Transitioning

12-26-11

Led a tour to scott hut and we shared a thermos of hot cocoa out at hut point watching the seals. After the tour we headed over to the coffee shop to play some scrabble.

12-27-11

Since Christmas, the temps have crept up to above freezing and today was the hottest day yet at 37 degrees. On my drive back from Pegasus when I got into mactown, I had one of the trailer attachments break from all the bouncing.

We tried to play volleyball today, but when we got to the gym it was flooded from all the snow melt. We tried to mop and broom the water out, but it was hopeless b/c too much metl water was still coming in. So instead we played a few rounds of lightning on the dry end of the court and then Jarod, Elisha, Mel, and I headed over to Gallaghers for some swing dancing. We've been wanting to go, but it's always at the same time as volleyball, so it was a good excuse to go. You should see those Montana boys swing dance.

12-28-11

Saw 6 cute little Adelie penguins out at the airfield this afternoon.

Today ended up being a little bit of a rough day and a roller coaster of emotions. Starting next week I'll be on nights along with an INCREDIBLY awesome crew. Shuttles Jerod, Elisha, Mel, and Aunt Karen will all be transitioning over with me. Jerod, Elisha, Mel, and me are all very close and we roll almost everywhere and do almost everything together. It's the best little group. Then throw in Aunt Karen (shuttle shafer, that lady who owns the farm and works in manhattan, who is in her lower 60's) who we love and is tons of fun and we knew we'd have the best night crew. We were all getting totally stoked for nightshift and for the transition (4 days off to acclimatize to nights) and right before my last run of the day, we had found out our transition schedule. We were all very pysched and we had fun activities like pickle ball tournaments, hikes, skis, and snowboarding planned to help us stay away late at night as we transitioned. So on my drive I was blaring my music and singing and not caring what the passengers thought of my singing. But when I got back to the office Sharona needed to talk to me. She told me that Elisha's grandfather had passed away (something Elisha had strangely enough mentioned at lunch that her grandfather was sick and he might pass at any time) and that it was a bit up in the air as to what was going to happen. It's a little late in the year to give her the 3 weeks leave that Adrain got when his father passed away, so if she were to go, then she would't be coming back. She was going to look into seeing about just getting a 10 day leave, but the Denver office was closed so she needed to wait until tomorrow. Plus flights have been cancelled the last 3 days due to weather and they won't be flying over the new year's holiday, so it's uncertain as to when the next flight out will be. I can tell she really wants to stay, but at the same time she wants to be there for her family, and I know she is struggling with it.
Anyways, in a selfish way, we were all sad too b/c she wouldn't be joining us on the transition. So we had a bit of a melancholy first transition night. Mel and I played the normal night league pickle ball and basketball and then I hung out with Cassa in the office for a while before going to Midrats (the night shift lunch). Went to the coffee shop and hung out with Jerod and Monica. Mel and I then took a hike. I ended up going to bed about 4am and slept in until noon. A good start at the transition, but if wasn't full of the happiness and excitement we had been expecting.

12-29-11
Found out Elisha got her leave approved, so she will be out for a while, leaving on Jan 2nd. It's too bad b/c it means she won't be transitioning with us. Didn't do too much today. Went up to shuttle ops to chat with Elisha and see how things were going with her. Hung out for a little bit at the conrner bar and then Elisha and I went on our last skate ski together for a while, which was sad b/c she's my favorite ski partner since she can keep up. It was super windy for the first mile and we had trouble going forward, but then the wind changed direction and was behind us. It was awesome! It felt like downhill skiing as we were going so fast and it was so easy. After the ski Jerod, Mel, Elisha, and I played some trivial pursuit at the coffee shop until Elisha had to go to bed since she wasn't transitioning. Then we spent the rest of the transition night playing ping pong, eating at midrats, hiking out to hut point to watch the seals struggling to go from the water to the ice, and then just hanging out with our pals at shuttle ops.

12-30-11

Went to bed at 430am but was only able to sleep in until 9 b/c of noise in my room and things on my mind.
We had an awesome evening though. A big group of ATO'ers did the hike up to Castle Rock (Shuttle Mel, Shuttle Jerod, Shuttle Elisha, Cargo Monica, Cargo Scheflo, Cargo Dave, Cargo Margo, and Shuttle Nate). B/c we are shuttle drivers, we got to take out a van, even though the rest of the base is closed so that we could drive right up to the ski hill and thus get more runs it. It was an unbelievably gorgeous night with no wind and quite warm. Mel and I brought snowboards and we did a couple of sweet runs on the kiwi ski hill, which I like to call the Skiwi hill. We had something special happen, but I can't mention it in a public blog, though if you ask I will tell you by email. I'll just say that it involved Jules (so Lael, you probably know what it is anyways), which of course means it was totally sweet. The rest of the crew used various methods of sleds to toboggan down in full laughing style: cafeteria trays, frisbees, and cargo magic carpets. At the top of castle rock, we soaked in the view and sun and had a full pulls of whiskey. The wind was so calm that we even through the frisbee around a bit.
After we got back to the bottom of the skiwi hill we raced back to base to make it by 1am to get food at midrats. We then spent the rest of the night (til 5am) playing some fun pictionary telephone games that Elisha showed us.

The Night Before Christmas McMurdo Style

As I mentioned in my previous Christmas post, I would put up my poem I wrote for shuttles. Just a few definitions to help you make more sense of things in case you're not familiar with Antarctica

ECW=extreme cold weather gear (big red parka, wind pants, bunny boots)
Big Red=huge canada down parka that is obviously bright red
ANG=air national guard, the grumpiest people on base who think they're better than everyone
Delta=one of our large passenger vehicles with 4 foot tall wheels. it's articulated
Ivan= our largest passenger vehicle. A terrabus. google Ivan the terrabus if you want to see pictures
DSP=daily schedule planner
The last quote is a common quote heard coming from Shuttle Bill

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
McMURDO SHUTTLES STYLE
By Shuttle Guy

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through Mactown
The seals weren’t stirring, there wasn’t a sound;
Big reds were hung in the dorms with great care,
So many pockets, St. Nick better bring full flair;
The ANG were nestled all snug in their beds,
While nightmares of Deltas bounced all through their heads;
And mamma in her smartwool, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a restless nighshift’s nap,
When out at DJ there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bunk to see what was the matter.

Away to the galley I flew like a flash,
The nearest window so distant, I thought I would crash.
Midnight sun slowly warming the thick volcanic mud,
Gave the luster of a mining town, not to mention the crud.
When, what to my goggled eyes should appear,
But a miniature Ivan, and eight shuttlers full o’ cheer,
With a little old driver, so lively and shrill,
I knew in a moment it must be Shuttle Bill.
More rapid than skuas his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

“Now Shuttle Spring, Shuttle Matt, Shuttle Queen, and Shuttle Dan!
On, Shuttle Jen, Shuttle Bob, Shuttle Mel, and Shuttle Fran!
To the top of t-site! Up to the golf ball!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all”
As ice crystals that before a condition one do fly,
When they meet with the ice shelf, mount up to the sky,
So up to the dorm-top the shuttlers they flew,
With Ivan full of liquor, and Shuttle Bill too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The dancing and singing of each shuttle goof.

As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Through the galley dock came Shuttle Bill with a bound.
Getting dressed in ECW was surely a toil,
And his clothes were all tarnished in glycol and oil;
A bundle of bottles he had swaddled in a rag,
And he looked like a fuelie just opening his orange bag.
His eyes—how they twinkled! His dimples how merry!
His nose was frostbitten, his cheeks not too hairy!
His droll little mouth was drawn up in a smirk,
The hat on his head was askew with a quirk.

A VHF radio he held tight in his hand,
Sunglasses on his nose against the harsh light of this land;
He had a broad face, a mop of silver on his head,
That stood straight up like he had just rolled out of bed.
He was witty and quick, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A funny quote there, a wild story here,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to fear;
He checked the DSP, then went straight to his work,
And filled all the bunny boots; then turned with a jerk.

And keying the mic with the touch of his hand,
He gave a nod and down highway one he ran;
He sprang up to Ivan, to his team gave a beep,
And down wild Plagasus, they drove in a heap.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
“We’re all here til February, we’ll get it done right!”
[Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!”]

I'm dreaming of an Ice Christmas

12-23-11
B/c of the holiday I got a 3 day weekend b/c my normal days off are Friday and Sunday!

My first day off, but I woke up early so that I could go hang out with Cassa in the craft room (my early morning, her late night). Crafting is always fun and I was working on making gifts for a few of my friends here. After Cassa got too tired and had to go to bed, I went for my follow up doctor's visit for my back and then out for a ski to LDB (NASA's long duration baloon launching site) and back. The weather was beautiful and the road perfectly groomed for skate skiing.

I got back in time to come up with a quickly thrown together, but awesome costume for the town Christmas party that was thrown at the huge vehicle maintenance facility. I found an elf hat (with elf ears) at the costume rental place and Cassa had a cool red candy cane striped vest. I was then able to find a green shirt to go under it. Cassa also had some battery powered Christmas lights I wrapped around the vest. I was going to use my black ski tights to complete the elf costume, but then Cassa realized she had red tights, so I put those on under some Christmas boxers and everything fell into place. Cassa and a bunch of our friends went as a living nativity scene, which was totally funny and awesome, especially since my friend Gus (goose)was the virgin Mary. The VMF was decorated full hilt for the party. They had a big red snow cat set up in the middle to be used as Santa's sleigh where we could take pictures on Santa's (Holly, Sharona, my boss's fiance)lap. They had a choir that sang some christmas carols. They had tasty finger food and cocktails and once the older citizens of the town eventually dissapated a big and fun dancy party ensued. After the party, I hung out with Cargo Shefflo (Monica aka Monicargo) until 5am in the coffeeshop. I love Shefflo. She's the sweetest and we're very similar so we have good talks. And since she's been through a bit more of life than me, she has lots of good advice. When I got back to my room, I realized my keys had fallen out of my vest at some time during the wild dancing of the party. So I had to call the firehouse to let me in my room, which had to be a funny sight for them b/c I was still in full Buddy the Elf costume complete with blinking lights. Luckily someone found my keys when they were cleaning up the party the next day.

Christmas Eve 2011

There was a running race today called the Ob Hill Challenge in which you basically just trail run straight up Ob hill. I had wanted to do it, but b/c I am trying to rest my back, I decided not to. I probably would have done quite well in it, b/c for some reason I am pretty good at going straigh up hills, must be the calves. Instead I went for a hike with Shuttle Elisha and Shuttle Mel on the hut point loop and up to arrival heights and then went and took some cool photos at a few of the Antarctic signs.

When we got back, we still had some time before we had to get ready for Christmas dinner. We headed over to the coffee house, which was closed, but you can still go in and hang out if you want. Mel wanted to do some internetting and I'd been wanting to hear Elisha play guitar and sing, so she did a little private concert for me, which was awesome. She played a couple Christmas songs, including mom's favorite O come O come Emmanuel and then one of my favorite Brett Dennen Songs, Ain't no reason. It was lovely...she has a beautiful voice.

We all dressed up nice and headed to the Christmas Dinner. Shuttles (27 of us plus at least 7 significant otehrs) had reserved once giant table. The shuttle family is the best (partly b/c our boss is so great and loving...mama Sharona) and everyone is jealous of our department. We truly are like a family. The dinner was UNREAL. I had THREE lobster tails, beef wellington, prime rib, some fancy pork thing, duck, salmon, liver pate, chocolate covered strawberries, gnocci, and home-made fudge among other things.

After the dinner, the crew gathered around for a shuttle family picture and then I read a poem I had written (Twas the Night Before Chrismtas, McMurdo Style...to be posted later on here) for Shuttles. I had printed out the poem for each shuttler and then written them a little personal note and folded the poem up in a scroll and tied them off in a bow to give everyone, but before I gave them their Christmas card, I wanted to read it. Everyone seeme to laugh a lot, but what made me feel the best is that Shuttle Shelly and even tough old Shuttle Bill got tears in their eyes and cried. That really meant a lot to me. Shuttles is the best!

After dinner we all headed up to the carpenter shop which was hosting MAAG (McMurdo Alternative Art Gallery). Again, this impressed me greatly with all the amazing artists around the base. Lots of unique things built and designed. And outside they had fun huge toys (like a hamster wheel and double articulated mountain bike) that the carp people had made. Shuttle Shafer (the lady from Manhattan who worked in the theatre) was just eating it up b/c it was totally her scene. Cocktails and unique art. It was also here that we had our beards photographed for the upcoming moustache roulette fundraiser. A bit later into the evening they did a fashion show with unique fashion outfits (think lady gaga style) that featured a couple shuttlers (shuttle spring and shuttle kat as well as fuelie Ildi, the gal who helped me get down to the ice).
At 11pm we headed down to the chapel for the protestant service that featured the choir singing christmas carols. I then stayed for the midnight Catholic mass, though it was led by a lay-minister b/c the Priest was stuck at the south pole due to weather.
After mass, Fuelie Dan and Weather Mark and I headed back up to MAAG to go to the dance party that had started. It got pretty crazy, so I didn't stay too long, and headed back to the galley to hang out some more with cargo Shefflo for another early morning date.

In the middle of the night I remember thinking I had this dream where someone climbed into bed and gave me a hug while another figure stood in the shadows. It was a weird dream that felt so real. When I woke up in the morning I felt something by my shoulder. Turns out Cassa claus and her GPS sleigh (Dane) had stopped by and delivered me a stocking with some goodies including a wolverine that Cassa had knit for me.

Christmas Day 2011

Jerod and I hiked to the base of castle rock and then climbed up it. It's mainly just a scramble, but they have some ropes there to hold onto in case you get nervous. The weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky, about 32 degrees, and not a breath of wind. The view towards Erebus volcano and its glaciers was amazing as was the view towards the royal society range and along the coast. From way up high, we could even see where the open water was as much of the sea ice has started to melt out. When we got to the top we were welcomed with a Merry Christmas from Shuttle Linnah, Shuttle Ginny, Beth, and Ann. B/c the weather was absolutely gorgeous, we hung around on the top a while before heading down. When we got close to mcmurdo, we heard on the radio that NASA was going to be launching their giant long duration balloons shortly, so we picked up the pace, grabbed shuttle Elisha from her room and sped up obhill to watch them launch the giant balloon from over at LDB on the ice shelf.

After dinner we headed over MMI to finish the night off with a movie.

Stuck in Con 1!

12-20-11

Mom was asking me about the lack of snow in mcmurdo town. It's b/c when we get snow storms, a lot of it blows away and then when the clouds go away, the sun is so strong it melts a lot of the snow even if it's well below freezing. Think about in ski towns where the northfacing slope has a 100 inch base will the south facing slope may be completely clear of snow. Now that's during the winter when those south facing slopes only get a few hours of intense sun. Here the sun is intense 24/7.

My back has been hurting quite a bit lately, probably from the driving and also maybe from some basketball and volleyball. I went to the doctor and he prescribed heat, ice, ibuprofen, and massage. Last night Shuttle Mel gave me an amazing massage. She studied kinesiology and sports medicine in college and she did quite the amazing healing massage. Back still hurt the next day, but it did feel much better

I was just thinking how totally amazing my friends are down here. How lucky I am! The shuttle group is awesome, but so are my friends outside of shuttles. Everyone here is so caring and helpful, on top of being funny and interesting. I haven't been here that long, but it feels like I have known some of these people forever. We are developing those strong relationships just like when you have a somewhat similar living situation in college. I've been smiling really big the last couple of days just thinking how totally amazing my friends are here. It feels so good!

12-21-11

It's the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere today, which means it's the longest day of the year, or here, it's just the continuation of one huge long day, and today the sun is at high noon all day.

Shuttles Jerod, Elisha, Mel, Shafer, and I headed to the waste barn for Waste's Acoustic Christmas concert. There were about 6 groups, all very good who played a variety of music with a variety of instruments, including some Christmas stuff. The talent here is crazy. But then the last group that went was just absolutely rediculously awesome. They took familiar Christmas songs and then added HILARIOUS McMurdo twists on to them. We were all laughing so hard. This place is so amazing!

Walking home (after a quick stop at shuttles to say hi to the night shift), I was smiling so big. I was so happy. This place is just so awesome, and I've been having so much fun. My bedtime, since I get up at 5am, is 9:30, but the last week the earliest I've been to bed is midnight, a lot b/c of hanging out with shuttlers that don't go to work until 7:30 and a lot b/c I've been trying to hang out with Cassa and the night shift.
But seriously there's the coolest people here--so unique and talented--and I have such awesome friends; it just makes me happy. And now it's to the point that I know so many people on the base, that wherever you are walking, you'll be saying hi or high fiving or giving hugs. As I was telling Elisha, I wish I could describe this place to people back home, to tell them how cool it is, but it's really just impossible. It never ceases to amaze me how much character this tiny little town cut off (transportation wise) from the rest of the world can put on such a good show.

12-22-11

Today I was airfield taxi when a huge storm rolled in. It was still condition 3 at 1030am, but by 11 it had been downgraded to condition 2. I got a radio call in from shuttle ops to evacuate the people at the airport and meet the head guy in the galley of the airport to arrange all the transport. When I got this call, I was 30 yards or so from the galley (a bright orange building), but I couldn't see it at all. It was hidden behind blowing snow. Since I knew where the galley was, I managed to drive there. When I got inside, fleet ops Carly told me that there were two SOPP folks stranded in the control tower and he sent me out to get them (about a 1/2 mile drive). All the roads have flags 25 feet apart for such conditions, but when I was on the road, I could barely make out the next flag. My defrost was on high and my wipers full blast, but they couldn't keep up, and I soon had about an inch of ice on my windshield. So I rolled down my window and stuck my head out (i was wearing a santa hat if this adds to the visual) and crept slowly along trying to find the next flag. I finally arrived at the tower. I could hardly walk against the wind to reach the tower door, and when I did, I was so plastered in snow that the tower guys asked if I had walked (semi-jokingly), especially since they couldn't see the van any more from where we were as the storm had gotten worse. I piled them into the car via the driver's door since all other doors were frozen shut. We had gone about 100 to 200 yards when we realized there was just no possible way to see any more flags. We heard over the radio that they had just changed the status to Condition 1 (which means no one can move anywhere) We radioed into shuttle ops that we couldn't see and couldn't move and were prepared to wait it out. But we knew we were so close to the tower, we wanted to get back there. I jumped out of the van, making sure to hang on to some part of it. If I had my hand outstretched, the blizzard was so intense, that I couldn't see my fingers. The viz was that bad. I got down on my hands and knees and could make out some tire tracks and their direction of travel (we had been angled at about 70 degrees off the right direction). So I hopped back in and slowly crept in the direction of the tower. We nearly ran into it before we saw it. We fought against the wind to get to the door and rushed in. The tower control guy's name was Gary and the weather man was Mike.

The tower was a great place to be stuck since they had internet and music as well as a little oven to make pizza. They showed me around the tower and how the weather instrumentation works. Winds were holding steady at 50mph with gusts to 70mph. From the tower, you could see nothing including the marker for 100 feet visibility. So we all jumped on a computer to while away the time while rocking out to some music and joked about the situation we were in. Windchill was definitely well below zero and it was not a fun few steps outside to get to the toilet. In the meantime, the rest of the crew that needed to be evacuated was back at the galley at the airport. B/c they worried about fuel running out for heat and such, they activated the search and rescue people in case the need arose. The tower guy, who ranks pretty high up, was in touch via phone with some of the big wigs and he kept bragging about how good the shuttle driver was, how I made it out to them, and how I went above and beyond the line of duty to get to them by driving with my head out the window. About 6 hours later, we were still hunkering down and in Con 1, but they got an override by the big guy in the NSF to travel during a con 1. I was not so sure about this b/c we are not allowed to do this and I didn't want to lose my job, so I called up shuttle ops. Shuttle bill answered, and he was like, just listen to the big wigs, but he said, "on your tombstone I'll have them put 'he was a brave man who listened to fleet ops', I'll put a badge over your heart, and tell your mom you were a good man. Go get 'em junior". Those at the runway (2 cargo deltas, 2 challengers (giant buldozer type vehicles), a fleet ops truck, and 1 van) and me and my van all convoyed at about 10mph back to McMurdo.
When I got back everyone was excited to hear my story about how we all survived out there. Elisha and Jarod and made me a blue flag of valor (from the flags they use to mark the roads). Of course shuttle bill just sat there smiling, so proud of his protege. He kept calling me Hero. The grin on his face was priceless. "you see ole junior out there how he rescued them folks at the tower, such a hero"

After I got off work we headed up to the corner bar, where of course Shuttle Bill continued to tell the story of me in the con 1 to all his patrons at the bar.

Being in the con 1 was actually quite fun, and we had it good b/c we were all connected to the world. I got to spend good time talking on gchat to bro, mom, stringo, sherms, and lael.

That evening at the "movie theatre", a little building attached to the coffee house with very comfortable couches and a big tv, we watched and laughed to the movie Elf.

Some pictures of the cyclocross race and our gingerbread Delta (complete with oil spills, glycol leaks, the road to plagasus, penguin road kill, the snow road, and pressure ridges). This photo doesn't have it but a picture of shuttle Bill was eventually added as the driver.

12-14-11

Not much new today. Same old pickleball and basketball. Today on my Delta ride home during the big crew shift change when all the air national guard guys are grumpy and want to just get home, they challenged me to beat an hour. They said one of the drivers had hit an hour exactly. I told them it would be a crazy bumpy ride, but I'd try if they were ok with it. I harnessed myself in as tight as I could go, and took off. THe ride was bumpy and wild, but we managed it in 44 minutes.

12-15-11

A group of us got together after work to hang out at the tiny dorm lounge in MMI (mammoth mountain inn)and watch a funny 80's movie. Shuttle Spring's family had sent her tons of candy, which we all enjoyed since there isn't much candy down here

12-16-11

Went on a ski trip on the sea ice around armitage loop with Jerod. In the evening our boss had another Roll Call, where he puts down a whole bunch of money at the bar for our department. Definitely had an awesome time (especially with steph, jeff, and shuttle jen), and we were still having a great time went we met up with the night shift for the midrats meal

12-17-11
We all attended the Women's Soiree which was a talent type show that the women of Antarctica put on for a charity. Afterwards we went to the coffee house to celebrate Shuttle Dan's dirty thirty birthday.

12-18-11
Particpated in the McMurdo cyclocross race today. I ended up getting 5th. It was kind of a cyclocross race mixed with a bit of bmx or something b/c they had lots of features like stairs and ramps, plus a little bit of singletrack, and mostly rough dirt roads. It was snowing a bit for the race which was cool. A couple of the guys have been training and had their own special bikes here. That was a bit annoying, so I wish Bro had been here to dominate it in the rental bikes we had

There was a gingerbread house making contest (winners yet to be decided). Team Shuttles (Shuttle Elisha, Shuttle Mel, Shuttle Nate, Fuelie Dan, and myself). We made a pretty funny one: a delta driving on Plagasus, running over a penguin with oil and glycol leaks, on the nasty pegasus road with Shuttle Bill driving. We played Christmas music and it was snowing hard outside with big flakes, so the Christmas spirit was felt by all.

In the evening we had another "extreme 80's" movie night at MMI. This time watching Aspen Extreme as it dumped snow outside.

12-19-11

Rode a shuttle with Shuttle Elisha out to LDB and then we skied back to Scott Base on the snow road. It was the first time I had skate skied on the snow road, and it was awesome! It was a glorious day, sunny with no wind and we took the time to make snow angels and write Merry Christmas on the side of the road so that shuttle drivers could see it as they drove past.
Went to the travelogue that my friend Jean put on about her 10 month trip from Inida to Pakistans and then to China. It was my favorite travelogue yet b/c Jean is quite funny and very open and honest. She talked about how her trip had orginally been one with sexpectations, but after spending a couple months drinking heavily, doing some drugs, and having a lot of sex, she decided to go to some of those medidation retreats in India and silent monasteries and Rikas and such and by the time she left India she had become a vegetarian, given up alcohol, and started believing in a God.

Stayed up pretty late hanging out with Cassa as it was her night off from night shift. Even though she's on nights, we've managed to figure out how to hang out a lot. Cassa is such a great friend!

A cool photo from our Library.

12-10-11

After work I went dumpster diving and then over to Elisha and Melanie's room to work on my costume for the Fuelies' Mad Max party. My usual costume designer Cassa is on a new schedule of working 9 to 9, so she was just going to meet us at the party. Mad Max movies are these terrible post apocolypic moviesstarring Mel Gibson. There are basically two themes to take, the metal, gladiator type look from barter town, or the feral children look. I went with the feral children look, especially a specific character that had a recored and big headphones and such and was the radio guy. People went all out for the party and there were some pretty amazing costumes. It's crazy how into the costumes people get here. The party was fun and we danced late into the night.

I got a new rommate, another fireman I think, several days ago b/c one of the really boring fire roommates got sent to the south pole. I haven't met this one yet b/c I'm hardly in my room, but I see that he has UF bed sheets, which is interesting.

12-11-11

Sang some Christmas songs at church. It's hard to believe how fast Christmas is coming.
After church, I played some volleyball and then hung out at the coffee shop drinking Peggy's famous chai tea latte's and writing some postcards with Mel and Elisha. We reserved one of the lounges for the evening since it was Mel's 30th birthday, but b/c of the crazy night the night before we just watched a movie (wedding crasher's)

12-12-11

There are lots of people coming down for the celebration of Amundsen (and Scott's) 100 year anniversary of reaching the South Pole. Today the Norwegian delegation was flying out to the pole. At the galley at the pegasus airfield while they waited for their plane, I got to have a hot chocolate with the Prime Minister of Norway and with one of Amundsen's relatives.

I've been reading a book called The Lost Men, which is about the Ross sea party that was to set up depot's for Shackleton's transantarctic expedition. It's a cool book b/c it takes place right here at hut point and on the ross sea ice shelf. Saw a couple of quotes in it that I thought were interesting

"There's a race of me that don't fit in,
A race that can't stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
And they roam the world at will"
-Robert Service

"I don't wonder at people's being drawn back and back to Antarctica in spite of the hardships and risks--there's a fascination about the life that would appeal to most anybody. It's astonishing too, how one forgets about the outer world. No doubt there are times when one simply longs for civilization again with its attendant comfort and luxury but these fits don't last and you thank your lucky stars that you're down here, living a real life"
-Irvine Owen Gaze

Went for a good ski on the Armitage loop with Shuttle Elisha and Shuttle Mel. Then we all rewarded ourselves with some tasty icecream

12-13-11

We put on the trailers today that go to our new van. I got to do the first test run on them today and then seemed to go ok even with all the ruts and holes in the snow road. Shuttle Bill has started calling me Wolfman (in addition to Mr. Hormone and Junior). When asked why, he said, "He has such a pretty face, I don't know why he goes and ruins it with all that hair" I'm growing out the facial hair though b/c Shuttle Dan is organizing this event in January called Moustache roullette that will be this weird shaving thing, but people will have to pay money to shave the guys and the money will go towards prostate cancer research.

Shuttle Adrain had something happen and has to go back to the States. He was on the night shift, so they're having Cassa switch to nights. I'm pretty sad about this. Cassa is my best Antarctic friend and makes me smile all the time and makes me so upbeat. And probably when I go onto nights in a couple weeks, she'll switch back to days.

Plagasus

some photos of pressure ridge tours, turkey trot, and thanksgiving, and skiing, and happy camp

12-8-11

Elisha (the shuttler from Couer D'Alene) has this velcro thing across her carhart bibs where she puts a word of the day. Today she made up the word, Plagasus, a play off of our airport road Pegasus and Plague. Little did we know how true her word of the day would ring. It had snowed and drifted during the night, setting up for an epic day on pegasus.
By the time I got into work, Shuttle Queen, Shuttle Fran, Shuttle Kroise, Shuttle Dan (x2), Shuttle Dave (x2), Shuttle Randy, and Shuttle Adrain had all been pulled out of the snow. By the time it was over, and this is likely an undercount b/c it's impossible to keep track of all shuttle drivers, the count had ballooned: Shuttle Elisha (x2), Shuttle Mel (x2), Shuttle Linnah (x2), Shuttle Char, Shuttle Kat (x2), Shuttle Bob, Boss Pete, Shuttle Cassa (x2), Shuttle Jerod (x3), Shuttle Shafer, and Shuttle Bobbick. And those are just the ones that I heard on the radio and remember, but I am not always monitoring the radio. Listening on Channel 5, the channel for fleet ops, the ones who pull us out, was just hilarious. It was so busy with people calling in to get pulled out. Of course the galley truck non-stop. Lots of deltas from Cargo, and just other random departments. Sometimes, like in the case of Dan, a driver would be pulled out and then be stuck again just a few hundred yards down the road. Eventually they had to close the road to light vehicles (except of course the vans for shuttles)

I finally got stuck today, though it was mainly to avoid danger. I actually first had a close call of being stuck. I was driving a delta and when a posse of 4 vans (b/c they had finally all been pulled out) rolled by I pulled over far to the right to give them as much of the "better" part of the road as possible. I pulled too far right though and found myself stuck. As I watched Bobbick fly by (keeping speed is important), he hit a huge hole (some of the holes were so giant they were described as tank catchers), and came out of it with all 4 tires at least 1 foot of the ground. He landed it nicely with just a bit of a swerve and kept on chugging as us shuttle drivers do. The delta is an articulated vehicle, so I was able to do a crabbing maneuver to get her out and back onto better roads. On the way out, there was a particularly hairy and nasty section (mile marker 13, aka Mel's mile). I somehow got throught it. On the way back I heard fleet ops go over the radio saying that they highly suggested using another lane than what we were in b/c that one was a 100% sure stuck way. So I was feeling pretty good that I had made it out. Mel, heard the broadcast when she was a MM13 and tried to cross over but ended up getting her delta hopelessly sutck and creating a monster hole in the road. My stuck came on my last run of the day. I had made it to within 1 mile of the airport when I came upon a slow moving cargo delta. I asked permission to pass, and they said OK to pass on the right. So I went around the right, but it started to swerve towards the right, so rather than be smashed by a huge delta, I made for the ditch.

After work, I had dinner with Aunt Karen (Shuttle Shafer) b/c she wanted to interview me and ask me questions about my experience of coming down here, why I came down and what my life is/was/and will be like. She's not entirely sure what she is going to be doing with her interviews but she is thinking about perhaps writing a book and she's also using them in her correspondance with schools back in NYC.
After my dinner date with Shafe, I joined a bunch of friends to watch a Mad Max movie (starring mel gibson and tina turner). Terrible. I'd never seen them, let alone heard of them before, but this weekend's party is a mad max (post apocolypic) theme, so we watched it to get costume ideas. After the movie, I joined Elisha, Mel, and Cargo Margo for some beers at American Night at Scott Base.


***Broadcast only, do not reply to this email***


All,

Due to deteriorating conditions, the snow roads are now closed to all wheeled light vehicles. The only exception to this restriction is the shuttles department who may have an occasional van on the roads due to a shortage of available vehicles. I understand that this will pose difficulties for many departments and we will open the roads to light vehicles as soon as conditions permit.

Thanks for your cooperation,

Dave Scheuerman
Chalet Sr. Admin
McMurdo Station, Antarctica
720-568-1000 x2624
pager #661

12-9-11

My day off. Slept in b/c I was in need of some rest and then worked on my grad school essays. Finally submitted all three: to Yale, Duke, and Florida. So that feels awesome.

Went on a pressure ridge tour with Elisha, Mel, and Nate. It was snowing hard with big flakes, so the pressure ridges weren't as specactular as last time; however, there are starting to be some melt pools. These melt pools are gorgeous turquoise blue set back in the white. They look like beautiful blue lagoons. And the cool thing is that we got to watch some seals swimming around in them and then breaking up through the slush for air.

12-10-11

The road to Plagasus is getting a bit better, but the holes are still huge and you stil need some speed to get through them. On my first run this morning, I definitely had all 4 tires way off the air on 3 different occassions. You feel kind of like you are in one of those wild chase movies. It's not often you get to catch huge air in a vehicle. I've been lucky as my passengers generally hoot and holler and thank me for the ride as compared to complain like some people get. I had someone tell me today, that it was an awesome ride and that usually something that exhilirating would cost him 50 bucks at an amusement park.

Wild rides on the snow roads! Do we get paid for this kinda fun?

12-5-11

Today was the first day that we and the rest of the base had full service out to the pegasus runway on the snow road. The snow wasn't compacted enough and there was tons of loose snow (the ross ice shelf is a thick, thick layer of permanent snow) so it made for a wild ride. At least 7 shuttle drivers got stuck today, but luckily I wasn't one of them. Must have been all those times practicing driving in the snow with the cranberry cruiser and annabelle lee. The drive out to pegasus airfield and back takes about 2 hours, and I did it 4 times today. Once with the DV's. Usually Shuttle Bill takes the DV's since he's an icon here, but he was quite busy in the morning with scheduling issues, so he said "Hey Junior, grab a footstool and crank up the heat, you're taking the DV's" to which one of the air services gals said, but Bill you always do it, but then Shuttle Bill said, "I'm training Junior here to be just like me, it's time we get him started". Taking the DV's meant I got to take the fancy fancy brand new fans that just got flown in on the aircraft.

It's hard to describe just how wild the ride is out to Pegasus is right now. But I can just say, it's WILD and Intense. For 10 of the 16 miles you're plowing through deep and drifted and rutted out and soft snow. The key is to keep your speed up. I tried to go about 25 to 30mph (speed limit is about 25, but I felt I needed to go fast to avoid getting stuck). It also made things interesting that it was flat light so you really couldn't see obstacles and drifts and ruts in the road As your driving at this speed your ban is bouncing up and down, rocking left and right, swerving left in right, going into slides, fishtailing, and all of that. The passengers are holding on for dear life and are either completely scared or hoooping and hollering. As the driver your leg starts to cramp a little as you try and keep the exact pressure on the pedal at all times. Your arms are going up and down up and down violently as you're trying to keep hold of and control of the steering wheels as the tires go helter skelter all over the road. You end up sweating and getting a reall workout. Shuttle shafer did just one run and she was saying how she didn't think she could do more b/c it was so exhausting. But I absoluetely loved driving it b/c it gets your adrenaline rolling and gives you a high afterwards. It's 9pm now (it got off at 630pm, and I still feel like I'm on a high). And the passengers think you're such an amazing driver to be pulling it off. As one of the ANG (air national guard) guys told me (he's originally from colorado), in between whoops and "hell yeas", "you must be loving this b/c you're getting paid to do stuff you probably did for fun back in highschool. And it's true, we used to love to go test the suby's on tough snow conditions and terrain and see how they handled in snow. I guess all that fun paid off since I avoided the stuck list while 7 shuttle drivers did not and other crews including the food truck and comms truck got stock. The cargo truck, pudd, had it's entire tire ripped right off the wheel base by a deep and sticky patch of snow.

Cassa was also enjoying it, so we had a lot of fun over the radio and then re-telling our stories while at the fuel pump and at dinner. At one point during the day, I was driving some gals from the BFC and science cargo (some of our friends) back from the airport b/c they had just finished sending some live penguins back to christchurch to go to NZ sea world. As we were bouncing and sliding and fish tailing as Cassa came towards us, we keyed the mic and yelled into it, and threw our hands in the air. The problem is that when you pass people on the road you have to go into even softer stuff on the edges of the road. Cassa got her real wheel too deep into the snow and we saw her spin into the soft middle part of the road and get stuck. When Cassa would pick people up at the bus stop, in that hilarious manner of hers, she'd say "Welcome aboard Cassa's wild ride" and then wink at them.
Later on in the evening, Cassa and I got called to do a run together b/c there was 18 people. So we caraVanned it out there. When we picked the people (mostly ANG) up at the airport, we each took a separate lane (there are 2 vehicle lanes and a track lane, and each lane would be equivalent back home to a wide 2 lane highway) and rallied together across the snow roads, almost in race fasion, but mainly trying to speed to keep from getting stuck. As we flew across the ice shelf, swerving and sliding and bumping and correcting and over correcting, the ANG guys would be cheering us on. It was awesome when Cassa would get ahead of me b/c although we definitely felt like we were getting thrown around in our van, to see what it actually looks like from the outside made it even better. You'd see the puff of snow and then this van just erratically driving, swerving and sliding back and forth, getting pulled into the soft snow then somehow getting out, then sliding at nearly a 90 degree angle, only to right itself. Right before we got out of the hairy stuff, Cassa was in front of me, and she almost lost it right into the deep shoulder and off the road. All the ANG guys who were whooping and hollering just watching her van throughout the trip were now screaming thinking she was a goner. But she managed to pull it out jsut as the road got good. I got onto the radio and yelled "Shamalama Cassa" and she radioed back "Ramalama Shuttle Guy" and we air high fived. This last ride reminded me of some scene from a movie where there is a caravan of cars carrying important americans screaming wildly across some ice road in Russia. I think it was b/c of the crazy ice shelf scenery here and the fact that we were in matching vans with these crazy tires and huge lift kits driving crazily down the road with snow billowing behind. The last ride was such an adrenaline rush and we were so excited that we just kept talking about it all through dinner and everyone was getting a kick out of it b/c our friends (a lot in cargo and fuels who had to be out there) had also experienced the rides. A group who had ridden in Mel's van hit a pretty bad rut and they had all flown forward and almost over the seats in front of them.

Cassa offered to give me a neck massage in the office since I had done the most pegasus runs of the day. That was pretty awesome b/c your neck and shoulders do take a beating with all crazy driving.

The stuck list from today as far as I know, but there could have been more b/c I keep hearing of more was : Shuttle Fran, Shuttle Randy, Shuttle Cassa, Shuttle Eric, Shuttle Nate, Shuttle Mel, and Shuttle Queen.

It's been snowing this afternoon, so tomorrow promises to be equally as fun, I am sure!

I've included a couple of pics from Fran from when she got stuck early this morning in one of the new vans (she's on the night shift, so it's probably about 3am she said). Her's isn't a bad stuck either, some people were way off the road and tires completely covered by snow. The stuck people get pulled out by this big challenger tractor thing. Wish I could have taken some photos, but you had to keep moving at high speed to avoid getting stuck!

Went for a late evening bike ride on the old ice runway road. There were a couple seals right up close to the road which was cool. But the best part was it was just a completely quiet beautiful night with nice lighting across the mountains b/c of the storm that had passed through.

12-6-11

More fun driving out to Pegasus. Saw the poor galley truck (the one bringing food out to the runway) stuck once again. That is the 3rd time in the past two days I've seen them stuck. It's a good thing cook's stick mainly to food I guess. Met yet another researcher from Colorado College out here. She was very nice and even bought me a fancy chocolate drink for all my help toting her stuff around.

12-7-11

And of course another crazy day at pegasus. Since the galley food truck kept getting stuck, Shuttle Bill was like, "call up the galley and tell them we're sending Mr. Hormone so we know the ANG gets their food" and then to me, "Yo Junior, go show them how they drive in Colorado, and drive it like you stole it, there's some hungry flight crew out there" The run which originally just included to DA's became quite full. Along the way we picked up stranged people from the heavy shop (stuck vehicle), stranded people from FEMC (mattracks fell of their vehicle), and fireman who had nearly buried their fire van. I was able to make it through the day, with 4 runs to pegasus without being on the stuck list, though at last count when I left there had been 6 buried shuttle drivers.

I was pretty exhausted after another wild and adrenaline filled day of driving, but still was able to make it for some good games of pickleball and basketball, and then out to trivia where ATO won. My most proud question: Who anchored the 2008 4x100m free relay. Everyone on the team thought it was Krazyburn or Phelps, and didn't believe me when I said Jason Lezak, but I told them I knew for sure, and it ended up being the round winner.

Pressure Ridges and Pegasus crash site

12-2-11

Today I got lucky and made it on a tour to see the pressure ridges. This is an area in McMurdo sound over by Scott Base where the ice is pushed in towards the land creating great pressure and forming these giant ridges and peaks where the ice pushes up and crashes together. It's purely beautiful since each formation is unique. They glow different shades of blue in the shade and sparkle brilliant white in the sunlight. It made it extra gorgeous since it was a crystal clear blue sky day so towering over the pressure ridges were Erebus, Mt. Terra Nova, Mt. Terror, and Mt. Discovery. The outdoor safety people have created a little hike through it, which you are guided around in. It's really awesome to weave around through these giant ridges. Of course, b/c the ice here is very dynamic and ever changing, there are some holes in the ice where the seals can come up. So as you walk around you can get really close to a whole bunch of seals and even pretty close to a few pups. Ann Del Vera (the lady I skied with and the one who skied to the south pole) was the leader. My friend Gustavo (from Denver) was on the trip and we had fun filming some videos pretending we were intelligent french phD's describing the pressure ridges and then early polar explorers in search of the south pole, only to come upon natives (the kiwi army members also on our tour) flourishing at the pole.

When we got back we were just in time for shuttle Nate's (the guy taking a break from his astronomy phD) lecture called "we are all made of stars"

12-3-11

Had a tour of Pegasus airport today as we will soon be moving the entire airport from the ice runway airport (located on sea ice) to Pegasus aiport (located on the Ross Ice Shelf) b/c eventually the sea ice will get too unstable. At the moment the sea ice is still about 8 feet thick, but with those huge airplanes they have to be careful. The ice runway is only 3 miles from town whereas pegasus is 16ish from town, so it will be a big change for shuttles.

Right now there is a blue panel congressional group in town looking to see how things are going out here and what needs to be changed, so everything is spiffed up for these DV's.

Went for a ski after work to the ice runway. It was kind of crazy b/c it is now a ghost runway. No buidlings or anything left as they have all been towed on giant sledges across the sea ice to the ice shelf.

"dude looks like a lady"

Tonight was the Scott (kiwi) base skirt party. It's been a tradition for years and years where they have a party where the guys have to dress up as ladies. Apparently way back in the early 1900's when Scott was stranded at his discovery hut here, they did a party where they dressed up as ladies to pass the time and have some change in their routine of being stranded here. The tradition has continued and now they do it at scott base. So a bunch of us guys had a cocktail party at Sully's dorm and dressed up as girls with the ladies helping us with make-up and hair. We were definitely a funny bunch considering almost everyone has facial hair. The girls dressed us up in themes from a church girl to sporty spice to a gal from the musical grease. For me they picked out a scandalous dress to be a slutty girl. The party was fun and included a runway competition and Miss Ross Island 2011.

One of the best parts of the party may have been the bus ride back over to McMurdo. After the party we headed over to the Science Support Center where they were having live bands and a dance party hosted by the search and rescue people.

12-04-11

Took a tour out to the Pegasus crash, which is where an airplane crash landed in 1970 during a blizzard with zero visibility. No one was killed in the crash, but the plane is now half covered in the ice shelf, so you can walk up on top of it now.
When we got back, the big McMurdo craft fair was going on with all sorts of arts and crafts for sale. It's really incredible the amount of talent here!

They had a congressional committee of dv's (distinguished visitors) come down to look at the US antarctic program and to see what direction they want it to go in the future. There were some big wigs including a former senator from tennessee. At night after dinner they held a town hall type meeting where we could ask questions and make suggestions. That was pretty cool b/c a lot of the people got into it.

Camping on the Antarctica Ross Ice Shelf!

11-29-30-11

I got picked to go to a winter field survival training, aka Happy Camp. I am the first of the Fingies (FNG's, F-ing New Guys) to go, which I hope is a good sign for me and how my boss likes me. Ginny also said it's a good sign that Sharona is already sending people on morale trips (boondoggles) as it means we might get another one. I have a dream of going to the dry ice valleys or the south pole, but usually those boondoggles are reserved for 2nd or 3rd year people.

The purpose of happy camp is to teach people going into the field how to survive in case a storm blows in and they get stranded away from the camp or a helicopter or plane can't come in. They teach you winter and antarctica and snow survival techniques. It's basically car camping, so you can take plenty of gear and tons of food (one person called it fat camp on account of all the good food we got...trail mix, chocolates, m&m's, and those good mountain home freeze dried meals). We took a Heggland (a snowcat thing) about 5 miles out onto the Ross iceshelf and then walked another mile to our camping area. We only had to carry our extreme cold weather gear as the rest was brought to us by snowmobile.

We had some lectures before we got going in the field safety building, but the rest of it was learning out in the field. Most of what they taught us, I already knew from my own snow camping experience, but a lot of the scientists that come out here have never been in the field. They taught us things like building snow walls out of ice blocks we cut with saws, building trenches to sleep in, setting up scott tents with corresponding knots (truckers hitches and butterfly wraps) and snow anchors and dead-man anchors. Things like troubleshooting the stoves for melting snow and such.

We had gorgeous weather (condition 4 as the instructor said), so the mountain views were fantastic. We were close to the foot of Erebus volcano and Erebus glacier which is pretty much the closest we will get to Erebus without being scientists. The snow sparkled and the ice shelf seemed to go on forever. The temps were in the upper 20's for highs, but there was now wind and that intense sun, so we didn't even wear jackets and could hang out late into the night just talking and goffing around instead of huddled in tents like other groups. I built a trench with a slight snowcave built into it for sleeping, and b/c of the temps (lows in the upper teens to low 20's), I was quiet hot. I have definitely camped in much colder conditions (-25 on Klondikes on near Gould, CO and nasty wind ski trips with bro on the divide), but it was quite nice to have good reather really b/c then we all got to hang out and have a fun time. Some part of me thinks it would have been cool to have to do in a condition 1 storm there, but I am sure that would have been much less fun and only afforded bragging rights, not enjoyment.

On the 2nd day we tore down camp and then did some practice rescues and survival scenarios as well as practiced using the huge strong field radios. To practice we called the south pole to ask for their temperature...a balmy -48 degrees. We then went back to McMurdo to learn about helicopter safety and how to survive a helicopter crash. One of the instructors, a Denali/McKinley guidea and rescuer has been in 8 helicopter crashes on Mt. McKinley!

We made it back in the evening in time for pickleball and basketball.

12-1-11

I had to work late tonight, til 8:30, but on my last run, I spotted two cute little Adelie penguins on the ice runway road. I wanted to check them out more, so once I got back to base and I was finished with work, I grabbed one of the mountain bikes they have parked around (they're pretty nice bikes and for the taking by anyone) and rode out on the ice runway road since I figured this was faster than skate skiing. Yea, pretty awesome, biking on the sea ice of Antarctica! I made it there just in time to see a big snowcat scare them off so that they got up and waddled and then sledded there way away. Since I had the bike, I made a quick detour out to hut point to check out the seals before going to bed.

Thanksgiving on Ice: Penguins and Frozen Turkeys

11-25-11

Went for a ski in the snowstorm out to the ice runway. On the way back, a piston bully (snowcat type thing) passed me and out of the snow I saw a little cute penguin pop out. It was one of the Adelies. He was scared by the snowmachine and ran right towards me and almost ran right over my skis. Then he stopped a few feet away and just looked inquisitively at me. After several minutes when another van drove by, he proceeded to hop/slide his way off into the great white emptiness. It was cool to see a large bird during thanksgiving holidays!

Worked some on grad school apps, then went out to Karaoke where we stayed late into the night.

11-26-11
The storm finally blew out of here and we were left with sunny skies, but still lots of wind

Ran the turkey trot 5k in the morning. It was a pretty tough course b/c the 1st half was all uphill, and the course was on snow and ice surfaces and often straight into strong winds. You can tell the course was tough b/c I think it is the first time I've ever seen a 5k where the winner didn't break 20 minutes. I mean usually the winner is somewhere in the 16's. I ended up finishing 22nd out of 120 people with a time of 25:04 (my slowest time yet in a 5k, but not surprising considering I haven't been training and the course was pretty tough). But I was just ahead of the winning lady (Sgt. Nordike), and the fastest shuttler, though this isn't surprising as I am the 2nd youngest on the shuttle crew after 25 year old Shuttle Kristy Queen. The Kiwi army ran the race with beers, which was pretty funny, and several people dressed up. In antarctica, everything is cause to wear a costume.

After the run I got the free massage offered, and then I went for a ski with the new shuttlers Elisha and Linnah, and Linnah's partner Beth. But Beth and Linnah were pretty tired from the run, so Elisha and I ended up just going on the ski. She's got an interesting story b/c she was born in way N. Idaho and then grew up in a litle cabin in the middle of nowhere in northern montana until her parents moved to Kazakhstan for some mission work to help the people with small business stuff since they are still having trouble there moving from the communist era of the russian bloc to capitalism. She played volleyball at some tiny school in N. California, but now lives in Cour d'alene. I was telling her how I wouldn't mind living with the Franks up there this summer and she said she thought she could get me a job working for the dept. of agriculture checking for invasive mussels on boats at the lake there. It's a 3 day a week for 12 hours, plus the option to work a 1/2 day on a 4th day. sounds pretty sweet.

After the ski, I had just enough time to take a shower (i'm so busy here I hardly have time to really take any showers, plus you don't really sweat here anyways) and get dressed up for the big thanksgiving dinner. Our shuttles family (31 people when you include shuttle drivers and sig others) reserved a big table in the cafeteria, so we all sat together and had a merry old time. I haven't had an American thanksgiving in a quite a while (since Aunt Jo Stringfields dinner way back in 2009), so it all tasted extra good to me. The spread was very impressive, and I was happy to see no one else here seemed to like drumsticks besides me. A flight hadn't been able to come in b/c of weather in over a week, so there were no fresh vegetables and fruit, but everything else was great. Thank goodness they had shipped in the frozen turkeys much earlier!

After dinner we headed over to one of the bars to here a band called Condition Fun play. They are pretty hilarious b/c they take well known songs and add lyrics to them relating to the quirks of antarctica and mcmurdo: making fun of building 155 (where my dorm is and the cafeteria), singing about C-17's, ivan the terra bus, the obsession with safety, etc. They also do some of their own orginal songs as well.
After the band we headed over to the Freezing Man party, which Cassa and Sully had organized. Freezing man is antarctica's take on Burning Man. If you don't know what burning man is, I suggest you google it. I hadn't really known about it until one of my crazy bosses, Tom, from Sapidyne told us about it b/c he goes there all the time. But basically it's this huge temporary city in the middle of the nevada desert that is full of drugs, music, nudity, and art. Cassa somehow convinced me to wear these tight striped pants with no shirt and this light up disco ball that twirls to be placed over the crotch region. I was embarassed, but everyone loved it and it definitely went with the freezing man theme

11-27-11

Went to church and then the fancy brunch, and then worked a bit on grad schools stuff.

There is this hut, called Hut 10, that is fancy on the inside and looks and feels like a house from the inside. It has a kitchen and living room with nice couches, a giant flatscreen tv, a dining room table, real windows, a chandelier, and stereo system. It also has a couple of spacious bedrooms. Well, you can rent it out (for free) for special parties or gatherings, or even just if you're a couple you can rent it for the night. Our shuttles department rented it for the day today. We threw a pizza party and just kind of hung out. We watched some short films from previous antarctica film festivals, played some card games, and just hung out as one big happy shuttles family. I cam in early to help make the pizzas. After the pizza we had fresh, warm right out of the oven chocolate chip cookies. We ended up staying late into the night watching some movies on the big screen and enjoying the super nice couches.

11-21-11

Snowed hard all day. After work, since I love being out in the snow, I went for a ski. Typically it takes me somewhere between 19 and 22 minutes to go to the ice runway and then the same time to come back (it's about 10km roundtrip) plus some rest time for a drink and dessert snack at the ice runway galley. But this time, it took me 18 minutes down (a bit of a tail wind). However, as I was resting in the galley, the storm really picked up and a huge wind came in. It took me 28 minutes to come back and would have taken me much longer if it wasn't for the fact that I knew dinner was ending soon, and I didn't want to miss it! Skate skiing is pretty exhausting, and I work up quite a sweat doing it. I usually just do the route in long underwear and a t-shirt. Everyone looks at me funny since the temp is in the single digits to low teens, but I seriously just get so hot. But I'm also known as the t-shirt guy around base, b/c now tha the temp has warmed up a bit, I just wear my snowpants, a t-shirt, and this super warm down vest I have. Most people are still bundled up in their big reds though.
Once a week they have these things called travelogues where people talk about adventures they've done. I've avoided them b/c I don't want to hear about more places I might like to visit and give me more ideas, but last night was on South America, so I decided to go watch that one.

Got 4 packages in the mail this week! 2 from mom, 1 from the bighorn, and 1 from Ildi from her camp at marble point. Thanks!

11-22-11

Two of the new girls on the shuttle team came out to volleyball last night. They're pretty intense since they played college v-ball. Elisha is quiet and seems quite cool. She's spent a lot of time travelling and has lived in places like Kazakistan. She went to some school in N. Cali, but now lives in Couer D'Alene, Idaho. Melanie is quiet loud and is always talking. She is from N. Dakota, but has been ski bumming in Steamboat for a longtime and fighting fires out of McCall, ID. One of the other new guys to the team is Matt. He spends his summers in Bali surfing.

11-23-11
The storm is still here, though snowing less today. Bill took me off dispatch today to have me build a trench to bury our electrical wires we used to keep the vans warm. He said the last guy that did it, did such a poor job, and he wanted someone he knew who could do it well.

Apparently b/c of my hardwork, I was given 1st choice to decide whether I wanted to go on nights for this next period or to wait until the last period. It was a tough choice b/c this period would be a bit shorter and I would get to spend more time with my mom crush, Jen,, but in the end I decided to postpone a lot b/c I wanted to be working days during the Christmas holiday since I kind of missed Christmas 2 of the last three years being in Buddhist and Hindu countries and b/c I am having too much fun with all the activities at the moment. Also, Cassa will be working nights on the last shift so that is cool. At pickleball, Jen, told me she really wanted me to be working on her crew, but she said I probably made the best decision and since she is a mom, she always wants her kids to make the best decisions for them.

Busy night with pickleball, basketball, and pub trivia.

11-24-11
Happy Thanksgiving! B/c of schedules here, our thanksgiving celebration will be on Saturday instead.
A bit of a calm in the storm with huge flakes and no wind. Snowed about 3 inches early in the morning, but then some wind intensified and the base was put on condition 3. On my delta drive out to Happy Camper in the morning is was pretty hard to see anything but the flags they put up.
By afternoon they had evacuated the airport, since it was obvious no flights would be coming in. Since airport was evacuated, we didn't have much to do as drivers, so they let us go home almost 5 hours early! That was pretty awesome! Fran was having issues with her kiwi love interest from scott base, and she wanted to talk to someone about it, so we went out for some hot cocoa to the coffee shop to talk about it.
Cassa, Fran, Bobbick, and I spent a couple hours at the corner bar where Bill was of course pouring stiff drinks. Met a guy there, jean pierre, who has lived in estes park the past 18 years working for Mark Holler.
Since us shuttle drivers didn't have work on friday, we all headed over to the kiwi base for american night at their bar. Some guy put 600 bucks on the bar, so we had free drinks all night, so as you can imagine free drinks there, mixed with Bill's free drinks and everyone was in fine form and special ted had mde an appearance. When we got back to the american base, we decided to hit the bars there b/c Fran is converting over to night shifts so she needed to stay up late to acclimate to nights. Once at the bar there, we were apparently a riot and all the NASA guys were buying us drinks. When the bar finally closed we headed over to midrats (lunch in the middle of the night for those on nightshift) to chow down and make the people laugh there. After midrats we just kind of ran around the dorms having some fun. Special ted was definitely out in full force b/c the next day so many people came up to me commenting how hilarious we were and how I must have been having quite some fun. Rumours of special ted have gotten around the base and everyone wants to meet him now.

11-25-11
Went out with Fran for an early morning ski on the armitage loop. Couldn't see much b/c of the raging storm, but still fun nonetheless.

Skate Skiing

11-18-11

It was a gorgeous day and I rented some skate skis to go out to the ice runway. I've never actually tried skate skiing nor used the real skate skis and fancy boots. I found it to be quite fun. Definitely a hard workout, but you can go quite fast. I think it's sort of the equivalent to downhill skiing as roadbbiking is to mountain biking.
Also watched the last quarter of the broncos vs. jets game and part of the Arizona basketball game. That's one of the nice things about being here. Even though it's like I'm in a foreign country, I still get some american things like sports. And I've even on occassion stayed up late enough to watch the daily show and colber report

11-19-11

A cold snowstorm blew in today. Back to temps below zero with windchill. It snowed all day which I of course love.

After work hung out at the corner bar. I love that place b/c the old guys there, especially Bill, are just hilarious and have priceless comments.

In the evening was the Hipster popstar dance party. I don't hardly even know what a hipster is let alone how to dress as one, but Cassa helped me get outfitted for the party. Good dancing for sure

11-20-11
It snowed all night with no wind, so there was significant accumulation in the morning when I walked to Church. Deep, soft, champagne powder with bright blue skies. Made me think of skiing back home!
I talked with my mom for a couple of hours on the phone (as my roommates said, that is the longest they have ever seen me in my room and awake). After talking with her, I went out for a good ski in the fresh powder. I was signed up for a field trip to go see a plane crash out on the ice, but it got cancelled as another storm moved in, so instead I went for a hike with some friends out to hut point to watch the seals. It was gorgeous out with giant flakes gently falling (a rarity in Antarctica), but by the time we got back a raging storm was brewing. Went to the science lecture last night led by a funny swedish guy on the antifreeze and physiology of fish that allows them to live in such cold water. I got to bed pretty early and was looking forward to an 8 hour night of sleep. But one of the dryers in our building caught on fire, so we were evacuated. It was freezing sitting outside in our night clothes, but they eventually moved us into the coffee house to wait for them to get the fire out and bring us back in.

11-21-11
A slow day at work, so we spent a lot of time just chilling in the office, which is always tons of fun b/c shuttle Bill is just so hilarious, and he loves his little peanut gallery. I got sent on a special mission today: One of our vans was needing to be fixed and fixed quickly, and some lady at the vehicle maintenance place is who you have to talk to get a rush order. Bill tried and was denied, so he yelled over, "Hey Mr. Hormone, head over to the VMF with that smile of yours and tell Claudette we need that vehicle now"

Dog Days of Summer

11-14-11

We lost a shuttle driver today...Brian had a bad slip out on the ice runway and hurt his knee quite bad. X-rays here showed he had chipped his patella. He got medevacced on the next flight out to Christchurch for and MRI. We're still waiting to hear if he will be coming back or not.

Went out for a little walk near the obtube to check for seals coming out of the ice. I got really lucky and heard some heavy breathing. I followed it over to a hidden hole (hidden under big chunks of ice) and saw a cute little seal poking his head out, with icicles on his whiskers, getting some air.

11-15-11
6 new drivers arrived on the C-17 today. This is our last group of new drivers, unless Brian can't come back in which they will send out for one of the alternates. Today I was training Allanah, a geologist/chemist from New Mexico.

Tonight was volleyball, and we had just an amazing set of games. It was one of those times when you have a lot of good players and the teams are evently matched and each game is intense. Typically volleball is from 7 to 8:30, but last night we played from 7 to 10:30 (the bedtime I aim for is 9!) b/c it was just so good. Missed out on spanish too, but the v-ball was just too fun.

Today was the first day it went above freezing. A whopping 34F. It's crazy, 34 degrees right now feels so incredibly warm. It's easy to just walk around in jeans and a t-shirt and still be warm. Probably in part b/c the air is dry and the sun intense, a lot like Colorado. But not expected to be above freezing the rest of the week.

11-16-11
Busy day after work. Pickleball, basketball, and trivia, led by Dan.

11-17-11
They want to build this bridge outside our building that goes over some fuel pipes so that it is safer and we don't slip on the pipes. Right now though it's all covered in snow, but the kiwis who are supposed to build the bridge are leaving soon, so it needs to be done before the snow all melts. Shuttle Bill sent out some of the new folks to go dig it out, but after 15 minutes he came in over the radio, and said "nah, it's not gonna work, we'll have to hope mother nature helps" But in the afternoon, he came into the office and said, "Hey junior, grab and pick and a shovel and get out there" He sent me out for an hour b/c I had driving to do, but then after an hour he came out and told me he got someone to cover my next 2 and a half hours of ice runway shuttle. By the end of the day I was pretty exhausted, but I had managed to clear out most of the huge drifts and snow around the pipe.

Went to the coffee shop for an open mic night that had some pretty good bands and musicians.

11-10-11

Had "date" night with Cassa. We went and hung out at the ob tube for about an hour. We heard the seals with their cool calls, but didn't see any swimming around. But saw lots of cool jellies. After dinner, we hit up Southern (one of 2 bars here) and played some foosball and shuffleboard. Then we headed over to Scott Base for American night with Jeff and Stephanie (the ones from evergreen)and stayed there until the bar closed, having a good time joking about some of the funny long-term shuttle drivers here (Jeff used to also be a shuttler). After scott base we had a few more beers with Bobbick and some kiwis up in our dorm lounge.
She was asking me how I woo-ed the bighorn. I said I wasn't sure, b/c I'm not really good at that kind of thing. But Cassa made my week when she said that I am "the bright spot of her day everyday" and that I always make her smile. That made me feel really good. Cassa is really fun and we have a good time together. She reminds me a lot of a hippier Jacque Prudhomme.

11/11/11

I had the day off, so I worked on my Florida essay and did a lit review of ant-plant mutualisms as well as some laundry. I went with Tim (one of my good friends here that likes to be as active as me...he does all the hikes and pickleball, basketball, and volleyball. He's a janitor down here, from Wisconsin but after college he spent a lot of time living in central america and west africa) to the Obtube. We had an awesome experience on this visit b/c a seal swam right up to the viewing window and then swam past the little tube we were in.

I finally met Ildi!! We finally decided to just arrange a meeting, so we planned to meet at the coffee shop. It's a really cool place where they serve hot beverages, hot alcholic beverages, and wine (no beer allowed). They have an attached movie theatre and they place some good music and comfortable chairs abound. So we met for a hot cocoa. She's super sweet and nice and very funny and positive. She was so thankful for all the help I gave her with planning indonesia and was thinking I helped her more than she helped me, which is not the case. But she was so excited that I told her about the place to see orangutans in kalimantan b/c the other places she had tried they didn't see them.

After hot chocolate with Ildi, I played some cards with Tim and other Tim (his roommate).

One of my firefighter roommates, Eric, got shipped to the South Pole, but he was quickly replaced by Austin, another firefighter from Virginia.

11-12-11

Because Raytheon is obsessed with safety and b/c we had gone 30 days without an accident we had a special dinner. Fancy steaks and crab legs with our supervisors acting as waiters giving us refills and taking our trays.

The food has continued to be amazing down here. Everyone says it's so much better than previous years. It's always a treat and they keep it really diverse. We've had such things as indian dishes (complete with nan and rotis and lassis) from several regions of India, malay food, several thai dishes, chinese, mongolian, different mexican variations, korean, japanese, peruvian, tons of tasty seafood, greek, vietnamese, italian, spanish, morrocan, kenyan, and more. And b/c they say protein is key to keeping you warm, there meat is always plentiful with quite a lot of steak even. I try to avoid the deserts, but they always look extremely tasty. At breakfast they always have a waffles bar, egg bar, and full omelete bar.

I had a pretty chill saturday night. Went to the coffee shop to listen to a live fiddler and then played a bit of shuffleboard at one of the bars with Nate, Brian, and Bobbick before going to bed

11-13-11

Had a pretty busy day. Intermittently worked on my grad essays. I did the Crary Lab tour which was cool and made me want to be one of the geologists here. Played some dodgeball and then some basketball. I led a Scott's Hut tour for some people, and watched the 2nd half of the BSU game. Also went to the Sunday night Science Lecture.

I've been a little disappointed with the science aspect down here so far. I had been hoping that it would be easy to volunteer down here with some projects especially since I have 2 days off. Well b/c of rules and regs witht he NSF it's hard to sign up to volunteer on projects, especially as a first year, so you have to get to be friends with scientists and get "unofficially" invited to help them. This means that you kind of have to schmooze with the scientists, and I am not good at that. And it usually seems that when they're in my van they're quite pre-occupied with things and I haven't gotten very positive results when I've mentioned my background and my interest in volunteering. The one group that I have become good friends with are Wentao and Zhibin, the ones doing laser research in near space. They are from China but work for CU, so we connected there. They love so much that I travelled in China. However, their research is WAY over my head. The gal that gave us our lab tour today is the lab supervisor for all of Crary. Beverly is about my age and she mentioned in her speel that she has a masters in earth and environmental science and that "she likes the big picture" This is kind of similar to me and she has a job I would find interesting b/c she is dealing with a whole lot of cool projects down here. I hope that maybe I can snag her for a quick talk to just ask her some questions regarding my grad school decision.

As things are kind of settling into a routine here of work, activities, and play, I probably won't be writing daily in the blog. Maybe kind of a weekly thing with interesting stuff that happens over the week. So keep checking even if you haven't heard anything for a while b/c that just means the norm is going on.

11-7-11

Because of a high cross wind, one of the hercules (LC-130's) had to land out in the emergency landing area way out on the ice sheet. I was the driver picked to take the delta out there to get the passengers and crew. It was pretty sweet b/c it was just this plane that landed way out in the middle of nowhere with nothing else around. The pilot told me that when they landed they only had about 10 minutes worth of fuel left. Pretty crazy.

11-8-11

Some Italians flew into today on an airbus before being helicoptered off to their base. I was in charge of keeping them in order while waiting for the choppers and shuttling them around. They're a very happy and jovial bunch. We didn't share much of the same words, but they were quite excited and threw out a big cheer when I showed them where they could get coffee.

11-9-11

Some pickleball and basketball this evening. A group from the NYANG (new york air national guard--the ones who fly the LC-130s and C-17's around here) stopped by. A bunch of tall black guys. We thought we were going to get dominated, but we held our own.

Shuttle Bill told us a funny joke that I thought was worth repeating.

In the line of people waiting to get into heaven is a shuttle driver (shuttle bill) and a priest. It is the priest's turn next and he approaches St. Peter. St. Peter says, "you have live a very good and pious life, giving your life to God for over 40 years. You shall be rewarded." He pointed through the pearly gates to a nice cottage with a small tract of land and said, "This shall be yours" Next in line was Shuttle Bill. St. Peter said, "you have lived a fairly decent life. A bit heavy on the swearing and too much fun with the ladies, but you shall be rewarded" He pointed throught the pearly gates towards a huge palace overlooking a lake with maidens waving from the windo. "This shall be yours" St. Peter said. The priest couldn't help but overhear. He went up to St. Peter and said, "I don't mean to question God's judgement, but how can this man get the beautiful palace when I get but a mere cottage even though I served the Lord and His people for all my life"
St. Peter answered, "Well Father, when you gave sermons, people slept, when shuttle bill drove, people prayed"

11-07-11

On Sunday after church, I met up with Ginny and Anne for the oh so tasty fancy brunch and then we headed out for a ski. We did the armitage loop this time, the last of the trails, that are currently open, that I hadn't done. It's mostly out on the sea ice and takes you at it's halfway point past scott base. It's the kind of xc ski trail I figure my parents would like. Nice and flat. Saw lots of seals along the way, including 3 pups. It was pretty windy on the way out, wind at our faces, but the wind really picked up on the way back, which made it fun b/c the wind was pushing so hard it was like skiing downhill.

I attempted some work on my Florida grad school essay in the very nice library we have here and then attended the Sunday Science lecture which was given by some guy studying sea level rise and change in the ocean temperatures specifically at a glacier in greenland and the PIG (Pine island glacier) here.

Someone told me today about the Ice before Christ event that happens here. It's where you have a cocktail with ice in it that is more than 2000 years old that they have taken up from an ice core

laid back saturday

11-4-11

In the evening I made another visit to the corner bar. It's fun, and they always get me rum and cokes, which is cool. And they like to say how young and studly and how many ladies I can get, so it makes me laugh and blush.

11-5-11

Hung out with Cassa a bit this evening and visited the corner bar with her where I got my specially modified headphones that Bill's mafia equipped for me. They did some splicing and soldering and added on about 6 feet extension to them. My roommate loves them, which is good and means he'll use them so I can sleep in peace. But now I'm down a pair of headphones. But they're pretty cheap to buy on amazon. Cassa is one of my favorites on the shuttles crew. She's very friendly and bubbly and open. She's the one that drives the turtle bus across the country and is working on her masters in geography.
I went to a craft fair this evening. Some pretty incredible and creative artists down here. I really liked some stuff and ended up doing a bit more Christmas shopping. It's funny b/c the a bit older ladies all think I'm so cute b/c I talk a lot about my mom and she has sent me some packages and then I was doing some more Christmas shopping for her.

Ildi had invited me to a surprise birthday party for one of her friends, but I've been battling a cold (the crud they call it down here) and want to get over it, so I didn't go. They also had the big homecoming dance party tonight. Everyone was getting all dressed up fancy and some in cool costumes. I went with Cassa to the costume place to pick out a fancy dress with her so she's match her date's burgundy blazer. It sounded like a lot of fun, but I didn't have a date, plus the whole sick thing, so I'm not going. I want to try and get better, plus Anne and Ginny invited me for another ski tomorrow so I want to be feeling good.

Day off!

11-4-11

A much needed day off. I slept in a little bit (till 7am) and then attended a tour guide training for the huts (like shackleton and scott's huts), so that I can take people on tours there. One of the main reasons I am doing it is hoping to get a helicopter ride out of it. There are three main huts in the area that they normally visit, but this year b/c of bad sea ice (last year was the first year the whole ross sea melted out, so all ice this year is completely new and no old ice like years past)2 of the huts that are pretty far away are not safe to go to via deltas. Sadly, this means the common people from McMurdo (like myself) won't be able to do the cool trip out to those huts. But they still will be doing about 20 trips by helicopter out there for scientists and distinguished visitors, so I am hoping that maybe I could get picked for one of those. If not, it's pretty cool to be a guide. I visited discovery hut today on our training (scott's orginal hut). It's pretty cool inside and there are still cut up seals and tons of other stuff inside b/c the cold weather preserves everything so nothing really decays. An interesting fact about these huts is that they are the only builings on a continent in which the very fist dwellings are still standing. On all other continents, of course, the original structures are long gone.

Did some laundry today and then headed off for the walk to Scott Base to do some Christmas shopping. There were a whole bunch of seals down in the ice pressure ridges (where the ice is lifting up into cool jagged chunks at the transition between sea and land) today. After getting some Christmas gifts, I did an absolutely gorgeous hike on the ob hill circuit trail. Not a cloud in the sky today and pretty warm (18F with 0F windchill), so it was really nice. Great views towards the mountains and out across the sea ice and down to the ice runway.

I forgot to mention that yesterday I had to take some fuelies out to Pegasus, the place they will build the new ice runway (on permanent ice field once the sea ice gets too thin). The road wasn't well maintained yet b/c no one is really driving out there. So there was tons of powder on this huge flat area with no obstacles anywhere around at all. It reminded me of, and perhaps this is where they film these sorts of things, those seemingly fake car commercials where you have some jeep or truck just hauling it through deep snow. I just stepped on the gas (thought I was only going 30mph as the max speed limit anywhere on this continent is 25, but I needed a little extra to carry momentum), and plowed and swerved through the snow. Pretty fun!