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Looking out of place, in this photo, Simon Garrod, the Ice Base Manager is peddling a bike with no wheels in the middle of the Arctic. This bicycle is actually a winch system using a custom-made design and was much easier to use than a hand winch.

Many of the instruments that the scientists used to gather data and samples had to be gradually lowered through the ice. Using trawler nets to collect the samples, these had to be pulled back up very slowly to ensure their accuracy and avoid damaging them. To do this work, a special bicycle winch was designed because a motorised winch was more likely to break down in the cold.

In this picture, Simon is preparing the bicycle winch for operation. The winch was used to lower and raise the scientific instruments through the sampling holes.

Using the bicycle winch to lower and raise instruments through the sampling hole sometimes took a long time. Samples were taken from a range of depths, meaning that the person winching on the bike often sat there for an hour or so.

Being exposed to the wind and cold in addition to sitting relatively still on the frozen padding of the seat was not very comfortable. To protect against this, the team built a wall to shelter the scientist and the winch system.

The wall the team built around the bicycle winch was outside the main sampling tent. As the weather took a turn for the worse, they cut blocks out of the harder snow near the camp.

The snow was often hard enough that it could be cut with a saw.