Brett's Southern Crossing

Our group stopped in Christchurch for 2 nights to rest up, but mainly to spend a day at the Antarctic program’s Clothing Distribution Center picking up our Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear.  Almost everyone gets “Big Red,” our big Canada Goose parkas.  Then beyond that there’s a huge array of gear available based on job.  I ended up with wind pants, Carhartt overalls, a massive pair of cold weather boots, a light windbreaker, several types of hats/gloves/socks, polar fleece top and bottom, 2 types of thermal underwear, dark snow goggles, and probably a bunch of stuff that doesn’t come to mind.

My Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) Gear

My Parka Patch

Gear issue only took a morning, so I had the afternoon to have a look around Christchurch.  Of course the big news there lately was the earthquake that struck a couple of months ago.  The damage isn’t too obvious, but a lot of streets are closed due to unstable building facades so frequent detours kept it front and center in my mind.  There have been over a thousand aftershocks since the quake, including a 5.1 the night before we arrived.  I’ve never felt and earthquake so I was thinking this was my chance, but there weren’t any that I noticed during my short stay.

Gondolas in the Botanical Gardens

In Christchurch I mainly walked around town and spent some time in the botanical gardens.  I also stopped by the Canterbury Museum which had a special exhibition of photographs from the Scott and Shackleton Polar expeditions (both had photographers as part of their parties).  Shackleton was attempting to make a complete crossing of the continent but barely got started, his ship becoming stuck in the ice before reaching land.  He and his men were stranded on the ice shelf for over a year before some were able to sail in a makeshift raft to a nearby island and return to mount a rescue.

An old snowcat in the Canterbury Museum

Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition was an attempt to be the first to reach the South Pole.  He was beaten to the pole by Roald Amundsen of Norway, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photo more amazing than their portrait at the pole – 5 men, exhausted and dejected, faces absolutely black with frostbite, completely defeated.  The party died of exhaustion, starvation, and cold on the return journey from the pole, just 11 miles from a supply depot, but their efforts have made them heroes of the UK and among all Antarctic programs.

Scott's party arrives at the pole, too late

The Scott Party's Burial Cairn

The next morning I got up at 4am to head to the Antarctic Terminal at the Christchurch Airport.  We checked our luggage, had our bags weighed, and went through security.  (We each even had to step on a scale with our carry on bag).  We watched a short orientation video, and after a short wait it was time to board our flight.  Most passengers and cargo are taken by C-17.  We were allowed to take liquids and gels, but still no sharp objects.  The crew did a pretty typical safety briefing, although the military plane had some differences – in case of a loss of cabin pressure you don’t use a mask, you put your head in a plastic bag that either hastens your death or maybe has a little oxygen bottle attached.

The C-17 was surprisingly comfortable.  I sat in a jumpseat that folded from the side of the plane, while most people sat in regular airline seats that slide into a track in the floor in groups of 20.  Although it was physically comfortable the flight is very noisy and earplugs are a must.  The flight was 5-hours long, and we were allowed to visit the cockpit and chat with the Air Force crew.  I was a bit surprised to find we were at an altitude and speed typical of any other big jet I’ve been on (450mph and 31,000 feet).

Cockpit Tour

Landing was a bit strange because I could tell we were descending but with no windows I had this strange sense of anticipation, as though every bump was touchdown.  Eventually we landed, and I emerged into a shockingly white world outside.  We were brought to McMurdo Station in Ivan the Terra Bus, a 56-passenger extreme weather bus with balloon tires about 5 feet high.

My First Steps on "the Ice"

My trip has begun, starting with a day and a half of company orientation in Denver.  It was about 50% typical stuff (benefits, expense reporting, etc), and 50% specific to Antarctica (safety, travel logistics).  We also opened with an amazingly demoralizing pep talk from one of the bigwigs here…I almost wonder if he was seeing if anyone would quit on the spot.  But our spirits couldn’t be broken, and we’re all ready to go!

There are at least 50 people in our group, and we were told that the population of McMurdo Station this year should be around 1500.  This is unusually high and bed shortages are expected (due more to a higher than normal population of scientists, rather than support staff).  Right now quite a few people who will be continuing on to the South Pole station are also headed to McMurdo.  It’s still too cold to land at South Pole, so they’ll be staying temporarily at McMurdo for the first opportunity to head to their station.

Personally, I’m excited to see what everyone is up to so I don’t mind the crowds at all.  Having met a bunch of people during orientation everyone seems to be friendly and people have interesting backgrounds.  I think we’re all going to get along really well and the slight pang of regret I had leaving Austin after such a short time back has disappeared…I’m expecting the next few months to be a lot of fun!

So far the group I’ve met people who are cargo loaders and unloaders, materials workers (which sounds like tracking/managing/distributing from the warehouses), fire technicians, power plant operators, plumbers, maintenance workers, hazmat workers, communications operators, drivers, and electricians.  It gives an idea of how broad the range of jobs is.  There will also be hairdressers, postal clerks, dishwashers, and all kinds of other weird jobs I’m looking forward to hearing about!

We left the office in Denver today at noon for our trip to Christchurch.  I expect it to take 36-37 hours to get from the office in Denver to the hotel in Christchurch, and I’ll want to stay awake at least another 7-8 hours to get on the correct time schedule.  So my top priority now is to get a decent amount of sleep on the long flight from LA to Auckland.

It’s probably obvious by now that my blog updates are 1-2 months behind.  I’m working to catch up, and doing the blog posts is a great motivator for me to sort through my photos.  I returned to Austin the first week of September, and during my last week in Colombia I got an interesting call from Raytheon Polar Services, who I had submitted an application to a few months earlier.

They had a contract employee back out at the last minute due to a medical problem and offered me a job working from October to February at McMurdo Station.  I’ve only barely spoken with the manager who hired me about the job, but it sounds like what I’ll be doing is field work for the on-ice portion of a research project an Army lab is working on.  The base has 3 airfields they’re trying to combine into one, but there are a number of engineering problems due to  varying ice conditions throughout the .  The Army lab is collecting and analyzing data to see if they can engineer one airfield that will work for all types of aircraft, during all times of the year.

At this point I’ve filled out and submitted mountains of paperwork and had tons of medical and dental tests. I’m amazed there’s any blood left in my veins after all the tubes they collected for tests, and I discovered there is a definite limit to how many cups I can pee in before running dry.  My doctor also carefully noted all my unusual traits, like a slight pectus excavatum, which looks completely normal to me and nothing at all like the photo on wikipedia.  The EKG machine decided I had Pericarditis, which is an inflammation of the heart lining…the doctor walked into the room, grabbed the printout from the machine and said “That can’t be right.  You’re not experiencing extreme chest pain are you?” Since the only pain I had experienced was when the nurse ripped the EKG contact pads off my legs (taking a patch of hair with it) he consulted a cardiologist and they decided I have a variation in my heart’s electrical pattern called early repolarization.  About 5% of the population have this kind of heart, especially young people, males, african americans, and athletes.

Despite my numerous deformities and birth defects, the medical department at Raytheon Polar Services has signed off on me.  I’m leaving tomorrow morning for 2 days of company orientation in Denver, followed by 2 days of travel to Christchurch New Zealand, a day there to get my extreme cold weather gear, and my ice flight is scheduled for October 8th.

The title of this post is how my friend Leslie reacted when I mentioned all of this on Facebook.  Thanks for the support Leslie!  I’ll have you know I checked the weather the other day and the windchill was only –68F, if I just take the absolute value it’s practically shorts and t-shirt weather!