Llanrwst man heads to the ‘deep freeze’ of Antarctica

Sep 25 2008 by Samantha Castle, North Wales Weekly News

A LLANRWST man is swapping his home comforts for the frozen wastes of the Antarctic tundra next month.

Brenden Bithell, 38, from Melin-y-Coed, will start work at the end of October with the British Antarctic Survey team.

One of his many responsibilities will be to keep the base camp’s runway clear of snow.

“I’ll be based at a deep field base called Sky Blu and my job will be servicing and repairing a range of mechanical items like snowmobiles and keeping the runway clear of snow in temperatures between -10°C to -30°C at 1,600 metres above sea level,” said Brenden.

Never one to shy away from the extreme, Brenden’s last job saw him working in the blistering hot deserts of South America, taking tourists on remote jungle excursions on dilapidated bus tours.

“After working in the heat of South America I fancied a complete change,” said Brenden.

“The competition for this job was pretty fierce with over 40 of us competing for four positions, but I was successful thanks to the difficult situations I had to deal with while working in South America.

“My work in Antarctica will be for four to six months during their summer as the conditions are too much for most humans to stand in winter, although they have recorded gusts of wind at over 180mph in summer!

“The camp is very basic and isolated and we will have no electricity or running water, but I’m looking forward to it, it’s an experience of a lifetime.”

During his stay at the camp, a vast blue ice shelf discovered in 1994, Brenden will be assisting the survey team’s research into precious minerals locked away in the earth’s crust, deep below the ice.

“My wife Natalia wasn’t happy when I first got the job as I would have been away for 18 months but we were able to change it to only six months,” he explained.

“Although there have been stories of people going missing in the Antarctic snowstorms, there have never been any deaths as the work is so closely regulated, so I’m not at all scared.

“In fact, I’m quite looking forward to spotting leopard seals, penguins and going whale watching.”

samantha.castle