11 December--Dramatic Weather as Summer Approaches

There has been some very dramatic weather in the last few days.  And being up in the "night," when the sun is in a totally opposite position in the sky from what I've become accustomed to, has produced a different landscape.  It's like rediscovering the place anew.

Mt. Erebus with multiple lenticular clouds.  High winds aloft!

Open water and icebergs on the horizon.

This was my first view of the open water to the north.  I'm guessing it might be 15 miles off.  The image is taken from the top of Arrival Heights, which is probably 300 or 400 feet in  elevation, allowing for the distant view.  The last few days have been balmy, yesterday reportedly in the low 40s, which deteriorated the ice roads enormously.  This and the strong currents in McMurdo Sound should hasten the sea ice melting.  In January the Swedish icebreaker Oden will arrive and finish up the job of opening the shipping channel to the Ice Pier.  I'm told that when this happens, we'll be seeing whales breaching in front of town, visible from some peoples' dorm windows.  The penguins should arrive in force, too.

This is the weekend that they are closing down Ice Town and moving all the huts, the galley, the tower, the navigation equipment, and so on over to Pegasus Field.  Ice Town as you've seen it in earlier images will no longer exist until next year.  The huts are all on skids and have been already sledded over.  They reassemble it at Pegasus, install power lines, and resume operations on a limited basis by Sunday and fully by Monday.  But at Pegasus there will be 2 landing venues, one a ski-way for the LC-130s and the other a runway for the C-17s.  Instead of a 5 minute drive to the Ice Runway, it will at first be a 30 minute ride to Pegasus on the Pegasus Cut-Off.  When that thins out, and we have to go via the Scott Base transition, the run will take an hour each way.

Twin Otter.

  Have you heard of the McMurdo Film Festival?  Some of the entries were posted on You Tube.  Here are a few you might find interesting.

                                           http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTK7ZovToMs

Shuttle Bill is a 71 year old shuttle driver, originally from Boston.  Walt is his 70+ year old buddy from Maine.  This is how the road to Pegasus Field gets later in the year.  They're in a Delta.  Yee-haw!

These are two amusing shorts

                                             http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlKzXkd27Fs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk3bT-_OK1w

4 November--Hhmmmm...

Found out today that I get to go to Happy Camper ("Snowcraft") training tomorrow and the next day.  That should be very interesting and something I've been hoping for.  More on that on Sunday after I get back.

They've installed an observation tube in the ice off Hut Point.  It's supposed to be basically a narrow tube down through the ice with a plexiglass observation tube at the bottom, reached by narrow rebar steps.  Narrow enough that you can't wear Big Red down.  People have talked about seeing seals and fish swimming by.  It's shallow enough that you can see the bottom and all the way to shore.  Apparently, you can see best when the lid is closed, but that's a red flag for claustrophobia.  Key is checked out from the Rec Department.

3 November--No Man is an Island?

Well, maybe no man is an island, but it's beginning to feel a bit like a very small island here, rather than a continent.  Yeah, I know that we're on Ross Island and technically it's an island off the coast of the continent.  It's sort of reminiscent of our house exchange to Tahiti.  After being wined and dined by the French couple for two days, we took a drive around the island by ourselves on our first full day there alone.  We were done by mid afternoon and we looked at one another and asked,"What do we do for the next 3 weeks?"  I feel very lucky to be driving out several miles in one direction and 2 miles in the other, as well as up to the hill that overlooks town.  But that still constitutes a very small island, in the bigger picture of things.  A very small island indeed.



Twin Otter

 Following the severe weather of the last 2 days, the open water is now 11 miles from the Ice Runway.  Apparently that's a rather rapid recession of the ice.  It might force an earlier move to Pegasus Airfield.  That would entail a 45 or 50 minute drive each way, rather than the 6 or 7 minute drive now.  On the other hand, it would mean open water with whales, seals, and penguins.

There are some interesting forms emerging as the snow starts to melt and the wind dusts it with volcanic dust.  Beauty covered with dirt. Dirt: part of nature's artwork.  Ephemeral ice needles.