Hardy explorer's birthday

The first expedition Chris Searston went on to the Arctic in 1991 coincided with his birthday, and, in one of those moments that can happen for a reason lost in time, it was decided to record the occasion in sepia style, and in a posed image with a nod to the hardy explorers of times past.

It was a small team and a relatively short trip to Rindersbukta in Svalbard to carry out follow up work from the 1990 expedition CAMMARG glaciology project. The work involved revisiting the Bakaninbreen, which was a glacier in surge, to inspect and reinstate the survey reflector prisms on the glacier. A remote base station, with a computer controlled survey instrument package had been installed high on the bedrock of the adjacent mountainside in 1990, and it had monitored the reflector prisms movements through the polar night. This 1991 expedition was to carry out a repeat of the physical survey done within the previous year's work as a confirmation data set.

For those in the picture, the three good friends (L to R) Chris Searston, Richard Grant and Ian Frearson, decided to mark Chris's birthday by imagining it was something like the year 1891.

In the image foreground is a simnel cake, baked by Anne Frearson, Ian's wife, and bedecked with candles, which was smuggled in secret by Ian as a surprise for Chris. Also in the foreground is a bottle of Laphroaig whiskey, kindly donated by the distillery and, except for Ian who is teetotal, it was enjoyed* during the preparation prior to the expedition. So, in the picture is the empty bottle, because it's best not to have your senses impeded by alcohol when you're in the back yard of an apex predator of the animal kingdom.

They look rather fine chaps...and they are.

Bakaninbreen, Rindersbukta, Spitsbergen, Svalbard - image © Chris Searston (tripod and remote shutter release) 18911991