11/25/19
It was a pretty uneventful week last weekend, though the weekend had a bit more to it. On Saturday night, at Gallaghers Bar, 3 different bands played sets. We went to the 1st band, which was pretty good, and then from there we went to Hut 10 for a Speakeasy party. They also had a live, mostly strings band (cello, fiddle, bass, etc) and everyone was dressed up really fancy. Elisha was dressed nicely in Flapper style, and the decorations were as if it were a Prohibition in the 20's style of party. We hung out, mostly, with the (weddel) seal team from Montana. They are a down to earth and interesting group. And they all have interesting summer jobs. One puts collars on male grizzlies in Yellowstone and another is going to be tracking and collaring Lynx up near Libby this summer.
There are 2 media teams down here right now. One is from the BBC and filming Frozen Planet 2, the other is from National Geographic and filming the 2nd season of "One Strange Rock", which is narrated by Will Smith. On Sunday, the Nat Geo group presented one of their episodes from last season and talked about their work this season. If you haven't seen One Strange Rock, it's worth checking out. It's about our planet (earth being the strange rock) and how unique it is. I believe it's on Netflix. We spent the rest of Sunday afternoon prepping for the upcoming gingerbread competition.
11/26/19
I got to fly out to Miers Valley, which is one of the dry valleys as a reconnaissance to check out an old stream weir that Antarctica New Zealand left in the valley many years ago. It's a beautiful valley with 2 glaciers coming down into it, and frozen lake, Miers lake. It was a gorgeous day, and I had some time to walk around after I got my work done.
In the afternoon, Marci was supposed to fly out to Cape Crozier to escort the artist and writer, Sarah Airries (her blog is here: http://twirlynoodle.com/blog ). The Cape Crozier ASPA (Antarctic Specially Protected Area) has some sensitive lichen species and the NSF requested someone from environmental to make sure that she tread lightly. Marci started feeling sick, so I ended up being the one chosen to go. To get there, we flew up and over the saddle between Mt Bird and Mt Erebus, up to an elevation of almost 8000 feet. It was pretty cool to be so high up on Erebus. We also flew by an old ice pick stuck into a rock supposedly left by Shackleton's expedition up Erebus.
The artist is writing a graphic novel about the men of the Terra Nova "Worst Journey in the World" which was the journey some of Robert Scott's men, led by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, did in the middle of the winter in order to collect emperor penguin eggs at the colony by Cape Crozier. She wanted to see the topography of the area as well as visit Wilson's Igloo, which is the stone base of an igloo that Wilson built in order to survive some nights out on the cape in the middle of that winter.
We landed near the Igloo and it was a crazy walk to get there because it was super windy. According to the instruments on the helicopter, the winds were sustained at around 45 mph. With our big reds (down jackets) and FDX boots (warm, but awkward boots), it was a real challenge just to walk the quarter of a mile to the igloo. We were getting pushed by the wind and stumbling all over. The writer even got blown over a couple of times. All I can say is I wouldn't have wanted to spend time there in the winter! It was super windy, but at least it was warm (probably 25-30F) and we had a warm helicopter waiting.
On the way home, we could see the emperor penguin colony in the distance. It is the most southern known emperor colony in the world. We also could make out the adelie colony, which is one of the largest adelie colony's in the world (250,000 breeding pairs)
11/30
Today was our celebrated Thanksgiving in McMurdo. It started off with the annual turkey trot. It's always a fun event full of costumes and aid stations serving beers, shots, jello shots, margaritas, and more. I skipped the "aid stations" as I was trying to do well, but Elisha enjoyed a margarita. This year it even snowed a bit during the race, which was fun. There were 2 unreal runners, finishing the brutal 5k (the 1st half is a steady uphill climb) in under 18 minutes. I finished 6 overall, which I was quite happy with in a time of 21:50. Elisha, thanks to the margarita finished 69th overall. I think I was 5th overall among Americans as there was a fast Kiwi there. But as someone pointed out, I was the first person across the finish line to be wearing a costume, and also the only person in the top 10 wearing a costume.
It was a faster race this year as I finished 4th last year with a time of 22:47, so I dropped almost a minute off of my time. 2 years ago I ran 22:10, so I even beat that time. That year was the year I was most in-shape; however, I was still sick from the McM crud so couldn't run it as fast as I wanted.
After the turkey trot I met with Margee from Haz Waste in the coffee shop. Since Marci is sick, I'll be taking Marci to the South Pole, and I needed to fill her in on all the info and giver her a brief about the project and what to bring. Margee seems cool, but I'll really get to know her in the next couple of weeks. She's a flight nurse out of northern Nevada. So when critical patients have to be flown to Reno or Vegas, she is the nurse on the plane. After our meeting, Elisha and I enjoyed coffees and hot milk with baileys and kahlua and talked a while with our very musical friend Colin. He'll be touring around this summer with his band (doing paid gigs), but we invited him to the sardine can festival.
Thanksgiving dinner was a big deal as usual. Both Elisha and I managed to get drumsticks! Also pecan and pumpkin pie amongst other goodies. After the dinner, we pretty much just lounged around. I hung out a bit with Mitch before we all headed to the fitness room for "Math Club" which was a dj'ed dance party hosted by National Geographic.
11/31
Another chill day, but we took a hike around ob hill before climbing up to the summit
It was a pretty uneventful week last weekend, though the weekend had a bit more to it. On Saturday night, at Gallaghers Bar, 3 different bands played sets. We went to the 1st band, which was pretty good, and then from there we went to Hut 10 for a Speakeasy party. They also had a live, mostly strings band (cello, fiddle, bass, etc) and everyone was dressed up really fancy. Elisha was dressed nicely in Flapper style, and the decorations were as if it were a Prohibition in the 20's style of party. We hung out, mostly, with the (weddel) seal team from Montana. They are a down to earth and interesting group. And they all have interesting summer jobs. One puts collars on male grizzlies in Yellowstone and another is going to be tracking and collaring Lynx up near Libby this summer.
There are 2 media teams down here right now. One is from the BBC and filming Frozen Planet 2, the other is from National Geographic and filming the 2nd season of "One Strange Rock", which is narrated by Will Smith. On Sunday, the Nat Geo group presented one of their episodes from last season and talked about their work this season. If you haven't seen One Strange Rock, it's worth checking out. It's about our planet (earth being the strange rock) and how unique it is. I believe it's on Netflix. We spent the rest of Sunday afternoon prepping for the upcoming gingerbread competition.
11/26/19
I got to fly out to Miers Valley, which is one of the dry valleys as a reconnaissance to check out an old stream weir that Antarctica New Zealand left in the valley many years ago. It's a beautiful valley with 2 glaciers coming down into it, and frozen lake, Miers lake. It was a gorgeous day, and I had some time to walk around after I got my work done.
In the afternoon, Marci was supposed to fly out to Cape Crozier to escort the artist and writer, Sarah Airries (her blog is here: http://twirlynoodle.com/blog ). The Cape Crozier ASPA (Antarctic Specially Protected Area) has some sensitive lichen species and the NSF requested someone from environmental to make sure that she tread lightly. Marci started feeling sick, so I ended up being the one chosen to go. To get there, we flew up and over the saddle between Mt Bird and Mt Erebus, up to an elevation of almost 8000 feet. It was pretty cool to be so high up on Erebus. We also flew by an old ice pick stuck into a rock supposedly left by Shackleton's expedition up Erebus.
The artist is writing a graphic novel about the men of the Terra Nova "Worst Journey in the World" which was the journey some of Robert Scott's men, led by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, did in the middle of the winter in order to collect emperor penguin eggs at the colony by Cape Crozier. She wanted to see the topography of the area as well as visit Wilson's Igloo, which is the stone base of an igloo that Wilson built in order to survive some nights out on the cape in the middle of that winter.
We landed near the Igloo and it was a crazy walk to get there because it was super windy. According to the instruments on the helicopter, the winds were sustained at around 45 mph. With our big reds (down jackets) and FDX boots (warm, but awkward boots), it was a real challenge just to walk the quarter of a mile to the igloo. We were getting pushed by the wind and stumbling all over. The writer even got blown over a couple of times. All I can say is I wouldn't have wanted to spend time there in the winter! It was super windy, but at least it was warm (probably 25-30F) and we had a warm helicopter waiting.
On the way home, we could see the emperor penguin colony in the distance. It is the most southern known emperor colony in the world. We also could make out the adelie colony, which is one of the largest adelie colony's in the world (250,000 breeding pairs)
11/30
Today was our celebrated Thanksgiving in McMurdo. It started off with the annual turkey trot. It's always a fun event full of costumes and aid stations serving beers, shots, jello shots, margaritas, and more. I skipped the "aid stations" as I was trying to do well, but Elisha enjoyed a margarita. This year it even snowed a bit during the race, which was fun. There were 2 unreal runners, finishing the brutal 5k (the 1st half is a steady uphill climb) in under 18 minutes. I finished 6 overall, which I was quite happy with in a time of 21:50. Elisha, thanks to the margarita finished 69th overall. I think I was 5th overall among Americans as there was a fast Kiwi there. But as someone pointed out, I was the first person across the finish line to be wearing a costume, and also the only person in the top 10 wearing a costume.
It was a faster race this year as I finished 4th last year with a time of 22:47, so I dropped almost a minute off of my time. 2 years ago I ran 22:10, so I even beat that time. That year was the year I was most in-shape; however, I was still sick from the McM crud so couldn't run it as fast as I wanted.
After the turkey trot I met with Margee from Haz Waste in the coffee shop. Since Marci is sick, I'll be taking Marci to the South Pole, and I needed to fill her in on all the info and giver her a brief about the project and what to bring. Margee seems cool, but I'll really get to know her in the next couple of weeks. She's a flight nurse out of northern Nevada. So when critical patients have to be flown to Reno or Vegas, she is the nurse on the plane. After our meeting, Elisha and I enjoyed coffees and hot milk with baileys and kahlua and talked a while with our very musical friend Colin. He'll be touring around this summer with his band (doing paid gigs), but we invited him to the sardine can festival.
Thanksgiving dinner was a big deal as usual. Both Elisha and I managed to get drumsticks! Also pecan and pumpkin pie amongst other goodies. After the dinner, we pretty much just lounged around. I hung out a bit with Mitch before we all headed to the fitness room for "Math Club" which was a dj'ed dance party hosted by National Geographic.
11/31
Another chill day, but we took a hike around ob hill before climbing up to the summit
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| elisha at the chapel |
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| pre trot stretching |
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| me in the red vest |
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| the first to finish in a costume! |
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| I always try to run back to finish the race with Elisha |
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| on castle rock |
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| "rescuing" a fallen hiker on castle rock |
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| shackleton's ice pick |
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| emporo penguin colony |
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| emporor penguin colony |
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| Wilson' igloo |
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| stream weir we're going to remove |
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| Elisha's Thanksgiving dinner |
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| My thanksgiving dinner |
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