Moving On

I'm writing this from a fabulous hotel in Christchurch. My time on the ice is over. What a long strange trip it's been!

Now it's time for a long awaited holiday in New Zealand. A sweet woman who's been graciously patient with me while I've been off frolicing with the penguins comes to meet me in Christchurch. We'll drive a campervan around and go kayaking, tour vineyards, see wildlife, swim in the ocean, and lie on the beach.

Does life get any better? I've never heard a sound so nice as the birds outside my window right now.

Discovery Hut

The sign pretty much says it all :

From 20091201-DiscoveryHut

As an aside, isn't "an historic monument" bad English? I mean a snake wouldn't make an hiss sound would it? Nor do you go skiing down an hill. But I digress...

From 20091201-DiscoveryHut

Discovery Hut, as the sign says, was constructed during Captain Robert Falcon Scott's first expedition to the Antarctic. Shackleton was with him on this voyage, though the story goes they didn't get along well. This expedition was not intended to reach the pole, but rather to explore the nearby terrain and perform various science. Unlike the hut at Cape Evans, constructed in 1911 for the Terra Nova expedition destined for the Pole, Discovery Hut was not meant for berthing. It was used as a storage area, an office, and a science laboratory. It was revisited many times later, so it is not clear which of the goods are from the original party and which were deposited later.

From 20091201-DiscoveryHut

One of the first things you notice when you step inside is the smell. It's probably the slowly decaying seal, penguin, and whale carcasses that does it. It's remarkably well preserved for century old dead meat, probably due to the lack of bacteria on the continent.

From 20091201-DiscoveryHut

Once you get over the smell, you'll notice various signs of hut life. There's pots and pans and various tools on the shelves.

From 20091201-DiscoveryHut

And no expedition would be complete without a tin of Morton's kippered herring.

From 20091201-DiscoveryHut

And of course all the biscuits the dogs & men could eat!

From 20091201-DiscoveryHut

It's a pretty cool little hut, an interesting artifact of historical times long gone, and a great place to take a walk to on a fine day at McMurdo.

Helo

Well it's my last week here and I finally managed to get on a helicopter. We've been grounded for the last two weeks due to bad weather and a lack of success competing with other groups waiting for flight time. Today our number came up.

From 20091130-Helo

Our destination today would be a quaint little place called "Butcher Ridge". Much like Deverall Island, Butcher Ridge is one of UNAVCO's GPS sites located in the dry valleys. We had more or less the same list of maintenance activities planned for the day here as before, and in the morning the weather was looking good.

From 20091130-Helo

About the time we reached our familiar friend, Mt. Discovery, the wind picked up to about 50 knots. On the ground this would be enough to knock your hat off and push you backward. In the air this is enough to put you on the ground. After a few minutes of trying to fight our way onward, our pilot announced that we'd better turn back.

From 20091130-Helo

Despite the unfortunate news it was hard not to enjoy the scenery and just the fact that here we were flying around Antarctica in our own personal helicopter. The snow-capped mountains never get old.

From 20091130-Helo

I kept finding myself staring at the unnatural shade of blue that permeated the ice below us. The patterns of rock & ice just don't look real. We also got a glimpse of open water on the horizon. It gets closer everyday.

All in all we were only out of the office for a few hours. As our pilot put it, "Better to be here wishing we had gone on, than to be there wishing we had turned back." Judging by the howling wind and the rolling clouds that dominated the rest of the day, I suspect he was right. I shudder to think that he's learned that bit of wisdom from personal experience.

Deverall Island

From 20091120-DeverallIsland

Last week we had a beautiful day on Friday and we finally got a chance to get out of town for a while. Our destination was Deverall Island a few hundred miles south along the coast of the continent and our ride was a Twin Otter "fixed wing" aircraft. This was my first time flying in one of these, and let me tell you a ski landing on sea ice is a hair raising event. They're impressive vehicles though. We touched down with no trouble and even taxied over to within a few hundred yards of our site.

From 20091120-DeverallIsland

Out here in the middle of nowhere a steel frame with a pile of batteries, antennas, wind generators, and solar panels sticks out like a sore thumb. It's a very elegant design though, and it's satisfying to think that we can deploy these things with nothing but a ring of satellites tying them back to the mainland and be able to continuously collect data. We spent about four hours monkeying with various parts that needed maintenance of some kind.

From 20091120-DeverallIsland

On the way home we needed to make a quick stop for gas. No stations in sight, but we did find a pile of six fuel drums half buried in the snow. Fifteen minutes of shoveling and fifteen minutes of pumping later and we were gassed up and ready to go. The fuel cache site offered some splendid views of the surrounding rock & ice.

From 20091120-DeverallIsland

As we got nearer to McMurdo we started seeing some familiar sites. Here's Mt. Discovery - yet another resident volcano. Doesn't the bluish tint in the sea ice look strange?

From 20091120-DeverallIsland

Home sweet McMurdo! We got home just in time for dinner. Another fine day in Antarctica.

Castle Rock

Once again the weather cleared for us this week, so my colleague and I decided to go checkout Castle Rock up close.

From 20091118-CastleRock

Unfortunately the Class 3 route to the summit is still closed, but we were still able to get some stunning views of the rock and Mt. Erebus off in the distance. The weather was clear enough that you could even see a small plume emanating from the top of the volcano.

From 20091118-CastleRock

The full Castle Rock loop is about 7 miles and continues on passed the rock to Scott Base. From there you follow the road back to McMurdo. We decided just to do a quick run out to the rock and back.

From 20091118-CastleRock

Along the way you pass a lot of "golf balls" which contain our satellite dishes and also "apples" which function as warming huts for hikers passing by. In our case the apples served as relief from the constant direct sun. It was hot!

From 20091118-CastleRock

Coming back we had a nice view of Mt. Discovery off in the distance across the Ross Sea and lovely McMurdo station beckoning us home.

Observation "Ob" Hill

From 20091109-ObHill

A few days ago the weather was so nice we just had to take advantage. After dinner we decided to run up Ob Hill for a quick "night hike".

From 20091109-ObHill

Ob Hill juts out right from the center of town in McMurdo, so there's no need to checkout with the firehouse or be too worried about getting caught out in the weather. It probably takes 30 minutes to get to the top and on a clear day the view from up there is amazing. The proximity also makes it a great staging area for mock field sites.

From 20091109-ObHill

If the visibility is good you can see Mt. Erebus off in the distance, McMurdo's active volcano in residence, with Castle Rock in the foreground. Also nearby is Scott Base which is home to our Kiwi neighbors. There's a loop you can do as a day hike out to Castle Rock. Scott Base is normally closed to visitors except by invitation or if you're headed to the store, but on Thursdays it's "American Night" and McMurdo residents are welcome in the bar. Might be headed there tonight actually.

From 20091109-ObHill

This cross is an historic monument and preserved in accordance with the provisions of the antarctic treaty. It was erected in January, 1913 to commemorate Captain Scott and his party who lost their lives on the return journey from the south pole in March, 1912.

Happy Camper School

From 20091102-HappyCamper

First order of business for a grantee deploying to McMurdo is Snowcraft I AKA Happy Camper School. Happy Camper School teaches you how to survive the night (or day since it's never night here) should you unexpectedly find yourself stranded off station on your own with limited supplies. You are required to take this course before you're allowed to leave town in any kind of vehicle (think helicopters). For most people this is a lot of fun.

From 20091102-HappyCamper

There's a brief one hour lecture in town before you're whisked away in the "Delta" transport vehicle. Happy Camper School takes place a few miles out of town just passed Scott base. Despite being out in the cold you're never really that far away from help should you need it.

From 20091102-HappyCamper

You learn a variety of skills throughout the course, but most important is setting up shelter. The more obvious options are mountaineering tents and Scott tents (named for the Antarctic explorer), but some of the more interesting choices are quincy huts and snow trenches. Igloos are also an option, though we only got as far as building wind walls from snow blocks. I slept in one of the Scott tents (tall pointy and yellow).

From 20091102-HappyCamper

We were fortunate. The coldest temperature we saw that night was 7F. A cold night for sure, but nothing compared to what the antarctic can throw at you. Many folks spend Happy Camper School shivering at well below zero. If things become unbearable, you always have the option of sneaking off to the warming hut for safety. This is, of course, highly discouraged. We spent most of the night drinking hot chocolate and laughing. When it came time for bed, the cold was nothing a nalgene full of hot water tucked down in your sleeping bag couldn't take care of. I slept like a baby.

From 20091102-HappyCamper

The next morning we went back into the instruction hut around 8AM to go over things like radio basics and risk management.

Though I was pretty comfortable throughout the experience, I must admit I was pretty happy to see the Delta on it's way back to pick us up. Antarctica is not a place you want to sleep outdoors in the cold if you can help it.

Hello from McMurdo

From 20091029-IceFlight

We're here!

I've arrived in McMurdo safe & sound. We made it in one shot - no boomerang flights this time. For those that do not know, when you fly to McMurdo from Christchurch, sometimes the C-17 turns around midflight if the weather at the landing strip doesn't look good. A five hour flight one way turns into an eight or ten hour flight only to bring you back right where you started. When you pack your bags you have one set aside just in case this happens. If it does, it's called a boomerang and you have to start the whole process over first thing the next day.

Despite our good fortune it was still a long flight in the noisiest machine I've ever heard.

From 20091029-IceFlight

Lucky for us it's been blue skies and sunny since the day we landed (24-7). Hopefully we'll see weather like this for the rest of the season.

ECW (Emergency Cold Weather)

Well here I am in Christchurch, New Zealand. Today we were issued our ECW gear for Antarctica. Looks like it's about 15F right now where we're headed, but that could swing quite a ways in either direction throughout the season. It's extremely important during this opportunity to make sure all your gear fits, the zippers and everything work properly, and that you've got everything you think you'll need that they're willing to give you.



I was in Colorado last week, Chile the week before that, at sea the week before that, and Palmer Station, Antarctica the week before that.

Tomorrow I go to McMurdo Station. The world seems a small place these days.

Torres Del Paine

Torres Del Paine! One of the most spectacular national parks in the world. If you go, budget 4-5 days for a trek along "the W" to get the full experience. You can see the route of the W in green in this map. Later in the season you can turn the hike into a full loop if you add on another 5 days or so, but we just did the W itself starting at Glacier Grey and making our way east toward the Torres.

Actually that's not entirely true, here's the breakdown of what we did:

Day 1
Rode a 2 1/2 hour bus from Port Natales into the park. We got off at the catamaran at Lago Pehoe and took a quick run up to the mirador (viewpoint) to see a nice waterfall with a great view of the park.

	The catamaran then dropped us off at Rifugio Grande Paine, which is actually the lower left vertex of the W.
From 20091011-TorresDelPaine

We then hiked north and west up to the Grey Glacier and camped outside Rifugio Grey. The day was cold and very very windy, so hot food and cold beers were a welcome comfort that evening.


Day 2
We got up at Glacier Grey, packed up, and backtracked our route from the day before.

It had snowed overnight and was still dropping a few flakes as we made our way. Another cold and windy day.
From 20091011-TorresDelPaine

Once back at the rifugio where the catamaran had left us we turned left (north) up toward the center of the W. We stopped to camp that night at Campamento Italiano which is just south of Valle De Frances - the central leg of the W.


Day 3

	Another cold night, and we were ready for the best part of the trip - Valle De Frances.
From 20091011-TorresDelPaine

Our friends at the hostel in Port Natales assured us today would have the best views. That statement was made with the assumption that you could actually see through the clouds. Unfortunately the last two days hadn't afforded much clear skies, and today was only just starting to clear up.

We could see the Cuernos on our right (east), but the Grande Paine we could only see the base of. The peaks were all in the clouds.
From 20091011-TorresDelPaine

After trekking for a few hours up the valley through snow we decided a short day would do us all some good so we headed back down to break camp.

	From our campground we just had a short hop along the shore of Lago Nordenskjol over to Rifugio Cuernos. This rifugio was in a beautiful location and the weather finally broke that afternoon.
From 20091011-TorresDelPaine

But I was too tired to take any more pictures...


Day 4
I woke up refreshed and ready to hit the trail again.

The sky was blue and the sun was shining overhead. No windbreaker today, we'd be hiking in t-shirts in 60-degree bluebird. From here, we needed to skirt the base of the Cuernos and climb our way up in to the valley that leads up to the Torres - our last destination along the route.
From 20091011-TorresDelPaine

Tonight we'd be staying near Rifugio Chilenos, or possibly at the campground above if we can find the strength (we camped at the rifugio).

	My friends were a bit worn out from the last 4 days, but somewhere I had found my pace and made good time over to the rifugio that morning. When my friends arrived, I ditched most of my weight and hoofed it on up to catch a view of the Torres while the weather was still holding.
From 20091011-TorresDelPaine

This officially completed the W for me besides the hike out. We had initially planned to do this the next morning, but it was too nice to pass up the opportunity.


Day 5

Let's go! Too tired for anything more, me and one of my comrades headed down to catch a bus back out to Port Natales.
From 20091011-TorresDelPaine

Our other partner decided to add a day to the trip and go spend some time at the Torres.

	Not sure where he camped that night, but he wasn't on the bus when it left.
From 20091011-TorresDelPaine

A nice quiet day in the sun with just a quick descent to cold beer and a ride into town.

All in all, we had a very typical trip to Torres Del Paine national park. The weather never stays the same for more than 10 hours and we certainly saw all the forms. Most importantly it was a welcome break between Palmer Station and the final journey back to the real world.

The thing I missed most while at Palmer for the austral winter was all the time I would've spent on the trails in Colorado. This trip filled the gap nicely.