it is from Halley in winter.
"You are as remote as you can be."
The base's location, far from pollution, is attractive to scientists studying the atmosphere, climate and space weather.
Over the summer months 95 people will be working on the ice.
But most leave before the base is sealed off by 400 miles of pack ice. Just a skeleton crew remain.
"You have to rub along together," Mr Eager said.
"You have to be able to persevere when things are tough.
"You also need patience - just getting dressed to go outside can take 25 minutes.
"And you need to be up for it every single day and that's particularly hard when it is dark 24/7."
One of this season's first-timers is the station medic Dr Neil Spencer.
He is swapping a high-tech A&E unit of a London hospital for the more basic environment of the base medical room.
He will be able to x-ray suspected fractures and run basic blood tests.
But he will also be the base dentist, GP and physiotherapist.
"We train up some of the people to assist," he said.
"But sometimes you have to bite the bullet and see what you can do."
Trauma specialists at Plymouth's Derriford Hospital are on standby in case he needs advice over the satellite phone.
But surgery such as an appendix removal is no longer attempted on the base.
"Everybody is (medically) screened, so we are not going to see heart attacks and strokes I would see in A&E. But it is slippery and cold, so I will see injuries from that.
"I hope nothing serious happens but, if it does, that's part of the appeal in going there."
In 1999 an American doctor stationed over winter at another Antarctic base carried out a biopsy on herself to confirm a diagnosis of breast cancer. It was several weeks before she could be airlifted out for surgery.
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