Saturday morning we reported to the MCC for transport to the ice runway and the first of the four flights en route back to the US. As we drove from the MCC down to the runway I got a little bit nostalgic thinking again about the experiences we’ve had and what an amazing place Antarctica is, but make no mistake, I was ready, and thrilled, to be on my way home.

We got lucky in that we were to fly out on a Kiwi C-130, operated by the Royal New Zealand Air Force. This is a propeller-based plane, as opposed to the jet engine C-141 that we took down to the Ice. While the southbound flight was only 5 hours, the northbound flight would be a little over 7. However, the alternative was a US LC-130, which is the same as a C-130 but is ski-equipped, enabling it to land on much harsher snow-covered surfaces such as deep field camps. The LC-130 takes about 8 ½ hours, so the 7-hour flight on the Kiwi C-130 was the best option we could hope for (the C-141’s stopped flying in mid-November due to softer conditions on the ice runway).

I mentioned previously that we’d be stopping by the Italian base, Terra Nova Bay, on our way north, but that was cancelled due to the backups resulting from the big storm. There were two C-130 flights north on Saturday, within 30 minutes of each other, and each flight carried 49 passengers. The setup on the C-130 is very similar to the C-141 that we took south, in that we sat on cargo webbing bench seats, in four rows running lengthwise through the fuselage. Even though the C-130 is a much smaller airframe than the C-141, it seemed slightly roomier, as we weren’t completely interlocking knees with the people across from us this time.

Once we got in the air I went back to the cargo ramp and laid down for the remainder of the flight. If you’ve ever seen pictures of a military plane unloading cargo out the back of it, via a ramp, it was most likely a C-130, and the ramp on which they wheel out the cargo is what I was laying on. This section of the aircraft wasn’t heated, and at cruising altitude it’s about –70 degrees outside. Therefore, the metal flooring got very, very, very cold. I was bundled from head to toe in all my ECW gear and still froze my bum off, but it was better than the alternative, seven hours in a cargo sling seat staring at the person across from me. It was so cold that the juice box given to me in my lunch bag was frozen solid within 30 minutes.

Finally the captain came over the PA and announced that we should return to our seats and prepare for landing. Once again the landing was smooth, and stepping off the plane into the warm late spring New Zealand air was amazing. There was a nice warm breeze blowing, the smell of rain in the air, green trees and grass, and no snow or ice to be found. We had gone over five weeks without seeing so much as a single piece of vegetation – no trees, shrubs, grass, or anything, just rocks, snow, and ice. We hadn’t seen a single insect, person less than 18 years old, or animal aside from seals or skuas. To be back in civilization was a very nice feeling to say the least.

We were whisked into a waiting shuttle bus and taken to the international terminal at the Christchurch airport where we got in line for customs. This was pretty straightforward, since we obviously hadn’t been anywhere other than Antarctica since leaving New Zealand. After that we grabbed our bags, changed out of our ECW gear for the last time, and headed out of the terminal.

A member of the CDC was waiting for us with a cargo truck, into which we unloaded our bags and then walked over to the CDC. We unpacked our ECW gear bags, checked in our stuff, and then got our travel and accommodation packets from the travel office. We were thrilled to see that we’d be flying out the next day. Somehow the travel office came through for us, as most of our colleagues were told they were on a waiting list, with no definite departure date. The flights must have been extremely full, and Josh was actually on a different itinerary than Scott and I, though we’d all get to Denver on the same final flight.

We grabbed a shuttle back to the Heritage, called our wives with the great news, showered, and then met our friend Liz Kauffman from the Denver office. She was on her way south, as she’ll be finishing the season – through February – at McMurdo. We had dinner at Coyotes and then hit a couple of the local watering holes, exchanging stories about our deployment. This will be Liz’s sixth trip down and she knows the program inside and out. She and Scott also gave Josh and I a hard time about a few inconsistencies in our blogs. I’m supposed to inform everyone that while the South Pole Traverse is in fact building a traverse route to the South Pole, it won’t be done this year. They’re going about 1/3 of the way. So “sorry” to anyone that made travel arrangements or was otherwise adversely affected by that incorrect statement.

Sunday morning we all met again for breakfast, then did a little shopping. Josh had a 12:30 flight out of CHC, but Scott and I didn’t leave until 4:30. We all were able to finish the shopping we had put off on the way south, so we felt like we had accomplished our mission and were ready to head home. At 2:00 we grabbed a shuttle and headed to the airport, thrilled to death to be on our way.

The flights home were pretty standard. The only notable things were that on the 12-hour Auckland > Los Angeles leg I was seated next to a small colicky child. I love kids, and usually crying or even screaming does not affect me, but by this point I was fairly exhausted, and waking up every 30 minutes to a 200db shrill scream got a bit tiresome (pardon the pun). We were also woken up around 3am by the captain asking if there were any qualified medical personnel in attendance that could assist with an on-board emergency. That was a little bit scary. To top it all off we had some major turbulence for several hours in the middle of the night – some of the most extreme turbulence I’ve been witness to, with the plane dropping and lurching quite a bit. Despite all of this, or maybe because I’d enjoyed a melatonin tablet washed down by three beers, I was able to sleep pretty well.

Finally, at about 3:30pm local time on Sunday – an hour before we had departed Christchurch – we touched down in Denver. I was met at the baggage carousel by Sara and it was like the “Dream Weaver” scene in Wayne’s World, where she was walking towards me in slo-mo with her hair blowing in the wind and a light coming from behind her :-)

I had dreamed about this moment for weeks, and it was hard to believe I was actually standing in Denver and that was actually the real live Sara Stueve walking towards me. After hugs and kisses we waited an insanely long time for our bags to finally come around; once they did we got in the car and I drove for the first time in almost 6 weeks. Dexter was thrilled to death to see us, and after my first Chipotle burrito in 6 weeks I slept and slept and slept, not waking up until 12:30 today, grateful to be in my own soft cozy bed, with my family, and with a safe, highly successful Antarctic deployment behind me.

I’ve said it many times, but it was an amazing journey, one I’ll never forget. My mind has been opened so much to the world around me, and I have all kinds of hopes and plans for future world travel with Sara. I’ve met a plethora of amazing people and seen just as many amazing things. We were able to accomplish our mission, and more – the local POLAR ICE install wasn’t initially planned. The highlights for me would have to include the Polar Plunge, Cape Evans and Scott’s Hut, the Punk Party, and Happy Camper School. I hope this blog wasn’t too long-winded at times, though I’m sure it was. I appreciate all of the support you’ve all given me and I look forward to seeing everyone again. If our paths don’t cross beforehand, I hope you all have a very happy holiday season.

Over and out,
~Matt

P.S. I’ve posted a few final photos as well.

Yesterday I mentioned that the reason the Kiwi flights were delayed another 24 hours was because of “communications problems.” We later learned that a solar storm was causing solar flares that have been interfering with the HF radio signal, and that was why the Kiwis stayed grounded. Americans will fly with Iridium phones as a backup communications device, but the Kiwis will not. The new, cruel joke around town has become “What kind of bird doesn’t fly? A Kiwi Bird.” Get it?

Upon learning about the solar flares, we did some research online to see if we could find a solar forecast for Friday. The one we found, from NOAA, predicted flares to be about 4-5 times more likely than the ones that delayed the KZM-007 flight from CHC. “Just great,” I thought. The weather finally turns nice again and another storm knocks us out – 92 million miles away.

With that in mind, I awoke this morning feeling a bit pessimistic about our chances. Getting my hopes up each morning to check the flight information channel only to be let down day after day has taken its toll. However, the scroll showed KZM-007 still as being on the schedule to depart at 0900 and arrive at 1632. After breakfast I headed to the office and more or less stared at the Outlook Public Folder that houses all flight movement messages, just waiting for the cancellation message to come in. By 9:30 it still hadn’t come, but neither had the departure message. Finally, just before we were to head to a 10:00 meeting the message arrived that KZM-007 was in the air, en route to McMurdo, with 27 passengers aboard.

I literally almost started weeping tears of joy at the news. However, in the back of my mind I knew not to get too hopeful, as roughly 25% of all southbound flights will boomerang back to CHC even after departure. The Point of Safe Return (PSR) was listed as 1:37pm. It is now 3:00pm and no word yet either way, so I’m assuming they’re still in the air, and should arrive in about 90 minutes.

If they do, and if the solar storms don’t flare up again, we should be on our way off this continent tomorrow morning sometime. We’re manifested for the 7:30pm bag drag tonight – that’s where we bring all of our luggage up to the Movement Control Center (MCC) to get weighed and loaded onto cargo palettes. Once we bag drag we have just the clothes on our backs and one carry-on bag of ECW gear. Therefore, if we bag drag, and get bumped again, it’s going to be that much worse since we’ll be without most of our stuff.

However, I’m highly optimistic now. I just got off the phone with Sara and we both expressed how the worst part is not knowing anything. Even if I do get out of here tomorrow there’s the unknown about getting out of Christchurch. We heard today that there are a total of 5 seats available all next week on flights from Auckland to Los Angeles. However, there are 98 people manifested for the two flights north to Christchurch tomorrow. I’m praying that those 5 seats are after Raytheon has blocked off some for us.

Finally, I was just reading some of my boss’ blog, and thought he did a good job describing what the Condition 1 storm was like. I didn’t really describe what it was like other than the visibility factor. Here’s what he wrote, reprinted without permission:

Very quickly people, buildings, and vehicles disappear from sight in the blowing snow; this happens often within yards of where you stand. There is no difference between the sky and the ground, it's a matter of "zero horizon" - everything is simply white. The snow is being driven horizontally by winds gusting in excess of 50 knots; within seconds your clothes are completely soaked by the snow. It covers your entire body in a layer that clings to you.

You actually inhale the snow as you walk toward wherever you're going. The hood of your parka eliminates your peripheral vision and limits your view to a narrow slit just in front of you. Conversation is difficult, even with someone walking right next to you; with the exception of the occasional exclamation or expletive, you generally walk in silence. It's a constant effort to walk, leaning over and driving yourself against the wind which constantly seems to be trying to knock you down; upon arriving at your destination you are breathing hard. Every seam in your clothing has had snow driven into it, and looks like white lines.

Finding a path through the snow can also be challenging; the ground is a swirling patch of white that seems to have constant depth, but one step is ankle-deep in the snow, and the next is into a drift up to your knee. The instinct to turn your back to the wind is quickly abandoned once tried; it's harder to turn back into the wind to find your next few steps so you simply keep your head down. Snow melts against the exposed parts of your face and drips down your neck. Your sunglasses are covered in snow, and your gloves are completely soaked through to your fingers.

It is currently 9:00am on Thursday, December 4th. We were supposed to be on our way home to Denver right now, but instead find ourselves still sitting in McMurdo with no sign of getting out any time soon.

The Condition 1 storm that ripped through the Ross Island vicinity left quite a mess in its wake. No flights have come in or out since Saturday. The fleet ops crews were extra busy yesterday, trying to get the runway cleared, which is a monumental task. There are pictures of the runway after the storm that show snow drifts up and over the buildings on the flight line. Combine those drifts with a 3-mile road just to get to the runway, and then 2 miles of road at least 300 feet wide for each runway (times 2), plus the taxiway and parking/loading areas, and that’s a whole lot of snow to clear.

This morning started out optimistically, as the skies are clear, the winds are calm, and the temps are comfortable. Today was the day that the Kiwi flight KZM-007 would be arriving, which means we’d be on it going north tomorrow morning. Tonight we would bag drag, toast McMurdo one last time, and be on our way home in the morning. However, upon getting to work this morning I checked the flight schedules and saw that KZM-007 has been delayed yet another 24 hours due to “communications problems.”

This means that the earliest they’ll arrive will be tomorrow afternoon, assuming the weather holds and they fix whatever problems they’re having. That would put us on the Saturday morning flight north to Christchurch. However, once we arrive in CHC there’s another unknown – we’ve been told that Qantas doesn’t fly from Auckland to LAX on Sundays, and that the Monday flight is already full. I checked Qantas.com, and it appears as though they do, in fact, fly on Sunday, but that economy class is already booked. So once we arrive in CHC, who knows how long it will take to get a spot on a flight back to the US. Hopefully some of those seats are being held for USAP participants, I have no idea at this point.

Tuesday night after the storm had ripped through we went bowling again with Michael Davis. He’s in the bowling league down here and we’ve been his teammates for two of his games. Tuesday we were on fire, combining for a team score of 536 (that’s pretty good on the oldest AMF lane in the world, complete with rolling, pitted lanes and manual pin setters). Josh showed us all up by scoring 183. I didn’t do too badly, getting 114 and no gutter balls. If I can break 100 and not get a gutter ball I consider it a good game.

Last night we went to Gallagher’s for some foosball with Mr. Davis and afterwards we walked into the midnight sun for the first time in several days. The sun had finally broken through and the clouds were diminishing. We stood in the road looking down on the runway clearing efforts for a while when a grantee walked up to us and said, “All I can think of right now is ‘Sometimes the light’s all shining on me…’”, in reference to “Truckin’” by the Grateful Dead. I thought that was pretty fitting given the past few days: “Sometimes the light’s all shining on me; other times I can barely see [Condition 1 reference there], lately it occurs to me, what a long strange trip it’s been.”

Ain’t that the truth.

Runway-clearing effort photos in the photo album. Also, today is the 4th of December here in McMurdo, I realize it's only the 3rd back home, but all the same, happy birthday to my twin nephews, Ethan and Isaac, and their grandpa (my father-in-law), Mark. I wish I could be there to help celebrate.

It's currently 10:30am on Tuesday, 2 December. I was scheduled to leave this morning on a Kiwi C130, but that plane hasn't yet arrived from Christchurch due to the nasty weather we've had over the past few days.

About 15 minutes ago the weather condition was moved to condition 1 due to visibility. There is currently blowing snow and visibility less than 50 feet. The winds are gusting between 60-70mph, shaking building 175. Last night it was condition 2 all night long and I slept very poorly, waking up regularly due to the LOUD wind noise in our room and the feeling of the bed being shaken as the building rattled from the power of this ferocious storm. As soon as it hits condition 1, foot travel is forbidden and every person on station must be accounted for. If anyone doesn't check in, a Search and Rescue (SAR) is initiated. I had been wanting to see a condition 1 since we got here, just for the complete Antarctic experience, but I certainly didn't want it the day we were supposed to leave. I stepped outside real quick to take a video of the conditions, you can see it here.

We just received word that the flight from Christchurch is not going to leave today, either, so the earliest we'll be getting out of here now will be Thursday.

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