29 January--One Month to Go

The break in posting here may be the best evidence of the exhaustion setting in.  Long hours of generally routine work, sleep at what used to be a foreign hour, and not as many peak experiences; that about sums it up.  I have just less than a month to go on the Ice.  I'm due to fly out on a Boeing 757 on February 23rd, weather willing.  As the season proceeds, the weather gets chancier.  Iffiier.  Dicier.  Kathi is to fly into Cheech on March 1st, giving us a cushion in case the weather proves to be antarctic.

Almost a week ago I was driving an Airfield Shuttle from McMurdo to Pegasus when I came across 3 Emperors standing in the middle of the road.  The middle of the road!  And they were none too eager to move.  It actually gave me a wonderful excuse to stop and photograph from the van window.  In a few minutes they moved a bit out of the lane and towards the adjacent one where the Galley truck was coming up.  (The Galley truck carries out food to the Galley at Pegasus for those folks who are working out there during meal times.)  The Emperors waddled up fairly close to the Galley workers who had spilled out of the truck to take photos.  When I could no longer keep my passengers waiting, off I drive.

My favorite photo.

Note the tire marks.

The weather whipsaws back and forth and there's no way yet to know from day to day what it will be or how to dress.  Weather forecasts?  Nah, the best they seem to be able to do is to tell you what it is outside at the moment.  "You don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows."  But it has presented some interesting situations. 

Last night I was working as airfield taxi, which means I was there all night waiting for LC-130s to come in so that I could transport the flight crews from their planes to the airfield shuttle, who would take them in the almost hour-long trip back to McMurdo.  Only the taxi can come on the apron and approach the plane, after clearance from MC1.  It's usually a great place to get a lot of reading done for the 7 hours out there.  While out retrieving a flight crew back from the South Pole, a tendril of fog came in and visibility went to near zero in minutes.  If I didn't have a good sense of direction, it would have been impossible to move and get back to the  Galley area.  After it had mostly cleared, Mac-Ops called a Condition 2 for the area, restricting movement.

Makes me think of the closing scene in "Casablanca."

I'm left wondering how they can take off and land in this sort of fog.  And this was the 146th flight that they've done this year to the Pole, their busiest destination.

After work I volunteered to take a group of people half way back on the Pegasus Road to Half Way House to see the group of molting Emperor penguins.  An exceptionally nice group of people, including 2 Chinese scientists, Zhibin Yu and Weitao Hunag, that I've become friends with.  The temperature difference between McMurdo and the ice shelf was dramatically extreme.  People who had asked me about having to take their ECW gear were glad they had it.  Some retreated to the van fairly quickly.  But the experience was wonderful.  Consider that this is only a few hours after the pea soup fog at Pegasus.  The views were startlingly clear, diamond clarity.

When their feathers molt, they need to avoid swimming until the new feathers come and get coated with a waterproof layer.  That allows the feathers to insulate them when they go diving.  For Emperors the process can take 34 days.  Not being able to swim means not being able to eat and they rely on their blubber reserves.  They seem to like this particular spot because Fuels has built a large berm to hold an intermediate pump, which the penguins use to get out of the wind with their diminished insulation.

Emperors with Ob Hill in the left background.  McMurdo is on the far side of that ridge.

Emperors with Mt. Erebus in the background.  Almost no steaming from the crater.

When they spread their wings and stretch out their necks, you almost expect them to burst into spontaneous song and dance.  An Antarctic Bollywood.  Silly.  I know.

Weddells basking.

Weddell surfacing in an open water break.

13 December--Field Camps

A Jamesway field building.  They are apparently no longer manufactured and some have labels dating from before the Korean War.  They can be lengthened indefinitely.  They're most usually used for kitchen and dining areas, but can also house science labs.

Today--that is to say, last night and this morning (how disorienting!)--I took several runs in a Delta out to the new Pegasus City.  At this point, it's a half hour run, but after the short-cut closes and we have to go through Scott Base transition, it'll be a full hour.  The ice road during the first run at 0330 was smooth, but it deteriorated a lot by the 0530 run.  Instead of 20 mph, I was down in places to 15 mph.  Soooo.... anyway, not many photos today and I'll pull these from the Common drive and focus a bit on the remote field camps. 

The Interior of an LC-130

Field camps aare supplied by air, either by LC-130 flights if they have a large enough landing area, or by Baslers if they have a small landing area or difficult topography.

The old trustworthy Scott tent, extremely stable in the wind and warm.  Most tents here are modern mountaineering tents, like North Face or Kelty.

A lake out in the Dry Valleys.  It's a myth that no rain has fallen here in the last 2 million years, but in some areas the last precip was in the 1970s.  That's still plenty dry.

The Indian-American scientist I introduced to the Ob Tube studies the bacteria and algae growing under the ice of the lakes and sea.  The lakes will sometimes thaw around the margins by the middle of summer.



At first glance you'd think that the area is sterile of life, but there is a wealth of nematodes living in the upper area of the "soil."  Because of the extreme aridity, they go into a sort of suspended animation, only to come roaring back to life at the first intimation of moisture.  In at least one study, a nematode resumed life after being dry for 60 years!  A nematode might be as long as one millimeter.





A ventifact, a rock carved by wind blown sand, snow, or ice crystals.



1 December--Let the Holiday Madness Begin



An LC-130 taking off from the Ice Ski-way.

The Ice Runway (or  Ski-way) is built on annual sea ice. The temperatures are getting up to to the point where its strength is diminishing.  On December 3rd the Ice Runway will be closed and all operations will move to Pegasus Field.  The entire Ice Runway Town will be disassembled; Pegasus Town is currently being built.  The advantage of Pegasus is that it is on the Ross Ice Shelf, a glacier floating on the Ross Sea.  In places the ice shelf is hundreds of feet thick.  The disadvantage is that a trip from McMurdo to Pegasus Field can take an hour.  That's why it is worth all the effort to keep the Ice Runway operating as long as possible and not just permanently using Pegasus. 

You just can't keep those kids down!


Over the Thanksgiving weekend I hiked over to Scott Base and returned via the backside of Ob Hill.  Among other things, that is where the Americans go snowboarding.  The Kiwis have their own slope and it's rumored to be much better.

1. 

I think this is what is called a ventifact, a piece of rock shaped by the wind.  It is a piece of sandstone found on a slope that is otherwise almost entirely basaltic.  That in itself is a bit odd.  The wind doesn't seem to have the same effect on the basalt, perhaps due to hardness, but it's created a form of desert pavement by blowing away the fine materials.

People had told me that I wouldn't believe what a special meal food services would prepare for Thanksgiving.  They were right!  But it was nothing short of astonishing.  People were all dressed up for the occasion, some in outfits like you'd expect back in the states for a big family get-together and others in McMurdo chic.  Like a dress and basic issue, blue Asics Tiger FDX boots (these are issued for people going to the really cold places like the Pole or people going to be out all day long unprotected.)  There was a definite style and flair.  The line began outside the galley at least 30 minutes before dinner and there were 3 scheduled sittings at 2 hour intervals.

There were both turkey rolls and 2 carvers slicing off birds recognizable as turkeys.  Several different iterations of mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes.  Gravy, of course.  An apple and sausage stuffing that was phenomenal. Fresh roasted asparagus.  Several other vegetables.  Rolls and fresh breads.  The vegetarians were not forgotten, either.  The dessert table rotated during the evening but I'd guess that there were at least a dozen different desserts, including the traditional pumpkin and apples pies, torts, cakes, fresh strawberries and fresh strawberries dipped in chocolate.  There was a dark chocolate layer cake with cherries between the layers, topped with a dark chocolate icing/glaze.  That one was so good that I had to go back just to convince myself it was as good as my first impressions said it was.  And it was.  Most people had wine and it flowed freely (the galley is normally dry with the exception of Saturday nights.).  sorry, Kathi--no tomato aspic.  No Mama Stamburg's relish, either.  The cooks were brought out to the galley by a long and extended standing ovation.  They certainly deserved it.  We were finally scooted out after 1.5 hours so that they could strip the tables of the linens and do the whole thing all over again for the next sitting.

The only downside: a person from the kitchen was discovered drinking on the job and immediately fired.  Flown out two days later on the first flight north.  As they say, it's a harsh continent.

Imagine a holiday dedicated to glorifying gluttony!

I went back for a sixth and seventh visit to the Ob Tube.  Good thing too since they removed it on the 30th.  The quality of the sea ice was deteriorating on the approach and it was only a matter of time.  There were white, 6-inch jelly fish propelling their way past the window.  Lots of krill.  We heard the calls of seals but another friend actually saw a seal pass by the tube 5 feet away.  When we surfaced, a seal was hauled out and completely oblivious to us.  They generate enough heat laying there that they melt a shallow indentation itno the ice.  Even with the tube removed, this will be a great place to come back to to watch the seals.



Weddell seal.  Blissfully unaware of the bloody seal genocide of 100 years ago.  Rest sweetly.



Scott Base

Only Flagstaff is missing.

Scott Base holds a certain fascination for the Americans here.  They take a shuttle over on Thursday evening for American Night at their bar.  They take a shuttle over on the half hour on Sundays to visit their shop.  They tramp over every day to shop some more during open hours.  Is shopping genetic?   A drive for the less familiar and more exotic?  To fill an empty niche in our souls?

The entire base is painted a single color.  It's much more modern than McMurdo and the various parts are mostly all connected by enclosed hallways, so there's no need to bundle up and scurry between buildings.  I suspect the reason is that it was either much more recently established than McMurdo or it recently replaced something much older.  McMurdo has been stitched together piece by piece over the years with little central plan.  Thus the Mine Shaft Modern Eclectic style at McMurdo.

As the open water of the Southern Ocean gets closer and closer, there is more tidal action on the sea ice and open pools are created along the shore in places.  This one gets used by the Weddells from time to time.

Holiday Greetings!


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.

27 October--Emperor Penguins!

The biggest event for me today was getting to see 4 Emperor penguins walking and sliding on their bellies across the ice runway.  The were about 200 yards away and past the "Stop--Entering Active Runway" sign.  I had heard that you could attract their attention and perhaps get them to approach by waving your arms like a bird flying, but they were very intent of going their way.  I could have gotten closer but would have had to radio the control tower for permission to enter the controlled space.  I would not have had a very justifiable reason for doing so--obviously.  They were heading south and away from the zone of open water.

Within an hour of this, Shuttle Jen and some others were back out at the Ice Runway and a group of Emperor penguins came right up to them.  They (the humans) got down on their knees and the penguins, being curious, came to within 2 feet of them!  Penguins have been known to enter aircraft and need to be shooed away.

Later today the first LC-130 that I've seen landed on the Ice Runway.  They are the snow version of the C-130, but they have retractable skis for take-off and landing.  They can land on either wheels or on skis.  If they land on skis, they can then retract the skis and taxi on the wheels.  This one and the others to follow are from an Air National Guard unit in upstate New York and they fly people and supplies to the Pole and to remote field camps.



You can see the retractable front ski in front of the person standing near the door and below the cockpit.  Pretty cool piece of technology.



7 October--Ivan the Terra Bus

The highlight of the day for me was driving Ivan down to pickup passengers from yesterday's cancelled C-17 flight on the Ice Runway.  It's so big!  55 feet or so and weighing 67,000 pounds.  To make a turn you start turning, and turning, and turning, and turning, and finally you start to see some progress.  Such a wide turning radius means that some areas are just off-limits to Ivan.  Word has it that there are only 10 or 11 of them in the world.  They're Canadian made by Foremost, who also makes the Deltas.  It must be a Canadian thing with their Great White North.The other Terra Buses are reportedly all in the Hudson's Bay and Canadian Rockies areas.  At Hudson's Bay they are used for the Winter polar bear viewing trips/  The Deltas are Navy surplus and around 37 years old while Ivan is 14 or 15 years old and would cost an estimated $1 million to replace.  (Incidentally, the legendary and best snow cat is the Tucker, made in Medford, Oregon, of all places.)

The weather was good--for Antarctica--right up until 15 minutes before the plan landed.  The wind came up and it tried to blow me over when I was outside of Ivan.  Necessary even with the full ECW gear to have your back to the wind to keep the wind from penetrating every little chink in our clothing--but way better to be inside.  The ground blizzard made seeing next to impossible.  It made we wonder what the pilot was sensing.  When he taxied back to the apron, he was all but invisible until he was perhaps 150 yards from where we parked.  A looming gray mass in the grayish-white, impenetrable sky.  It makes for a very unimpressive photo!  But the storm left as quickly as it came in and so they were able to fly out an hour or so later with 8 or 9 people.  He had brought in 27, many of them scientists.  We are probably up to around 800 people at this point, with an ultimate population in December of 1,286.

The normal routine when they fly in is for them to carry their kangaroo bags with them off the plane.  Their baggage is later off-loaded and brought up to our building.  After they go through an orientation, they come up to get their bags and we are available to drive them and their bags to their dormitories, a process we term bell-hopping.