Trav's Travels: Antarctic Dry Valleys! First Helicopter Ride

1/25/13

Today I had a most incredible experience. I got to visit the Dry Valleys. The Dry Valleys sit on the actual continent of Antarctica (McMurdo Station is on Ross Island, which is on the continental shelf, but is an island). So this was my first time setting foot on the actual Continent of Antarctica!

Across the sound from Ross Island sits the Dry Valleys. These valleys sit below large mountains and were carved out by glaciers. There are still giant glaciers cascading down from the mountains, but the valleys are barren as this is one of the driest places on earth and receives barely any snow. Sprinkled through valleys; however, are mostly frozen lakes. These lakes are one of the few places on this continent where life flourishes. The life is mainly algae, micro-organisms, and nematodes (worms), but life nonetheless. This environment is also super unique because of the freshwater, the dryness, the harsh weather, the catabatic winds, the glaciers, the geology, and 24 hour intense sunlight shifting to 24 hours of cold darkness. It is of course basically unspoiled land which has had limited human impact. Due to all these things, this is a major destination of research for biology, microbiology, limnology, geology, and glaciology groups. In fact, they have a huge long term project (LTER=Long Term Ecological Research) in which CU is of course involved. There are other LTER projects around the globe, including 2 in Colorado (one on the alpine tundra at 12,000 feet on Niwot Ridge outside of Boulder)

There are tented camps all through the dry valleys, but there are 4 main camps with structures in the Taylor valley, which was carved by the Taylor glacier. Originally the lab assistants (Abe and me) were supposed to do the lab set ups and close outs for all 4 labs. This would mean a trip out at winfly and a trip out at the end of the year, both being overnights. However, the lab supervisor is new this year, and she didn't know we were supposed to go out at the beginning of the season and decided to send Abe and I out separately with a supply person for the close outs. So we would each be visiting two camps during 1 day. As I have seniority in terms of time on ice, I got to choose which camps. I asked around with the scientists as to their favorites and decided to choose Lake Fryxell camp and Lake Bonney camp. Lonnie, a nice lady who lives at Glacier NP in the summer would be going with me.

In the morning Lonnie and I packed up our supplies and headed down to the helo pad. We were all smiles as it was a gorgeous, cloudless, warm day. We would be transporting via a Bell 212 Helicopter with 3 guys from the MEC who were old hats at it. They let Lonnie and I have window seats, which was awesome. So we donned our helmets and jumped in. The flight to Fryxell Camp was amazing! First flying past Ross Island, then over the sea ice, past small islands and then over to the continent at the foot of the Royal Society Range. We then buzzed past several valleys before turning up the Taylor valley. We flew over New Harbour camp (closed this season), then over F6 camp before landing near Lake Fryxell and Fryxell camp. We had a hot landing, which means we threw everything out of the helo while it was still running. We climbed out and layed on our gear so it wouldn't blow away as the chopper took off.

Fryxell had 4 tiny little labs: general lab, chem lab, rad lab, and electrical lab. Lonnie and I got right to work taking inventory and cleaning the labs so that we would have some free-time. After we finished cleaning, we had some lunch in the Jamesway tent (think heated ski yurt, but with wi-fi, which the MEC guys were using), and then I headed out to explore.

I first walked a bit along the frozen lake edge, admiring the beauty of the valley around me with mountains all around containing glaciers. I then hiked along the lake and then up a bit to get to the foot of the giant Canada glacier. The foot of the glacier is a wall of ice at least 50 ft tall and had a little stream running out of it. The scenery all around was stunning.

I hustled back so as to not be late for our helo transfer to the next camp. Lonnie and I were the only ones on this Bell 212 helo. The flight from Fryxell to Lake Bonney was short, but absolutely breathtaking. We flew up a fairly narrow canyon, over giant glaciers with shear peaks on either side. Several lakes rushed by below as well as Lake Hoare and its camp. Lake Bonney camp is located on the edge of Lake Bonney, which is tucked in a canyon between fairly large peaks with the Taylor glacier a bit further up the valley.

This camp had only two labs: the general lab and the rad lab. At this camp we decided to play first. So I hiked up the somewhat steep valley wall to a large plateau quite high above the lake. On this plateau, large, uniquely wind-shaped rocks were strewn about. These rocks, often with holes and arches, were carved out by the infamous dry valley catabatic winds that come rushing down from the polar plateau.

From the plateau there were great views of several large glaciers (including the giant Taylor Glacier), lake Bonney, and all the mountains around. The mountains in the distance near the Taylor glacier had cool layered color patterns. It was a view from the Antarctica of my dreams.

On the way back I stopped at the foot of a glacier to taste some ancient ice before descending back down to the lake to complete the lab closeout.

When we got finished with the lab closeout, we hung out in the Jamesway with the 4 carpenters staying there. They were enjoying (and sharing) their wine. They also shared some of their tasty pasta and stories

We were on the nightline flight to come back, so we got picked up at 8pm. This time we got picked up by the smaller A-Star helicopter, which meant I got to sit in the front!! We had another thrilling and scenic ride down the valley towards the sea ice. When we got there the pilot decided to give us a scenic detour and took us along the sea ice edge. On the way we passed over a huge colony of Emperor penguins. But the best part was that as we flew along the ice edge, we saw 7 Killer Whales!! It was really cool to see them from above. They are so beautiful.

We continued to fly back towards McMurdo, passed giant icebergs and towards towering Mt. Erebus. The final treat was getting a bird's eye view of McMurdo Station and Hut Point Penninsula before landing.