As mentioned previously, we work six days a week on the Ice, so Saturday is just another workday for us.
While being in Antarctica is a very cool (pardon the pun) work environment, we do have a lot to do yet before we leave. I know it doesn’t make for the most interesting reading to hear that I went to work, so I’ll try to be brief and just get to the point (something I’m not very good at sometimes).
Our meetings with the workcenter supervisors would continue, as we had scheduled a 10:00 with Jay Ranson, construction supervisor, and a 1:00, or 1300, with Alan Cornelison, Mechanical Equipment Center (MEC) supervisor. Scott was asked to join a 10:30 meeting with the CIO and deputy CIO from the NSF, so Josh & I interviewed Jay on our own.
Jay is in charge of running the carpentry shop, which does all kinds of custom fabrications for science groups. They are also responsible for the entire construction of and putting in of field camps whenever a group goes into the deep field.
POLAR ICE has worked well for Jay, and he didn’t have a whole lot of new functionality he needs or any new data that should be captured. We did come up with a few items, and then took a tour of the carp shop. This is a large building full of every possible tool, saw, and workbench. It looked like Norm Abram would be walking around the corner at any moment.
He showed us the three types of large tents they use for deep field camps, which are Jamesways, Rack-style Tents, and Weatherhavens. The carp shop is also in charge of the fish huts, which go out onto the ice for diving and fishing experiments. There are only 21 of these available, and apparently take months to build. He talked about how the shop has built just about everything imaginable in the past, from custom battery boxes to seal coffins. Science groups are always asking for one-off custom fabrications, and his team of 23 carpenters will almost always come through for them.
After the meeting Josh & I went back to do a bit more work before lunch. Scott was still wooing the CIO from the NSF so we headed to eat without him. A short while later he joined us, saying that his meeting had also gone well. After lunch we met with Alan from the MEC and got a few ideas for ways to better help him and his allocation of mechanical equipment such as generators and snowmobiles.
After working a bit more we had an IT all-hands at the galley. Each manager gave a short talk about his or her division’s current status, and Cleve (the IT Supervisor) introduced us and asked Scott to describe our project to everyone.
Since the meeting was at the galley and it ended just before dinner was to be served we sat around for a while chatting about all kinds of things. I was itching to get some exercise before sitting down to yet another meal so I decided to go hike Ob Hill first. The day before when I hiked it with Josh & Scott they nicknamed me “The Goat” because I have a tendency to hike fairly quickly. They thought I should clock myself to see how long it takes. I thought that was a grand idea so headed out for a quick hike before dinner.
It took me 10:36 to get to the top, but on the way down I was stopped by another hiker for some friendly chitchat. I didn’t want to stop my watch out of politeness, so by the time I got down it was 20:56 total. I know I can do it in 18:00 or less, maybe even 15:00 once I perfect my route. It’s about 750-800 feet high, but I’m not sure how long the path is. I know I’ll be infatuated with this new challenge, so it will be interesting to see how my time improves throughout the next 2 ½ weeks.
At dinner someone mentioned that there were 5 Weddell Seals hanging out down by Discovery Hut so we decided to hike down and take a look. Since the key to the hut is can be checked out we stopped at the Firehouse to grab it. It was available, so after reading the rules of the hut we headed down to see the history and the wildlife. The seals were just far enough off the peninsula that you couldn’t get a very good view of them. We had heard that some penguins had been hanging out here the night before, so that might explain the seals (and lack of penguins).
We entered the hut, and it was like stepping back in time. This was the first structure built on the continent, in 1902. It was pre-fabricated in Australia and brought to Antarctica by vessel to be reconstructed. The sheet we received from the Firehouse has the entire history of the hut; I’ll list that in a future post. The hut is very cool, but not quite as mind-expanding as the hut on Cape Evans. Perhaps it’s because this one is smaller, or that Josh & I were already familiar with mummified supplies from almost 100 years ago. It was still very impressive and made me stop again to appreciate the incredible history of this place. I was standing in the exact spot where Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton had initiated Antarctic expeditions.
Scott wasn’t on our Cape Evans trip so this was the first time he had seen anything like this. He spent a lot of time in the hut, taking upwards of 60 pictures and 3 videos. Meanwhile, I had hiked up to the Our Lady of the Snows Shrine, which is yet another cross about ¼ mile above Discovery Hut. This has a plaque dedicating the shrine to Navy Seabee Richard Williams, who died in 1956 when the tractor he was driving fell through the sea ice. He was only 22 years old at the time, and imagining what he went through at that fatal moment was almost too much to comprehend. One moment he was driving a tractor, the next he was sinking 350 fathoms (2,100 feet) in 28-degree water, trapped inside a tractor. His body was never recovered.
The shrine also had several impromptu memorials set up for others that have given their lives in order to help us better understand Antarctica and the world in which we live. It was a fairly deep moment to think about all of those that have been here, and those that never made it back home, while gazing down at McMurdo Station from up on this hill.
After hiking back to the Firehouse and turning in the key we decided to head to the Coffee House to warm up. The Coffee House serves many different wines and “Java Jolts,” or shots that you can have them put in coffee or cocoa. We got our drinks and sat down at a table with Cleve for some great conversation. Cleve is a long-time veteran of the program, and he and his son were the first ever father-son winter-over team at South Pole Station. I don’t know how anyone can winter-over at the Pole, with its insanely cold temps (Cleve said it hit 117-below one year when he was there), and 24-hours of darkness. I suppose it would be doable with a family member, but I’m still impressed by anyone who winters over at any of these stations. There are no flights in or out, just six months of work in the dark.
We found a cribbage board and Josh, Scott, and Cleve taught me how to play. It’s an interesting game of counting, and I picked it up fairly quickly, though I still have a ways to go. We ended up closing down the Coffee House drinking wine and playing cribbage, and then headed over to Gallaghers to top the night off with some air hockey and shuffleboard.
Sunday morning I slept in a bit, did some laundry, and then headed over to the infamous Sunday McMurdo Brunch. Oh, how I love this meal. After eating more than I needed once again I retired to my room to watch some college football. Yes, we get college football on Sundays here. It’s very strange. Being 20 hours ahead of Denver is just one more oddity of this adventure.
Once Nebraska had been formally crushed by Kansas State the phone rang and it was Curt LaBombard, one of the science planning managers from Denver. He’s in town for just a few days before heading to the Beardmore Glacier Field Camp for two months. Curt has been coming here for a long time, and asked if we were interested in the “underground tour.” We all eagerly said yes, and piled into one of the monster trucks.
Curt first drove us up near the Arrival Heights area where NASA has a giant golf ball of some sort. I neglected to ask what it is used for, as I was captivated with the view. It’s a similar view to the one from Ob Hill, but from here you can see much farther west, out to Cape Evans and beyond. There’s also a big microwave receiver up here that pulls in the signal from Black Island. This is how all of the communications on station (TV, radio, etc) reach Mac Ops, the central hub here on station.
Next he gave us the driving tour of all kinds of cargo and vessel retro staging areas, along with personal antidotes about each. It was really interesting to hear all of the personal stories that he has, this place has been a big part of his life and it’s readily apparent that he loves it here.
Curt worked in the carp shop for seven years, and next gave us an insider’s tour of the facility. There are all kinds of interesting items in here that we hadn’t seen on our tour with Jay, and this was the first tour of the shop for Scott.
Next we made our way to Mac Ops, which is the communications hub of McMurdo Station. There is a dispatcher on duty 24/7 answering all calls from VHF and HF Radio as well as Iridium Phone. Curt radioed the deep field camp at Beardmore, and we all sat back and soaked in the coolness of this room. This is where everything happens. People all over the continent radio in here every day, it’s a highly interesting place to sit and observe. It looks like a control deck out of Star Trek or Apollo 13 or something. There are flat panel touch screen monitors, receivers, lights, meters, buttons, and maps all over the place.
After our tour we headed back to the dorm and ended up sleeping until dinner. The rest of the evening was spent watching Pirates of the Caribbean and Behind Enemy Lines on the two movie channels here on station. It was a nice lazy day 2,100 miles from the nearest civilization.
There are two new photos in the photo album as well.
