Mt Henderson Maintenance Trip

Mt Henderson hut was visited on the 26th May for the fitting a new stove and replacement of batteries in the radio repeater located on the hill near the field hut.

New batteries for the repeater would restore radio contact from Mawson to crews working at Auster Emperor Penguin rookery near Macey Island with the Korean Filming program over the next few months. Contact is currently only available via satellite phone.

Mt Henderson is about 20km from Mawson, rising above the Plateau. It is 951m above sea level. The hut is a little less than 700m in altitude. It is exposed in the saddle between two peaks. The hut sleeps 3 but lacks the cold porch that other field huts at Fang Peak or Rumdoodle have. The hut is small and tired but commands an amazing view.  Mt Henderson is one of a number of Nunataks (isolated peak projecting through a glacier) in the ice floe near Mawson station. 

Rod (plumber), Tim (chippie) and Mark (radio tech) were booked to do the work. There was a spare seat and a need of an extra pair of hands and I was on a day off so went along to help.

We left  in the dark before sunrise at 8:30am and arrived before 10:00am still in the dark. Tim and Rod removed and installed the new gas stove/oven. Mark and I went up the hill to the repeater box that was located in a sealed drum with the batteries and other components. The drum lid also supported the solar panel that charged the two big lead acid batteries as large as car batteries.While Mark dismantled the components within the drum to get to the batteries I carried the two new batteries up from the Hag. After swapping them over a radio check revealed that even with the new batteries the radio repeater was not working so checking the cable integrity, antenna fittings, etc was required. After making the checks it was suspected that the antenna or cable were faulty and would need to be replaced at another time. There were a number trips back to the hut to thaw out, the wind and the cold making work outdoors very difficult. The repeater and batteries were brought down to the hut as a temporary solution and set up as a temporary solution. The coverage would not be as good however it did work. The repeater and the battery occupied the small hut table and one of the seats so there was even less room than before.

We left after 13:00 following the GPS track and watching for canes and drums that mark the route.The wind was picking up and encountered blowing snow on the trip back to base. Tim drove the Hag up to Mt Henderson and Rod drove back to base.


The following 5 minute video is a record of the trip.