slap happy camper

Being the "science supporter" that I am would suggest that there is actually science happening here at McMurdo. With all of the socializing, recreating and partying that goes on at McMurdo we sometimes forget what we are really here for. When it comes right down to it, this is not college for adults but a research station. A research station on a harsh continent where many of the studies take place beyond our familiar, cushioned life in mactown. In order to prepare one for going out to field camps or boondoggles where the weather might close in and you would need to be prepared to handle the extreme conditions, there is SnowSchool 1, or better known on station as "happy camper :)." Since my fine work here is as a custodial artist, I am not a high priority candidate for happy camper. However, happy camper is also viewed as a "moral trip" for many people on station and if you're lucky, you'll get to go regardless of your job. My turn was up this past Tuesday and Wednesday...whew hooooooo...no toilet brushes or pubic hairs for two days!

After a couple of boring classroom lectures we set out in a Haggelund, a way cool Antarctic vehicle, at 10am Tuesday morning. Happy camper takes place at "snow mound city," where there are skeleton remains of quinzies, igloos and snow block walls left from past groups. After lunch we started on our own quinzy, basically a snow cave that you could build if you had to hunker down for the night with no tent. You could also build a simple trench which would be quicker and would at least get you out of the wind in an emergency. For the quinzey, we piled a bunch of our packs up and threw a tent fly over it and started shoveling. After the packs were covered and the walls were about 18" thick, we let it set up for about an hour and then proceeded to dig a hole into the side in order to get our packs out. Finally, we covered the first hole and dug another hole that actually went down a couple of steps or feet beneath the quinzy and dug a tunnel up and into the structure from the bottom. The reason for the second entrance is so that heat wont escape but will instead stay inside the quinzey. After that, we set up the one Scott tent we had which is the same style tent that Robert Falcon Scott used on his south pole expedition, hence the name. My favorite part was using the saws to cut out snow blocks and build a snow wall. The snow walls are used to put alongside your camp to block the wind.

The next morning we got up, made breakfast and tore down camp. After that we learned how to use HF (high frequency) radios which is something I had never experienced before. Instead of a very high frequency radio where the waves travel only between a line of sight (or you put up repeaters for the waves to bounce off of), HF waves bounce between the earth and its atmosphere. You could think of the waves like a rope that is being held onto at each end by two people and once person shaking it. That's what the waves do between the earth and the edge of the atmosphere. You can use HF radios to talk to someone across the globe! I chose to call the south pole to ask the temperature...a balmy -22 degrees with a -40 degree windchill.

Then it was time to use our skills and perform some scenarios. I had heard about one of the scenarios using some very high tech white-out simulators. Yes, we all put white buckets on our heads and had to figure out how we would go about finding someone who had wandered out to pee in a white out and had not returned. Surprisingly, the buckets were rather effective. The sound was muffled so it was very hard to hear one another and obviously we couldn't see so that was pretty realistic. Unfortunately, it was harder than it probably sounds and our victim died of hypothermia which is also probably be pretty realistic in an actual scenario.

Overall, it was a great time. We had fantastic weather, which made it hard to pretend we were in a life threatening situation. The only thing we truly had to worry about was putting on sunscreen regularly. Best two days of work I've had so far!

The Mighty Haggelund


Building the quinzey...



...and the finished product



the Scott tent, where I slept that night



some Antarctic groundhogs



cutting out snow blocks for the wall...





"surviving" Antarctica

hot dawg!

What a fantasitc day! I'm still on a high from the greatest expereince I've had since being at McMurdo. It has been 5 years since the U.S. Coast Guard has coordinated with Raytheon and the National Science Foundation to make time for "moral" cruises into the McMurdo Sound. Before I go into more detail I need to make a correction to my last blog entry. See "Oden," the Swedish ice breaker...


See "Polar Sea," U.S. Coast Guard ice breaker


I'm a rookie and was confused about the whole "ice breaker" & "vessel" thing but I've got it straight now...whew. Both of these ships are ice breakers here to break the ice and then keep the channel through the McMurdo Sound open until the vesselS get here. There are several vessels, not just one, carrying fuel, science cargo, non-perishable food, alcohol...basically everything you can think of to keep McMurdo up and running until next January, minus the supplies that we get on a regular basis carried on the C-17 's from Christchurch during the summer months. Then, the vessels take with them all of our crap (literally), garbage, waste, EVERYTHING goes back to California and put in landfills or dealt with there. Yesterday, during our our all hands meeting we watched slides of what McMurdo was like in the 80's and early 90's. It's hard to believe that garbage and raw sewage were actually dumped directly into the ocean at that time. They also used to have a dump where garbage was burned everyother weekend sending clouds of black smoke and soot into the atmosphere. Thankfully, things have changed a lot around McMurdo.

Anyways, I'm getting off topic...I got to take a three hour cruise on the Polar Sea today!!!!! The funny thing is that I wasn't even on the list to go. During the middle of the week there was a sign up sheet up for anyone who wanted to go. There are 1000 people on station and there was only room for 400. Names were chosen randomly and posted yesterday. When I found out that I wasn't even an ALTERNATE for the trip my heart just sank. I'd been waiting all week for this trip, for the chance to ride aboard this ship that I'd only heard of before coming to McMurdo. I mean, how many times do you get to go out on an icebreaker? Suddenly, last night, this had become the anti-moral trip for me. Being the emotional eater that I am, the first thing I did after seeing the list that my name was NOT on, was stuff a frosted cupcake into my mouth to ease the pain. I went back and my name was still not on the list. Whatever, there was nothing I could do about it so we all got ready and headed over to the carp shop where there was a barbeque going on. Later that evening I ran into a friend of mine, Galena, who is a beaker (scientist) at the Crary lab, where I clean toilets. Of course, the subject came up and I was reminded that I was NOT going on the cruise the next day. Without hesitation Galena offered me her spot on the ship, her reason being that as a beaker she has gotten out to many field camps and has seen more than most people do during her time at McMurdo. When the lists were posted we were told that you would not be permitted to give your spot up to someone else but instead, someone on the "alternate" list would be given the spot. But, I figured I wasn't going to get on that boat sitting in my room so I took her up on it and for a few hours I became Galena Ackerman :) YEAH! The only thing that could trump that would be a helo ride, it was fantastic! We saw tons of wildlife...minkey whales, emporor penguins, adelie penguins, weddel seals. The emporor penguins actually reminded me of loons the way they swim at the surface of the water with their little black and white head poking up. The whales were entertaining. We would see them about a hundred yards ahead blowing and the captain would annouce "minkeys, starboard." When we got next to them, or they swam towards the boat, they would come within just a few yards of the hull. The water is so amazingly clear and blue that you could see them gliding past the ship even when they didn't break to the surface. Then, when it was time to turn the ship around the captain demonstrated what it was like to "back and ram" the ice which is what they do when they are breaking. We were told the ice was about 14' thick and the ship could break at a speed of 3 knots. The ship would actually ride up onto the ice and you had to hold on so as not to loose your balance when the ship hit.
Here are some pictures of the ship and what we saw.

















My moral has been lifted! What a great way to end the season. My re-deployment date is set for February 14 when we will be flown back to Christchurch, New Zealand. Most people are planning to travel afterwards, including myself.

Back to work tomorrow, 14 more days of scrubbing and then it's one long vacation :)

Life continues to go smoothly down south. With no more two day weekends to look forward to and the holidays behind us, talk of re-deployment and travel have been the buzz around town. Last week we sat though re-deployment meetings which gave us all of the details including room inspections, bag drag, onward travel and when we would get our last cash allotment from Raytheon once off the ice. During my days of vigorous toilet scrubbing by mind swirls with thoughts of post-ice travel, will I return to the ice next summer, where am I going to travel, do I have enough travel funds? Then I realized, in just a few short weeks, I will no longer be able to knock on my next door neighbor's door and find my "up for anything friends" waiting for me. So, my goal for the next six weeks is to be present here at McMurdo because soon I'll be saying goodbye to something that has been a great experience. The last thing I should do is rush it.

January is an exciting month at McMurdo. Each year a U.S. Coast Guard vessel is contracted by the National Science Foundation to bring enough supplies to McMurdo to last an entire year. An ice breaker, which precedes the vessel, is also contracted by the NSF to break through the winter ice. This year the job was given to the Swedes and their icebreaker "Oden." For the past two weeks we have been able to see Oden from Hut Point Peninsula, a short 15 minute walk from McMurdo. The Oden was built in 1989, weighs 13,000 tonnes, measures 170 meters long and 30 meters wide, can travel 15 knots in open water and can cut through six feet of ice traveling at 3 knots. Not only has the Oden been contracted to break though the ice in the McMurdo sound it also carrys researchers, teachers and other personnel from the U.S., Sweden and Chile. The scientific objectives of the cruise are to collect data in rarely traveled areas of the Antarctic seas and coastline, including the Bellingshausen, Amundsen, and eastern Ross Seas. During the expedition these international science teams along with teachers will continue to monitor wildlife, survey sea ice and meteorological conditions, map chemical and thermal properties of the ocean as well as measure the abundance of plankton and nutrients in the ocean. Here is a map of the Oden's journey from Sweden...




A view of Oden less than two weeks ago...



A little later...





Oden finally made it to McMurdo just yesterday... (with some curious, feathered friends in the foreground!)



Photos from Hut Point...



The Oden will not doc until January 18 when a fresh crew will fly in and switch out with the current crew. Until then, Oden will sweep back and forth through the sound making sure to keep the sea ice open for the incoming vessel. There have been orcas, seals and penguins following Oden during its trip to McMurdo. Hopefully we'll be lucky enough to see some whales close to McMurdo!

The sea ice within the McMurdo sound has not broken up and gone out to sea in seven years. There is hope this year that it may happen as open water is closer to McMurdo than it has been in years. This has brought hundreds of penguins to Hut Point and to the land/ice transition here in town. I'll try and get some more photos to post soon!

Happy New Year!