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!