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.