In my last post I mentioned that I have been writing about the previous day each morning, but that Cape Evans was too cool to not mention right away. Since the Cape Evans trip took about half of my day, not much was left for this blog post, so I’ll try to keep it short. I know I’ve been babbling a bit, but this place is just so incredibly amazing that I could talk for hours.
After posting my blog entries I continued on with my POLAR ICE bandwidth experimentation. Yesterday I had sent the Denver network guys a request to get a zipped directory posted on an FTP server so that I could get all of the uploaded RSP (research support plan) documents on my local instance of POLAR ICE. They came through like the heroes that they are and I was able to FTP down all of those documents. I sent an email to a couple of the POLAR ICE stakeholders on station and asked them to try downloading their RSP requests from our internal mirrored site rather than from the Denver site. Then, it was time for the IT party at Gallagher’s, the local non-smoking bar.
Josh, Scott, and I showed up fashionably late at about 4:30. The shuffleboard table had been converted into a makeshift buffet, with quesadillas, brie, kettle corn, beer, and wine available. I grabbed a couple slices of quesadillas and two of my now all-time favorites, Canterbury Draught from New Zealand. We found a table and started chowing and shooting the breeze. Kelly, the GIS person, or “map girl,” came over to chat with us and after a little while the party was ending. Kelly has been here for a long time, she knows all the ins and outs of the station, and she shared some good stories about life on the Ice. She was the one that originally signed us up for the Cape Evans trip that boomeranged, so we thanked her again for that and shared the experiences of our trip.
When the party ended at 6pm we headed across the street to the galley to eat a little dinner. Tonight’s selection was pork chops and mashed potatoes. It was good, but nothing like the incredible cut I had at Coyote’s in Christchurch. I shall forever remember that as the best pork cut I’ve ever had.
Scott (my boss, remember) had decided that Club 316 (what we had named our dorm room) needed a little life, so after dinner we all hit the station store to see what we could get to liven it up a bit. What could make a tiny dorm room more exciting, you ask? Here’s what: Scott bought a bottle of Absolut Vodka. I bought a bottle of my lovely bride’s favorite, Tanqueray Gin, and Josh bought a case of my new favorite, Canterbury Draught Ale straight from Christchurch. The station store gets military prices, so my 1 liter bottle of Tanqueray, which usually retails for about $30+ in the US, was had for just $15.
Kelly had dinner with us and then came over to Club 316 for a bit to share some experiences of life on the Ice. She told us the story of the time she was on a snowmobile on the sea ice that dumped and she ended up sliding on her back for a long ways before finally coming to a stop. She seems to know a whole lot about life at McMurdo and will probably prove to be a valuable resource before our time here is done.
She had a prior commitment at 8:30 and left shortly before then. I was still fired up from the amazing Cape Evans experience and suggested to Scott and Josh that we do something rather than sit in our dorm room for the rest of the night. We decided to hike over to Discovery Hut, which is just about a mile or so outside of town. It was the first structure built on Antarctica, in 1902, and was used by the Scott expeditions. The log books tell stories of crew members going from the hut at Cape Evans to the Discovery Hut and back in the same day. I think I originally posted that it was 13 miles from McMurdo to Cape Evans, but Kelly corrected me by saying it’s actually 18 miles. She’s the map girl, after all, so I’ll take her word for it. We had driven from Mac-town to Cape Evans in about an hour and a half, but based on the wind we encountered I couldn’t imagine walking that 18-mile stretch there and back in the same day. Those early Antarctic explorers truly blow me away. I will get up to speed on some more detailed history of this area and post it in a future blog. However, Discovery Hut was the first structure built on the continent, and it still has original supplies in it as well, but it’s locked and we didn’t have the key so we decided to come back again another day. I know it’s going to be pretty amazing to see the original supplies intact, but I doubt anything can top Cape Evans.
There are three huts intact on the continent right now. There’s Scott’s Hut at Cape Evans, Discovery Hut here on Hut Point next to McMurdo, and Shackleton’s Hut at Cape Royds. The NSF Chalet here on station has the key to Discovery Hut that can be checked out for a day hike, and I’ve already seen Cape Evans. Getting to Cape Royds is a very rare occurrence, so I doubt I’ll be able to get out there, but I certainly can’t complain. This has truly been one of the most amazing experiences of my life.
Anyway, back to Discovery Hut. We headed out there at almost 9pm, but of course it was total brightness outside. The wind had picked up again, however, and was blowing at about 40mph. We didn’t have the key to the hut so we weren’t able to go inside but poking our heads through the windows we got a pretty good view of what was inside. There’s yet another cross next to this hut to commemorate even more people that have died on this amazing continent.
During our station store run, Josh had bought a case of our now favorite beer in the world, Canterbury Draught. I had grabbed a few right before we left for Discovery Hut, thinking we could have a little toast out on the peninsula. Josh wasn’t in the mood for a beer, but Scott and I toasted and then started walking back to our dorms. The beer that Josh bought was warm at the station. However, within 5 minutes of Scott & I walking back towards the dorm, the foam on top of the can had frozen. A few minutes later, the beer itself was getting slushy. This place is cold. COLD. You don’t realize it when dressed in full ECW, but it gets really cold. Being able to freeze a beer exposed to the elements in a matter of a few minutes made me realize how cold it is.
We decided that we all had some blogging to do, so we headed towards bldg. 175 to get caught up. That’s where I am now, shielding my eyes to the glare of the 11pm sun and typing out the rest of my day, one of the most amazing days of my life.
I have just a ton of miscellaneous Antarctic facts swimming around in this head of mine that I want to share with you all but I haven’t yet had the opportunity. This is truly an amazing place, like nowhere I’ve ever been, and I hope to get everything down before it’s lost from memory forever. I don’t think there’s much going on tomorrow other than normal work stuff, so hopefully I’ll get a chance to catch up on random observational type things.
By the way, Scott gave me copies of the pictures he’s taken since yesterday. I uploaded a few more, check the photo album to see them.
