McMurdo Station - Dec 7, 2008 - Logan

Logan Mitchell

Date: 12-7-2008
Location: McMurdo Station, Antarctica
Time: 1:00am
Latitude: 77°50'46.42"S
Longitude: 166°39'59.78"E
Elevation: 34m (112’)
Temperature: -2°C (28°F)
Wind speed: 6 knots
Wind Chill: -6°C (21°F)
Visibility: Unrestricted
Wind direction: E
Relative Humidity:
Barometric Pressure: 28.785
Precipitation: None
Animals: None
Brunch: Pancakes, eggs, fresh fruit (pineapple & watermelon!!)
Supper: Pork & salmon, scalloped potatoes, bread.


Tim and I rented skis and went skiing today around the ~10 mile Castle Rock loop. Well, I guess that isn’t all true. I didn’t check to make sure that my bindings fit my skis (I was assuming that they would work since there weren’t that many pairs of skis) which they didn’t. I guess I had x-country skis and skate ski boots. So, I ran most of the way with skis strapped to my backpack while Tim skied (he felt sorry for me so he let me use his skis for awhile). It was a surprisingly nice run!

Marie, Susanne, and I are scheduled to fly tomorrow so I wanted to describe what it is like to get ready for a flight. All of the luggage on a flight is palletized on a large pallet so to speed the process up you have to “check in” the night before, but it is called “bag drag”. When you fly you have to be wearing all of your ECW (Extreme Cold Weather) gear which includes the large down jacket (big red), bunny boots (the funny lookin white boots), snow bib, warm hat, and glacier glasses. So, when you bag drag, you have to drop off everything you have except your ECW gear and whatever you can fit in a small carry on. That is all you have to wear for that night and, if your plane is canceled then it is all you will have for a day or two until they take your gear off of the large pallet. Lets just hope that our flight actually gets out tomorrow.

McMurdo Station - Dec 5, 2008 - Logan

Logan Mitchell
Date: 12-5-2008
Location: McMurdo Station, Antarctica
Time: 10 pm
Latitude: 77°50'46.42"S
Longitude: 166°39'59.78"E
Elevation: 34m (112’)
Temperature: -5°C (22°F)
Wind speed: 18 km/h (12 mp/h)
Wind Chill: -14°C (7°F)
Visibility: 11 km (12 miles)
Clouds: Mostly cloudy
Wind direction: East
Relative Humidity: 41%
Barometric Pressure: 981 hPa (28.96 in)
Precipitation: None
Animals: None
Breakfast: Eggs, bacon, blueberry pastry
Lunch: Turkey sandwich, fritos, and a pickle.
Supper: Potato salad with apple pie for dessert.

Photo
Weddell seal on the sea ice in front of McMurdo Station

Today was our first day in Antarctica that we didn’t have lots of things to do all day. It was nice to have a somewhat free day to get caught up on things. We will have a pretty good internet connection here which is both good and bad. I can upload pictures, but I can also check the New York Times and see what Obama is up to. I was able to make a few phone calls back home which were a lot of fun. How often do you get a phone call from Antarctica?

McMurdo Station - Dec 4, 2008 - Logan

Logan Mitchell
Date: 12-4-2008
Location: McMurdo Station, Antarctica
Time: 11 pm
Latitude: 77°50'46.42"S
Longitude: 166°39'59.78"E
Elevation: 34m (112’)
Animals: 3 Waddell Seals, 1 Skua
Breakfast: Blueberry pancakes, eggs
Lunch: Turkey sandwich with lots of freshies!
Supper: Steak, mashed potatoes, green beans. Mint Oreo cream pie for desert.

Photo
Inside Scott's Discovery Hut

Today we had lots of classes. First up at 8am was the Environmental Awareness class where we learned a bit about the efforts that are being made (and are expected of us) to keep Antarctica as pristine as possible. After that we went to the best class so far: snowmobile class! The instructor (Joe) was really funny and we learned how to diagnose and fix simple mechanical problems. Then we went out and got to drive snowmobiles around an obstacle course on the sea ice! The obstacle course had flags set up that we could slalom through and hills to go up and over. It was a ton of fun!

At dinner we found out that our flight has been pushed back yet again. This will allow me a little bit more time to work (procrastinate) on the blog. After dinner we went over to Scott base (the main Kiwi base of Antarctic operations which is only a 30 minute walk from McMurdo) for “American” night which happens on every Thursday. It was fun to get to hang out with Kiwis! On the way over to Scott base we saw a few Waddell seals from a distance and one Skua (looks like a grey seagull). One funny thing about the Kiwi base is that they painted all of their buildings green. I don’t know if there is a specific reason for this, or if they just wanted to have some color in their lives.

McMurdo Station - Dec 3, 2008 - Logan

Logan Mitchell
Date: 12-3-2008
Location: McMurdo Station, Antarctica
Time: 10 pm
Latitude: 77°50'46.42"S
Longitude: 166°39'59.78"E
Elevation: 34m (112’)
Breakfast: trail mix and old oatmeal (I didn’t eat any)
Lunch: Hummus sandwiches and potato chips.
Supper: Roast beef, potatoes and bread

Photo
The view across the sea ice form the top of Observation Hill

Today was the second day of Happy Camper class. Today was less fun, but still interesting. We had a few classes on radio communication and risk management. We got to practice with VHF and HF radios. We set up the HF radio and called the South Pole station which is over 1,300 km (~800 miles) away! After Happy Camper we came back to McMurdo & rested.

Ken was able to get on a flight out to WAIS today! We are scheduled to fly on Friday.

McMurdo Station - Dec 2, 2008 - Ken

Update provided by Dr. Kendrick Taylor

Hello,

Operations are progressing slowly. RPSC has the camp up and running, but problems with the Cat 953 (tracked forklift) and Tucker have reduced our ability to move cargo and snow. Compounding the issue is a recent 100 hour period of wind and drifting that obliterated much of the digging that RPSC had already completed. RPSC is trying to get another mechanic and equipment operator to WAIS Divide to help deal with the equipment and drifting. All of the SCO crew and most of the drill crew are in McMurdo. Geoff Hargreaves (NICL- USGS) is at WAIS Divide. Jay Johnson and I are hoping to get out in a day or so. The rest of the crew should get out soon after that. Considering what the weather has been and the equipment difficulties, I am expecting the delays to continue.

We appreciate the positive attitude of the RPSC staff, especially those that helped us get through McMurdo quickly by scheduling additional classes. For those of us that have been coming down for a while, it is good to catch up with our polar buddies that we have known for years. For the newbies, there is the excitement of being on the Ice for the first time.

Cheers,

Ken
Also see http://www.waisdivide.unh.edu/ProjectUpdates/ViewProject

McMurdo Station - Dec 2, 2008 - Logan

Logan Mitchell
Date: 12-2-2008
Location: Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica
Time: 8pm
Latitude: 77°50'22.37"S
Longitude: 166°46'52.61"E
Elevation: ~3m (9’)
Breakfast: Omelette, pancakes, and JoJos.
Lunch: Hummus + cheese sandwichs (2) and potato chips.
Supper: “Alpinaire” dehydrated dinners (similar to Mountain House) dated October 31, 2001.

Photo
Happy camper school

Today I woke up at 6am to work on the blog a little bit before breakfast. It was so weird to stumble out of my pitch black room into a crowded corridor full of people and then looking outside at broad daylight. I’ve been down here a couple of days already and it still surprises me every time.

Today we started “Happy Camper school”. This is a short two day class that is meant to be a crash course on how to stay alive in Antarctica if you somehow get stranded in the middle of nowhere (like in a plane crash). (On a side note, isn’t everywhere in Antarctica the middle of nowhere?) We have two instructors and 18 students. After sitting through a few lectures about how to dress, how to work a MSR Whisperlite International stove etc, we drove back towards Willy airfield and out onto the Ross Ice Shelf and played in the snow! The first task was constructing a bombproof camp. We built a quinsy big enough to sleep 4 people, set up two Scott tents, dug three “graves”, and set up three 4-season tents. To construct the quinsy we piled up all of our gear bags, put a tarp over it, covered the mound of gear with 18” of snow and then dug a hole in from the bottom, moved all the gear bags out and viola, you have a super strong snow shelter! A Scott tent made out of yellow cotton canvass and is shaped like a pyramid with a wooden pole in each corner. These tents have been standard fare for Antarctic exploration for the past 50 years because they are almost indestructible. The only downside is that they weigh ~100 lbs, so they would be a little tough to take backpacking. (This is where I am sleeping tonight) A “grave” is an aptly named snow shelter. To make one you dig a hole in the show in the shape of a grave then cover the top with blocks of ice once you are inside. This is a fast efficient shelter that could keep you alive during a storm, the only thing wrong with it that I could see is that I’d worry that nobody would find me if I was sleeping in one.

Once all of the tents were up the instructors showed us how to set up a snow block quarry and we built a 50’ long, 3’ high wall of snow blocks to shelter the tents. The weather had been worsening throughout the day and it began to snow heavily, but there was no wind. The air temperature was just below freezing so we were getting big fat fluffy snowflakes. At this point the instructors wished us luck in surviving the night and went back to their heated hut for the night! We were still full of energy and while some folks continued digging out their shelters, some of us began to wonder what we could construct out of snow blocks from our quarry and finally decided to build a bridge. We came up with the design & started cutting out all of the blocks that we would need. In the middle of this we broke for dinner which was made entertaining when we again began discussing the age of our meals. We found an expiration date on some of the dehydrated meals to be October 31, 2001! For desert we had chocolate bars, one of which had to be at least a decade old because even though it was pure milk chocolate, it looked like white and brown marble. Tim & Spruce tried it and said it tasted like cardboard. I’ve eaten a lot of weird things in my life, but I’ve decided that I’m drawing a line when it comes to decade old chocolate bars.

Around 11:30pm we had finished cutting all of the blocks for our masterpiece, but we decided that it would be more feasible to build an arch instead of a bridge. The weather cleared up at this point and showed us that the short snowstorm had left us with ~3” of fresh snow. We began stacking the blocks and Marie & I plus two others used our bodies to hold up the leaning sides of the arch as Tim and a few more people placed the final keystone pieces on it. By 12:30 am we finished the arch and the sun came out showing us a beautiful Antarctic “night” which looked suspiciously like the “day”. I’m not sure exactly how low the sun gets on the horizon, but it isn’t anywhere close to setting. We used the leftover snow blocks to construct a bench and table, took lots of pics and then went to bed. What a great day!

McMurdo Station - Dec 1, 2008 - Logan

Logan Mitchell
Date: 12-1-2008
Location: McMurdo Station, Antarctica
Time: 11pm
Latitude: 77°50'46.42"S
Longitude: 166°39'59.78"E
Elevation: 34m (112’)
Temperature: -8 °C ( °F)
Wind speed: 7-12 knots km/h ( mp/h)
Wind Chill: -12 °C (°F)
Visibility: unrestricted
Clouds: partly cloudy
Breakfast: Eggs & potatoes
Lunch: Sandwiches
Supper: Chili & roast beef & kiwi

We have been quite busy all day today getting gear together & running errands. It was really nice that Ken had jobs for us to do all around town because it forced us to get to know our way around town a little bit and meet people. For example, I went & checked out the satellite phone for the WAIS Divide camp for the season. I got to meet all the folks who issue communications devices to field camps and learned a little about all of the different things they have.

The rest of the core handling crew flew on a C-17 and arrived this evening, so once again we are all together! During dinner the conversation was about how old the food we were eating might be. Most of the food here is brought by a huge freighter that comes once a year sometime in February when the sea ice has broken up. McMurdo is stocked so that it would have enough food to last ~3 years in case one year the resupply couldn’t make it due to an iceberg blocking the sea channel to McMurdo. In any case, we found out from an unofficial source that the veggies we were eating were probably 1-7 years old and that the dry goods (flour, sugar, etc) were probably older. I wonder how old the oldest food that has been consumed here in McMurdo is? Now I understand why people are so excited when fresh fruit is flown in from New Zealand. McMurdo also has a greenhouse, but I don’t know how much of our food comes from it.