Happy Camper!

The title says it all, my big adventure I was hinting at was a training course where you go and camp out on the ice shelf for night. It was a blast!

We started out in a classroom to learn some key components before heading out to our camp site. Things like the survival bag, risks and important points to remember. Then we jumped in a Delta and left for the evening.
The camp site is on the south side of Ross Island, past Scott base in a really snowy area right by Mt. Erebus. You can also see Mt. Terror as well. Tidbit of trivia, the two mountains were named for the first two ships to sail down here. This is Mt. Erebus, it was smoking pretty good Monday. Mt. Terror would be to the right of it, but I couldn't fit in the picture. The little building was our outhouse. (Dad I know how to make the most kick ass outhouse and solved the cold seat issue during ice fishing. I will tell you all about when I get home. No more cold butts from peeing!)
This first thing we learned was how to light our camp stoves and then set up a Scott tent. Here is what a Scott tent looks like folded up.
And then set up. It has four poles to make a square tent with a circle opening that feels like coming out of the womb everytime you get in and out. It is staked it down using dead man's posts and fancy knots.
After setting up the Scott tents, we moved on to making a quinsey. It is a shelter made out of snow that you can sleep in. First, we piled all our sleeping gear up.
Then you cover it in snow and pack it down nice and tight.
After enough snow was piled up and packed down, we left it settle and harden. While waiting, we built a snow wall to protect the mountain tents we were going to set up. This involved quarrying blocks of snow and carrying them to the wall site. Due to my perfectionism, I was one of the builders. I'm really good at piling and packing snow. I owe all that to the many snow forts we made as kids. Here is the completed wall.
This whole time we have been setting up, a storm was moving in on us. We were watching landmarks disappear in snow all afternoon and by this time, it was falling all around us. All you could see was white and more white. Luckily, the winds stayed down for the most part and it wasn't a hard snow. After this all my pictures become a lot of white so you will see what I saw all night.

After finishing the snow wall, we set up the mountain tents.
Then moved back to the quinsey to help dig out all the packs we buried in snow. Its that mound of snow you can hardly see.
A couple guys dug an entrance.
Here is the completed project. This is the door and the quinsey is the mound you can't see. It was pretty neat inside. Like a snow cave.
Here is a picture of our camp after all the tents where up, quinsey finished and we could start to boil water for dinner. Dinner was a dehydrated meal that you pour boiling water into and let sit for 15 minutes. It wasn't too bad, not great but edible. Besides I was so hungry, I would have eaten my arm if you said I had to. It took forever to melt snow and boil the water so we had dinner around 8:30 pm.

We cooked inside the Scott tent which is where I ended up sleeping. They gave us some really nice fleece liners and sleeping bags. Leslie and Mahesh gave me all sort of hints to stay warm and I took them all. I changed clothes, laid out my wool blanket from my bed, put my boots in my sleeping bag, had a hot water bottle and buried myself in all the fleece and sleeping bag. I was one of the only ones to stay warm all night. I was even told that I snored all night long. :) It was cold but I stayed warm. Here was our tent in the morning.
The next morning we boiled more water for hot drinks and oatmeal and then tore down the camp. A couple guys stayed in the quinsey and two even decided that they wanted to build and sleep in trenches.
Everyone was calling them the graves because it looked like an under ground tomb. But I guess they slept pretty well and were able to stay warm.

After tearing down the camp, we learned how to use HF radios and tried to call the South Pole but nobody answered us. I guess they don't monitor the radios until summer season. The last activity on the list was a survival game. We simulated a white out by putting buckets on our heads.
We were given a rope and told to go find the person who was stranded in the white out on her way to another building. Trying to work together as a team with buckets on is hard. We split into two groups and I was able to watch the first group go. It was funny.

They ended up not finding the person in the snow but our group sort of did. After watching the first group we thought we had a plan. She ended up having to scoot in front of us because we passed right over her with our rope.

Then it was time to head back. I was so tired and sore that all I did was shower and take a nap. I went to dinner with Leslie and we tried to watch a movie but I was too tired so we went to bed early. This morning I woke up with a little bit of the crud (a cold). So now I'm not only sore and tired, but have a nose that wont stop dripping and a sore throat. I did have a blast though. It was the craziest thing I have ever done but it really was a lot of fun. Just had to get past the fact that it was really cold and all was good. I guess we lucked out on weather too, the snow helped keep it warmer and the winds really didn't get bad until the morning. What a crazy experience!

Life Lessons

Well hello there! I had another couple of interesting days since my last entry. I don't have any new pictures but several good stories to share. I think I left you Friday morning to go prep a sonde for our next flight. I did prep the sonde but then we decided to try for a big balloon flight that night and we didn't need it. Since we wanted to run the Lidar while we had one of our big instruments up, we needed to launch at night. It needs to be dark to run the Lidar so we decided to launch at 11pm. Leslie and I took a nap to prepare, ate dinner and went back to the lab to wait. We made the official 'we are going to do it' call at around 10pm. Then it was time to prepare all the instruments and get everything ready. Ok done, head down to the launch site at 11pm. Now remember, this is a big balloon so it takes more preparation and hands to launch it, not like the ozonesondes where you really only need three people and I can hold the balloon by myself.

I'll try to set the mood of the evening for you all. It's dark but a really nice night. Hardly any wind but cold. Launching a big balloon is stressful because everything has to be perfect to get it off the ground so the tension in our group is insane. Well more like one person who was getting us all worked up but we won't say names. We had some extra help to hold the balloon and lay out the canvases. We start to fill this thing, everything was going fine until a really nice gust of wind comes along. Bad news bears. It twisted the balloon all up and we have to pause to get the balloon back under control. So we decide to move to the other side of the building where we have a little wind blockage. Pick of the whole operation and move it. We continue to fill the balloon and lay it all out with our load line, mast and instruments attached. Its like watching chickens run around with their heads cut off with yelling and minor chaos. Woo balloon launches.

Finally we are ready, it is almost midnight and shit hits the fan. Well not the fan but almost in somebody's pants. We set up our balloon launches next to the waste water treatment plant which is right along the main road between McMurdo and the ice. For the big balloons we have to spread out onto the road. Well it was the night shift worker's lunch (called mid rats, short for midnight rations) so they were starting to head in to eat. We stopped the first van and were going to launch quick but then some challengers rolled up. Challengers are big bulldosers that plow snow and they were just going to go around the stopped van. There was a lot of yelling, freaking out for 3 seconds, and then bam, time to launch. "ONE, TWO, THREE" and the balloon is up and away. Then more craziness as we rush to pack up and get to the lab to start the receiving equipment. General chaos.

After that, we just wait for the balloon to do its thing and send us data. It feels like it takes a lot longer than it actually does but we were tired. I think we were in bed by 3 am. Leslie and I slept in and went to lunch when we finally got out of bed. This brings us to life lesson number one: bulldosers and balloons don't mix so keep them separate or you will have poopy pants.

Saturday was actually pretty boring until dinner. Mainbody starts next week so the station has a party to celebrate the end of Winfly. It's called the Carp Shop Party because it takes place in the carp shop which is short for carpenters. Party of the year I tell you. Backing up a little, we ate dinner first and it was Italian night, so good food. We can have wine with dinner and it was a lot of laughs. You learn a lot about the people you work with when being around them so much. I can't say on here but it was hilarious. So then it was off to the party.

Now I'm not much of a partier but this was a blast. They had live bands (people from around station) and they were fantastic. Hands down fantastic. They have dancing, crappy beer and bands in one room. It had the atmosphere of a college party but older... They also set up games in the another room. They had a mini golf course, hammer games and this hook and ring game. Leslie and I hung out and watched the bands for awhile. I reverted to my undergrad days and danced the night away. It was super fun. And then like any college party, the point comes where people are too drunk and the fun level drops. Drama starts and people are stupid. Leslie and I escaped to play games and hang out with the seal group. That was fun. I got a hole in one on the last mini golf hole. Leslie conquered the ring and hook game. General good times. But again, people are dumb and you can't escape that for long. It was time to go. I had a ton of fun though dancing to the live bands. Excellent musicians.

This brings us to the second and most important life lesson: do not party with your co-workers. I'm not going to elaborate, I'm sure some of you have experienced this and know full well what I'm talking about. Not good.

Again we slept in this morning. Went to brunch to find out that we had a time change nobody told us about. So I guess it is an hour later. I'm tired and sore but still living up my fun night of dancing. Wish I could forget some of the other stuff but that will come with time. I'm preparing for my next adventure which starts tomorrow. Should be fun and I'll tell you all about it later. Sorry if this entry was too long and random. Stay warm everyone!

Hello

I don't really have a whole lot to say but everyone is at a refresher course so I thought I would write something, since I'm procrastinating. Yesterday I was working on an outline for my thesis, so I can officially start writing the actual thesis soon. I won't get far but I can at least say I started writing. Sort of exciting except for the fact that I hate writing and this is going to be painful.

Last night we went to Scott Base. It's the Kiwi base real close to us, about 2 miles away...maybe. The base is bright green, sea cucumber green I believe is the color. I liked the fact that all the buildings are connected by walkways and you never have to go outside. We didn't stay long, just enough to check out their little store and peek in the bar. I didn't take any pictures yet because it was low lighting and they wouldn't have turned out. Next time I'll get some.

After that, we had a drink at the coffee house and played a game with Terry, Mahesh and Rich. I had the weirdest dreams last night too. That seems to be a common occurrence here, everyone has weird dreams. I swear I have one every night, must be something in the water.

Today the plan is to prep a sonde while everyone is gone and then we will launch it this afternoon. Maybe we'll find something fun to do tonight. Cause some trouble or something. I'll get a better entry for the next time too. Stay warm!

For some reason I like to show you stupid pictures of myself doing strange things so here ya go! This is the sexy hat they gave us in our gear. Hot damn!

Requests or Suggestions

I've been writing to you all for awhile now about things that I think are cool or fun. What do you think of everything? Is there anything that you want to see or hear about? Any requests for topics? Let me know what you all are thinking.

By the way, I fixed what I was doing wrong the other day and still nothing works. Science is mean. Mitten hands...

Sea Ice!

We've been without power and internet all day so I wasn't able to get this up before you all went to bed today. The last couple days have been busy but super fun! I was out on the sea ice and saw a seal... but let me start back on Sunday. Get ready, this is a long entry.

I told you about the morning in the last entry and then I had a fantastic 2 hour nap in the afternoon. It was Terry's turn to give the Sunday Science Lecture and we were his assistants. He had a great talk and some fun demonstrations that we helped with. The talk was about optical phenomenon and certain features that show up in Antarctica. Everyone really seemed to like the talk and we've had tons of compliments.

Monday wasn't too interesting, I was cranky all day and then was really crabby when I found out all the work I've done in the last couple days I did wrong. So we chilled out and watched a movie that night so I didn't have to talk to anyone.

Tuesday morning we launched another balloon early in the morning (Stacy Sonde I think). We did something wrong on the inflation and had a bit of a rough launch. The balloon didn't go up when we let it go like it was supposed to but floated horizontal for awhile. We didn't think it was going to go anyway but eventually it headed upwards. It was slow moving though and took forever to get to its ceiling. Then it was a floater and took its time doing it's thing. Stupid balloon.

Tuesday afternoon we had sea ice training. It was pretty cool. First we had a classroom type lecture and I learned a bunch about how the ice moves differently from lake ice. We also learned about the different types of cracks that form on the ice as it moves and how to find and profile a crack. Then we headed out to the ice to look at some real cracks in the sea ice. We rode in a Hagglund out there, which is a neat little machine. Slow moving but efficient.

We looked at some tidal cracks then found a crack near hut point we could play with. This is hut point where we were looking for cracks.
We practiced profiling the crack which is checking to see if you can drive over it safely. We just had a little crack about 5 inches wide, enough to stick your boot in. We shoveled out a little area and then drilled down to see how thick the ice was.

It turns out that the ice we were drilling was 175 cm thick, which is about 6 feet. That’s some thick ice. We drove to another area and drilled again.
The views were incredible and I got some really nice pictures. But I'm not putting them up here cuz I think they are that good and don't want anybody snagging them. I'll show you when I get home.

While we were stopped, one of the science groups (diving guys) stopped to invite us to their hut to look down their diving hole. So we cruised over there. More amazing scenery and hole drilled in the ice. This is the other side of hut point with a bunch of tidal cracks in the ice.

This is where they send down cameras and divers.

This instrument is called “Skinny” and it has a camera on it that looks at the bottom of the sea.

I believe it’s a robot and they can drive it around?? Or they have a robot that they sent out and drive around?? Not sure but we were able to see down the hole some 85 feet and look at the bottom. There were sponges, starfish and other fishes. It was so cool. I can’t even describe how cool it was to be looking at the bottom of the ocean from 80 feet up, through 6 feet of ice, in a little hut out on the sea ice of McMurdo Sound, in Antarctica. So cool.

Later, after we had gotten back and had dinner, the Crary lab (where I work) had a Bingo night in the bar on station. So Leslie and I headed over there to play and have some fun. I didn’t win but Leslie won twice. She got some nice prizes and it was a nice night. There was a lot of laughter and a lot of fun. I slept like a rock last night and really didn’t want to get out of bed this morning. I didn’t even brush my hair, I was pretty proud that I had at least gotten dressed and put deodorant on.

So this morning, Wednesday, we had the opportunity to go back to the ice with the seal group and watch them release a seal. They are studying the hunting habits of seals by attaching instruments to them and measuring a bunch of stuff. They had outfitted one and were ready to release it and they let us watch. Unfortunately, due to permit laws, I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of the actual seal because it had instruments on it . Hopefully I’ll be able to get some from the group and can show you when I get home. But here is a picture of the huts they work in and the Jamesway where they keep the seals while instrumenting them. The little vehicle is called a Piston Bully.

This is Ian sawing out the seal hole. This was pretty neat, made me want to try my hand at chain sawing ice.

Boe is pulling the ice out of the hole with David.

After everything was ready, it was time to release the seal. What a beautiful animal. So sleek and big! It was huge! And so cute and sweet looking. She waddled to the ice hole and slipped into the water but checking to see if the coast was clear first of course. She came back up for air a couple times, so I was able to see it bobbing in the water. Super cute. Then poof, it was gone and that was that. Here are a couple pictures I found online of Weddell seals so you can at least see the type of seal I saw, since I wasn't able to take any.

And yes, she was that cute. She made me want to cuddle with her but she would have crushed me. She was about 400 kg or 900 pounds.

While we were out there, we saw some optical things. Mirages and sun dogs. I also was able to get some nice picture of Mt. Erebus. You can see the puff of smoke coming out the top if you look closely. Its the huge mountain behind the little hills.

It was an awesome couple of days. I’m preparing for another big adventure next week that I will tell you about later but I’m not going to tell you what I’m doing. I’m going to leave you in suspense. Enjoy the pictures!!

Lazy Sunday

Another week has come and gone here on the ice. Nothing super cool has happened to report on. We launched another ozonesonde on Wed. Sonja was her name this time, Leslie and I sat up in Building 70 entertaining ourselves with song and dance. We have been watching movies almost every night. I'm pretty sure we killed Patrick Swayze. We watched Dirty Dancing one night and the next day, he died. Pretty creepy. We also watched Yes Man which was hilarious. Then the seal guys wanted to watch Day of the Dead but I only made it through maybe a half hour of that.

Wed, Thurs and Friday were just work. I honestly cannot remember what happened on those days... We watched movies I think. Sat we launched another balloon, Stewert Sonde. It was International Talk like a Pirate day. Lots of Yarrs and even Terry joined in. It was fun. We had some grog with dinner and Leslie gave a beautiful toast in pirate. It was great. There was also a craft fair last night where I did a little damage to the checking account. Leslie and I then went to the coffee shop and played games. It was nice and relaxing. I was able to stop and appreciate where I was. I'm in Antarctica, I just had to stop and remember. It really is cool.

So I thought I would give some cool things I have discovered here. Warning: These are super random.
1. The whole island is volcanic rock since it was formed by volcanoes. Mount Erebus is the only active volcano on the contienent of Antarctica and its right next door.
2. Sea ice really is blue. So cool. One of the fleet ops guys brought in a huge chunk of ice from the airstrip. It is a really pretty color blue.
3. There is never enough lotion. It is so dry here. I use tons of lotion and vasaline is my new best friend. It creates a very shocking environment. As in static electricity. I have never been shocked so much in my life, be careful of metal objects.
4. There is a very unique language here as well. Like we are here on the ice. Freshies are fresh fruits and veggies which we haven't had in a couple weeks. I am also considered a fng and a beeker. I've seen Fng spelled fingy and is pronounced fin-gee. It comes from the military and means f**king new guy. Can you guess what beeker stands for?
5. You come up with ways to entertain yourself. Like the marker board in my office.

There are more disturbing images as well, made by yours truely. Don't ask, we laughed a lot over this one.
6. Stuffed animals take on a life of their own.
7. We dance and sing a lot. Leslie and I can be found almost anywhere singing songs and having dance parties. We do a lot of Micheal Jackson and almost have the beat it dance perfected. Its funniest to do it when dressed up in all our outside gear. Here is the I'm Cold dance performed by Leslie.
8. You also find yourself taking random pictures of yourself. Like me in my sexy long underwear.
9. The smallest things are super entertaining. Like song and dance. Drawing on marker boards. Stringing pieces of strings through holes. Playing with tape. Naming ozonesondes. Cat's cradle. Shower day is exciting. Playing with pieces of metal. Talking like a pirate. Kicking a piece of ice up a hill. It all has a fun factor.
10. And my personal favorite. There are many strange qualities you discover about yourself. For example, I smell... bad. All the time. My feet now have an odor I can't get rid of from wearing thick socks. Its terrible. I'm also very tired of clothes and wish I could be naked more often. My new experiment is to see how long the hair on my legs will grow. This is the longest I've gone without shaving and I'm fascinated by the length of my hair. I know, it is gross.

Antarctica is a beautiful and fascinating place. I really am glad that I'm here to see it and do some things. Experience this strange and wonderful world. There are two things that I cannot seem to get used to though. The smell, myself and others. That and one ply toilet paper.

Simon Says

Hello from the Antarctic Circle :)
Everything here is normal, nothing too spectacular going on. Sunday we launched Simon Sonde, he did well and we have more data. I went to Building 70 where I took a couple pictures.
Woo hotstuff! Hehe, I'm not wearing my coat :P, yes it was warm enough. It was 13F that day!

There was a Sunday Science Lecture again, this time on Wendell Seals and their hunting patterns in the dark. It was very interesting with neat video and sound. Seals make the coolest sounds I have ever heard and they are super good hunters, fish don't stand a chance. Hopefully I'll be able to go out and see one when the seal group has one caught. Or see one anywhere would be fun.

Leslie and I also went for a walk on Sunday since we were having a heat wave of 13F, yes thats right, above zero. We walked to Scott's hut which is pretty close to McMurdo.
This is the hut where Robert Scott and his men stayed on their Discovery Expedition. It was supposed to be a temporary camp but they ended up getting stuck and having to stay for about 2 months. Can you imagine being stuck in that little building for 2 months with 15 other guys trying to stay warm. You can see McMurdo from the hut.
The front door.
And a dead seal that has been there for over 100 years. Yeah crazy.
Don't ask me how or why but it is still there from when Scott and his men were there.

The trail we took around the little bay.
Next we walked up the another hill that overlooks the bay and Scott's hut.
There is a lovely cross up there for some guy named Vince who died when he fell off the cliff.
An inland view from the point, desolate looking isn't it. I'm amazed that people trekked over this way back in the day. Better men than me.
And here is the whale that greets you when you arrive at McMurdo.
Antarctica is absolutely beautiful. This was the sunset and some polar stratospheric clouds.
Sunday was a good day. I'm glad we were able to get outside for awhile. We are going to try to get a key to get into the hut next time we go. I've got a couple exciting things coming up in the next two weeks so stay tuned for more adventures to come.

PS for those of you who haven't figured it out yet or didn't know, you can click on the pictures for a full screen view. Enjoy!