Boondoggle

Sometimes if you're really really good, and lucky, and have the day off or it is dead at work, and there's a space available you can jump on a Pisten Bully (seldom), snowmobile (very seldom), or helicopter (extremely seldom) and go join whoever is going wherever out in the field to do whatever. Below are some pics of dive-tending a few miles off-base.

First in Clowns

Oh, the things we do to entertain ourselves... like running a 5k race. In Antarctica. In a clown suit.

This is not just the makings of a twisted joke; it's what actually went down Thanksgiving Saturday. Over a hundred people gathered to race the annual 5k Turkey Trot here at McMurdo. It was cold and windy, but that didn't stop us.

The winner was a Kiwi named Trotter (no joke) from the New Zealand base just over the way. I was proud to come in First in Clowns. I also gained the title of Last in Clowns. I was a happy clown, I was a sad clown...

Eats

Most meals are taken at the Galley. This dining hall is in the main building in town and serves meals at the regular times we’re all accustomed to, but also smaller meals throughout the day and night to accommodate all the hungry stomachs that are working 24/7 on the base. There are also smaller dining facilities out at the Ice Runway and other local project sites for those who work remotely.

There is a decent variety of food, much better than I would have expected, and usually always something to suit your appetite. They have set themed meals, such as Wednesday Mexican Lunch, which some people really seem to live for; as for me, I never keep track of the schedule and enjoy the surprise.

No matter how you look at it, the food is institutional, which means a lot of canned food. And powdered milk, it’s all powdered milk. Due to the remoteness of the location and the fact that the bulk of the food arrives once a year on a ship, there’s a lot of stuff that is passed its use-by-date. In fact, I think every packaged good I have seen is expired. Don’t get me wrong, its all still good, but I’m glad I don’t have to see when the frozen meats were packaged!

What the inside of my stomach probably looks like

Freshies
One thing that is great and everyone on base gets excited about- Freshies! There is an understated buzz and everyone seems to know when a C-17 is coming in from Christchurch with a palette or two of fresh fruits and veggies and other perishables. This year the freshies budget has been boosted from $150k to $250k, so its quite abundant, but I've heard that in years past it could get quite ugly.

Frosty Boy
And the other excitable thing about dining here is Frosty Boy. This soft-serve ice cream machine is the most popular piece of machinery down here, and when he is broken everyone seems to know about it and no one is happy about it. Strange phenomenon, but I guess it goes to show that it’s the small things in life that are the most important sometimes.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am quite flexible and that I can eat anything, so I’m not too phased about what they serve. The only things that really get to me are a) that you never really get a choice beyond the choices you see in front of you, and b) nothing is ever really really good. Christchurch and the real world are a long way off, and I’m not pining for anything in particular now, but one of the greatest pleasures of returning will be to my tastebuds.

For those who love to read about weather

The climatic conditions in Antarctica can be just that- climatic. I'm not one to obsess about weather forecasting, I usually just take it as it comes. But its a whole different story down here.

McMurdo station may have fairer conditions compared to the South Pole or various field camps around the continent, but things can get quite grizzly down here nonetheless. As such they use a weather rating system that isn’t used everywhere around the world. It consists of three conditions, and they are:

Condition 3: ‘Normal’ weather at McMurdo.
• Wind speeds: less than 48 knots
• Temperature: wind chills warmer than -75oF
• Visibility: greater than ¼ mile

Condition 2: Required to check out with Firehouse by radio prior to leaving town and upon return. Defined by one or more of the following conditions:
• Wind speeds: 48-55 knots
• Temperature: wind chills -75oF to -100oF
• Visibility: less than ¼ mile

Condition 1: Only ‘mission critical’ travel is permitted with permission from station managers; everyone is confined to the building they are in during the entire duration. Defined by one or more of the following conditions:
• Wind speeds: greater than 55 knots
• Temperature: wind chills colder than -100oF
• Visibility: less than 100 feet

Forecasting- weather balloons are launched daily and there are several weather observers and forecasters working around the clock to predict the weather conditions. Despite all their efforts, this region is renowned for having quite unpredictable weather, and we rarely see forecasting for more than a day or two in advance.

Life on the Ice

Many people wonder what there actually is to do here. Well after a 12 hour work day, there are still many things to be done, and most all of its free. Here are some of the more popular and bizarre things:

~Gerbil gym. This small building is packed with exercise machines, small fogged over windows, and suprisingly little body odor.

~Main gym. A bit more of a walk, a half tube in shape, and home to soccer night, basketball night, volleyball night, Zumba classes, the annual Halloween party and a rock climbing wall.

~Bar hopping. There are two bars (Gallagher's and Southern Exposure) and a Coffeehouse (coffee, wine and whiskey). They're all next to each other, so there's not much hopping to be done. Just make sure the big red parka that you take is your own. Open days for night crews. Suitable in flipflops.

~Building 063. Recently condemned when asbestos was found after part of the roof collapsed. Used to house the weight room, a ceramics studio and world's oldest Brunswick manual set pins bowling alley in the world. Bummer.

~Science lectures every Sunday and Wednesday night, where members of the scientific community present the work they are conducting down here.

~Tap dancing classes.

~Yoga classes. Usually in the chapel, but sometimes held in the bar.

~Craft room. Haven't explored this since the hour before the halloween party.

~Movies. Shown constantly on television, often at the Coffeehouse, and occasionally in the Galley.

~Travelogues. People give presentations on the places they've traveled. I gave one on Borneo.

~Hiking and Skiing. There are about a half dozen trails around the station that one can explore. Varying in duration and difficulty.

~Scott base. The New Zealand base, which is located 2 miles from here, hosts an American night every Thursday night. They invite us over to their pub. $1.60 a beer.

~Foosball, billards, pingpong. Can be found in nearly all the lounges and at the bar. I'm specializing in Foosball, but there is some tough competition. I chaulk this up to being a rookie on the Ice. My learning curve is sharp and I am confident.

~Trails. A network of short trails around the station for hiking and cross-country skiing.

South Pole Traverse

The South Pole Traverse is a logistics project a few years in the making. The theory was that hauling fuel and other critical supplies to the South Pole overland would be more cost effective than relying on all supplies being delivered by air cargo.

Last week ten people in eight specialized tractors (see below) left McMurdo station with hundreds of tons of fuel in bladders on sleds in tow.

The traverse is nearly 1,000 miles crossing a very dangerous shear zone with deep crevasses and vast tracts of land that rise in altitude and have no traces of human civilizations. Last year was the first complete round trip to and from the Pole.

By making this 60+ day return trip, the South Pole station can get a delivery of valuable fuel for a fraction of the cost that it would take to fly fuel in by C-130 cargo plane.

All traverse crew are equipment operators/mechanics/fuel specialists with multiple years of experience working in Antarctica. Pretty impressive.

Movember - Help support Prostate Cancer Research and my creepy moustache!

The mission: Grow a moustache during the month of November. Make it as big, robust, bushy, absurd, creepy, Errol Flynnesque, or goofy as possible.

Grow a moustache. It itches. People look at you funny. Write about it, take pictures of it, name it, make it absurd, something your grandkids will cringe at. Have an individualized page on a website dedicated just to growing moustaches in November. Call it Movember. Solicit donations. All in the name of men's health, the Prostate Cancer Foundation and LiveStrong.

Check it out at:

http://us.movember.com/mospace/459577

Donations accepted through December 9, 2009. Receive a postcard from Antarctica if you contribute $10 or more!

Saving Japan Dolphins

There are two key elements to my job here in Antarctica:

1. Driving in adverse conditions (snow, ice, huge holes in the ice, complaining passengers)and 2. Waiting

The latter often leaves a lot of time to read, think, write, knit, trade life-stories and.... do absurd mock photo shoots for the fun of it. One of which incidentally collaborated with a good cause.

Check out this great cause, its cool merchandise, some smoking hot models, and a couple of the less absurd pics at:

http://www.ecojoia.com/index.php/site/news/ecojoia

About the Continent - According to the USAP

Antarctica is the coldest, windiest, harshest continent, and with little precipitation (roughly 2 inches per year) is the driest place on earth. It is roughly 14 million sq km (5.4 million sq. mi.), has an average elevation of more than 2,000 m (6,500 ft.), and 98% of the landmass is covered by an ice sheet estimated to be 29 million cu km (7 million cu. mi.).

The average annual temperature at South Pole Station is -56°F. During the austral summer, temperatures at McMurdo Station may reach as high as 50°F, while at South Pole Station the summer temperature may reach 0°F. Palmer Station has a milder climate, with summer temperatures reaching as high as 55°F.

Temperature patterns vary so widely because the continent is covered in continuous darkness during the austral winter and continuous sunlight during the austral summer, with a few weeks of sunrises and sunsets in between seasons.

Plant life in Antarctica is limited, consisting of mostly algae, lichens, and mosses, and there are only a few known species of flowering plants. As far as animal life, only microscopic animals (such as mites and worms) and insects exist on the land; however, the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica is full of sea life, including phytoplankton, zooplankton, fish, squid, seals, whales, and seabirds.

--Taken from USAP (http://www.usap.gov/usapgov/aboutTheContinent/index.cfm?m=2)

Antarctica???

Down here people commonly refer to it as the Ice or the Harsh Continent. It's that spec of land at the bottom of the Earth, that place on the map where all the lines converge. Where the icicles hang from the world.

And why the hell am I here? I suppose I'll be trying trying to answer that question for quite a while. It is a question I've been asked and have asked myself since I've signed the contract, and I'm sure its something I'll really be asking myself three months when I've all but forgotten what a tree or the dark of night looks like.

I first heard about the opportunity in 2002 from an antenna rigger named Jay. He had just wintered over (spent one year at McMurdo) and shared many crazy stories in the two days we were snowed into a hut in remote Patagonia. It had stuck in my mind since then, but the timing was never right. The timing became right this spring, I applied, I threw around the names of a few friends that had worked there, and I got an offer.

Adventure. A new experience. A good story for the grandkids someday. My last continent to set foot on. The cherry on top of an already absurd resume. These are a few of the reasons I chose to come to Antarctica.

The trip down... DEN-LAX-SYD-CHC-MCM

I've just started reading Ernest Shackleton's South, a memoir of his failed 1914 Antarctic expedition. In light of this I am reluctant to whinge about the length of my trip down here, how poor the airplane food was, the jetlag, etc. Besides, it wasn't that bad anyway.

A few flights and a bunch of timezones and I find myself transplanted to Christchurch, New Zealand. We had two days here to adjust to this side of the world, provision ourselves with last minute goodies, get outfitted with all the clothing we'll need for the extreme weather down below, and fill our bellies with sushi and lamb.

In addition to long underwear, fleeces, gloves, hats, etc., everyone is outfitted with Extreme Cold Weather gear (or ECW in this land of acronyms, more on that in another post). The ECW consists of carhartt overalls, ski goggles, the iconic red parkas (known as 'big reds') and cold weather military boots (known as 'bunny boots').

On departure day we get up early, and get transferred to a special sector of the Christchurch airport where we check in and have our bags and our persons weighed. After this there is a opportunity to get a bite to eat; it is our last chance to exercise our free will of food choice for several months. Mine was an egg sandwich and a fancy fruit juice.

Next its a flight briefing. We learned how to fit earplugs, where we should sit, that we need to have our overalls undone before we enter the lavatory (for the sake of timeliness), and what what will occur in case of a boomerang. In case you don't know, a flight boomerangs when it gets close to its destination, but then has to return due to destination weather conditions. Apparently this can happen quite often. It makes a long day of sitting in a loud airplane, but also gives passengers another precious night in Christchurch. Apparently the record number of boomerangs is seven! Can you imagine logging over 70 hours of uncomfortable flight time just to get to a frozen continent???



Our chariot is an Air Force C-17. I don't know much about planes, but this one is big and gray and meant to fit both passengers and cargo.









A view from the front of the plane facing the tail. They place some airline seats across the center of the plane but many people sit along the side, facing the cargo.










My seat.



















The view from my seat.















Corrine, John, Brandon, and myself.











Their aren't really any windows in the cabin of the airplane. This is quite strange because you don't get any sense of where you are, how fast you're going, or if you are taking off or landing. We were fortunate enough to have the captain invite us into the cockpit. These were my first views of the Antarctic continent.



















A C-17 landing at the Ice Runway at McMurdo Station Antarctica. We made it!














And so began my Antarctic experience. For me it was only a journey of four days to reach this continent. It is truly humbling to think of the epic struggles explorers like Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen made just a century ago to reach these places. You can read more about them here.