Brett's Southern Crossing

I’m happy to say that after a rough time over the summer getting my contract sorted out, I did finally get an offer and returned for another season in McMurdo.  They actually asked me to leave 2 days after getting my contract, but later made it a week and a half due to the issues with booking tickets.

In that rush, I never really got around to starting to blog again.  I’ve now been on the ice for over 2 months, and only have a bit over 6 weeks left!  I’m working as a Research Associate again for the same research lab.  I’d like my next few posts to talk a bit about my job and what life is like here.

To get started, we’re most of the way through our holiday season and it has been, as usual, really busy!  Our holidays definitely have a uniquely McMurdo flavor.  My last week was like this:

• Wednesday was a Christmas concert in the waste barn…our waste staff cleaned the barn of trash, dirt, and equipment and filled it with chairs for a night of folk and holiday music.  The night was capped off by the annual Zim brothers performance of Antarctic-themed parody songs sung to classic Christmas songs.
• Thusday there were holiday movies in the coffeehouse…Die Hard and Elf
• Friday was our town Christmas party.  The “Heavy Shop” (heavy vehicle repair facility) was cleared of heavy equipment, grease, and tons of repair equipment and filled with hors d’oeuvres, a bar, dance floor, Santa photo station, family photo slidehows, and more.
• Saturday was Christmas Dinner, plus the McMurdo Alternative Art Galley.  MAAG features tons of art from the surprising creative crowd this place attracts, plus a fashion show and then lots of drinking and dancing.  This event is in the carpentry shop, cleared of sawdust, tools, materials, and any projects in progress!
• Sunday I went to a showing of the Charlie Brown Christmas play, in the Chapel of the Snows.  Finally a workcenter that didn’t have to massively transform their building.  Pews and the altar stage worked perfectly to host the play.

This week will be mellow, but it ends with our New Years celebrations.  Not only is it New Years, but also our annual outdoor music festival called IceStock.  A dozen McMurdo garage bands will perform starting after dinner and continuing until midnight strikes.  This week has been sunny with temps in the upper 30s, so if the weather holds it might be t-shirt weather this season!

Here are my top 5 risks of life in Antarctica:

Raccoon Eyes

It doesn’t take long to learn that you need to wear sunglasses here all the time.  With 24 hour sunlight and blinding white snow and ice all around, sunglasses are key protection against snow blindness (basically, sunburn inside your eyes!).  But the downside of this is the raccoon-eye look – Pasty white around your eyes, and a deep tan on the rest of your face.  Even worse is the inevitable sunburn – that day you forget to wear sunblock and end up lobster red everywhere but your eyes!

FOMO

Antarctica sounds like it would be boring, but it isn’t.  There are parties, events, lectures, travelogues, classes, clubs, outdoor trips, concerts, and tons of other community-organized activities.  The first year especially can be hard – it feels like you have to do everything and experience it all.  Eventually, you find you haven’t slept, showered, or done your laundry in days due to Fear Of Missing Out.

The McMurdo 15

There’s only one place to eat in Antarctica and that’s the cafeteria.  It’s a huge buffet 3 meals a day, and the meals are high-calorie and high-fat for those that work hard manual labor or who work outside all day.  We also have amazing bakers that create a big selection of homemade breads and yummy puddings, cookies, and pies at each meal.  For those with more typical jobs or once the weather warms up, gaining a bunch of weight is almost unavoidable.  And then you get back to the real world, where you can eat any delicious type of food you want, where it gets even worse…

Bureaucratic Insanity

What happens when you combine the epic bureaucracy of a large government agency, a huge defense contractor, and a branch of the military?  Well it isn’t pretty, and your typical Dilbert strip can’t match the head-shaking decisions our management often make.

Just One More Year

I’ve heard it called “getting ice in your veins.”  People think this will be the last season they spend in Antarctica…until it comes time to apply again.  Then they tell their families “it’s just one more year…”  We even have t-shirts to commemorate this often-repeated phrase.

Antarctica isn’t just a continent of glaciers and mountains, it’s also packed with history.  Ross Island, where McMurdo Station is located, was also where many of the expeditions of the Heroic Age of Antarctica exploration were based.  One of the most famous was Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition, in which he fatally raced Roald Amundsen to the South Pole.

Scott’s Hut at Cape Evans is located about 12 miles up the coast from McMurdo, and for several weeks at the beginning of the season we’re allowed to take a Sunday tour to visit it.  Due to the dry, cold weather the hut is in amazing condition, still full of the everyday items (including food!) as when it was used 100 years ago.  It’s almost as though the last person walked out the door 10 minutes before I arrived.  The only indications of how much time has passed are the old style brands on supplies and the skeleton of the dog in the stables, still on his chain.

Inside the hut are a well-stocked kitchen, bunk quarters for the crew, a science lab full of chemicals and charred test-tubes, plus Scott’s bed.  Next to Scott’s bed is a table where the crew was doing a scientific exam of a dead penguin.  The rear of the hut has stables, which were used to house dogs and ponies, as well as supplies.

Check out my full gallery for more pictures of this!

My boss at McMurdo is the Operations Manager and he likes to say that Airlift is the lifeblood of our program.  There’s a lot of truth in that statement, most science cargo and personnel come to McMurdo and South Pole Stations via the 65+ C-17 and 10+ A319 flights that come from Christchurch.  The 6-7 million pounds of cargo and personnel that could be transported on those flights still wouldn’t be enough to support a program as large as ours, however.

Our pier, built with ice roughly 16 feet thick. The thing next t0 it is the old ice pier, which broke in half last year and will be towed to sea if the channel opens enough

A temporary bridge allows our trucks to access the pier. The pier itself is floating and is tied to the island by thick steel cables

The rest of our supplies come via 2 vessels that should be arriving over the next couple of weeks.  We have a tanker vessel that will be delivering 5 million gallons of fuel (mostly AN8 aviation fuel, plus some unleaded gasoline), then a cargo vessel will bring huge quantities of food and equipment for the following year and haul away a year’s worth of trash and a bit of cargo that people are willing to wait a few months to receive.

Another angle of "Winter Quarters Bay." Behind it is a bit of McMurdo and Observation Hill.

I took these photos next to "Roll Cage Mary," which is officially called "Our Lady of the Snows" and memorializes Richard T. Williams, a Navy equipment operator whose bulldozer fell through the sea ice in 1956

Yesterday was the first hint of what’s to come.  The Swedish icebreaker Oden had nearly reached McMurdo, and I spotted the RV Nathaniel B. Palmer research vessel about 15 miles behind it.   The Oden docked early this morning, with the Palmer following later in the day.

The Oden

I’m looking forward to seeing the vessel offload process.  The station will go to 24 hour shifts until they’re finished due to the amount of work it will take, and I’m sure due to the fees they pay to keep a vessel docked.  The actual removal of the cargo containers will be done by NAVCHAPs, the Navy’s cargo handlers.  There will be 113 of them this year!

The RV Nathaniel B. Palmer, one of the US Antarctic Program's polar research vessels

LDB Camp Office

LDB Galley

A few miles from McMurdo on the ice shelf is the Long Duration Balloon facility, known as LDB.  Funded by NASA, 2-3 balloon launches per year are done from Antarctica.  The balloons this year are carrying payloads of around 5000 pounds and rise past 99% of our atmosphere.  Compared to launching a satellite this is a huge cost savings, but it’s still a complex enough task that I’m told it has it’s own line on the national budget!

Payload Building

CREAM

The facility consists mainly of 2 large payload buildings for assembly of the large scientific instruments attached to the balloons, a rigging building where the launch technicians prepare, and a communications and tracking building for monitoring the position and status of the balloons after they launch.

BLAST

BLAST computers and liquid helium

The balloons are inflated with helium, and as they rise through the atmosphere they continue to expand as the pressure in the air decreases.  What’s amazing is that in the end the balloon will expand to the same approximate volume as the Houston Astrodome!  The balloon itself is only 0.02 millimeters thick.  Think about how strong a balloon that large would need to be to inflate and launch without tearing to pieces.

BLAST shielding

The Boss

The launch procedure itself is interesting.  The payload is hung from a customized vehicle called The Boss.  The balloon is inflated on the opposite side of the launch pad, which is a huge circular area of snow that our Fleet Operations crew spends thousands of hours building for months in advance of the launch (compacting and grooming the snow so it is strong enough).  The Boss is well over 100,000 pounds, so you can imagine that the snow surface needs to be very strong for it to drive around without any rutting or sinking on the pad.

The Boss doing a hang test with the BLAST payload

Balloon inflated, with The Boss on the opposite end of the pad

The Boss has the most critical job on the launch:  As soon as the balloon is released, it will rise into the air and take up all the slack between it and the payload.  Any winds can change the position the balloon goes to.  The boss has to react immediately and perfectly to drive itself so that once all the slack is taken up the payload is directly beneath the balloon when it is released.  If not, you can imagine it like a pendulum – the payload will drag across the pad, causing a lot of damage.  Something like this actually happened in Australia last year.

But it’s important to know that only 4 percent of launches fail and usually in much less spectacular ways.  A few days ago I was lucky enough to be in an ideal place to see the first balloon launch of the year, carrying the CREAM payload.  Spectators have to be 3km away, but I still got a pretty good look and it seemed like a flawless launch by the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility staff.

Payload released

In the background, Castle Rock on the left and Mt Erebus on the right

Just over the hill from McMurdo, near Scott Base, is a long line of pressure ridges in the ice.  Some of the sea ice remains trapped near the permanent ice shelf rather than breaking up and floating out to sea.  When it’s cold the ice shrinks a bit, causing cracks which fill with water.  Then when it warms up and the ice expands it forces ridges of ice formations to appear.

In the background, Mt Discovery

I volunteered to be trained as a guide for recreation trips to the ridges so I’ve been able to go 3 times.  My last two trips were cancelled but I’m hoping to go at least once more to see how they’ve changed over the year.

Notice the two blue tags on his flippers

Another great thing about the pressure ridges is that Weddell Seals like to come up through the cracks and lie on the ice.  Seal mothers have been giving birth, so I’ve seen some baby seals up close.  The seals are completely passive and it’s not clear if they even notice we’re standing there!  It’s easy to notice the tags on their flippers that science groups are using to track them, but despite the experience of being tagged they don’t pay any attention to passing humans.

Awwww....

"I'm bored mom..."

In our store there’s a sign near some of the souvenirs that says “Buy your South Pole souvenirs here, because that’s where everyone thinks you are anyway!”

Palmer Station on the upper left; McMurdo in the lower center; Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in the middle. Image from the British Antarctic Survey

It’s a funny joke because most people really do think that’s where we are.  The US Antarctic Program (USAP) has 3 permanent stations, a couple of research vessels that study the oceans and seas, and lots of seasonal field camps.  The stations are Amundsen-Scott Station at the South Pole (summer population around 250), Palmer Station on the coast nearest the tip of South America (summer population 45), and McMurdo Station where I’m living and working nearest to New Zealand.  McMurdo’s peak population this summer is projected at over 1200.

Antarctica relative to the rest of the world. Image from the British Antarctic Survey

McMurdo is in fact on a peninsula of an island just off the coast of Antarctica, called Ross Island.  It’s connected to the mainland by the Ross Ice Shelf which is permanently present ice.   The island is volcanic, with several volcanoes.  The most notable volcano is Mt Erebus, the world’s southernmost active volcano which towers above McMurdo Station.  Many of the photos I’ve posted have had views of Mt Discovery and the Royal Society Range, which are on the mainland coast.

Cape Evans is on the coast between McMurdo and Cape Royds. Image from the British Antarctic Survey.

Other areas of Ross Island are filled with historical sights from exploration during the so called “heroic age” of exploration near the start of the 20th century.  Cape Evans was where Robert Falcon Scott built his hut for the Terra Nova Expedition.  Discovery Hut is located adjacent to our base.  And another hut is located at Cape Royds (also famous as a rookery for Adélie Penguins).

Less than 2 miles from our station is Scott Base, the main base of the New Zealand Antarctic program.  Our programs cooperate closely, sharing flight operations and basics like power along with the deployment facilities in Christchurch.

Hopefully that helps everyone understand exactly where I am!

Camping under our volcano, Mt Erebus

Last month I spent a night camping for a 2-day class by our mountaineers which teaches skills for building field camps, emergency survival, and general skills for working and surviving in extreme conditions.  Formally called Snow Craft I, in practice it is universally known as Happy Camper.  Anyone who may go outside of town attends Happy Camper, and lots of people that have no specific need go just for the experience.  It’s amazing how many people have stories about going to Happy Camper in “Condition 1” (which signifies either wind chill below –70F or sustained wind above 70 knots)

Mountaineer Brian diagrams how to lay out a camp

The class starts with half a day in the classroom learning about layering techniques, cold weather injuries, and planning approaches in survival situations.  Then we headed a few miles out onto the Ross Ice Shelf for the meat of the course, about 24 hours outside.  Our weather conditions were good, with a temperature of 5 degrees (F) and mostly calm winds, although we did have a little 3 hour storm with 30mph winds.  We learned about our tents and camp stoves, and then began some practical work to build our camp.

Mountaineer Julian shows us how to cut blocks of snow from a quarry

With high winds a common situation in Antarctica we started by learning how to anchor a tent and set it up in high winds.  Next they showed us the best way to organize a tight cluster of tents, storage, and cooking area so the camp is most protected and functional. Then we learned how to build a wind wall using snow.  The weather here doesn’t lead to the fluffy snow you’re probably used to.  Instead it’s hard packed and strong.  You can walk on it and barely mark the surface, much less sink.  So the way to protect your camp from the wind here is to build a wall out of snow.  This is done by digging a channel in the snow a couple feet deep, and then using wood or ice hand saws to cut blocks of snow.  It’s called a snow quarry and these blocks are also useful for building a cooking area and constructing igloos and snow trenches.

Our finished camp

As an emergency technique we also learned how to build a snow trench.  Imagine you’re stranded without a tent, or in conditions too severe for a tent.  One option is to basically dig a hole in the snow and bury yourself.  The snow is a good insulator, and if it’s built right it will be warm and protected from the wind on the surface.  Of course, there’s always the unpleasant thought that if you were taking shelter in a trench and a search party didn’t find you, you might die in a grave you dug yourself!

Standing in my half-finished trench. Digging it helped keep me warm

Just fill it in and add a tombstone...

Since the wind was calm, I decided to build a trench and spend the night there rather than in the tent.  Digging that hole is more work than you’d think – in the end I spent about 5 hours on it.  A good trench needs to be about 8 feet long and deep enough that you can sit up without your head touching the ceiling.  A foot or two below the surface it’s good to dig out the sides, to create some elbow room both for maneuverability and to avoid losing heat by conduction.  The trench needs to be capped as air-tight as possible.  The simplest way is to use blocks of snow cut from the quarry.  I covered most of mine with a sledge turned upside down and covered in a layer of snow, then added a few blocks near the head that I could slide on and off for my “door.”

The start of my roof...a spare sled, covered in snow for insulation

The second day of the course is a detailed look through the field survival bags kept in vehicles and helicopters in case of an emergency.  They include everything needed to build a camp like we did in the class.  The day ended with 2 emergency scenarios, the first being a helicopter crash with limited resources to build a camp and wounded people to deal with to add confusion.  This was kind of awful in a way because it meant digging another snow quarry, building another wall, etc.  On the other hand, we also set up an HF radio and called South Pole Station, so that was pretty cool!  The second scenario involves a missing person during a whiteout and is meant to teach us how to plan in an emergency.  They’d like us to think through the situation carefully to find a way to look for the missing person without risking the safety of those who are already in a warm building.  To simulate the whiteout anyone that goes outside wears a bucket on their head, and watching people try to search the surrounding area is hilarious!

How to simulate a whiteout

Have you ever watched someone try to walk around blindfolded?

At McMurdo we work a minimum of 6 days and 54 hours per week, so holidays are eagerly anticipated as a time to rest and unwind.  Since we only have Sunday off we observe our holidays (which during the austral summer are Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day) on Saturdays so we have a 2-day weekend.  The festivities started early, with a bunch of Friday-night parties in various work centers, complete with live bands.

The start of our Thanksgiving Day was the annual Turkey Trot 5k.  The route was from the Chapel of the Snows (on one edge of town) through McMurdo and up the hill to the Scott Base sign.  Scott Base is the kiwi base located 3 miles from us on the other side of a ridge.  Almost any event is a good excuse for the community to dress in ridiculous costumes, and the turkey Trot was no exception.  We ran to the sounds of Take on Me blaring from a boombox carried by one of the runners.  My time was glacially slow 31 minutes.

Thanksgiving dinner is an elaborate meal our awesome galley staff puts together.  In addition to turkey, stuffing, relishes and other traditional foods, they served king crab legs, massive amounts of freshies (fruit, salad, etc), and a full vegetarian and vegan menu.  Our bakers are always amazing but the desserts were a step up from what I expected.  My favorite were the chocolate mousse stuffed pastries shaped like Antarctic Skuas.

At home we always take a walk after dinner, so I went with a few people to walk the Hut Point Ridge trail.  This is a three mile loop from town that passes over a ridge and by one of the huts used by Captain Scott during his exploration of Antarctica.

The night was capped off with a party and jam session in the band room.  I have no musical talent but it’s always fun to hang out with some beers.  For whatever reason there is a lot of musical talent among the community here.  It’s hard to find anyone here who doesn’t play an instrument (Ukuleles are really popular!).

One of the bigger annual events at McMurdo is the Halloween party, which showcases the amazing creativity and eccentricity of the people on our station.  Most of the costumes are hand made on station from whatever we have lying around, which makes them all the more impressive to me.

I was short on time to make mine due to a trip out of town, so I quickly put together a South American Revolutionary costume.

My Costume

There are plenty of “normal” costumes, but I noticed a ton of costumes that were specific to our station.

Antarctic Skuas - a scavenger bird known for attacking residents carrying food

There were also a lot group costumes.  My favorite were the Tetris pieces.  The most involved was probably the Beer Garden…maybe a dozen people all connected by orange fencing, complete with tables.  Every so often you’d find that they had enclosed you and about 50 other people inside of them, and you pretty much just had to hang out until a gap appeared!

More great photos here!