I’m writing this on Monday, December 1st, reflecting on this past weekend and hoping our delay getting out of here doesn’t last more than a day. If that’s the case, this will be one of my last, if not my final, update from the Ice. More on that in a bit, but first a quick recap of the past few days.
Friday after breakfast I tried calling Sara to wish her a happy Thanksgiving (it being Thursday in the States), but got voice mail. I then called my sister Michelle’s cell phone, knowing that it’s become one of her appendages, always with her and always on. She was at my family’s Thanksgiving gathering so I got a chance to chat with both of my sisters, parents, and nephews, which is always cool.
Next we headed to the CSEC to meet with Bjorn, who runs the GPS program through UNAVCO, the Boulder-based contractor for this division of the USAP. Bjorn gave us a few requirements for his section of POLAR ICE and then we showed him a few tips and tricks for pulling data out of the system.
After the meeting with Bjorn I tried Sara again, this time at her sister Heather’s house, and was able to reach her at the other family gathering that I couldn’t be physically farther away from and still be on this planet. I do so enjoy those moments on the phone, but can’t wait to get home and see the face attached to the voice again.
A few hours after that we met at the NSF chalet with Jim Scott, Cleve, and Kirk Salveson to go over the current status of POLAR ICE on station and our plans for its future. This meeting went very well; everyone has a very positive view of our application and its future could be very bright.
After a few hours of work followed by dinner and a nap we headed over to the big rave party being held at the Mechanical Equipment Center (MEC). The MEC group had cleared out a bunch of the equipment and transformed the workshop into an Antarctic rave club. Everyone had talked about this party for the past week or so, and we were pretty excited to check it out. All of the overhead fluorescent lights in the workshop had been replaced with blacklights, and right in the middle of the floor was a dancer cage fabricated by the metal workers on station. There was a small stage set up on one end of the floor that was occupied by a hula hooper, entranced by the pumping techno/trance/house/whateveritscalled rave-esque music that was pumping loudly through the PA system. In the middle of the room, on the back wall, was the DJ booth, and on the wall opposite the stage was a makeshift bar.
We each grabbed a beer and watched the action for a while. People had come prepared, drawing all kinds of tribal designs on their faces and arms with highlighters, so that when dancing they were glowing like the blacklight posters I had in my college dorm room back in the day. Scott was ultra-excited, as he used to be into this kind of thing when he lived in Florida. He ran back to the room to get a highlighter and change into more rave-friendly clothes. When he returned he had drawn swirls up and down each of his fingers, had outlined his eyes in the Egyptian eyeball design, and had put on a skin-tight thin skull cap he had bought at Scott Base.
Last week’s punk party was a little more my style, but this was a good time nonetheless. I gave my camera to Mike Hoffman, one of our Denver colleagues who deployed with me, and he got a good 40-50 pictures of the evening for me. Most of them were taken without flash, on slow shutter speed, so they all kind of look like neon blur on black, but it’s kind of a cool effect.
The rave went well into the night, long after Scott and I left at 1:30am. Saturday morning we slept in; this was the first Saturday we didn’t have to report for work, as it was our Thanksgiving holiday. After breakfast and checking email I headed back to the room and got into a little bit of a cleaning frenzy. I scrubbed everything that could be scrubbed, vacuumed, and organized as much as possible. I even shaved the beard I had been growing for the past 6 weeks or so, then showered and put on the nicest clothes I brought, now prepared for my first Thanksgiving dinner ever spent without at least some portion of my family.
Kelly, the map girl, had invited us to a pre-party at the lounge in her dorm, which is right next to ours. There were about 30 of us all nicely dressed, sipping wine, and chatting before we headed over to eat. The kitchen staff was prepared to serve three different sittings for Thanksgiving dinner, and you had all week to reserve which one you would be partaking in. We elected to go for the 6:00 meal, the last one of the three. We arrived at 5:30 and found there was already a sizeable line formed waiting to get in. We took our spots and once we reached the front we were able to secure enough tables & chairs for our big group.
The dinner was fabulous, with all of the fixings; the only thing I noticed was missing was green bean casserole. I ate my pecan pie wishing I was enjoying my wife’s recipe instead, but our large group and large collection of wine made the dinner quite entertaining. After most people had finished eating, Karla, the BFC Supervisor, started passing around a bottle of Jagermeister and those who were willing started to partake in several rounds of toasts and Jager shots. At 7:30 a voice came over the intercom asking everyone to leave so that the kitchen staff could finish cleaning up and enjoy their meal. We obliged, and all headed over to the lounge of dorm 211 for some ping-pong, foosball, and general merriment. We met a lot of new people over the course of the day, and everyone here really does feel like a family. I remembered how we felt like college freshman on the first day of class when we had our first meal here, but how now I was starting to feel like one of the family.
Sunday morning my alarm went off at 9am, signaling that I needed to get up and grab a bagel before the Turkey Trot was to begin at 11:00. Upon leaving the dorm I was greeted with some beautiful crisp lightly falling snow. There was at least 2-3” on the ground, and it was coming down nice and vertically due to the complete lack of wind. I was immediately struck by four things: 1) it would be really fun to run in this; 2) this was the first snow we’ve had since getting here a month ago; 3) this was one of the very few times it was absolutely calm, with no wind blowing, and therefore it was pleasantly not too terribly cold out; and 4) the station is beautiful covered in snow as opposed to the dirt that had been dominant the past couple of weeks.
I walked in the galley, rounded the corner to the dining room, and saw the sign that said “Turkey Trot Postponed due to Weather. See You Next Sunday.” “No, you won’t,” I thought to myself. I was quite bummed, as I was really looking forward to running this 5K race and burning off some of the turkey I had eaten the day before. I also had thought for a moment that it would be a cool life goal to compete in an organized run on all seven continents, and this may be my only Antarctic opportunity. I had also already picked up my Turkey Trot T-shirt, and I wouldn’t feel right wearing it not having actually run it. I decided I could do my own Trot, so I elected to go over to the aerobics room and ran the 5K on a treadmill instead.
After that I showered and joined Scott & Josh for brunch. By now the snow was coming down horizontally, like it usually does, since the winds had picked up quite a bit. Most of the areas outside of McMurdo had been declared Condition 2 weather, and I was surprised that McMurdo itself hadn’t yet been. Over the course of the day the weather got progressively worse, and we started worrying that if it didn’t let up the flight that was to come in on Monday wouldn’t be able to land. The Monday flight is the plane that was scheduled to take us out on Tuesday, so if it didn’t come in on Monday we’d be bumped at least a day getting out of here. Regardless, Sunday afternoon and evening was spent packing up all of my gear and getting ready to head home just in case the skies suddenly cleared and the flight was able to come in.
This morning (Monday), the weather was even worse than it had been on Sunday, and I knew right away that the plane wouldn’t be leaving Christchurch today. The flight information scroll on TV confirmed that we are now looking at a 24-hour delay. It is currently 4:00 pm on Monday, and the weather has done nothing but get nastier and nastier. We just left a meeting and I snapped a quick video of the conditions as soon as we stepped out of the door, before my lens got soaked. check it out. It’s now condition 1 everywhere except McMurdo central, and the storm is supposed to last through midday tomorrow. This means that the earliest we might hope to see the flight get in would be Wednesday, thereby getting us out of here on Thursday. I had really hoped to have a few days at home to relax with Sara before having to report to work in Denver on Monday. The longer this storm lasts, the longer it will be until I see her again and the shorter the time I’ll have to spend before going back to the office. How ironic is it that I’ve been in Antarctica for a month, and the weather here has been nice and clear about 95% of the time, with the first snow and condition 2 weather coming the day my ride out was supposed to get in.
One other note on our flight out of here: it’s scheduled to be a C-130 plane operated by the Royal New Zealand Air Force. They only operate 4 planes and are very particular about landing conditions. It’s been joked that if there’s one isolated cloud viewable from McMurdo in an otherwise sunny, clear sky, the Kiwis will turn around. However, when we do make it out we are scheduled to pick up a couple of Italian researchers at their Terra Nova Bay station. This means we’ll get an extremely rare treat of a tour of a foreign Antarctic base. Everyone who’s heard about this has been extremely envious, so that’s something to look forward to.
I’m guessing I’ll probably post another update before I leave, but if not, I’d like to thank everyone for reading all my drivel over the past month, and especially the emails and comments I’ve received. I’m a long way from home, but whenever someone comments on one of my exploits it makes me feel not quite so far away. I know this blog kind of turned into a long-winded account of not-so-interesting topics at times, and it would probably have been much more appropriate for a 2-week deployment as opposed to 5 weeks of random “I went to the office in Antarctica today and then had dinner” posts. However, it served as a way for me to feel closer to everyone back home, and I really appreciate all of the kind words I’ve received along the way. Hopefully this weather will roll out tomorrow and I’ll see you all again sooner rather than later.
Anyway, again, here is the weather rating system. You can also find some new photos of the past few days in the photo album.
- Condition THREE is anything better than condition Two
- Condition TWO is when any one of the following are true:
Wind speed is between 48 - 55 knots
Visibility is less than 1/4 mile but greater than 100 feet
The windchill is greater than - 75 degrees F but less than -100 degrees F
- Condition ONE is when any one of the following are true:
Visibility is less than 100 feet
Wind is greater the 55 knots
The windchill is greater than -100 F
