Al Fastier has spent a decade restoring historic huts in Antarctica, built by pioneering explorers including Ernest Shackleton and Robert Falcon Scott.
If you love working in isolated places, you couldn’t do much better than Antarctica. Al Fastier has spent 20 seasons on the frozen continent, most recently restoring huts built during the age of Antarctic exploration. A typical trip sees the 58-year-old camping on the ice for three months, working in a team of seven for six-and-a-half days a week in the perpetual light of the polar summer. “I love camping out there,” Fastier says. “When the sea ice breaks up there are penguins everywhere, minky and orca whales are often breaching, and seals waddle on shore and park themselves beside your tent, snoring next to you as you try to sleep. “It’s easy to put yourself into the minds of the early explorers. For the most part, nothing has changed.” The historic huts act as time capsules of one of the last frontiers of exploration. Working as a programme manager for the Antarctic Heritage Trust, Fastier preserves artefacts from the historic buildings against the harsh Antarctic environment. “For me, the stories of that heroic age of exploration are so important,” he says. “I believe these buildings are touchstones to keep that alive.” Fastier grew up captivated by the stories of Antarctic explorers and first found his way south in 1987, working for a year as an electrician at New Zealand’s Scott Base on Ross Island, at the foot of Mt Erebus (3794m). But, after spending months in the perpetual darkness of the Antarctic winter, he had what he calls a mid-life crisis – albeit in his mid-20s – and decided to study parks and recreation management at Lincoln University. While living in Twizel, Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park became Fastier’s playground, where he would go ski touring and climbing. One particular trip still sticks in his mind. “One Easter a friend and I biked from Twizel to Mt Cook and then carried our bikes over Copland Pass and cycled back again via Haast Pass. I remember setting up the bikes on top of the pass and the mountaineer Garry Ball was guiding clients nearby – they just couldn’t believe seeing these two guys up there with bikes.” [caption id="attachment_46142" align="aligncenter" width="1980"]