Castle Rock

Current Conditions
Temperature: 15F
Wind Chill: 2F

Extended season has officially begun. Population is down to 216, and it is definitely noticeable. During mealtimes only eight or ten tables seem to be occupied, as opposed to the usual fifty or sixty. Everyone has their own room now. I chose to live in the primary building, 155. I'm hoping it will be more social than the nicer dorms that were an option. Also, my meals will be in the same building, so it saves some walking in the bitter cold.

I have a couple good friends and a handful of acquaintances that will be staying the winter, but in many cases I'm starting all over again meeting and getting to know people. So far everyone exudes the usual pleasantness that is rampant here (I like the idea of "exuding pleasantness", it's almost as good as "blossoming debauchery"). For example, I met an extremely agreeable fellow the other day named "Grump." I'm assuming the name is sarcastic, because he walks around with bells on his slippers. And flowers. I have a feeling things are about to get even stranger than they already were.

To bring in the new season, Brody and I climbed Castle Rock. Though I had a hangover from five days of saying goodbyes, the day was too beautiful to miss: sunny and warm with a light breeze. I've posted pictures of Castle Rock from the air, so here's what it looks like on a foot approach. If you look very closely, there is actually a man standing on top in this picture:

At the top of the groomed trail were some interesting drifts in the sunlight. This is where I began my ski run with the Kiwis; we skied the flagline down to the right:

Brody and I turned left, though, and began hiking around to the north side of Castle Rock, where the climb up is the least steep. Part way up we broke for a snack and water, and an amazing view of some clouds above Mt. Terror:

This is where the ropes begin. They help to traverse the steep northwest face over alternating rock outcroppings and snow chutes. The final bit looks a lot like this:

I'm sure it looks nasty to some of you, but it's really not that bad, and I'll bet most folks could do it. Without the rope... that's another story, involving crampons and an ice axe. The views are well worth the effort; this is the open Ross Sea in the sun:

If you're so inclined to look at the map I posted a while back, the islands from left to right are: Tent, Inaccessible, Big Razorback, and Little Razorback. Cape Royds is at the tip of the land sloping in from the right, about mid-photo, and Cape Evans is the sliver just above Big Razorback.

After a bit of fiddling with exposures and flash, I got a good shot that Brody can send home to his mom:

I'm sure everyone recognizes that mountain by now. We hung out for a long time on the lee side of the rock and in the warmth of the sun. I nearly fell asleep it was so peaceful. I've only experienced absolute silence a few times, but here, the utter lack of smell left us with only three senses: the snow white view of the island, the warmth of the sun on our cheeks, and the taste of mom's molasses cookies!

So Long, Suckers!

The last flight of mainbody is away!!

Carnage

Current Conditions
Temperature: 13F
Wind Chill: -3F

Well, there are only two more flights outta here, and we're into extended season. Already the galley is less full and town is less busy. Been having weather delays, so lots of people have been here a few days with nothing to do but party. I'm trying to keep up, since I won't being seeing them for a long while, but I just don't have all day to recover! Tonight will be a welcome mellow night of euchre. It's hard to find four people in Oregon that know how to play, so it's been fun to occasionally play here amongst all the midwesterners.

Now that the main season has come to an end, I thought it'd be fun to do a brief recap of the carnage this year. In addition to the MatTrack fire early this season, we've had a high number (so I'm told) of unusual happenings this year, some of which have even made international headlines. In no particular order:

Powerlines Take a Dump!
A malfunction caused this dumptruck's dump to raise up while driving. The operator didn't notice until he clipped a power line:


He stopped and stayed in the vehicle, which was good. But he had already splintered two telephone poles and made a rats nest of wires, which was bad. Power was hastily restored to the affected areas, but they continued repairs all season long.

It's Three Kilometers to Willy Field, We've Got a Full Tank of Gas, Half a Cube of Freshies, It's Broad Daylight, and We're Wearing Snow Goggles...
A woman was driving to work at Willy Field (one of three airstrips) on a Sunday, which is generally a "no fly" day. The fire department, which has a reputation for being a bit daft, chased her down and pulled her over without considering that her actions were perfectly legitimate. This one made the New Zealand news as a "high speed car chase" in which the driver was drunk. Don't believe what you hear in the news, kids!

McMurdo is home to the world's most productive and efficient rumor mill. So, although this is the version of the story that I believe, I still need to disclaim it as potentially inaccurate. I encourage those of you who were here to argue versions in the comments!

Hit It!
Over Christmas, there was a fight at the South Pole that sent two employees packing, one with a broken jaw. I've heard multiple versions of the story, so it's safe to say that none of them are correct.

Santa Claws?
Apparently the Santa Claus at McMurdo's Christmas party was a bit "gropy" and was turned in to HR. This is the South Pole - perhaps this was Santa Claus' bizzaro?

Raining Snow Machines!
On some overcast days, the light on the sea ice has a "flat" quality that makes it very difficult, and sometimes impossible, to distinguish features in the snow. On one of these days, a scientist crashed his snowmobile over a large embankment and broke his foot. A helo medevac brought him and his riding buddy back to town, but left their snowmobiles. Later, a helicopter was sent to retrieve them. This is done by hanging the machine from a cable, with a wind vane in place to keep it from swinging. While transporting the intact snowmobile, the wind vane malfunctioned and the swinging machine had to be cut loose, leaving two wrecked snowmobiles out on the ice.

"I Call It a Plane Crash"
This aircraft is called a Basler:

It's a DC-3 that has been modified and improved by our neighbors to the north, eh. It's used to transport small parties and cargo to and from distant field sites. We were told here in McMurdo that this Basler had a "hard landing" on the West Antarctic ice sheet. I found the following description on the blog of one of the passengers:

"We had a little problem during take off from Mt. Patterson. Some have called it an incident, others have been calling it a hard landing (although I don't know how you can have a hard landing when you haven't actually taken off). I call it a plane crash. Basically what happened is, as the plane went to take off and we reached flying speed, one side of the plane went up and the other didn't. The left wing got caught in the ice and sent the plane tumbling. My seat came unbolted from the floor with me still strapped into the seatbelt. When we finally came to a halt, we were all in big pile in the corner of the plane with all of the equipment. We got shaken up pretty bad, but there were no major injuries other than some minor cuts and bruises."

The aircraft didn't fare as well as its passengers:

Check out the skid marks and landing gear:

Smashed up belly, burnt out engines, damaged tail, missing landing gear, and well-rounded propeller blades. Oops. The passengers spent the rest of the night in tents and were retrieved the next day. Miraculously, this plane was repaired in the field and flown back to McMurdo before the end of the season.

Googling Through the Clouds
A small group of folks got lost in fog trying to find a 100 year old shelter at Cape Crozier, the easternmost point on Ross Island. The stone igloo was built near a penguin colony by three men from the final Scott expedition in 1911. Again, I found a first person account:

"As we rose over the last knoll we noticed that a heavy fog lay ahead, concealing the spur of rocks where the three men chose to build their makeshift shelter. We were soon distracted by a multitude of rare green lichens thriving in the lee of rocks and cracks, and by the time we looked up again the fog had erased all landmarks. We walked in circles for a couple of hours but finally decided we had no idea where the igloo was when we ventured onto a snowfield and found ourselves completely suspended in white, no rocks in sight, the sky and snow merged into unified white flatness, our jackets, hats, and hair outlined in hoarfrost. Fortunately we had GPS units and a satellite phone. We needed to call someone with good computer skills and access to Google. Hugh rang up a friend and dictated the Google search terms over the shaky, time-delayed connection: "stone," "igloo," "crozier," "ASPA," and "gps coordinates." Within seconds she found the prized numbers, we plugged them into Grant's GPS unit, and the five of us trudged towards our invisible goal with renewed confidence. It was only 1,000 meters from where we had made the call."

Why call the States when you can just radio Mactown? The rumor mill says they did, but Mac Ops gave them the wrong coordinates.

Interestingly, I googled the aforementioned search terms and all I came up with was the same blog from which I got them.

. . . and that's the news from Ross Island, where the women are few, the men are all bearded, and the children are just absent.

Erebus Trips III and IV

Current Conditions
Temperature: 8F
Wind Chill: -9F

The Earth is not round. It's oblong. The centrifugal force of the Earth spinning causes it to swell at the equator. This means that the poles are each about 13 miles closer to the center of the Earth than the equator is. All you Mt. Everest fans; I hate to burst your bubble, but the furthest point from the Earth's center is Chimborazo in Ecuador. At a comparatively small 20,565 feet above sea level, Chimborazo is still 6,890 feet taller than Everest when measured from the Earth's center. Also, because you are closer to the Earth's center of mass when you go from the equator to the pole, Newton says you can add 0.66 pounds to your weight for every 100. Fortunately, since I've gone from 45°N to 77°S, I only have to add 0.46 pounds. Can any of you mathematicians guess my weight? Use 7926.4 miles for the equatorial diameter of the Earth. Show your work... Ha!

The centrifugal force of the Earth's spin causes the same oblong-shaped phenomenon in the atmosphere: it's thicker at the equator and thinner at the poles. South Pole station is at an elevation of 9,300 feet (on a side note: only the bottom 300 feet are rock, the rest is ice), but because the atmospheric column is shorter, the "physiological altitude", is 11,000 feet. Think of this as what the elevation "feels like" due to the thinner air. So, the air on top of Mt. Erebus at 12,451 feet feels more like the air on top of Mt. Rainier at 14,410 feet.

Two weeks ago, I experienced what would be the highlight and finale of my summer season. I flew back up to Mt. Erebus on two consecutive days. Not quite to the top, but close enough to get a great view of the steaming summit.

The first flight was to a seismic station called MACZ, at 10,758 feet. This visit wasn't particularly scenic or eventful. It was a cold, cloudy day, and the wind was a-blowin'. We were finishing the installation of a new GPS station, which required each of us to schlep a 70 pound battery about 30 yards down snowy rocky mountainside. I know this doesn't sound like much of a feat, but when you've just flown from sea level to 11,000 feet in 20 minutes, your body doesn't have a chance in hell of acclimatizing. For the first five minutes, I moved some light gear and walked around at my normal pace, and that alone was enough to drop me with light-headedness. After that, I had to repeatedly stop and breathe after several slow steps.

I had a good case of AMS (acute mountain sickness) the rest of the afternoon, which basically just means I had a nasty headache. It turned out to be worth it, because that trip helped to acclimatize me for the next day's trip to CONZ at 11,165 feet. We were supposed to go to this station immediately after MACZ, but the weather was inclement that day. The following day, though, was absolutely beautiful.

I got a really good view of the Erebus Ice Tongue on the ride up. This is a glacier that flows down Erebus, off the island and into the sea ice of McMurdo Sound:

The CONZ station is more commonly called "cones". I'm guessing this is because it is in an area surrounded by fumaroles, vents in the volcano that release hot gas. The fumaroles march up the ridge like a row of deformed snowcones:

When the hot gas hits the cold air, whatever water is in it freezes to the snow, slowly building the cones. Since we had four hours to do a one hour job, we were able to take a nice long hike up the glacier and check the fumaroles out, not too closely though. We hiked up the glacier for about an hour and a half, only gaining a few hundred more feet of elevation, but close enough to have a great view of the last steep slope up to the crater's edge. It looked close enough to climb in a couple of hours, but we knew the deceiving reality that it would take half the day to make that last 1000 feet. And it wasn't exactly an idea with "safety first" in mind. So, unfortunately, no summit for me. But, at the apex of our hike, we found an interesting thermal area of earth where snow made only minimal purchase. The rock there was so fine and moist that it felt like soil; quite bizarre for here, though there are areas on the mountain where mosses, lichens, and algae are able to grow, sparsely. Extremely sparsely. This is a cool shot of some ice crystals forming from steam in the thermal area:

We turned back down along the ridge and Thomas took my "hero shot" for the day, with some fumaroles in the background:

I was bundled up well for the typical -30F up on the mountain. Goggles and all, this time. They weren't really necessary, but I've found it's a real trick to keep sunglasses from fogging with breath. Erebus continued to huff and puff all day, making the fumaroles seem insignificant:

When the helicopter arrived, we were all splayed out on a snow bank, just watching the show. All we needed was a few lawnchairs, some mai tais and about 100 more tics on the Fahrenheit scale!

The 212 is more of a workhorse than the A-star, but with Paul behind the wheel, the ride down is always fun. We flew circles to make a cool corkscrew pattern on the mountain with the contrail shadow. Never crossed my mind that a helicopter would make a contrail. Here he is coming in for a landing just beyond the station's wind generators:

I spent the rest of the week playing catch-up, but it was worth it.
Cheers!

Hagglund Skiing

Current conditions
Temperature: 4F
Wind Chill: -17F

Before this cold snap, the weather was nice for quite a while and lots of things were melting away. There is a good sized area of natural open water next to Ob Hill where people have been seeing penguins and even whales! It had some cool looking ice in the midst of a re-freeze:

The pressure ridges are dotted with melt pools. The icebreaker has made a huge swath of navigable water (if a little full of ice) in front of the station. Seals have been popping out and laying in the sun, and I even saw an Orca spy-hopping! Orcas are very intelligent pack hunters; spy-hopping is when they stick their head up out of the water just far enough to peer over the ice and look for a meal. If the ice is thin enough, a pod of Orcas can break it up and cause the seal to fall into the water. By swimming together, a pod can create a wave and wash the seal off an ice floe. Or, if the floe is small enough, the Orcas will simply tip it over. Unfortunately, the spy-hopping Orca was a bit too far away to photograph, but here's a seal taking a little napper:

I saw a Minke whale breach out in the channel last week, too. Love to get a picture of that before things freeze up again. In the middle of the night, the light is definitely starting to look a little like dusk, so the big freeze is coming!

Despite the recent cold, I was invited to rug up and join the final ski day of the season at Scott Base. If I was keen, that is. The Kiwis have a tow rope lift installed on the side of the peninsula and plenty of skiing and boarding equipment. The run is short and green, but they've built a couple jumps to mix things up a bit. After a couple hours on the hill, they decided it would be fun to do a run down from Castle Rock, so I piled into a Hagglund choc-a-block with Kiwis and ski gear and we headed up the big hill. This is a shot of Castle Rock from one of my helo rides:

The view from Castle Rock on a blue bird day is impressive. It is the highest point on the peninsula, and it commands a view of the entire island. I hiked there about a month ago, but the clouds were so low and thick that we couldn't even see Castle Rock while standing right at its rocky base. All we could see was a slightly darker area of fog. It's an eerie and disorienting feeling to look around and see a featureless white floor blending seamlessly into a white ceiling! If not for the row of flags marking the trail, it may have been downright distressing. Not this day, though. For skiing, it was beautiful and clear.

It's too bad we had to stick to the flagged trail for the ride down; look at all that untouched glacier to ski on!! I did carve most of my turns just off the road, carefully dodging the few black flags, which denote danger: usually a crevasse. The run back down to the ice shelf was a few kilometers long, and I was reminded of how demanding skiing is on the quads! Here's a shot from a different helo ride, with a better view of the groomed trail:

We repeated the shuttle run about six times before we all felt adequately knackered and hungry for tea. Reminded me of repeated Syncline and Post Canyon shuttles on demo days back home! Though I've never been heli-skiing, I can now say I've been Hagglund-skiing, thanks to the ever-gracious Kiwis!

Sweet as!

Porn Spill

Current conditions
Temperature: 13F
Wind Chill: -1F

This post is refreshingly more 'life in general' and thankfully contains no useful information whatsoever.

Went to Scott Base this weekend for the skirt party, a tradition that has been occurring there for over 50 years. Some of the guys take it too seriously; I saw several grown men in disturbingly tight drag. I borrowed a sarong from Bamma, and gotta say that it was damned comfortable. As our beloved Bart Simpson proclaims, "Nothing says comfort like an unfurnished basement." Don't worry, Bamma, I'll wash it.

If I come across a good skirt shot, I'll drop it in here. McMurdo has a large shared computer drive that everyone can access, so you never know when an incriminating picture is going to pop up for everyone to see!

Ouch!

After the skirt party was the final big McMurdo party of the season. 'Porn Spill' headlined at the Waste Barn. I love the funk! They played a hilarious video before the show that featured each individual member (alter-egos all) in a goofy and sometimes compromising situation. I had a cameo feeding grapes to their lead gal "Boom Boom", while two other scantily-clad guys fanned her with palm fronds! Great show. Love the appearance of "Ivan the Terra Bus" in the background of their flyer:

Ivan is a favorite from the Land of Misfit Vehicles. If you google "Ivan the Terra Bus", you're guaranteed to come up with at least 20 Antarctic blogs (now 21).

Continuing with the 'Life in General' theme; as some of you have wondered, we do get TV here, and the Super Bowl was aired, live even. We tune in three AFRTS (American Forces Radio and Television Service, fondly referred to as A-farts) channels that air news, sports and generally outdated sitcoms. There are also two movie channels that are programmed by locals, so they're redundantly repetitive, but actually show fairly recent releases. As many of you know, I could care less about the Super Bowl, but generally watch for the commercials. Unfortunately, we don't get any normal commercials. Instead we get strange military propaganda. Some of it is actually pretty funny. I'm a fan of the 'don't shake your baby' commercial; it just seems so out of place in a world where there are no children. Or dogs, or plants. I do miss plants, and especially dogs. Hi Riley! Hi Chewy!

This next bit is neither here nor there, but I find it amusing:

Meet Betty. Betty lives in New York City. Betty is a carpenter helper at McMurdo. Betty Rocks! Betty even has a shirt that says so! But we caught Betty, not so much rocking, as napping... in the shirt:

Love it, Betty!

Boats, Boats, Boats

Current Conditions
Temperature: 22F
Wind Chill: 14F

Now that the icebreaker Oden has carved a channel into the sea ice, the boats are a-rollin' in.

First to arrive was the Palmer, which does oceanic and biological research while cruising the Southern Ocean. Her hull is ice hardened so she can gracefully plow through 3 foot thick ice at 3 knots. The Oden will do 2 meters of ice at this speed! Thicker ice requires backing and ramming, sort of. The ship doesn't actually ram into the ice. Rather, the hull is shallow and sloping, so the bow slides up on top of the ice and the weight of the ship breaks through it. The Oden has enormous port and starboard ballast tanks. Once she gets up onto the ice, seawater is pumped into the tanks to add the weight necessary to break through. Seawater can also be pumped from one side of the ship to the other, creating a rocking motion that is used to break ice without having to repeatedly back and ram.

I took a tour of both the Oden and the Palmer when they were at the pier. I've shown the Oden, so here is the Palmer:


This instrument is lowered into the ocean to depths up to 8000 meters, as far below sea level as Mt. Everest is above it:

It takes water samples in the multiple cylinders and also measures various things like oxygen and fluorine levels, temperature, and salinity.

We also had the tanker Gianella at the pier for a few days to fill up the fuel supply here. I didn't get any pictures of her, but I did see the Oden tow her out of port and into the channel.

In a few more days the American Tern cargo vessel will get here. For a solid week people will be working around the clock to get her unloaded and loaded back up again. Once that is finished, it will only be another week before McMurdo's population drops to 250, a stark change from the 1100+ people who are here now. The population will drop to 135 in April, when 'extended season' ends and winter begins. The extended season is a special occurrence this year only, due to the International Polar Year, or IPY. The idea of IPY is to promote international cooperation for research efforts in the polar regions. This is the third IPY; the first was in 1882! We have a few extended research programs this year continuing through April, but I don't know what they are... yet.