Toilet improvements

We have a great team spirit here at KIS3, and everyone pitches in to make the camp run smoothly, whether that is helping out with the dishes and sweeping the mess tent, chipping any slippery ice patches that might form in the main thoroughfares, or more ambitious projects like a wind/privacy wall for our outside urinal!

We have a ready supply of building material under our feet. Bricks can be created from snow simply by using a saw and shovel. Skidoos come in handy to tow the bricks from the ‘quarry’ to building site.

Earlier in the season, science team members Molly Patterson and Brendan Reilly, and Project Manager Paddy Power, got to work with some DIY snow-brick building, and created an ‘extension’ for one of our two toilets (known as ‘The Turdis’) to enclose the outside urinal.

Today hot water driller Sean Heaphy decided to further finesse the wall, to raise it up a bit higher for additional privacy. Sean has spent several seasons in Antarctica, so has refined his snow-brick skills to become somewhat of a master tradesman!

He also added a few aesthetic touches, with a hand-carved Turdis plaque. It’s the little things that count!

View all articles
Project updates
 Core workshop findings indicate past Ross Ice Shelf collapse and West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat

Core workshop findings indicate past Ross Ice Shelf collapse and West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat

09 July 2026

Analysis from our core description workshop supports the initial observations made in the field – our Antarctic sediment core holds a record of an open marine environment, far closer to…

view
Project updates
Core workshop gets underway

Core workshop gets underway

03 June 2026

We’ve just opened the best present ever – our first sediment core, retrieved from under the West Antarctic Ice Sheet last season.

view