15 December--Ice Roads and Pressure ridges

Blake's Delta dropped a wheel in the ice transition and needed to be pulled out.   The crazy angle caused the full diesel tank to leak and the Spill Response Team had to deploy.  Not a pretty picture.

 The ice roads out to Pegasus Field have gone bad more quickly than anyone can remember.  Today is supposed to be up to 37 degrees F. and yesterday must have been at least that much.  Lows have been in the mid 20s.  (How there can be that much of a diurnal range each day when the sun never goes down is something to ponder.)  With the 24 hours of sunlight, there has been a lot of melting and it seems to accumulate in melt water pools on the surface.

I had to drive out through the same transition a few hours later, so I got out and scouted a route through it, threading between 2 lakes and deep ruts where others had become stuck.  Successful!  Whew!  But for how long?

Some of the passengers aren't very understanding when it takes us longer than normal to transport them.  Many also don't like that we're using Deltas almost exclusively to go out to Pegasus; the ride is much, much worse.  They don't realize that the ride for us in the front cab is only marginally better.  Our seats are set up like Pogo sticks and we bounce a lot, too.  McMurdo talk has it that one shuttle driver had her seat set too high and was bounced up to hit the ceiling and received a compression fracture.  The trip out in a Delta using this route takes about 35 minutes.  If we were to take vans, we'd have to go via Scott Base and that's about an hour ride, one-way.  Not a great choice.  We'll be going that way later in the season when the Pegasus Cut-off gets too bad.  It's only a matter of time. 

Where the pressure ridges meet and force the ice to curl back, the ice will often reach vertical and can occasionally double back almost over itself.  How long this can last before succumbing to gravity is anyone's guess.

The pup has gotten bigger and bigger.

Only a memory now, but coming back in the not-so-distant future.

31 October--Fog



A Delta vehicle in the fog..



The last few days have been a fog and have blended into one another like the McMurdo Sound fogs.  It's become difficult to sort out one day from the other.  Day? Night?  What separates the two?  Two days ago I remember being taken back when I dropped off a passenger at her dorm at 1700 and she said good morning.  And a few minutes ago, a colleague in Shuttles said good night at 0620 to someone else.  She had just come off the night shift.  Our shifts at McMurdo go round the clock, the Sun is always up, and it's always bright out--except when there's an exceptional fog.  Very disorienting.  The concepts of day and night at this time of year are more determined by our work schedules than by the physical reality. 

The closest I've come to this is during our house exchange in Mikkeli, Finland during June.  The latitude there was just short of 62 degrees North latitude, not quite as extreme as McMurdo at 77 degrees South. In June the "nights" were a sort of gray twilight at midnight and thereabouts.  We went up to the Arctic Circle on June 21st, my birthday, and, at that latitude, the only day when the Sun never drops below the horizon. n That was magical!  But here at McMurdo the same phenomenon  goes on for 4 months! 

The only clues come from where the Sun is in the sky, not from lightness or darkness.  If it's in the East, it's morning.  If it's in the West, it's evening.  If it's anywhere else--well, we'll have to think about that.  And if you don't know where the cardinal directions are at a particular place, you are truly lost.  The only other clue I can think of as to whether the galley is serving breakfast or dinner foods.  Socially constructed reality.

An LC-130 taking off from the Ice Runway.  The Air National Guard calls them Ski-ways.

There is apparently a distinction between drifting snow and blowing snow.  If I have this right, drifting snow, as in this image, is snow blowing along perhaps 6 or 12 inches above the ground.  Blowing snow is perhaps up as high as 6 feet above the surface.

One peak of the Royal Society Range looming up over a ground blizzard.

The galley out at the Long Duration Balloon facility.  It's situated in a Jamesway shelter and cooks 3 meals a day for up to perhaps 50 people on shift here.

24 October--Wow! What an Evening!

Today we went out to Cape Evans.  The preparations were intense.  There were 3 Deltas (two of them towing emergency equipment, such as stoves, sleeping bags, food and so on) and a tracked vehicle called a Challenger.  Its function was to tow out any of us that might get stuck or break down.  Nominally, the purpose of the trip was to train some new guides for leading recreational trips to Cape Evans and the rest of us were there solely for the recreation as a "morale" trip.

We drove out around Hut Point and almost to the Ice Runway before heading north for about 2 hours along a flagged route.  There are research huts at the Cape and the road must get maintenance from time to time to facilitate travel there.  If you were to go another 10 miles north past Cape Evans you would reach the current limit of open water of the Southern Ocean, an ocean you probably didn't learn about in school but which is now generally recognized.

The group split in two and our group went first to the Scott Hut.  Actually, it was his second hut, the one he built for his second and ultimately fatal expedition.  It's been preserved by the Kiwi-based Antarctic Heritage organization.  They maintain historic sites all across the continent, including--I found this out this morning--a hut in the Dry Valleys.  Only 12 people are allowed in at a time and backpacks are not allowed because of the close quarters.  Everyone needs to scrape their feet before entering to prevent moisture and gravel from entering and wrecking the wooden floors.  We were issued flashlights to illuminate the rather dark interior.  Touching anything is forbidden and it gives you the impression that they just stepped out for a moment and never returned.  According to the Kiwi woman we talked to in Lyttleton, this is not actually the case.  Things have been moved to more perfectly compose an image.  Other things have been brought in that would have been part of their equipment but which might have been stolen over the years.  The darkroom looks just like it might have back then.  The living quarters feature a long crew table with several lamps. The bunk-beds still have the animal fur sleeping bags (caribou?) laying there, as well as shoes, boots.  There are wooden crates and cans of various food items. The stable, which is built under the same roof, still has the sweet, acrid smell of a stables.  In one part of the stables area there is a forge and smithy for making or repairing items.  A pile of dead penguins is in another corner.  I'm not sure if it was Scott's expedition which did this, but there was one expedition that burned penguins in their furnace when their coal or fuel oil ran out.  Interestingly, one of our newest shuttles operators found that the Latin derivation of the word penguin comes from the word "fat," which would make a lot of sense.

What a magical, time-warp place!  I'm feeling very fortunate to have been allowed to get to this seldom visited spot.

The other group came from the iceberg and we took some group photos of the Shuttles department draped all over a Delta.

The iceberg was our next stop.  It apparently calved off last summer and didn't get too far before being frozen into this winter's sea ice.  Maybe it will get much further this coming summer.  It stood maybe 50 or 60 feet above the flat surrounding sea ice, meaning that probably 450 to 540 feet of ice were suspended below the ice.  Wow!  The stuff of which you read in school!  The colors ranged from robin's egg blue to a very dark royal blue.  The play of the light on it was marvelous!  We walked around the circumference of it and saw a seal basking perhaps 150 yards away near its hole.  It didn't move in the slightest in our presence.

All too soon it was time to go, but I was struck by the faint resemblance of the flat ice expanses surrounded by mountains with the scene on the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, only this was even more extreme and there was absolutely no vegetation here.  The ice was analogous to the salt pans, now being mined since my visit in 2003 for lithium.

We got home around midnight and I had to work at 0600.  Worth every bit of missed sleep.  I was a wreck the next day at work.

23 October--McMurdo Station, An Industrial Landscape

The setting is gorgeous, though stark in a way that only certain people can appreciate.  Zen priests and black and white photographers would perhaps do best here.  The town itself is, despite their best efforts over a number of years of clean-up, a totally industrial landscape.

Electrical wires run overhead, typical to most towns, but there are also sewer and water lines running above-ground through most of the town, reminiscent of most towns and cities in Russia.  They inhibit vehicle traffic and require pedestrian cross-overs.

Rows of shipping containers (known here as milvans--no idea why) containing every possible construction material, general supply item, and spare part are in huge flat areas carved into the slopes, awaiting uses in support of science projects and maintenance of the town.  When something is needed, you can't just run to your local hardware store for a spare part.  They have to be stored on station in preparation for most eventualities.  They have undergone a lot of progress over the years, but it still looks pretty ragged to me.  At one time they were stored willy-nilly all over and with no apparent system, but there is now a computerized system that tells the Supply folks which of the containers a certain thing should be located in.  Because of the huge expense of flying things in, most of these things are brought in once a year by ship in January and everyone must anticipate and plan for what will be needed.

In other areas there are piles of materials awaiting shipment back to the US.   These might include general trash, various separated recyclable items, old equipment to be disposed of or resold, food waste, and even the solid sewage sludge from the treatment plant.  These are taken out as space on the ship permits.  Even the old nuclear power plant here has been removed and most of its building torn down.  Over some more years the last of that will be removed.  Interestingly, all of the food waste and other materials that could rot are sent out in refrigerated containers because they must pass through the tropics on the way back to Port Hueneme in Ventura County on their way to disposal.  Without refrigeration the smells and gases produced would be overwhelming.  I don't know why they aren't sent just to New Zealand, but maybe the Kiwis don't want to be our dumping ground.

On a different note, here are some details of the cab of a Delta.



Gear shifters on a Delta.  Forward and Reverse on the left; individual gears on the right.






Dashboard of a Delta



11 October--A Raw Wind

Today was dominated by a cold, harsh wind much of the day an visibility was way down. The take-off from Christchurch was delayed by 3 hours and then the landing was further delayed (headwinds?) by another half hour or more.  Drove Ivan down the Scott Base Hill, which must always be in 2nd gear up and down.

Kim Loosemore

8 October--A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Happy Campers to Happy Camp.  Such a nice group of instructors.  One of them splits his time between here instructing in winter survival and sea ice procedures and back-country ranger/climbing ranger for Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska.  I think that that might be the largest park in the system.  There was a beautiful moment when the clouds were the exact shade of gray of the ice and the only way to distinguish them was a thin slice of the most subtle lesser shade of gray.  Driving I missed the opportunity for the photo.  This place is a black and white, Ansel Adams photography paradise or a minimalist painters heaven.  Often it's all the same and very disorienting.
We later drove 18 people out to the Ice Runway and 102 came in.  Station count must be getting close to 800, perhaps more.

1 October--Delta Day

Today was pretty cloudy and the whole tenor of the scenery changed.  This is supposed to be much more like it normally is.  We got to drive the Deltas quite a bit today and I'm feeling really good about them.  With their age, they've all had slight mechanical modifications over the years, so each is slightly different.  Something to get used to.  I drove one out to Happy Camper School in the morning.  That's over to Scott Base, down onto the transition between shore and th Ice, and then part way out the ice road.  Happy Camper School is a 2-day survival school that everyone must take in order to be out on the ice, to go to the Pole, or to remote field camps.  All the scientists who are going out have to take it, as does any RPSC employees who's duties take them out.  Even those who might want to be able to go out on a morale trip must take it in order to be qualified to go.  Covers building a snow wall, sleeping trench, using and trouble shooting the stove.  I'm told that we shuttle people will get to go in November and I'll be looking forward to it.  Especially when it's warmer!

I found out that us early vehicle operators will be the trainers for the ones still to arrive.  An added impetus to getting it all down exactly right!

Another word on equipment: we were issued these big white boots that everyone calls bunny boots.  While we don't use these in shuttles because they interfere with gas and brake pedals, they are part of our ECW (extreme cold weather) gear and we have to carry them in our bag whenever we go out on the ice roads.  They are very warm and have an air chamber around them that you control with a little valve.  On the plane the valve had to be open, but in use in cold weather you close it and they really insulate well.  Yesterday it was very cold out checking out vehicles and you could really tell the difference in wearing my driving boots--my feet got quite cold in them and I don't think it would have happened with the bunny boots.

The tiniest of openings allows the wind to find its way in with its snow.

30 September--Deltas!

Lots of training today, but the 2 highlights are beginning training on the Deltas and a trip out to the Ice Runway to pick up people from a C-17 flight.

The Deltas are these huge former Navy vehicles, something like 44,000 pounds.  Replacement cost for these 37 year old behemoths is estimated to be $800, 000.  You climb up a short ladder to get inside the cabin.  The engine is behind that and then comes a large box with bench seats for the passengers.  Some are configured to carry cargo rather than people.  They are articulated between the cabin and the box and this makes it possible to turn in an unlikely radius, basically their own length.  Try that with your SUV!  They are a bit much to handle, but when I get more experience with them, I think that they're going to be the one I'll enjoy driving most.

We had morning training in airfield operations and then we drove out to the Ice Runway.  The C-17 came in but it was obscured by a large snow berm and I hope that later I'll be in a position to see it better.  As it came on to the apron, its size was very apparent, though it's small compared to the C-5s they occasionally fly in.  (The C-5s are supposed to depress the ice 14 inches when they land.)  As the people land and get off they are all bit with the urge to stop, turn around, and take a photo, just like we were the other day.  On an active apron they can't do this and we are supposed to shoe them up to the vehicles for safety.  Still, the urge is there.