Mission update, take 2

We are a primary mission for tomorrow, Friday, 1 Feb. We'll see what happens. I have made my peace with staying here until 11 Feb, when the CSBF guys call it quits and the ballooning season officially ends, so I am not particularly strssed about this opportunity.

Here is an update on the other two payloads, ATIC and BESS. ATIC came down about 170 miles from South Pole Stations, while BESS came down miles from anywhere, near the top middle of the continent (in its usually displayed orientation). To be more specific, it is about 250 miles from Patriot Hills and 170 miles from AGO-2, both of which are uninhabited camps at this time. You can see ATIC's location in the map above. ATIC was launched at McMurdo, followed the yellow path counterclockwise for the first revolution and the red path for the partial second revolution, until termination at the end after 19.5 days. BESS is shown similarly to the right, and was terminated after 30.5 days. CREAM is shown at the bottom. It was up for 29 days.

Currently the plan is to fully recover ATIC out of the South Pole Station with a Twin Otter. Two colleagues from that experiment are currently positioned at Pole, and are waiting for weather to cooperate there. BESS will not get a recovery mission this year. The plan is to send in two mountaineers on a plane to get the CSBF required equipment and the BESS data (16 terrabytes!!). No scientist will get near the instrument this season. Sometime next summer (eg December) a campaign will be mounted to retrieve the whole instrument.

Weather cancel again

Despite what I thought was good weather this morning, we have been cancelled for today. There is supposed to be 4-6 inches of snow at some point this afternoon or evening. It has been coming for two days now, so I am puzzled why the great concern all of a sudden. You would think they would give us what time we could get on the instrument. We could return as soon as the snow started to fly. I almost feel as if they give us primary to shut us up knowing that they can call a weather cancel the next morning and run the backup missions, which they really want. But that is frustration talking, not reality.

The last two weeks have been really emotionally draining. I have been riding this roller coaster of hope and despair. It is impossible to plan to be part of the community when I never know what will come of each day. Each day I get up early, eat a big breakfast in preparation for working all day, then wait for my pager to buzz me. At that point I get the news: go or no go. I am not sleeping well at night because I am replaying every possible scenario in my head regarding instrument disassembly.

There is one funny story to all this. Way back towards the beginning of my long wait I was being sent text pages. I finally got one that said GO. I got my gear and headed off to the rendezvous point. Strangely, my McMurdo representative was not there. I found him in his office. He looked at me standing there in full gear unbelievingly. I told him the message said GO. He said the rest of the message was BACK TO BED. We now do not use the text feature. I get a phone number to call instead. No mistakes.

We are going to treat the next flight we get as the last. We will bring all tools and gear back. That is 400 lbs less of instrument we could carry instead, but that is how it goes. Some parts of the instrument may sit on the ice until next winter. While the arrival delay of the cargo vessel this year by two weeks has given us (for better or for worse) an extra two weeks to try to get the instrument back, we are running short of that windfall. If the instrument is not on the dock in a week, it will not go back to the US this year anyway.

Another try

Tomorrow (Thursday) we are a primary mission on a Twin Otter. Tonight (~10:30PM) the weather does not look so good. Here we go again....

Just to give you a feel of what people do down here in their spare time, see the photo.

One down, two to go

We finally got out today! The weather was gorgeous for a change. You can see the blue sky behind the picture to the left when we arrived. If it stays like this for four days or so I think we have a chance. We managed to remove all the external support hardware (flight train, termination packages, solar panels, the 600 pound power and communications module behemoth) and grab the science data box today. We are poised to begin breaking into the instrument proper. The parachute was not even visible after 10 days in the snow, so we left it behind. It would have been very difficult to excavate it. As it was, I spent most of the morning digging under the instrument to access the power disconnects to make the instrument safe to disassemble. I had to laugh that the engineers put quick disconnects on all the panels except the one that had to be accessed during recovery, and the fate that put that panel in the snow. We don't want to get shocked accidentally when cutting a wire. The access panel landed downwards in the snow, and the few snowstorms and wondstorms we have had since the instrument landed piled up a heap against the power module. I had plenty of practice digging at snow school so felt really prepared.

We left some of our tools and gear at the site since the plane was completely full. Everything is strapped down in case of a storm. You can see that the external stuff is gone.

So when will I be done? Let's do the math: today was Tuesday. Tomorrow we are back to backup status, so won't fly, most likely. Suppose Thursday we were primary, and then either Friday or Saturday. Then we would have the instrument all back, could pack it Sunday and Monday, and make the Feb 5 plane to Christchurch. But that scenario assumes we get our flights - and even more importantly this year in particular - the weather holds. Sunday is a no-fly day. If we flew on Monday we could stay up all night Monday night to finish packing but we would be dead on our feet. Worth it to me, I guess, since the Feb 8 plane is full, and the next one is Feb 11.

Weather cancel

We awoke to snow today (Sunday), despite a forecast for clear skies. After delaying a decision until noon, I have just been told we will not fly out today. The last schedule I saw did not have us on it again until Thursday, but that is, of course, fluid. Things are very grim for getting out of here before Feb 12.

The bright spot is that now I will go learn to use the CSBF gas-powered chop saw, which may come in handy during recovery. Vrrrrooom!

R/V Nathanial B. Palmer

The research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer is a real contrast to icebreaker Oden. The Palmer is a working vessel, and its interior is full of labs and workspace for scientists to bring up all sorts of seawater, bottom ooze, and little creatures from the Antarctic Ocean. All of the work done by the Oden is exterior to the craft. There are no special wood highlights in the Palmer, although I was told it does have a sauna. The Palmer is capable of breaking through a meter of ice at a few knots (contrast that to the Oden, which is capable of several meters of ice at the same rate.) The Palmer's mission is scientific, and icebreaking is a secondary "necessary evil." Crew and scientist quarters are cramped, but there is lots of public space - as long as you don't mind sharing that space with a beaker of ooze or frigid water. The galley is in the bow, where, I am told,it is impossible to hold a conversation when ice is being crunched. The advantage to this large ship over the Oden is its stability in foul weather, which it encounters often. On the way down it endured 50 foot waves with 80 knot winds. All the captain could do was face the waves and ride the storm out. Water was apparently breaking over the bow in huge sheets.

Its draft is 7.5 meters, a meter less than the Oden. We were shown the spare propeller sections (4 to a propeller) - most impressive. Can you imagine having to install these in the middle of the ocean? I just don't think they would do that. They would more likely get towed to a port or limp in on one engine, and then have the prop changed.

Tomorrow is another day - take 2

We are the primary mission for tomorrow (Monday). Cross your fingers for us!

The Polar Plunge

The Kiwis at Scott Base offered a Polar Plunge this evening. Any and all interested could go jump into the coldest waters on earth. The temperature is about -2C. High salinity keeps the water from freezing at the usual temperature. A hole in the ice serves as your pool. The air temp is just below freezing. After your jump, there is a hot tub to get feeling back in your extremeties. I talked to one person who jumped four times. Most go at least once in their birthday suits, then plunge in more modestly. This has to be a Kiwi outing because the powers that be in McMurdo would never sanction it. Too fun, I think.

Did I go? No. Sorry to disappoint. Most of my showers in McMurdo qualify as Polar Plunges. There is never hot enough water when I need it.

However, one of my (crazy) colleagues went and sends this photo of the setup. The next photo is of her swimming back to the ladder.

Skiing and hiking and penguins

I have never been on a pair of skis before last weekend. You can rent cross country and skate ski gear here, and my colleague Terri, who has been here three months and really got involved in the community, learned from scratch in a few weeks. While I do not want to spend a few more weeks here, I have least got a flavor of what is like to both kinds of skiing offered.


The two ways of skiing are very different. Cross country skis are long and wide relative to skate skis, with fish scales on the bottom that keep the skis from sliding backwards. You trudge along as if you were walking. You have probably seen this in the Olympics. Skate skis are more like "the worse part of downhill skis," so I am told. You don't have a hill but are expected to go forward. I found this method much more interesting than cross country. You move in a left-right rocking motion from ski to ski, sort of like ice skating. I am no expert, as you can see here, so if you disagree with my description, add a better one to the comments.

So last weekend I rented cross country skis, tried them out for an hour, then on Sunday skied out to Castle Rock. The Castle Rock trail is along a glacier, and is rough snow and very steep. It was a bad introduction to skiing. I did very badly. It was only slightly fun because I got so exhausted, fighting the skis the whole way. I only fell now and then (maybe a dozen times), but I kept the rest of the group from speeding along. I at least doubled the total time they would have taken without me. They were very nice, and waited for me.



But being a glutton for punishment, I rented skate skis this afternoon and tried them out. I skated along the road from Willie Field (one of the the airfields), which is fairly level and moderately groomed. I had much better luck, but I was still very slow and got exhausted quickly. It was nice, though, to get outside and try something new. You can see I am more confident on skate skis. Today's weather cleared up this afternoon, and the wind died down, making skiing very pleasant. Sadly, we are not on the schedule for tomorrow. I still have the skate skis, so I will try skate skiing again.


Otherwise, today I took a hike around Ob Hill (very windy and cold), and on the way back spotted (distantly) penguins out by Hut Point, so dashed over there to view them. I watched them hang out for a while, then jump in the water. Weddell seals litter the ice, like giant floppy slugs. The sea ice is melting near, and large pools are visible. Some whales have been spotted in these pools- just not by me yet!

Not today... again

Still waiting. Must... keep... calm...

There is talk of flying tomorrow, Sunday, a usual no-fly day. I won't believe it until I am standing next to the payload with a screwdriver in my hand. Even getting the plane off the ground here at McMurdo is no guarantee we'll end up on the ground at our destination. On the ice shelf there is often a three to six feet high fog that comes in from the ocean that completely obscures the ground. The pilot needs to see the ground to land on it, especially since it is not a runway but just ice and snow. The winds form 6-12 inch high snow humps called sastrugi, which can snap off the landing gear if gone across crossways. The pilot aligns the aircraft with the sestrugi, and the aircraft bumps and rolls when landing, but doesn't lose a ski.

Tomorrow is another day

We are 1st backup for one of the Twin Otter flights tomorrow. If weather cancels the primary flight, then it is our turn. This is getting old....

Janitor Dawn

Janitor Dawn is responsible for keeping the dorm I live in, building 203A, spic and span. She does a great job. She is here six days a week, cleaning the hallways and bathrooms and lounge areas. She is also reponsible for cleaning the Chapel (where my yoga classes are held), and spends afternoons helping out in the main laundry facility for the Station.

Dawn is from Kansas via Denver. This is her first year here, and she has decided to pursue any opportunity to come back next year, hopefully in an administrative position. She left "a really good job" in Denver to follow her boyfriend down here and has not regretted it. She likes the international mix of people, travel opportunities, and the spectacular outdoor setting here. "Where else can you see penguins and whales in their natural environment?" She even likes the climate - most people are under the impression that the weather is really cold here, but it has been warmer here than Denver and Cincinnati recently. Temperatures are between the high teens and high thirties. While it has often been windy and cloudy this year, typically it is sunny and beautiful all summer. The really cold weather is at the Pole, which is between -20F and -30F these days. Yuch.

Thanks for sharing your story, Dawn!

...and again

We were not a primary mission this morning. The schedule was not posted until about 10:30 last night, and we were not on it then, so I did not even bother to set my alarm this morning. Today's flights are out to some area glaciers. Maybe tomorrow we will go?

I lose one roomate and gain another today.

Waiting again

Bad weather has canceled our recovery flight for today. There are high winds and light snow with low visibility. Conditions are expected to get worse before they get better. Maybe we will go out tomorrow. More later.

The Waiting Game may be over!

I just found out that CREAM recovery is a primary Twin Otter mission for tomorrow and possibly the two days afterwards. Weather and mechanical permitting (a really important phrase here), we'll fly out to the instrument, dismantle it, stuff the pieces into the little plane, and bring it all back to McMurdo, unload the plane into a truck, drive the parts to the hanger, unload them into the hanger, drive back into town, and collapse exhausted into our beds to be ready to do it all again the next day. That means that I will not be keeping up this blog for the next few days. I'll be leaving at dawn and returning at dusk. Er, wait a sec - no dawn and dusk here, so, ah, leaving early and returning late by these clocks in the land of perpetual light.

After all the bits and pieces get back we put everything in a big sea container, put a ribbon on it, and wish it bon voyage. THEN I am free to leave. I may make my Feb 1 departure date after all!

Shuttle Jamie

I have decided to start making short profiles of some of the people I meet here. Folks that make up support crew in the town of McMurdo come from all walks of life but generally share a love of the outdoors. I will never do their stories real justice, but will try to give you an idea of who they are, what they do, and where they come from.

Shuttle Jamie (that's her call sign) drives shuttles around town. The need for shuttles here is great. No one has their own vehicle. Gear is hauled all around town. For example, for a group to get ready for the field, they need transport in from the runway after arrival (usually the Pegasus Ice Runway, where the C17 comes in), have their personal and ECW (Emergency Cold Weather) gear hauled to their dorms, then collect their camping gear from the Berg Field Center (BFC), food from the galley (kitchen), and finally get all this hauled to either the helopad or out to Willy Field, the C130 ice runway. There are various vehicles around available to help with all these tasks. Some are made for snow and ice, others for dirt and mud around town. A post from my previous visit had links to pictures of some of these vehicles.

I met Shuttle Jamie on my way to Scott Base in a Delta. I rode up front because the ride is short, and it is a pain to get people out of the boxes in the back of those things (see the pictures in that earlier post linked above). Remarkably, Jamie is from Cincinnati, and in fact lives less than a mile from my house there! It is truly a small world. This is her first year here. She likes it here enough that she considered wintering over but thought that her sister, who is expecting a baby, would not appreciate it. Will she come back? Probably, if she can swing it. She drives a full 8 hour day, sometimes more, and switches between the Delta regularly scheduled routes, shuttling on call, and Ivan the Terrabus (my favorite).

Scott's Hut

You are probably aware that it is from this area that Robert Falcon Scott started his epic failure of a journey into the heart of Antarctica in his quest to be first to the South Pole. The place is practically littered with huts of gear and food that his expedition left behind. There is one hut about 500 yards from downtown McMurdo, on appropriately named Hut Point. The site is protected, and is only occasionally open for tours. I took one of these this week, and have some photos of the inside to share.

The hut is a prefab unit Scott purchased in Australia. It was designed to keep people cool in the outback. The first thing that you notice as you walk in is how incredibly funky the smell is. The next thing you notice is how it looks like hardly anything has happened since Scott left. There are seal bodies that have been preserved in the cold dry weather here, like the Chilean Andes mummies. There are boxes and boxes of dog biscuits, some clothing hanging out to dry, and shelves full of tinned chocolate, tea, meats, and other foodstuffs.

The area around McMurdo is also littered with crosses commemorating those who gave their lives here for one reason or another. The cross on Hut Point is for George Vince, the doctor in Scott's expedition, who was last seen walking across the sea ice, but never arrived. He probably fell through a hole and drowned. Another cross, on top of Ob Hill, is for Scott himself, and has the famous quote from Tennyson, "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield" engraved on it. Yet another cross memorializes a young man named Williams, who was driving a tractor hauling supplies in from a Navy vessel during the establishment of McMurdo Station and fell through the sea in 350 fathoms of water. His body was never recovered. nor was the tractor. Rough place, Antarctica.

Local entertainment

There are several things I have been doing to wile away the time while I await a plane (or three).
1. Read. I brought several books. There is also a library here. And it is possible to borrow DVDs/videos, although I have not taken advantage of that opportunity yet.

2. Weather watch. Since flights and outdoor activities depend so much on good weather, and the weather here can change in a heartbeat, one can spend hours in morbid fascination staring at the weather pages and flight schedules, which are broadcast on the TV network here and shown on TVs mounted near the cafeteria. Here is an example page of current observations. Don't you love how the next sunset is February 20? I will hopefully miss it. It is also fun to see the Pole current observations: Temps of -27F!!

3. Exercise in the gym (aka gerbil gym). The only prefab building using tabs from the 50's left on site, the gerbil gym offers several treadmills, stationary bikes, ellipticals, and other tasty tidbits for those wishing to break a sweat.

4. Hike. There are several hiking trails around. The ones on the sea ice are closed now, since the sea ice is unstable in this late summer. All the rest are available to the lone hiker, except the Castle Rock loop, which requires two people and check in/out with the local Firehouse for safety reasons.

5. Ski. You can rent various gear here, including cross country and skate skis. I rented some cross country skis and after one hour of practice the first day went on a six mile ski to Castle Rock with a group of people. These folks turned out to be very nice because I really am bad on skis, and they were very patient with me. I fell a lot. I am awfully sore today, and I went two days ago. Still, I will get back up on this horse and try again, perhaps with lessons. In my defense the snow was very beat up since it doubles as a hiking trail. This is what I look like after falling.

6. Nightlife. Bars! Bars! Bars! There are three here. Southern Exposure, the hard core smoking bar; Gallaghers, the not-quite-as-hard core non-smoking bar; and the Coffee House/Wine Bar. The last is low key, with background music that the "Beakers" (aka scientists) frequent. Some atmosphere is given by the very old skis and sleds hanging from the ceiling. (See photo.) I have spent several relaxing evenings there either playing cards, chatting, or joining in on a movie in the adjoining mini-theater room. Sadly, it is now closed for the next couple weeks for renovations. The recent snows emphasized just how bad the condition of its roof is.

7. Eat. Regular meals which I neither cook nor clean for encourages me to try everything. My motto: No desert should go untried. The pastry and bread chef here should be commended! Meals are usually OK. They are generally much better than I remember on my last trip two years ago. There is certainly more fruit and salad available.

Otherwise, I do some work on my computer, write these posts, and check out the view from the Crary Lab science library of the TransAntarctic Mountains, and use the spotting scope there to keep tabs on all that's happening.

Mission update

Now that the instrument has been cut down from the balloon, I am waiting for a chance to go recover it. We reuse many of the pieces in later flights. Unfortunately, the weather was bad enough early this month that there is a backlog of flights of the fixed wing craft (Twin Otters). They are mostly retrieving distant camps on some remote glacier or another, so I can't really argue with the priorities. We are far down on the totem pole. Every day since Saturday we have been the backup mission, or backup to the backup mission. Never the primary mission. When will that happen? I don't know. Hopefully soon! I need three days out in the field to completely recover the instrument. Camping is not really an option since I need three round trip flights just to carry the instrument parts, due to weight capacity limitations of the Twin Otters (the instrument weighs a total of about 6000 lbs, and the Twin Otter capacity is about 2500 lbs - four passengers take up a sizable fraction of that!). Hauling camping gear in and then out adds two more flights. It takes a lot of gear to camp safely in Antarctica. Look back at the snow school post to remember how big the Scott tents are and the number of sleeping bags and pads I used were. We will do what is called "close support," in which a Twin Otter lands next to the instrument, we work on disassembly, load the plane, and come back that same day. It makes for 14 hour days, but it beats getting stuck in a tent for a few days if bad weather moves in.

So I wait. And wait. To occupy myself I work on computer projects, IM chat with family, or utilize the local entertainment. Perhaps a post on local entertainment would be appropriate.... reading, skiing, bars, talks, and more.

Please submit comments! I never know if anyone reads this. I need assurance that this is not just an exercise in typing for me. So keep those cards and letters (in electronic form) coming!

Swedish Icebreaker Oden

Every year McMurdo receives several maritime visitors. First there is a fuel ship, which replenishes fuel to run the power generators for the station, the aircraft operations (which are quite massive, running people out to field camps and South Pole Station), and fuel for the South Pole generators. Then a research vessel stops by for a couple days. And finally, the resupply cargo vessel, which brings everything needed for the next year, like food, new snowmobiles, t-shirts for the store, etc. The groundwork for these visits is laid by an icebreaker, which opens up the last few miles of sea to McMurdo. For many years that duty was performed by a US Coast Guard vessel, then the contract was given to the Russians for a few years. But the last two years have seen the Swedes step in with their state of the art vessels. This year the Oden broke a channel through about 5 miles of ice up to the dock. (By the way, the dock is no more than some dirt smoothed over on top of some sea ice by the shore.) So far Oden has been in the neighborhood for two weeks. It will remain here for another two weeks to keep the channel ice free as the various other vessels arrive and depart.

The Swedes really know how to build a beautiful icebreaker. While docked here taking a break, the Oden offered tours. I was fortunate enough to be able to take one. The captain and first mate led us around. We visited the galley, bar, sauna, bridge, some crew quarters, the engine room, and walked across the deck. We learned that the shape of the bow is flat, not pointed like the classic ship, so that Oden can ride up over the ice when it crashes into it. The steel in the bow is of the finest quality and several inches thick. There are pumps that spray seawater on the ice as the bow moves over it to make it more slippery (ice has more and more friction as it gets colder). Once the icebreaker has ridden up on the ice, it breaks it by rocking from side to side. Rocking? What, do all hands leap from side to side? No! There are water tanks in each side of the ship and a massive pumping system that can change the heel of the boat by 20 degrees in 20 seconds. The ship has four eight cylinder diesel engines directly coupled to the two propeller shafts (usually the engines run an electric motor which then runs the propellers), and can go from full reverse to full forward in 12 seconds. I am told she stands on her stern when that happens. Must be quite exciting. The interior is beautifully decorated with wood highlights, and each of the crew of 18 gets his or her own room. Visiting scientists, however, have to share four to a room.

There is probably more information online, but I have not taken the effort to search for it. If anyone finds a link to more about the Oden, send it along and I'll put it in this post.

Youtube video of Snow School available!

The time lapse video of my Snowcraft School class building a snow wall out on the ice shelf has been posted to Youtube. I'm the one in black with a red hat that ends up hauling sleds with snow blocks on it. I am not sure if either the link above or embedded video below work because our bandwidth here is extremely limited. If it is not working, search Youtube for "Happy Campers from McMurdo build snow wall." I send my thanks to my son Joe for getting this online.



Burning questions:
"Is McMurdo a science town with a drinking problem or a drinking town with a science problem?"

"From an evolutionary perspective, why have women lost the ability to grow a beard? It sure would be useful down here" I think this one goes next to "Why do men have nipples?" Your opinion is welcome. Perhaps an intelligent dialogue is possible through the comments. Or not.

TERMINATE!

To paraphrase the Daleks of Dr Who fame, TERMINATE! Termination of the CREAM flight has occurred successfully during a textbook perfect mission. I went along as resident scientist/tourist on an LC130 ride. The termination is a CSBF operation, and I congratulate them on an excellent job.

We took an LC130 (notice the skis for wheels) at about noon today and flew about 200 miles along the Ross Ice Shelf east of McMurdo. I have never see the 200 foot tall ice shelf edge before and was amazed at its beauty. We then flew in about 65 miles to the balloon location. CSBF terminated the flight, which means they separated the CREAM instrument with parachute from the balloon, pulled the rip cord on the balloon to release the helium and let it free fall, and circled as the payload parachuted to the ice. The parachute separated from the payload nicely after touching down, and ended up on its side. The balloon landed after its free fall less than a few miles from the payload. I was back in McMurdo by 5 PM.

I never was worried about the ride getting wild. My sailing experience helped me keep my feet (and stomach). We do not know when the recovery effort will begin yet.

Latest news

The CREAM payload is very close to being cut down. It will happen within the next couple of days. The call to do it is out of my hands, and in the hands of the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF) representative here. My role in the cut down is that of tourist. If we take the larger C130 I can ride along, but if a smaller Twin Otter plane is taken there will not be room for me. Going along would be a mixed blessing, I think. I am told that it is a roller coaster ride - lots of high g-force turns and vomit-inducing twists as the pilots circle to keep the payload in sight and scope out the landing area, with low altitude flyovers. I would be in the back of the plane in a moderately windowless environment so could potentially get airsick. I am told I should keep a few barf bags handy. But hey, you rarely get this kind of opportunity, so what the heck.

After our two days of blue sky, the weather has again turned poor - nothing new in that respect in this season full of bad weather. There is snow again, and a low ceiling, which makes a series of low altitude flying during cut down more likely. I have included a photo of Derilict Junction, the "main square" in McMurdo, with Ivan the TerraBus making its way to the bus stop so you can see the grey and snow.

By the way, you can make a comment by pressing the "comments" button below. Don't be shy! I would love to hear from you.

People in McMurdo

The talent collected at McMurdo amazes me. There is a cross section of people from all walks of life. All are attracted by the prospect of either living in Antarctica or doing science here. The Station has a mixture of scientists and support personnel. The support folk perform the heroic task of keeping things running here, and have jobs ranging from janitor, cook, galley slave, and hair stylist, to helicopter pilot, shuttle driver, hazardous waste supervisor, mechanic, and sewage plant operator, etc – everything a small town needs to be completely self sufficient. The support people here all have a story. Some can fix anything, including the 50 year old trucks and other equipment originally brought here by the Navy during the establishment of McMurdo. Others just want to be here. The standard story line is “PhD? No big deal. We have PhD’s working in the galley!” There are mountaineers that support the field camps that were guides on Denali. While some people consider the pinnacle of their climbing careers to peak a mountain like Denali, these people guided folks to the peaks regularly. You also get some of the best scientists in geology, biology, glaciology, astrophysics, and more down here all mixing together. There is an Air National Guard unit that operates the flights to and from here and the flights to many of the more distant field camps, including South Pole Station. They have fuel handlers, mechanics, doctors, pilots, navigators, psychologists…. quite a list. Everyone meets in the galley for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Real synergy!

Snow School, aka Happy Camper

If you are going out to the field in Antarctica from McMurdo Station, no matter for how long, you have to be trained in how to camp on the ice. Since lots and lots of people come through McMurdo on their way to a field camp, a whole culture has sprung up around the Snowcraft Class, aka Happy Camper.

Happy Camper involves learning how to set up a Scott tent (a floorless four-pole tent ideal for arctic conditions), cook on the camp stoves, using the snow to build shelters, helicopter and radio etiquette (including shortwave), and emergency procedures. We also discuss proper clothing. The basic guideline: no cotton touching the skin. If you are active, you sweat, and you need to wick away that moisture or you will get cold the next time you are inactive. The gear issue provides everything you need, including long underwear, to survive in these temperatures.

Twelve people were in this particular offering of the class, including a few people working support staff at McMurdo. This is a special opportunity for them because they don’t get out much compared to the scientists. They actually treat this as recreation. Frankly, I think Happy Camper should be renamed “Digging School.” I have not done this much digging and hauling for a looong time.

An arctic camp is only partly tents. Since the winds down here can be pretty brutal, and shelter is non-existent out on the ice, we have to make our own. We built a few snow walls from snow blocks quarried from the snow pack on top of the permanent ice shelf, and dug a kitchen area inside the protected area, so that we could cook our water. All we ate was freeze dried food and granola bars. Freeze dried food is very unsatisfying, and not recommended for an extended period of time if you want to keep your digestion intact. We are always told that people in the filed lose weight because of the body combating the cold, but I think it is because no one can stomach the freeze dried beef stroganoff. At least we had an awesome kitchen to eat it in (see photo).

We also built a quinzee hut. To build this, first choose a spot on the edge of the sheltered area you have created with the snow walls and Scott tents. Pile up all your gear (sleeping bags and pads, extra clothing bags, etc) in a mound, then shovel tons of snow onto it. Pat down the snow several times as you pile. Let set for a few hours. Dig a small hole at ground level and start pulling out the gear, leaving a hollow inside. From the side facing the compound of tents, start an entry hole by digging down, then up into the open space left by the gear. This will keep the warm air, which rises, from escaping out a ground level hole. After completing the entry hole, block off the gear removal hole with a few quarried snow blocks, lay out your pads and sleeping bags and enjoy! While I did not sleep in there, I hear that it was comfortably warm, room enough for two, but you had to be careful when sitting up not to bump the walls and knock down snow. Here is a picture of us building the quinzee hut. The Scott tents are the yellow-orange things.

I am trying to get a time lapse video of building one of the snow walls on Youtube but am having trouble getting the upload to work on the Cincinnati side. There is not enough bandwidth down here to upload via Youtube’s html loader, so I had to get the video Stateside in a roundabout way. Without going into details, just stay tuned….

We took particular care to do a good job on all this because we then spent the night in our creations. The Scott tent, where I stayed, was quite comfortable. I was, in fact, overly warm on my two pads and in my two sleeping bags. One of the best investments you can make for the night is a pee bottle. We’ll just leave that at that….

I had a pretty good time out there. The weather was grey and snowy, with blustery winds. For a short time the following day visibility was down to a couple hundred yards due to blowing snow. These were perfect conditions for some of the scenarios we ran, such as how to find a missing person during white out conditions – not easy! There is another picture of trying to pull out the person who went into the hut to try to yank the buried gear out and got kind of stuck!

Our finished camp looked like this picture. Look for the three snow walls around the Scott tents - left, right, and center; the quinzee hut to the left, and the mountain tents behind all our sleeping gear.

I also took a class about how to recognize, avoid, and deal with altitude sickness. The ice is so thick that the altitude of much of the continent is over 8000 feet. I may end up in an area that high for recovery. Too soon to tell at this point, though.

The story thus far

I arrived on January 5, 2008. A lot has happened since then. Let’s see if I can catch you up:
1. Weather – Pretty miserable until the last couple of days. Nothing but grey sky, and very cold relative to my visit in December 2005. We had one big snow storm (named Julia) that dumped almost a foot of snow on us. (It's hard for me to tell how much since the wind left many drifts around the Station.) Flights to field camps were cancelled, and the Station nearly came to a halt. After the storm abated it took an extra day just to clear the runways and roads enough to resume traffic.
2. Snow school – Anyone who may be going into the field has to take an overnight training course to learn how to camp in Antarctic conditions. We quarried snow blocks and built snow walls, and fabricated a quinzee hut as well, which is sort of lazy man's igloo. (Other - incorrect- spellings of quinzee include "quinsy" and "quincy" and "quinsey.") I’ll make a post to tell you more about that. I also had training required of everyone: Environmental Protection (a biggy down here), and Outdoor Safety, required of anyone who wants to take a hike.
3. Icebreaker Oden – Every year the last few miles of ice are broken out so that the cargo vessel can come into port. While this job was originally performed by American vessels, it was contracted out to the Russians for a few years and for the last two years it has been done by the Swedish icebreaker Oden. A beautiful boat. I will make a short post about my tour of it.
4. The experiment – For the first time, a total of three balloons were launched this year. They are all making two revolutions around the Pole. The last one launched (ATIC) is being cut down today. It has spiraled into the Pole, and recovery of the instrument will be coordinated from there. My experiment, CREAM, the first one launched, has nearly completed two revolutions and will be cut down on Wednesday or Thursday, probably over the Ross Ice Shelf near McMurdo, but the surface weather is not supposed to be very good so it might get delayed. The last one to be terminated, BESS, was the second balloon launched but is still 5 or 6 days out from completing its second revolution. You can follow the paths of these balloons at the NASA CSBF site for Antarctic operations.

I'm Baaaack!

Yes, I am back in McMurdo. This time I am here in January instead of December. There should be many differences: the weather is colder, and the ice breaker is coming, along with the cargo vessel. There could be penguins and Weddell seals.

My job is different this time. It is now to go out into the field and recover the CREAM instrument instead of help prepare it for flight. This is a great opportunity for me - it means I will get to see something of the Antarctic continent! Typically the instrument comes down on the Ross Ice Shelf or on the Antarctic plateau behind the TransAntarctic Mountains near Ross Island where McMurdo is. I will fly out to the site and over the course of a few days disassemble the instrument, have it flown back in pieces to McMurdo, pack everything carefully into large shipping containers, and then have it shipped back to the States on the cargo vessel due here in the next couple of weeks.

This year three cosmic ray balloon experiments were launched: CREAM, BESS, and ATTIC. You can follow the progress of each experiment at the NASA Challenger Scientific Balloon Facility Antarctic Operations site. At this time CREAM (my experiment) is nearly finished with its second revolution, and we are in the process of trying to decide about a third revolution.

I arrived about a week ago (Jan 5, 2008), and had not decided to continue this blog. However, enough interesting things have happened that I think it is worthwhile to document some of them. Keep tuning in!

You can learn a lot about McMurdo Station from the posts in this blog from my previous visit, in December 2005. they are linked in the archive listings in the sidebar.