snow day!

11-1-11

I remember those wonderful days while in school when it would be cancelled due to snow. Well today, we had a snow day at work! We got sent home 4 hours early b/c we got a condition 1 everywhere except on the base (McMurdo had condition 2), so there was nothing we could do. It was definitely quite the blizzard! Complete white outs. I had courier again today, but they were worried b/c of how cold it was (-8F with -40F windchill) that I shouldn't walk so they trained me in the little electric vehicle. It's kind of like a mix between a mini humvee and a golf cart. It was pretty fun to drive around the base b/c it it isn't 4wd and is light, so you do a lot of spinning around in it.

A Waste of Time

My Halloween Costume.

I went as a waste of time, i.e. Facebook

people seemed to like it

Ice-aween

10-29.

Today the town was all abuzz b/c it is Saturday (our Friday) and the day of the epic halloween party. I had the 5:15 Ice runway shuttle this morning and got to witness some amazing phantasmagorias out towards the mountains. The illusion was so strong that it made the sea ice sheet look like it was jutting straight up just like a cliff. So it looked like I was driving towards a giant ice cliff. It also made the tails of the planes look like they were 100 feet tall. Pretty cool.

On the shuttle today, after greeting some people, they told me they thought I was the nicest shuttle driver b/c I said hello and goodbye to everyone on the shuttle and waived to all passing vehicles. That was a nice compliment to get.

And today, Shuttle Bill (he's the guy that is like 70 and has been here for many, many seasons and is sort of 2nd in command at shuttles, though kind of runs it still b/c he has all the experience and clout) asked me to come out and take a polaski and shovel to this huge ice and snow drift to dig some things out. I can tell he really likes me, which is good b/c he is the guy with all the connections here. But today he told me that Pete Cruzer (the guy right below the head head guy of ATO) likes me and my work ethic and wants me to work a higher up job in Cargo next year. That was pretty cool to hear. Shuttle Bill has a lot of nicknames for me for some reason. He calls me Junior (I think b/c maybe I'm the youngest shuttle driver other than Shuttle Queen (Kirsty Queen, but she was here last year). He also calls me Mr. Hormone which makes everyone laugh. He says it's b/c all the girls follow me around, which I would say is pretty far from the truth. But it's funny anyways.

Got packages from mom and the bighorn this week which was nice!

The Halloween party was quite awesome. Perhaps the best group party I have ever been to. Everyone dressed up and got really into it and everyone was very creative. They played good music and the whole crowd was dancing. I had originally brought a cape and a mask for the party, but I soon realized that it wasn't creative enough compared to what most people did. So I ended up going with the theme "a waste of time" by going as facebook. I wore cut eye slits on a blue book to use as a mask and wore a blue shirt in which I wrote a few things mocking facebook like "poke me" "like me" and had a photo of a pretty mountain scene with the caption "me somewhere you aren't" and of course a status update making fun of all those people constantly posting statuses where they are just trying to show people how cool they are.

It was funny, I was thinking over the last few Halloweens that I have had, and they've all been pretty unique. Last year's Halloween I was at gorgeous Gokyo lake and hiked to the peak of Gokyo Ri after having been at the Everest Base camp a few days before. I was rooming with Moshi and hanging out with the Norwegian PumoRi climbing team. One of the norwegian guy gave us all tasty european chocolate (a huge treat up there) for Halloween. Two years ago I was in Thailand on a tiny island during the offseason, so it was just me and a few people on the island. I was camping but walked across the island to another place where there were 3 or 4 europeans, a brazilian, and an american that we had a little party. And 3 years ago the Hous of Sin (Kendracyte, Morganic, Pickles, and myself)through a pretty epic halloween party.

Before the party really got going, we did Antarctica's version of Occupy Wallstreet. Our occupy the Ice was organized by my boss sharona. Of course we weren't allowed to wear anything gov't issued so we were just wearing a costumes and not our big red parkas so the occupying didn't last long as we were freezing.

10-30 I woke up early to go to Church and then I met up with Ginny (the shuttles lady from EP) and her friend Anne Dal Vera to do the castle rock ski trip. Shuttle Bill when he took us to the trailhead said, "Jr. you better have your A game on to go with these ladies". Turns out Anne was on the team of the first ladies to ski to the south pole. Ginny was invited but decided not to go.

See the links before to read a little bit more on Anne's trip. She also apparently wrote a book about it.

http://cuantarctica.blogspot.com/2009/11/spotlight-anne-dal-vera.html

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2000/11/1115_antarctica.html

Anne also has EP connections in that she lived there in the 70's and ran a company that taught and toured telemark skiers in Rocky. She's now a telemark instructor and lives in Durango when she's not here. She asked where I had cross country skied and when I told her RMNP, she said I'd do ok and be able to keep up with her and Ginny b/c RMNP is a lot like antarctica: windy, steep, at times icy, at times powder, steep dropp offs, and narrow ledges. Afterwords a lot of people told me they were impressed I skied with her. Bill said "it's not everyone that gets to ski with Anne Dal Vera" Apparently she's kind of a legend down here.

The Ski was fun. We were the only ones on the trail mainly b/c there was a lot of hungover people from the halloween party, but also bc it was very cold. The trail rised high up onto a ridge and plateau and the wind just blasts you. You had to have every single piece of skin covered, including your face or you would get frostbite on it. It wasn't bad once you were covered, but just if you had something exposed. And it was so cold that I had icicles of condensation dripping from my baclava mask and the inside of my glasses would often freeze with condensation. Once we got to the back side of the ridge it wasn't too windy and you could take off some of your face protection. It's a pretty big climb up and so then a good ski descent down. At one point the trail goes through the kiwi ski hill. Everywhere else you have to follow closely to the marked and flagged trail to avoid crevasses, but on the ski hill you can go wherever. One point right before the kiwi ski hill where it was pretty steep (the equivalent of a steeper blue run), narrow b/c of potential crevass danger, and incredibly icy, my ski (I was on cross-country skis without metal edges compared to Ginny and Anne's telemark skis), one got away from me. Because it was so steep and icy it slid away quickly. I could see where it landed, but of course b/c of crevasse danger I couldn't go after it. I was worried it was going to be a big issue and that I would have to pay for it or something, but it ended up being a positive thing for me b/c of course Raytheon and the NSF are huge on safety and always always drilling it into you. So I actually got an "atta boy" award from my boss when she found out and Ginny wrote a letter to some big wigs (see bottom of blog) about my safe methods. I think I impressed the ladies quite a lot though when I was able to ski the last 4 miles on one ski. We finished up at Scott Base (the NZ one) where we saw a seal pup and they did some shopping and then we hiked the hill back into mcmurdo.

I had a lot of fun with those ladies. They are quite impressive what they can still do and that they do it on their own without having some guy have to take them out. I hope that if I were ever to get married, I would have a girl like one of them while in their 60's that love to be outside, don't mind the cold and tough conditions, and are in great shape. I think I impressed them enough to be able to go again with them which is cool

10-31 Happy Halloween! I had the 5:45am airport shuttle and it was a nasty blizzard today. At some points it was 2 flag visibility while on the sea ice. They space flags about 20 feet apart so you know where to drive and don't just drive off into icy nothingness. Even with the flags you get quite the disoriented feeling when driving through it. I also had courier today which is where you walk around the base for 2 hours while you deliver packages and documents to different buildings. It was -30F windchill today and my face still burns a little bit from windburn and the cold b/c I didn't have my mask with me for work today. We've now switched to our 12 hour days, but the work isn't too hard and it's not monotonous, so it's ok.

The letter from Ginny:

Sunday, 30 October, 3 of us were skiing the Castle Rock Loop and enjoying the recreational experience. While descending the steeper trail section from Castle Rock going towards Scott Base, Travis Guy's gear issue ski came off and sailed OFF the flagged route. Anne Dal Vera yelled instructions for Travis to remain on the trail (which is what he was doing anyway but Anne wanted to reinforce his position). Down the steep and unflagged slope went the ski and where it remains.

This was Travis's first major ski in Antarctica and he held fast to the trail while watching the ski sail off.

Travis carried his lone ski down the steep hill and skied the flats on one ski out to Scott Base with us.

And the day remained an enjoyable recreational experience for all of us!

I thought you should know that the Outdoor Safety Lecture is a valuable training session.....especially emphasizing that no ski is worth risking a life to retrieve.

Ginny Deal (the third skier)
Shuttles, x2264

Karaoke on Ice

10-28

It was a gorgeous blue sky day today and you could see forever. I had lots of taxi rides up to the upper hills, so I got to enjoy all the nice views.

We had something called roll call last night. It's where our boss of ATO (shuttles and cargo) puts down a whole bunch of money at one of the bars so that we can drink for free. Not sure how much he put down, but it was enough for me to have 2 rum and cokes, 1 G&T, and 4 beers. it was a fun party with everyone from our department going and it also happened to be karaoke night at the bar which made it extra fun. Our shuttle bosses name is sharona and so we have been callnig ourselves Sharona's Shuttlers. The Sharona Shuttlers all got up and sang the song My Sharona while Sharona dance crazily below us. I also got up the nerve to sing by myself and did the best rendition I could of the famous Stringfield version of I Will Survive. I unfortunately had to leave by 10:30 b/c I had the 5:15am shuttle the next morning, but still tons of fun nevertheless.

I met a guy who works in Cargo who now lives up in McCall Idaho, but he did a masters in wildlife bio up in Rocky Mtn NP way back in the early 90's on Elk.

Ginny told me it was supposed to snow 2 feet in EP yesterday. Not sure if it did b/c I couldn't get a hold of mom and I think she was visiting my bro in montana anyways.

Seals!

10-27

Another routine day at shuttles. While driving I had seen some seals very close to the observation tube (the tube drilled through the ice so that you can climb down and see under the ice and into the water, like an aquarium). To go there b/c it is on the sea ice, you need a partner and a radio b/c of the potential for crevasses or of course holes (that the seals make to come up for breathing and to go down for fishing). I asked a bunch of friends, but everyone was going to dinner and then to a live bluegrass band playing at one of the bars. So I headed to my room and I said hi to the girl next door, Jean, who I had met last night at basketball. She asked if I wanted to go for a hike with her and I said yes, as long as we first went down to the Ob tube. And thus I met my newest friend. Jean is pretty cool. Since she graduated from college she has been travelling for 6 years and only working 14 months out of thost 6 years (here and in australia and thailand were the places she worked). She travelled on a pretty extreme budget in that she mainly did hitchhiking and staying with locals. She was telling me about some of the cool ways she went from place to place without taking planes and that was by just going to harbors and docks and throwing her name out and then getting on big yachts owned by rich people who were lonely and looking for someone to sail with them, so she'd get a free ride and food for helping out and hanging out on boat rides across the oceans and seas. Sounded pretty cool. Anyways she is super friendly and likes to do something outdoors everyday, so a cool new friend to have. Down at the Ob tube were 3 seals. It was awesome b/c we were able to get super close to them, so you could really get a good look. I think at one point we were about 8 feet away. So awesome!

After checking out the ob tube, we did the hut point loop and met a guy on the way named steve. It's his 16th season, and he is a heavy equipment operator. It seems to be a sweet job as he's gone everywhere, including the traverse to the pole. He lives about 20 miles outside of Bellingham, WA towards Mt. Baker. He seemed like a real cool guy and said I could do some skiing with him here if needed a partner.

Had spanish class tonight. The teacher wanted ideas of things to do to learn spanish. I thought up the idea of writing postcards to spanish speaking penpals in grade school and having them write us back. writing and reading practice. So if anyone knows people teaching abroad in a spanish speaking country, please let me know.

I had a fair amount of reading time today. I'm reading the Life of Pi. It's good so far. Bringing back lots of fond memories of India. A quote that I liked "I love Canada but I miss India. I miss the heat of India, the food, the house lizards on the wallls, the musicals on the silver screen, the cows wandering the streets, the crows cawing, even the talk of cricket matches."

I also found his quote on scientists amusing: "I never had a problem with my fellow scientists. Scientists are a friendly, atheistic, hard-working, beer-drinking lot whose minds are preoccupied with sex, chess, and baseball when they are not preoccupied with science."

who said I'd be too cold and too bored

10-26

We had more condition 1 weather and some nasty wind. Gusts up to 60mph that were shaking our vans and our whole ATO building.

After work I played pickleball, then a couple of hours of pickup basketball, then off to pub trivia at the bar gallaghers where team ATO got 3rd. Our team bombed the pop culture round.

It's warmed up considerably here. 3 days ago was our first day where it climbed out of the negatives, and we had a high of 1F. 2 days ago we got up to 3F, and yesterday a balmy 10. It's because the storm has come in. They say it was a really wet and warm winter and that the spring so far has been wet and warm as well. Of course the term wet and warm in Antarctica, the coldest and driest place on Earth mean a lot different than they do back in CO.

Nonetheless, even with this warm front that moved it, it was hovering around 0 when we left the b-ball court for the pub for trivia. I was very sweaty and super hot from all the sprinting so I didn't put on my big red parka right away. By the time we got to gallaghers, a 3 minute walk, I had ice crystals forming all over my shirt from all my sweat.

Happy Feet, Happy Penguin, Happy Travis!

I forgot to mention that the science lecture on emperor penguins was awesome. It was given by the head penguin and seal biologist here who first got a PhD in wildlife bio and then got an MD in anesthesiology (he uses the anesthesiology here to put put down penguins and seals for a bit while he attaches cameras and physiological measureing devices onto them so he can monitor what they are doing and what their bodies are doing while swimming) It's quite interesting with the penguins how they can dive for so long and deep (they get their heart rate up extremely high before diving so that they are super saturated with oxygen and then once in the water they can lower their heartbeat to almost nothing in order to consume less O2.) He of course had some sweet video of from cameras attached to the penguins as well as video he took. National Geographic has used a lot of his video as did the Movie March of the Penguins. The emperor penguins are just so funny to watch. They have such unique mannerisms and just look and act goofy. If you haven't seen march of the penguins or happy feet, you really should.

10-25
More driving today and also got trained on dispatch. One of the cool things about today was that we had a big blizzard and storm come in. The areas out on the ice (ice runway, for example) were in deathcon 1 (i.e. condition 1) the whole day while at McMurdo we went down to Condition 2. Condition 1 means no one can leave a building while condition two means only work related travel can occur and it has to be with special permission and with frequent radio contact. The storm was really wild. You could hardly see 10 feet in front of you at times. I earned some points today by keeping the stairs and walk shoveled during the whiteout. They couldn't believe I wanted to be out their in those conditions. I guess they just didn't believe me on my cover letters when I told them I just really enjoy cold and nasty winter weather. For me it's just exciting.

But the best thing was that while driving a guy named Storm (interestingly named considering the day) out onto the ice where the pole traverse staging is set up, I saw my first penguin! An emperor. And of course he was goofy and funny just like the videos. For awhile he just walked around awkwardly but then fell onto his belly and slid away. The big emperors are majestic and the sight was even more picturesque as the background behind him were some large mountains. After Storm and I watched him tobaggan away, Storm gave me a tour of the traverse equipment. Basically they do a huge 30 day one way trip to the southpole carrying loads of fuel for the base down there. It would be a sweet trip b/c they are going across a huge swath of the beautiful continent to reach the south pole. They go on these giant snowcats that pull trailers full of fuel, supplies, and little motorhome type trailors. That would be pretty epic.

Worked a bit on my Duke essay today and went to spanish class and the tail end of yoga.

a sealy day

10-24 Had my first independent shuttle runs today for the Ice Runway. I liked this job b/c I did it for 3 hours in the early morning (starting at 5:30am) and could just crank up and sing to music as I didn't have many passengers this early in the season yet. Did some more training and then worked with Ginny (the one from EP) on taking passengers out to the C-17. Ginny used to work for Cheley camp when she was in estes and was quite the athlete. She telemarked lots of the big peaks in rocky, and she actually got invited to do a cross country ski expedition from mcmurdo to the the south pole. Even though she's probably about 60, she's still an avid skier. She invited me to go out with her this sunday, so if I can get far enough along with my essays for grad school, I will go with her. She also worked for the forest service while in EP and now she works for the national park service in australia, but still owns her house in EP (next to the Reichardts, mom).

We had another new guy, Mike, come in on the flight today. He worked for Colorado Mountain Express and lived in Avon. So that now brings the total of ex avon residents to 3 on the shuttle crew (Dave drove the town busses for Vail and Avon).

Had some drama at work today. One of the dorm buildings caught on fire, so of course that was a big to do. And we had to evacuate a scientist woman to the C-17 flight b/c she broke her leg when a seal rolled over onto her while doing her research.

After work, I took a quick hike out to a point overlooking the frozen sea to check out a group of 11 seals. They were pretty close and I could hear them snoring as they basked in the -7F (-35F windchill) sun. You could see the little hole in the ice they had kept open so they could access the water for fish hunting. After the hike I grabbed some quick mango glazed mahi mahi from the caf and found a quiet office to work on grad school essays.

Special Ted does Antarctica

I posted some pictures of Antarctica, and some pictures were posted of me on facebook in case you are intersted in seeing some pictures of the ice.

10-22
Last full day of real training, though training will continue to happen. Stormy on and off today. I love how the different storms, clouds, and sun angles are constantly changing the look of the mountains and the ice. Everyday you see several different scenes even though you are looking at the same thing. So beautiful! And when it's completely sunny, you still get the cool ice mirages, called, phantasmagorias.

We had our ATO (Antarctica Terminal Operations, which shuttles is a part of) meet and greet and dance party last night. Great food: Steaks, cheese, cookie dough! plus lots of free wine and beer. It was tons of fun. One of the best dance parties I have been to in a long time. crazy how much like college it is here. Special Ted definitely made an appearence and made lots of new friends and of course danced the night away in wild fashion, then once the music was over apparently had a lot of fun tobagganing down hills on the way back to late night base drunk snack. Highlights of the dancing night included Shuttle Bob (he's probably in his 50's) amazing dance moves and me dancing with previous shuttle boss, Kris. She did our hiring and has a super intense interview and a lot of people I think I kind of scared of her. But as soon as she found out Glee was my guilty pleasure, it was time to dance (her quote of the night "I think I made journey mad once when I stopped believing"). Around 3am most people had ventured off to one of the bars or found a room (Shuttle Dan had a funny smile on his face this morning at brunch when someone asked him where he had gone with that girl he was dancing with and why the shuttles office was locked late last night when it is never locked), but Alyx, Fran, Mike, Julia, and myself stayed to the very end. Pretty crazy to walk outside after 3am partying to complete daylight. Actually last night was the last time the sun will set in antarctica until february! An interesting thing about partying in Antarctica: When you go outside to cool off and get some fresh air, before you know it, your beer has turned to slush. That's how cold it is. Funny thing is, although temps have been hovoering around -5F, I'm starting to get used to it and not even needing a hat or the big red parka all the time.

10-23
Went to church and then of course the fabulous brunch, featuring eggs benedict and blueberry smoothies and some fancy shrimp thing. Since then I've been working the whole day on my essays for Yale School of Forestry application. Shuttle Karen (aunt Karen. she recently retired from some fine arts center in manhattan. She still lives in Hells Kitchen, but also runs a farm somewhere else in new york http://www.auntkarensfarm.org/ ) let me borrow her laptop and so i found a quiet place. There's a huge showing of the france vs New Zealand world cup final rugby match tonight, but i think i will skip it b/c it doesn't start until 8:30 and i go to work tomorrow at 5:45am. We have now started the 12 hour work days, so I'll be working 5:45am to 5:45pm tomorrow and it will be LONG day. But I do plan on attending a science lecture tonight after dinner on emperor penguins.

Bc of the long days and continued applications for grad school, it may be a while before I get in the groove of things, so I may be out of touch and out of blog for a little bit.

Let it Snow!

10-21

It snowed all day today, which was cool. I had to drive out to the ice runway in one of the big deltas to pick up passengers coming in from the C-17 flight from Christchurch. It's crazy how when it's snowing and you are driving on a giant expanse of ice how you have know visibility and feel almost disoriented. It's a good thing they put up flags to follow. Today wasn't too cold (-9F, -30F with windchill)


Worked some more on my grad school applications today, so I didn't do any of the activities.

I nicknamed Dan (the one with that great voice), Shuttle Voice. So now he is going by that

Party at the Kiwi Base

10-20

Did some more training for work and also did some taxi driving by myself. Today I met two scientists doing high level laser research in this special area--you need a really special permit to go there and even as the driver, we have all these procedures (no lights on, no radio) and permits we have to have. They are from CU and their multi million dollar project is funded by the NSF. They are working on these super fancy and expensive lasers to study stuff in the high high atmosphere. They work at CU, but they are all originally from China. So they liked me right away, a little bit b/c I could sing the CU fight song, but mainly b/c they thought I was so incredibly brave to travel so long by myself in China. So they invited me in to see their very fancy lab and lasers (they aren't really supposed to have visitors). So that was really cool!

I had Spanish class again tonight, and then I headed over to Scott Base (the kiwi base) to have some beers. It's American night on thursday and they let the Americans come over to drink kiwi beers and hang out at their much nicer base.

I have decided the food here is going to make me so fat, so I can't wait to get the grad stuff done so I can get to a more regular exercise schedule. Today for lunch was yummy bbq pork and beef brisket and also gyros. And dinner was a whole smorgasboard of tasty Indian.

Travel Trivia!

10-19

More training today. Went out to the area where they deploy the giant balloons that they use to study the atmosphere and also back out to the airport. I also got to do some taxi driving by myself. I met a couple of scientists from Montana State (they very much proclaimed that MSU has the best wildlife grad program by far) studying the population dynamics of Weddel seals. I tried to chat them up a bit and see if I can volunteer with them, especially when they are tagging the pups. We'll see!

Had a chat with Dora (back in Idaho) during my lunch about some grad school stuff. It was nice to talk with her and she mentioned how excited she was that I had accomplished that last dream before grad school. She also told me that she and Dr. Walser were quiete excited that I would finally be going to grad school. They had been waiting for it to happen. Worked a bit more on applications tonight.

Tonight I had to choose between basketball and travel trivia. Since I figured travel trivia is my best type of trivia (and no smart phones work down here so people can't cheat by looking up things on their phones), I decided to do it. I made the right choice, b/c I was quite good at it and my team ended up winning, so we got 10 dollar gift certificates to some cheese place back in Christchurch. My trivia team was fun and I met a couple of really cool people. They asked if I was so good b/c I studied maps and books, but I told them it was all travel. Biggest shout out to a correct answer (a triple bonus question) goes to Yosh. Canyon known as the grand canyon of the pacific? Waimea canyon. Yosh made sure I hiked it when I visited Hawaii.

It has been pretty cold the last two days. Yesterday was -50F with windchill out on the ice runway. Today no wind, but -16F, which mean cool frost particles froze all around us. Dan had sweet beardcicles and Fran had pretty little frost dust form on her eyelashes and also made her hair which stuck out of her hat turn white and stick straight out. All I got was frost around my hood.

getting into the swing of things

10-18

Today was more training (5 new people showed up from the flight from yesterday), but Dan, Fran, Karen, and I got to do some real driving today. We took people way out on the sea ice in the big deltas for Happy Camper (training of the people going out in the field on how to survive camping in antarctica). Also did some routes in town. Today Kristy (aka shuttle queen...i have had dancing queen stuck in my head all day) did a lot of the training for us. She's very cool. It's her second year, but she's only 25, I think, and like me has continually put off graduate school to keep travelling. Her next big adventure she hopes to do is Cairo to Cape town. She thinks Dan and I are hoots b/c we try to be funny. And oh, Dan has the sweetest voice ever. I think he needs to do like national geo documentaries. He, kind of like Fran, majored in Outdoor leadership education. He went to a school with less people than Albertson...120!
Everyone on shuttles, especially for radios gets "shuttle" put in front of their name. Some people pick their names (i.e. shuttle queen) others are given one. They all thing Shuttle Guy is hilarious, so that is my new name.
We also drove a DV (distiguished visitor) today. He was the head of the NSF. They get lots of cool DV's down here. Some notable ones that Bill and Bob (two senior shuttle drivers) have driven are President Bill Clinton, John McCain, and Anne Curry. Apparently shuttle Bill really hit it off with Anne Curry b/c she got stranded here due to bad weather. This year, as it's the 100th anniversary of going to the Pole, the norwegian prime minister and some norwegian royalty will be coming down.
Today we also toured the ice runway and had a big powerpoint and lecture on the protocols and procedures of being on an airfield. We had to get and 85% on the test to pass. About 1/2 the class didn't make it on the first try. But I have quickly been named the shuttle nerd b/c I was the only one to get 100%. Teduard the shuttle driver...
A quote that shuttle Danster passed on today: "Behind every tree in Antarctica is a naked women" so true. but not a tree in site...or on the entire continent.
That reminds me of a funny bumper sticker I saw in ChristChurch. "Stop Plate Tectonics"

Today, and yesterday in my little bit of spare time, I have been working on my grad school applications to Yale, Duke, and Florida. I am lucky b/c Karen (the lady who retired from the lincoln center for performing arts in Manhattan) has offered to let me use her computer. She says she really likes me and I helped her out a lot by volunteering to go with her when we had to do shuttle runs in town. The town is very confusing b/c every building has a non-sensical number to it. I'm terrible at directions and memorizing numbers, but feeling a little less stressed and overwhelmed than her b/c I went through a similar thing at Beaver Creek. She says that we make a good team b/c I'm smart but shy and don't speak up. So I tell her and then b/c she is a loudmouth new yorkian, speaks up. I think she also appreciates that I help pull her up into the vehicles and hold her arm on the slippery ice spots.

Today after work I joined my first activity. I joined the spanish speaking and lessons groupl I hope to learn some more spanish before SA. Tomorrow I have to decide between team travel trivia and basketball and pickleball. geeze!

Someone said that the workforce in Antarctica is the most overqualified of anywhere in the world. I believe it. It's such a diverse and esteemed group of people. Never ceases to amaze me. Found out today that shuttle nate is a PhD student (on a break) in Astronomy at the University of Arizona. Cassa (a new arrival) is getting her masters in geography at UC-San Fran and also drives something called the tortoise bus in summers all across the country. He's not in shuttles, but apparently the 3rd person up in google is doing some menial job here right now. I found out that the lady from estes park, owns a house just two roads over on High Drive (columbine) from my parents and that she has walked her dog by our house all the time.

I did some room rennovation today as well. Finally found a lightbulb that fits in the lamp that I had found in a storage area. Also got some bamboo to tie to the roof of my room so that now all i need to do is find some old sheets to make curtains to block off a little private area around my bed and to keep light out when my roommates are up or watching tv.

Our boss told us yesterday that she and the previous supervisor had looked over 500 applications and then conducted 300 interviews to hire about 15 or 16 new people. I was wondering what it was that I had that made me standout with all those other most likely very qualified people. Well today I think i found out. Our supervisor mentioned there were two extremely important things: safety and most importantly with this job, flexibility. She wanted to see that we could easily just pick up and do something else and could go with the flow. I'm thinking she looked at all the travel experience and was like, this guy can definitely be flexible and handle a lot!

driving big trucks on ice

10-17

More training today. Got to learn how to drive the Deltas, these giant, hinged vehicles with 5'4" tires that we will eventually be drivnig through like 4 foot deep puddles when the sea ice starts to get soft. Had fun doing that. Today I was trained by a gal named Jenn from Montana. Her dad worked her and now her daughter does too. Found out Fran got a BS in outdoor recreation from a school in vermont. That's pretty crazy. It was colder today. -10F but -35 with windchill. Another group of people got flown onto the ice today.

I'm in Antarctica!!

10-14 Got up early to be delivered to the airfield for the USAP. We all loaded up onto a C-17...a huge military plane. That was pretty cool as I'd never been on a military plane before. The interior was cavernous and mostly filled with cargo (you could have fit tanks inside). We all sat in seats with our backs against the walls. It's a nearly 6 hour flight to McMurdo and a couple hours in we started to see ice, and then completely frozen sea. Eventually we crossed over into the continent. As soon as we did this the scenery became stunning and breathtaking. We flew over large mountains sitting up to their necks in gigantic glaciers. All you could see whas pure white snow. It looked like a skier's paradise. The scenery of mountains intersected by giant glaciers went on and on forever. Simply stunning. The ice and glaciers are so thick that they look like they are choking the mountains and the mountains are only just able to peak out of their icy grasp.
We landed onto an ice runway smoothed out over the ice on Ross sea. The wind was blowing hard and it was quite cold (-30F ambient, -45F windchill). But we hopped onto Ivan the TerraBus (a huge tractor shuttle thing) and headed off to McMurdo station. We were assigned a room and given linens. I met two of my roommates, Doug and Eric and we arranged the room so that the 4 of us could maximize space.

10-15 First day of work. It was mostly training and the 4 of us new shuttle drivers who had arrived the day before (Myself, Dan (backpacking guide in Alaska), Fran (kayak guide in Alaska), and Karen (artist from Manhattan) set off to be trained. We worked mainly on practicing maintenance and driving of the vans and airpoter shuttles. Both vehicles are jacked way up and on large tires, perfect for driving on the snow and ice around here. It wasn't too cold today (-12F), but Karen got some early signs of frostbite first thing in the morning while checking fluids. My supervisor's name is Sharona, and she seems to be pretty cool. There is also a lady who has been working there for over 10 years from Estes Park. She recently bought a house in Australia, but I am curious if she knows my mom. Everyone keeps telling me that the shuttles job is awesome and that it is a major score for a first year person. So I am excited, looks like it will be good.

After work, RE (my friend I met way back on the ride from DIA to the red lion) and I went for a hike along hut point and up to arrival hill. it had great views out across the sound and towards the Royal Society range in the distance. We also saw 3 seals (weddel or leapord?) basking out where the ice meets the land. Our loop came back down to town, but I continued to hike up a peak (Cross ob hill) for more sweet views of the area. I watched sunset from here (at about 11pm). At this point of the year, the sun does set; however, it never really gets dark. Just a really, really, really long sunset and sunrise. Quite beautiful! There was a nice and long snow chute coming down from the peak, so it was a fast and easy slide back down the hill. There were some big parties going on last night, but I didn't want to get too crazy or anything, so I just hung out for a bit, made some phonecalls and then went to bed. Crazy how it was still light at 2 in the morning!

10-16 I got up early this morning. It was quiet and peaceful as everyone was still sleeping or hungover. I went to Church at chapel of the snows. A cute little chapel with nice views over the frozen sea and stained glass images with an Antarctic them...Penguins mixed in with more traditional themes. Afterwards I hiked back up the cross ob hill to see what the view looked like when it was sunnier. Amazing views out towards the distant mount ranges as well as towards Mt. Erebus, a 12,000ft active volcano that puffs smoke. It's an impressive mountain b/c it is doused in snow and rises from sea level straight up to 12,000ft in an almost perfect volcanic shape.

I hiked back down and met up with some of the guys I have become friends with (Gustavo, Dan, Mike, and blanking on the name) and we walked out onto the sea ice to the observation tube. They had drilled a hole 30 or so feet down through the ice until they reached the liquid water and then put in a tube. So you climb down this thing and at the bottom they have windows so that you can check out what it looks like underwater. It's pretty fascinating b/c you can look up at the cool structures of ice above and watch the little critters below. A few jellies, and lots of krill. The krill are pretty fascinating to watch and one guy described them as "little angels". I had missed the big brunch because of all my hiking, so i grabbed a quick apple and then headed out for the hike to Scott base (the Kiwi base). Again, more nice scenery and great views of Erebus. The transition zone (where sea ice meets land) here is pretty cool looking b/c there are giant ice blocks due to the ice crumpling. Also saw a group of 5 seals. The kiwi base is funny b/c all of the builings are painted lime (kiwi) green. Made it back just in time for dinner

Antarctica and McMurdo so far:

So far I LOVE it! it's a lot of fun. Basically like being back in college, without homework. We all live in dorms. And the dorms have activity centers and lounges and all that jazz. The cafeteria food has been amazing, and I am pretty sure I am going to gain that freshman 15 that I missed out on in college. Apparently the food hasn't always been good, but they hired a new executive chef this year. But so far we've had things like steak, salmon, bananas foster. There's a made to order omelette and egg bar, fresh salads, and just lots of good food. I missed the brunch today, but brunch is supposed to be extra fancy and tasty.
There are tons of activities going on: kickboxing, yoga, basketball leagues, bowling leagues, knitting classes, craft classes, unicycle lessons, sign language classes, etc, etc. They have them party nights (last night's party was the Honey Badger dance), special movie showings, and last night they also had a banff film festival showing. They have science lectures 2 nights a week and other speakers. Just like college. So much,...too much todo! They have a library, which I haven't visited yet and a cardio gym and waitlifting gym. Also have not visited these, but will need to with the tasty and loaded cafeteria! There are a couple of coffee shops around and some bars as well. They have a gear shop to borrow things, and I borrowed some cross country skis for 2 weeks, so hopefully I'll be doing some of that. But you can take out games, costumes, climbing stuff (there is also a climbing wall), and lots of other random things. They also have lectures on different things including lots of travel lectures on places people have been so that people can get ideas/advice on where to go and what to do during the offseason. I don't plan on attending any of these as I already have the travel bug bad enough. My boss told me I could give a few of those, but I'm too shy to talk in front of people, and too busy anyways.

As for the town. It's a sprawling, mining type looking town. Ugly buildings, lots of big vehicles and snowcats and heavy equipment. To me it looks like Climax (near leadville) around mid-december after some heavy wind. In otherwords, sparse and barren. Obviously no trees, just rocks and snow. It doesn't snow here often and they get crazy winds, so basically it has the Estes Park effect. There are areas blown clear of snow with the volcanic rock exposed and then areas with huge drifts. But the mountains in the distance are all completely snow covered. Apparently when it starts to warm up, Mac Town will be mostly dirt, but for now there is still quite a lot of snow around. As for weather, it's been quite balmy. Little wind and pretty warm. Other than the first day, the coldest it has been is -12F and the high that I have seen so far is -2F. The temperature doesn't vary much throughout the day since it doesn't get dark. And believe me, they adequately supply you with warm gear. I have mostly been sweating since I was here. A huge down red jacket, snow pants, these thick boots (called bunny boots), lots of layers. The only part that gets cold, and quite cold is any exposed skin. As soon as the gloves go off, your hands are instantly frozen. And you really have to bury your head in the large parka hood to protect those cheeks and nose.

The rooms, as a newbie, are tiny and crowded. There are 4 of us in a room and also a couch and tv. The TV has two fulltime movie channels (no commercials) plus several other channels including sports. Actually saw the the colbert report was on the other night. Doug is probably the best of my roommates, but "best" is pretty generous. He's probably about 40 and a hick from Tallahassee, Fl. I have yet to see him move from the couch and TV, so the TV is always running. He seems nice, but is a little strange. He does something or other on the ice runway. The other two guys are firefighters. They work 48 hours on at the firehouse and 48 hours off. They are on opposite schedules, so we only see one at a time. Eric (from Kansas) is pretty quiet and keeps to himself, or almost hides. He goes behind his curtain and watches DVD's on his laptop. Mike (from Texas) is kind of crude, overweight, and a big drinker. Haven't really talked to him much b/c he doesn't talk much, but everything he says is kind of dumb or gross or inappropriate. I have met lots of cool people on the way down here and now down here. It's kind of a shame I wasn't able to have any of them as roommates, but oh well, these guys are not too bad. Most of the people I have met that I am friends with so far are from Alaska, Montana, and Colorado...and in fact most people seem to be from there (and throw in minnesota, washington, and idaho), but I got stuck with three midwestern/southerners. The rooms are crowded and my roommates are so, so, but it's ok b/c so far I have only been in my room to sleep and unpack my clothes and don't plan on spending much time there anyways.

There's a fair amount of outdoor recreation, but because antarctica is a dangerous place due to brutal storms that can quickly develop and just the ice and snow factor (falling hundreds of feet through crevasses can't be pleasant), they regulate where you can go and have designated trails you must stay on. At the moment 5 trails are open (and I have hiked them all), but several more are slated to open soon. There are a couple of long trails they will open (good for xc skiing) soon but they have to go over them to make sure they are safe and put up some emergency shelters in case a storm were to roll in quickly. I would love to be able to roam just wherever, but I can understand their need to be safe and that Antarctica is dangerous if you don't know what you are doing.

I am still feeling tempted to stay another year. And a recent development has made me all the more tempted. The kiwi base is much smaller (60 people capacity, or so i have been told, compared to 1100). They have much fancier meals and apparently some other cool things as well as a ski hill. But it's all by personal invite only. Well, my cousin, Claire, recently got a grant to do marine bio research on the Scott base, so that would definitely be an invite for me!

Visiting a shook up Kiwi

10/10: Had environmental and safety training at Raytheon. Another gorgeous blue sky day with the Rockies shimmering in the distance. I was able to move my flight to LAX from the early flight to the late flight, which meant that I was able to meet my parents!! in DIA as they were were returning from Vermont/NH and say a last goodbye to them.

My flight ended up being delayed for nearly 4 hours, so that we actually arrived into LAX 30 minutes after our flight to Auckland was supposed to take off. Initially this wasn't a worry b/c Quantas was on strike anyways, so it was in doubt whether that flight would even go. And of course the flights from Christchurch to McMurdo hadn't gone out in 3 days due to weather in Antarctica. But it turned out that the flight was going to go, so it looked like we were going to miss the connection. But funny thing when you're flying for the gov't...our travel lady got on the phone and they held up a huge jet for over 30 minutes to wait until my group of 20 got there.

10/11 I missed this day b/c of going over the int'l date line

10/12 landed in Auckland and then transferred onto our flight to Christchurch. It was raining in Aukland, but beautiful weather in Christchurch. On the flight it, it was great to see all the snowcapped peaks. We were picked up by USAP people at the airport and taken to our various hotels. Because of extensive earquake damage, the city center of Christchurch was closed, so our hotels were all a ways out. This upset a lot of people and they just decided to hang out in their rooms or go to restaurants. This didn't phase me though, and as soon as I had dropped off my bags I headed out to figure out the bus system. Someone on our shuttle into the hotel had said, "New Zealand is just a cute country". I would have to say that he was pretty accurate. New Zealand just seems to be very quaint and everything is small and cute and ordered. It was kind of a shock to my system to be travelling through New Zealand. I think I had been travelling in Asia too long, b/c everytime I wanted to ask someone something, I prepared myself to speak in easily understandable broken english and prepared to listen hard to a spattering of english. But ahoy, here I was in a country who spoke English as their native tongue. It almost felt weird to be travelling through New Zealand b/c a.) being white didn't automatically make me recognizable as a tourist b.) they locals spoke my own language and c.) the locals didn't look at me as some rich tourist in which their only goal was to get money from me. So yea, just a strange feeling after being in India.

My goal was to get to Sumner beach, and 3 buses and two transfers later, I made it. I walked along the beach for a little while, but then took a sweet hike up one of the cliffy hills butting out into the ocean. The top of the hills afforded tremendous views of the bay, Christchurch, and the snowcapped peaks beyond. I wasn't able to do the whole hike that I wanted, b/c the earthquake had collapsed part of the trail away, leaving only cliffs.

Back on the beach, I saw a lot of the kiwi’s eating fish and chips. Now, when I was only 6 and my parents took us for 2 months rv camping, with our tiny RV Molly, I vividly remember certain things. B/c of my young age, I don’t remember everything, but a few things I vividly remember: hearing avalanches and glaciers moving down Mt. Cook, sperm whales diving, blue penguins coming ashore at night, geysers, hiking to hidden waterfalls in milford sound, quicksand and sand dunes, giant waterfalls, and sheep farms. Something that has definitely always stayed with me was the taste of fish and chips. I have never found anything remotely close to those greasy fish and chips wrapped in newspapers that I had in NZ. Even when studying abroad in England, I never had anything so good. So I was extremely excited to be buying some fish and chips, right off the beach. And the taste definitely didn’t disappoint!!

10/13
I woke up early to go touring around Christchurch. I always make it a point to have mcdonalds in every country I go to just to see how mcdonalds changes things. It’s funny b/c I never eat at micky d’s in my own country unless it is for a mcsesh (wifi, cleaning, ice, aircon, dollar menu) on camping trips in the southwest. My fave’s have been the mcrice in the Philippines and the McAloo in India. Here they had the Kiwi McBreckie..a mcmuffin with sausage, egg, bacon, a cheese rosti, cheese, and tomato relish. Very tasty, but it’s a good thing Kiwi’s are so active with all that great they get from fish n chips and crowded mcdonalds. After breakfast I burned off the grease by walking entirely around the city center. The city center is completely blocked off and blockaded b/c it is unsafe to go in there due to the extensive earthquake damage in the high rises. There is also extensive earthquake damage even out by my hotel, but since the buildings aren’t tall there, it is deemed safe to move around. It is really quite sobering to see huge buildings that have collapsed or houses that have caved in. As you get closer to the city center, almost every building is abandoned, and it looks like people just abandoned it on an instant and never came back, b/c everything looks as if it would have in the middle of a day except for things being turned over and such. But you’ll see restaurants with some tables turned over, but others still with food and dishes on the table. The churches seemed to have taken it the worst, possibly b/c they are the oldest. But almost all of them have major portions that have crumbled to the ground. It is a shame, b/c they say Christchurch is supposed to be a gorgeous city.

After going around the city center I walked through a large park where people are punting (pushing flat boats through a mild river…think Cambridge), and then I took a walk through the botanical gardens. It was a brief walk. Botanical gardens are another vivid memory from new Zealand and Australia with my parents, but I think this memory is vivid, b/c we went to so many (read too) that I am ok to not visit many more in my life. Bro and I just wanted to play and here were all these flower areas that we had to behave and be proper in.

After my walk through Christchurch it was time to go to the US Antarctic program’s headquarters and check out our extreme weather gear. It took a while to try and all the gear and gather it all together, but afterwards, I definitely felt prepared to face all sorts of cold and harsh weather

There is an Antarctic museum and discovery center nearby that I wanted to check out. Problem is that they were charging 65 bucks. I had heard they give discounts to USAP participants so I decided to go ask and see what I could do. Apparently I was convincing or the lady thought I was good looking or something b/c they let me in for free!! I later found out that everyone else had gotten in at the discount rate of 35 dollars. The Antarctica experience was very cool though. We did a fun ride on something called a Heggland, originally built by Norway for wars. It’s like a snowcat, but can go up a 45 degree slope and also is amphibious. We took it through a lake where it gets submerged ½ way, but doesn’t let water in, and then continues to float and is still propelled by the caterpillar wheels. Pretty cool. Also watched a cool 4D video and a penguin feeding time to go with all the exhibits. They also had a cold and snow room that they kept at 17F and every 10 minutes or so a “storm” would blow in. We sat in there for a couple of storms to try and acclimate to Antarctica.
Looking at all the pictures and seeing the videos and just reading about it, really, REALLY, makes me think I should go back again for another year. In the 2nd year I could get a higher paying job and also one where there would be more travel out to the field camps b/c I will make connections this year. And of course I can’t help but think that if I went a 2nd year, I could save money to do a car camping or mini-rv camping trip for a couple months through gorgeous New Zealand! Hmm…dang, I really have the adventure travel bug bad. So tempting to postpone grad school!!

But WOW, can’t wait to head down to Antarctica tomorrow!! So excited. It’s going to be so absolutely beautiful and stunning and such a crazy experience
Tomorrow we get up at O dark-thirty to catch a C-17 military plane to McMurdo. As long as the weather cooperates that is.

Antarctica here I come!

So excited for Antarctica!

I think, depening on internet availability and grad school application work, that I will be doing some blogging here and there, so if you're interested you can check back at www.travisjguy.blogspot.com Here's the first blog entry if you're interested.


I unfortunately never finished my blog from the India trip. But don't worry, I have it all written down in a Journal, so it may get put up at some point. It was just that in the end in India I was so busy on the computer applying for this current special opportunity that I didn't want to waste more time in internet cafes to write a blog. Much thanks to Lael, Holcomb, my Mom, and that angel, Ildi, for helping me with the process of getting this job.

I just got back from a 2 week trip to look at graduate schools. Yale School of Forestry (extremely impressed by it); Duke Nichols school of the Environment (also impressed), and the University of Florida's Zoology department (very, very impressed) specifically under the guidance of Dr. Todd Palmer (ecologist extraordinaire). I had a great time. Had fun in New Haven with JGT and Abby. They took me out and showed me a good time in New Haven and also attended a few lab happy hours. Cory Krediet was next up in Florida, who gave me the best campus tour ever including a sweet kayak trip where we paddled with dolphins, sea turtles, and sharks to different islands, watched a volleyball game, and enjoyed the night scene of gainesville. Hung out with cousin Greg, Jennie, and Salsa in Durham. So great to catch up with Greg and meet Jennie. Love those guys. Sarah Bighorn then picked me up and drove me to Charleston for a good time on the beaches (more dolphins) and a wild night in the Charleston establishments. She then took me onto Asheville where I went to some classes with her and then did a nice hike along the blue ridge parkway in the beginning of fall colors with a sky so beautiful you woulda though we were in Colorado. We also "climbed" to the top of icy mount mitchell, the highest point east of the mississippi (1000 feet lower than EP). Before leaving back to Colorado I played chili dawg 1 on 1 in some b-ball....and let her win...

The night before I left Stringbean, Danimal, and Philly took me out for a fun night at the Rock. The night I had a wonderful dinner with Lisa, lil squeaker, and chef Erin.

10-08-11 I got picked up from my house in Estes at 1pm in a raging blizzard. EP was trying to give me a little taste of Antarctica before I left and to make sure I didn't forget just how beautiful it is when it snows. It made me happy b/c I really wanted one good fall snowstorm before I left. By the time we were heading up out of the valley from the lake, there was 5ish inches of snow on the ground and the roads were a slushy mess. It took us nearly an hour to go from the lake to the top of pole hill. Our van got stuck 3 times (passengers had to push it out). On the way up we passed 11 total cars who had slid off the road, crashed, or slammed into the barrier. When we got to pinewood, they had closed the road going up (and presumably down from EP), so we had just made it! From pinewood down, it was much easier with only 3 cars having slid off the road.

I was taken to the airport where I caught a shuttle to the fancy Red Lion Inn. On the shuttle I met RE (goes by initials) from Minneapolis. Very nice guy. I settled into watch some college football (apparently you can watch football in Antarctica, but who knows at what time of the night, so I felt like it could be some of my last). I was relaxing on the huge fancy bed (remember, my last memories of sleeping on beds other than my own are the hard, lice infested beds of Lawn Lake cabin and well, the hard lice infested beds of India), when I got a knock and the door and was given a fancy plate of cookies, strawberries, and chocolate milk with a sweet note. Thank you Sarah Bighorn! Later in the night, sexy Tom Day stopped by and we went out to a nice Mexican restaurant and talked of powder skiing and wolverine research.

10-09-11

We had orientation today at Raytheon's headquarters in Centennial, CO. From the window of my 10th floor room, I got to witness a fantastic sunrise onto the snow blanketed Rockies. One last look at them tomorrow before I have to say goodbye for a while
Orientation was fun and got me super excited for Antarctica. The pictures and posters alone got me extremely excited! Such beauty in Antarctica. Such cool science. Such a cool place! And it got me thinking that I kind of want to go another year(!) My job (shuttle driver) is going to be sweet b/c I get 2 days off (compared to 1 for almost everyone else), and get to see a little bit around. Apparently it's the drivers who are the only ones at McMurdo station (my base) who get to see Penguins. But looking at all the pictures, I have been feeling myself tempted to go another year b/c this year I will get to meet people who I can introduce myself to and get other jobs for next year...like a job where I go to field camps deeper into the continent or a job at Palmer station (the warmer station close to S. America where there is a lot of wildlife like penguins, seals, and whales). And also hearing the stories how so many of these people here are returnees to the program (often more than 5 years) and just work in Antarctica and then spend their entire summer travelling or hanging out b/c they make enough in Antarctica to support them year round. That's pretty sweet! Also quite a few of them just do fun jobs over the summer...lots of backpacking, climbing, kayaking guides up in Alaska. And a few who work on a similar program for 3 months up near the north pole in Greenland. hmm...but then there is grad school and those expring GRE's.

I've already met some really cool people, and I think I will really meet lots of awesome people. I think they are all quite similar to me. An outdoorsy, travelling bunch. I have an impressive travel resume compared to most people I know, but here talking with these people, mine is average at best, but actually more like below average. Most of these people just travel for 5 months around the world every summer when they are finished on the Ice. Everyone I met today was either from Colorado (boulder, denver, evergreen), Idaho (sandpoint, moscow, garden valley, McCall), Montanta (9 from billings), Washington (Bro's old haunts of Bellingham) or Minneapolis (Antarctica's summer is warmer than their winter). Mom, I met two of the PT's. You would like them. They are from Denver, but spend a couple months in Alaska teaching yoga and doing PT work at fancy fishing lodges. Also met the South Pole doctor who spends his summers on cruise ships treating sun burns.

They take pretty good care of us for the travel to Antarctica. 1/4 of our group will get bumped into 1st class (I have my fingers crossed!) They gave us 215 bucks for food on the way to NZ and in NZ. Have nice hotels booked for us in Christchurch, and even gave us these waivers that give us a free year long visa for NZ and that waive currency exchange fees and even give us a better exchange rate (the same as the President would get) for the NZ dollar.

We are allowed to take 140 lbs in two bags, but my two bags only add up to 60. Hope I've got enough, but maybe I'm used to going light.

There are three main US bases: McMurdo (1100 people), The South Pole (200 people), and Palmer (50 people) as well as some camps set up in dry valleys here and there. I'll be living at McMurdo and driving shuttles and other large snow vehicles. So excited!