After a routine day of work Josh and I decided to get a little exercise and go for a hike. We chose to climb Ob(servation) Hill, just to the south of McMurdo.
The hill is supposed to be 750 feet high, though I think it’s actually taller than that. We’re at sea level, though, so I suppose that could be throwing me off. The route up is pretty straightforward; it’s probably a class 2 hike with some scrambling in parts on loose volcanic rock and it’s fairly steep most of the way up. The views from the top are incredible. On the summit one can easily see Scott Base, the New Zealand base a couple of miles from McMurdo; Mt. Erebus, the southernmost active volcano in the world; all three runways used by the USAP – Ice Runway, Willie Field, and Pegasus Runway; All of McMurdo Station; Castle Rock; White Island; Black Island; the Trans-Antarctic Mountain Range; McMurdo Sound, and the Ross Ice Shelf.
Also on top of Ob Hill is a large wooden cross, with this description on its plaque:
Cross, Observation Hill
This cross is an historic monument and preserved in accordance with the provisions of the Antarctic Treaty. It was erected in January 1913 to commemorate Captain Scott and his party who lost their lives on the return journey from the South Pole in March 1912
After taking a whole slew of photos, we headed back down and went to dinner. First, however, we had to check back in at the Firehouse. McMurdo Station has its own fire department, and one of their tasks is to keep track of all recreational foot travel. Whenever leaving station for a hike, cross-country ski outing, etc, you must first check out with the firehouse. You let them know where you’re going, how long you plan to be out, and what your contact information is. If you don’t check back in by the time you say you’ll be back they first try to contact you. If they’re unable to they will start the whole Search and Rescue (SAR) procedure. This involves everything from putting a helicopter on standby to alerting the medical department of a potential problem. If you simply forget to check back in and the SAR alert goes out you can get in some serious trouble.
At dinner we sat with Pat Smith, the IT director for the National Science Foundation. He’s intimately familiar with POLAR ICE, being the person who essentially funded the application, and we assured him that our presence on Ice would make for a top-notch product in future versions. We chatted about potential future applications and were generally on our best behavior for this meal.
I watched A Beautiful Mind in its entirety and then knocked on Rob’s door (next to mine) to see if he was interested in going to the Coffee House. There we ran into Mike, split a bottle of wine, and chatted about the lives we’ll be returning to in Denver.
Rob & I then continued on to Gallagher’s, the non-smoking bar a few doors down. We ran into Rich deLore, who is in charge of the communications facilities here at McMurdo. On Black Island, an island across the bay, we have some radio towers and satellites that essentially provide all of our communications abilities on and off continent. Rich runs these and shared some interesting information on how they work. He’s also from Australia, from a town north of Sydney that I can’t remember the name of. I asked him about my new favorite sport, rugby, and he tried explaining the rules to us again. It’s just a much different sport than I’m used to, so I’m still fuzzy on some of the rules. He made a few things make sense, though.
By this time, Josh had joined us and we played several rounds of air hockey. I got killed, as usual, and after a while we decided to call it a night.
Today, being a Sunday, is our day off. Therefore, I decided to sleep in and it felt great. The first thing I did upon waking up was to run to Scott Base, the New Zealand Antarctic Base, and back. There’s a road connecting Scott Base to McMurdo, and it’s only two miles each way – a perfect Sunday run. The weather this morning was pristine, not a cloud in the sky, very light winds, and temps in the low 20’s. The weather has been all over the map since we arrived just under a week ago, so I was glad to take advantage of this beautiful morning. The road to Scott base winds around the backside of Ob Hill, and opens up to a stunning view of the Ross Ice Shelf. This ice is frozen year-round, and is home to one of our runways, Willie Field. This was named for named for Navy Seabee Richard Thomas Williams, who drowned when his tractor broke through the sea ice in 1956. I’m not sure where that happened, though, as Willie Field sits on 25 inches of compacted snow over 200 feet of ice, floating on 1800 feet of water. Impressive, to say the least.
The run itself was more challenging than most four-mile runs in recent memory for several reasons. For one, I’m still working my way back into the running shape I was used to. Secondly, I’m still not quite used to running in Antarctica. The road to Scott Base is mostly dirt, with a little bit of snow and ice on it, but the dirt is volcanic rock. It’s loose, and therefore throws off my rhythm as I slide around on it. The route is also uphill both ways (or it seems like it, anyway), without a flat portion to be found. Not to mention the fact that I’m always overdressed, wearing at least 10 pounds of cold weather gear. I’ve been told there’s a Turkey Trot at Thanksgiving, though, and my goal is to not only be ready for that, but to achieve a good time. I can feel myself getting back into running, which feels great and makes me very relieved. It was the first thing I thought of this morning, which is how it used to be. Prior to running on the sea ice I was Mr. Procrastinator, always finding a reason not to go run. Now that I’m in the zone again, though, it feels fantastic.
When I got back I showered up and flipped through the three Armed Forces Network channels. Imagine my surprise when one of those channels was carrying the Iowa/Purdue game. It’s Sunday here, but Saturday back in the States. Imagine my dismay to see how badly Iowa was getting beaten.
Sunday mornings at McMurdo have a brunch from 10am-1pm. This is the most popular meal of the week, and for good reason. After burning about 550 calories on my run I easily ingested three times that many at brunch. They have everything from quiche to fresh fruit, cheese, made-to-order eggs and omelets, scrambled eggs, sausage patties, bacon, pancakes, French toast, a waffle station, pastries, coffee cake, donuts, and much more. Looks like I’d better start running that route to Scott Base and back a few times a day.
After brunch we chatted with Kelly and some people she introduced us to, and generally enjoyed the laziness of the Sunday afternoon. I was anxious to see the photos I had taken yesterday on Ob Hill so I came over to 175 to offload the camera and catch up on this here blog.
I also wanted to mention just a few things about life at McMurdo Station. It’s fairly deceiving. This is a self-sustaining community, so it’s easy to forget that it’s a 5-hour plane ride (at minimum) to get to any other form of civilization. We’re 2,100 miles away from Christchurch yet we seem to get along pretty well. There are about 800 people on station right now, so it has a small town/college town/mining community sort of feel to it.
One interesting fact about McMurdo, and all of Antarctica, is that due to the Antarctic Conservation Act and Antarctic Treaty, there’s no such thing as a landfill, or sewage area. Every single piece of trash, food waste, and human waste is transported back to the United States via cargo vessel for disposal. Every building has at least one area where you must separate all of your trash into the proper bin for recycling. There are bins for food waste, paper, aluminum cans, clothing, burnables, etc. In our Safety Outdoor Lecture we learned that even out hiking you’re not allowed to relieve yourself should nature call. A yellow flag marks the only locations where you can do that. Seriously. However, I’ve yet to see one. Even out running I’m afraid to spit because it seems like that could be an illegal activity. All violations of the ACA are federal crimes, with penalties of up to $10,000 and imprisonment. So I’ll be sure to separate my trash and not litter.
Life on the Ice is very inexpensive. All meals are covered, as is lodging. Laundry is free. The lounges in the dormitories have free foosball and pool tables. The bars have free games, from pool to shuffleboard to air hockey, darts, etc. Bowling is $2/game. Drinks are extremely inexpensive. The bars charge $2 for everything. Mixed drinks or beer (including CD), it doesn’t matter, it’s $2. I can see how some of these nomads that end up here stay for a while. It’s a perfect chance to save up some cash. After a week on station, however, I don’t know that I could winter over or even do an entire season. It’s a lot of cold and a lot of white (or in the case of winter it would be even more cold and a lot of darkness).
One of the projects right now on station is to construct an ice pier. Down on the ice there are crews spreading dirt over a large section of ice. What ends up happening is that in January, once the ice has softened up just a tad, an icebreaker will come through and drop off a bunch of cargo. About 80% by volume of all cargo on station is delivered via vessel. By spreading dirt on top of the ice it insulates the ice and keeps it frozen when the rest of the sound is breaking up. This way they can use the frozen ice as a pier, hence the term ice pier. It should also be noted that McMurdo is the farthest point south in the world that is accessible via vessel. There’s one major concern this year, however. A huge iceberg the size of Rhode Island recently split into two, and is blocking the entrance into McMurdo Sound. This may disrupt the natural ice flow behavior and not allow the icebreaker to get all the way to McMurdo. If that were to happen it would mean the station would not get 80% of the supplies it needs for the winter and the program could actually shut down. Needless to say, the situation is being watched very closely around these parts.
Every Sunday evening one of the researchers on the Ice will give a presentation describing the project they’re working on and the implications of the science and data they collect. I think I’m going to go to that tonight, it should be fascinating to learn what kind of exploration is being done here. Those grantees are one of the primary user groups for POLAR ICE, so perhaps this will also help give me a better understanding of what I can do to help make their lives just a tiny bit easier when planning for their season on the Ice.
By the way, I uploaded a ton of pictures into the photo album if you’re interested.
