Remote field work in Antarctica often involves going weeks without a shower or clean clothes. Fortunately for us at the SWAIS 2C field camp, hot water drilling operations mean that we can take the occasional hot shower! We also have a very small washing machine that we use to wash clothing that sits next to the skin. There are several ways to dry the clothes: freeze drying, hanging them on one of the hot water lines, or hanging them next to one of the heaters in the various tents. Regardless of method, having a hot shower and putting on clean clothes after a couple of weeks without feels magical! The shower and washing machine are set up in the corner of the drill tent, so currently doing some laundry is a great way to interact with the hot-water drilling team to find out more about how it works and see the progress! The drillers have successfully made the small pilot hole through the ice shelf (total thickness ~586 m) and are now “reaming” the hole to increase the diameter to 35 cm so that the tools we will deploy can fit through it.

 (more photos see Gallery)