7 February--Almost in a Condition 1

The other evening began so startlingly beautifully and by the early morning had gone through Condition 1 and back to Condition 3, the normal situation.  I was driving back from Pegasus Field and the first indication I had that something was coming was a bank of low-lying clouds under a line of higher clouds.  The wind picked up and the low-lying clouds were skimming the surface with drifting snow blowing in front of them.  The snow appeared first like tendrils of some sort of white vegetable matter, hugging the snow and ice surface blowing across the ice road and searching out its preferred route.  At first you could see over the ground clinging tentacles to the nearby mountains, but it got thicker and the topography became obscured.  Soon you could only see 10, then 7 and finally I could only make out 4 or 5.

The roads have flags every 50 feet or less to help with navigation in conditions like this.  Normally you can see at least 20 or so, more if you were to stop driving.  When visibility goes down to 3 flags or less, the rule is to stop where you are, call in your position,  and remain where you are until either the situation clears and MAC-Ops downgrades the condition or Search and Rescue comes out to retrieve you. This is precisely the reason we only go out on the Ice Shelf with a full tank of gas and our full ECW bag.
I was able to continue on and get off the Ice Shelf, but a later shuttle driver was out there and a Condition 1 was called and he and his passengers had to hole up in the Galley out at the airfield.   Luckily, things cleared within an hour.  This was only the second Condition 1 we've had this season, something returnees say happens much more commonly.

"Who's the joker who put this on my head while I slept?  Is there someone with opposable thumbs who can get this off ?"



This is Building 155, where I live.  It's a combination dorm, kitchen, dining hall, offices, barber shop, laundry, library, weight room, television and radio studio, ATMs, and computer commons.  During the summer, it's where all the newbies have to live; during the winter, it's the high value real estate.  Overwintering returnees with lots of points fight to live here so they don't have to bundle up to get to meals.





Snout of a glacier near the CTAM camp (not one of my pics).

18 December--Back to the Pressure Ridges

It's been hard to stay away from the pressure ridges over near Scott Base, but tonight there was a Rec. trip over there and I signed up.  It may be the last for the season as the ice is melting fast and there are lots of melt water pools.  The snow along the way was very soft and giving, not at all hard and loud underfoot.  The seal pup is substantially grown now.  The beauty is, if anything, more intense now than the earlier visits. 

A roller forming and beginning to open up to the sky.

Human yoga.

Seal yoga.


The last few days there have been such dramatic skies.  Clouds, sun peeking in under and through the clouds.  Snow drifting along the surface.in thin tongues.

\

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.

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!


23 November--Ob Hill Loop

A luxurious day off and I was able to sleep in until 0630, something I haven't done in ages!  Hit the gym and after lunch go on a hike I hadn't known about around the base of Ob Hill.  It starts down below the Heliport and goes around the hill until it hits the road to Scott Base in Gas Pass.  Once you get around the hill a bit, the sounds and sights of town fall away.  Most of the trail is fairly flat and passes across volcanic cinder slopes with a few volcanic bombs.  In a few places it gets steep and snow covered, but the trail volunteers have done a wonderful job clearing away the worst.  There are great views across the sound to the Royal Society Range and. later on, to Scott Base and the Ross Ice Shelf.  I hadn't seen the boundary between the ice shelf and the annual sea ice before, but it's pretty distinct.  The contrast between the hike here and yesterday's walk around the pressure ridges couldn't be greater.



Passing by the Heliport.



That long and winding road...

Weddell seals sunning themselves in the warm sun.

Mt. Terror, Scott Base, and the Ross Ice Shelf.

Hiking Ob Hill reminds me a lot of hikes in the Flagstaff area.



Volcanic bomb.  Note the spiraling, ropey structure from end to end.





Cheaper by the dozen.

 Addendum: after posting all of the  above, I went on a short hike at 2100 hours to the Observation Tube.  The krill are getting bigger and I saw 2 ethereal, white jelly fish.  There was a weird call of a seal from a distance, nothing like the sounds you might associate with a Sea World performance.  It was almost like those recordings of whales you might remember from the 1970s.

When we came up from the tube and were going back across the ice to shore, we spotted broken ice on the surface of the partially refrozen surface of a melt water pool.  Waiting quietly we were able to see a Weddell seal come to the surface and blow off CO2 noisily.  He came back at about 5 or 6 minute intervals.

Learned that this is the first year that the Observation Tube has been here.  Previously it was at a penguin research site elsewhere in the Ross Sea.