Well, here it is – February, my final month to enjoy in Antarctica. (Or half of a month – depending on my actual departure date!)

The weather continues to ‘hold’ – it’s been cold enough to help firm up the snow roads and transition area, but warm enough to still enjoy being outdoors in the sunshine. I really do miss all the storms we had last year. I’ve seen enough of the brown/gray/icky lava colored rocks to last awhile and want new, pristine snow again!

On Friday, I helped drive in 100 people from the Pegasus airfield. Most of them were NAVCHAPS. (People from the Navy who come to help with the off load and loading of the supply ship.) Yesterday, I and another shuttle driver ‘taught’ 6 of them to operate our Airporters. They will handle transporting their crews to and from the pier during the 24 hour operation!  The American Tern is due in tomorrow, and I believe McMurdo is ready! Millvans are stacked and ready. Signs have been posted all over to aid in the NAVCHAPS finding the locations to put the supplies!

The Weddell seals have arrived by the hundreds now. I don’t have any good photos of them this year. Still no sign of penguins. (Rats.)

…..only 2 more cookie days….!

Posted January 31, 2009 Comments(0)

I had some time this morning to work on shrinking photos to add here. They will cover the Fuel tanker – Lawrence M. Gianella arriving to provide us with MILLIONS of gallons of fuel for another year. Also the Oden – Ice crusher, is back trying to break up all the ice around McMurdo Sound. So far it is still staying in the bay. Everyone hopes it will flow out to sea so we can have OPEN WATER to view the incoming orcas, weddell seals and penguins!

I also have photos showing the view from my “boondoggle”. 10 of us from different departments around station were selected to ride ski-doos up the side of Mt. Erebus for an afternoon of relaxing and having fun. It was awesome!! I’d never ridden or driven one before.  The photos I posted (sort of) show the panoramic views from there.  The one showing Williams Airfield is a favorite. I’d never seen it from this angle. Now you can see how when the storms come through – the airfield becomes invisible! Along with anything or one that is there! 

I also included a photo of the Survival Gear that is always taken along when you leave town. We had a total of 12 people (2 guides and 10 boondoggle-ers?) This was to be a 4 or 5 hour trip in the DAY, yet you never know what the weather will do. Our guides also had along 2 large pots of hot water for drinks and extra snacks.  The route up to “Room With A View”…. is flagged. We NEVER got off the flagged route.  (I still drove fast enough to JUMP snow drifts!!!!) But I made sure I never ventured into unknown areas where those sneaky crevasses hide out.  I give all explorers gold stars for making it through. When you stand where they stood, and see the obstacles that they saw – you will be humbled.

My fingers were frozen from gripping the handle bars, but no one on our tour had frostbite.  I sure slept well that night!!

Last year the station used a lot of VOLUNTEERS to drive the old beat up trucks to haul millvans to and from the ships. Since the budget cuts and reduced staff in all areas – they had to hire people to come in and drive this year. (They hired a crew of Kiwis.)  They began their duties yesterday and we all had to listen carefully to the radio transmissions as the ACCENT is so hard to understand!

Enjoy the photos. (I’ll go fold laundry now!)

Posted January 22, 2009 Comments(0)

Well – yesterday the world watched Obama become our President.  Down here in Antarctica, the galley screen was transformed into a huge TV so that workers could watch the event as they ate. Normally, the big wall screen is used for lectures and slide shows only.  I missed the actual swearing in – but did see Bush and Obama get into the car for the big drive. (Then I was out the door to do my OWN drive out to Willy Field!)

Luckily, the weather has changed and we are now experiencing some nice -6 F that is helping firm up the roads.  And also along with that LUCK, I was given a  “boondoggle” (fun name for a little excursion to get people away from working 24/7)  My boondoggle was a trip on a ski-doo up 1,400 feet of Mt. Erebus!

Of course one wears every piece of ECW gear you own for an outdoor trip in 20- 25 knot winds. I also had the coolest James Bond looking helmet that kept my cheeks from freezing off!  We rode double and I was the pax on the way UP – DRIVER on the way down!  (FYI, I can jump snow drifts! Well, I hit them and then flew?) From our view – we could looked down over the Erebus glacial tongue. If you remember- that is the entrance to the Ice Cave. Totally different look from above.   You could just make out the Williams Airfield.  AND…. we could see the American Tern (fuel ship) coming!  In front of it was the Oden – guiding it through the chopped up ice.  Further out – OPEN WATER!!!  Awesome!  Mt. Erebus was spewing a great plume just for our tour. We were one of the luckiest as most have had cloudy days or fog and couldn’t see anything.  (I’m sure the RIDE was still fun!)  I only had my helmet “face” lifted for about 30 minutes as we were resting and snapping up photos, but managed to get a little sunburn WITH sunscreen.  How did the first explorers do it?

Only 3 more cookie days before my departure.  The time is flying by.  No word yet (because you only get a day notice) of a trip to the Dry Valleys.

Time to head to work.

Posted January 21, 2009 Comments(0)

Oden has been “playing” around in the bay for a couple of days now – chopping up all the ice, in hopes the wind will push it out to sea. (So far it’s still sitting here – like a big glass of crushed ice.)  It would be awesome to see a lot of open water this year.  One tiny little adelie followed (or lead) the ship in.  We sure haven’t seen the wildlife this summer. The seal numbers never rose beyond a dozen or so within our viewing area.

The millvans have all been checked and are being lined up in tidy rows all around McMurdo, in preparation of the Supply Ship’s arrival.  I haven’t heard yet where the Fuel ship is – that came first last year, and I assume it will again.  The exciting thing arriving on the supply ship will be the blades for our first little wind farm down here! 

H.S.H. Prince of Monaco is here now. Oh what a joy it is to have “D.V.’s” here. (Distinguished Visitors).

As for the roads. Finally, it is getting a little cooler so the transition and snow roads are holding up for at least a day and a half!  I’m still stiff and sore from last week’s little driving excursion. What a great job I have!!!  Nothing boring about it!  Have I mentioned how many times the delta’s and Ivan have broken down this year?  We are kept in a constant circle of “Uh oh… now what shall we do?”  You do have to be flexible and say – no worries!  It’s amazing how creative we get in getting people from destination A to destination B when we only have 2 of the 4 vehicles working!  (3 deltas and 1 Ivan)  Once the snow roads firm up, we can go back to using the vans. 

One of my roommates is leaving in 10 days.  Watching her pack up is a sad reminder that I have to begin that process, too.  All BOXES must be packed up and ready to ship by the end of Jan. Now I have to get organized again to determine what 2 shirts I will live in for the remainder of my time.  5 – 7 weeks from now! I absolutely hate carrying any more items than are necessary when flying out of here.

Posted January 15, 2009 Comments(0)

The ship should (or might) pull into port sometime today. She is staged on the other side of Hut Point, and we can see her from town. I don’t know if she will run around the area – crushing ice – or come to the pier. I did not volunteer for lineman, so I won’t be notified of when to report to help tie her in.

The buzzzzzz around town has increased by leaps and bounds as everyone knows this is the start of our final kick to get everything completed before we have to leave.

Last night, I met one of the men who instigated and started the WAIS Divide camp. (Western Antarctic Ice Shelf) He now lives in Wisconsin, however my astute hearing could detect NO Wisconsin accent. (He laughed and said, “oh, yes – I was born in Moscow!”)  He is here to check on the equipment he thought of, helped build and is now set up ready to drill at  WAIS Divide!  He was concerned about backup generators on the storage for his ice cores. Once you spend several million dollars to get to this point – you do not want a flop because the ice core (FILLED with all sorts of scientific data) melts.     (Scratching chin, aaah yes. I see that point.)

I will try to keep you better informed of the activities going on now. But for the moment – laundry calls.

Posted January 11, 2009 Comments(0)

It is Sunday morning, and I have a few minutes AT WORK to catch you up on McMurdo happenings. We’ll start with yesterday and some really thick Ice Fog that lasted about 24 hours. Driving is bad enough since the roads are soft and we have all these HOLES to miss, without adding visibility issues!

The sky was clear and blue over McMurdo – until you reached the top of Scott Base Hill. The downhill drive was directly into the fog. Normally, we look over the edge to see who’s coming.  So at the top, we shuttle drivers would radio to the ‘fog’ that we were about to descend – that would give whoever might be close to entering the transition area a chance to get onto dry land and a wider space of road before we met.

The fog was incredibly thick and the same color as the snow roads!  You could barely make out in front of you, the LARGE – SOFT – hole that was approaching. Sometimes you simply dove into it before realizing an ‘Uh-ho’ moment had arrived!  Everyone was getting stuck. (Including me in Ivan the Terra Bus.) What added to the troubles (and very late schedules) was the lane we were using was narrow and once someone became stuck – no one could drive around and continue their route!  (My 30 minute drive turned into a 3 hour one.)

Back to the “Transition”.  Fleet Ops did attempt to pack down a lot of snow to fill in the water holes. This worked to a certain degree. However, they didn’t gradually decrease the packed snow. It simply STOPS – creating a big drop off – and even worse – a HUGE wall that you have to climb onto. (I might mention the WATER-FILLED deep HOLES right at this drop off location!!) Going out – is not so bad. We warn our pax that it’s coming.  It’s the RETURN trip where each time is different. The Deltas and Ivan slide around through the holes prior to reaching “the wall” so you never know at what angle you’re going to hit. This creates a lot of tipping and rolling and worry of flipping onto the side.  This morning during my 5:30 run in a delta – I hit the wall and my delta did not ‘jump’ it.  I had to back (again – through random holes filled with water.) and try again. ALMOST…. I backed further and went for another angle. This time the delta jumped it – however I was flung about like a rag doll inside the cab. It was one of those ‘careening moments’ that I don’t care to do again!   Seatbelts save lives. Everybody wear them!!!!

I will be stiff and sore tomorrow – but still have a few more of those runs to make today!  No wonder I sleep so well down here. I’m completely exhausted at the end of my 12 hour shift!  At least the fog lifted – AND – it’s cooler.  Any day now – the weather should turn colder and STAY cold!!!

Posted January 10, 2009 Comments(0)

I hope you had a chance to take a look at the Williams Field (aka Willy Field or WF) transition photos.  Yesterday the planes (LC-130) were getting stuck in the airfield apron by the fuel pit!!!  The snow around here has gradually softened – first the cargo deltas and forklifts were getting bogged down and then stuck when trying to get tothe planes to load. I drove a lighter weight vehicle (airporter) to the plane and sunk in quite a bit along the way.  Pegasus Airfield is several more miles “out there” on what is referred to as “White Ice” (part of the ocean that never completely melts or opens.)  Last year I described how there is an invisible curtain that you cross as you drive. One side – ok temps – on the other – you get the ANTARCTIC BLAST AND COLD!!!  Well, this year- even that airfield is having some troubles!

There is a long ‘lane’ where the cargo and pasenger vehicles drive to approach the airplanes. That ‘lane’ was so deeply rutted and ALSO FILLED with water that I drove my delta next to the runway lights to deliver the aircraft crews!  I also heard the pilots being given instructions: “Don’t melt the airstrip”!!!

Let’s see… this past week I rode out to Willy Field in Ivan, and then SKIED back to the Shuttle Stop at Happy Camp. (approx. 5 miles) I think I’ll turn my skis in now – as that sport takes a WEEK to recover from!

I also took a ‘course’ in how to be in the DRY VALLEYS!  There is a slight possibility that I will get a little trip – via helicopter -  and to increase my chances, I took this little class!!!

(The McMurdo Dry Valleys are the largest expanse of ice-free ground in Antarctica. They contain cold desert soils millions of years old, unusual biological communities, special geological features and minerals and spectacular scenery.  It is a specially managed area with all sorts of protocols and rules to follow via the Antarctic Treaty. I believe the 3 main countries watching over it are USA, New Zealand and Italy.)

Posted January 7, 2009 Comments(2)

Ok… I added some photos taken by Shuttle Bill (well – one of his passengers that was riding in the front of a delta took them with Bill’s camera) This is what we drive through each day. It started out with an occasional ‘hole’ and has developed into a terrible mess!!!  There is no way to show the BUMPS and jolts that occur as you plow through. (Unless you get a chance to view the VIDEO of it when I get back to Kansas!)

I’m actually at work now – I drove Ivan the Terra Bus through this morning at 5:30 – and had a ‘break’ from driving the transition until 2:30 this afternoon.   When a driver makes it through in Ivan – the pax will actually applaud!!!!  It is also imperative that you wear a seat belt – especially the driver. I am literally rocketed out of the driving seat numerous times – only the belt holds me in. (These are details I don’t usually tell my family.)

Posted January 6, 2009 Comments(0)