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.
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