Antarctic Pics

Some pics from the happenings around McMurdo.

12/3/12.  We have our first day where it reached above freezing.  It reached a balmy 33.2 F.  Today (12/4), however, it only reached up to 20 and windchill was back to below 0.  But crazy bc I hadn't seen outside temperatures rise above freezing since I left New Zealand at the end of August.  That's probably a record for me bc in Estes sometimes in December and January we'll get those chinook woods that raise the temps above freezing

The other day we had 3 of the big wig board members from the NSF visiting as well as the heads of the USAP and NSF.  I got to meet them when they visited Crary.  With my position I was also invited to this exclusive party at the chalet.  It was invite only and all the up and ups from town were invited.  It was basically the elite of McMurdo, so it was interesting for me to be there. Bev and Abe didn't come until quite late, so for most of the night I was by far the youngest one there.  It was sort of boring rubbing shoulders with the whos who around here, but the food was great, so I focused on that: fancy cheeses and cheese bakes, fresh seafood, fancy wines and beer (that you can't get here in our store or bars) and chocolate covered strawberries!

The Crary Lab Dodgeball Champion Team (Liz (Research Associate), Abe (Lab Asst), Clint (grantee), Me, Bev (lab supervisor), Eric (grantee), Laughlin (grantee))

Michael Phelps and his mermaid girlfriend...the only girl he could find faster than him in the water



Hut 10 after winter



Michael Phelps and Housing Sue

Michael Phelps with artist and writer grantee Dianna (aka Georgia) and housing Sue

start of the turkey trot

Hug with Fuelie Dan after I passed him near the finish line for 5th

Crary Lab Crew at Halloween

Thanksgiving feast

Liz and me making liquid nitrogen dry ice

Elisha and I trying Jeff's coral spawn drink

Elisha, Monica, and me pre-freezing man

grantee ice cream social

war on fun stickers

skiing from scott base

our frozen grouper



in the pressure ridges



pressure ridge tour

cape armitage ski loop trail

shuttle jerod on my touch tank tour

Steph and Elisha came for my Sunday Crary tour

Me leading the Crary Lab tour

stretcher bearing for the MCI drill

Turkey Trot 5k

Freezing Man.  Mith with his infamous 6 pack

Mourning the loss of Frosty boy, the ice cream machine, though he was brought back from the dead for a short period

Elisha running the turkey trot

Dacre and I at freezing man

Elisha and Shuttle Jerod at Freezing Man

Helping Ross core sea ice

skidoo ride out to the sea ice edge

Elisha serving up tasty drinks at the coffee house

Antarctic Scallion and Insanity: Discipline December

I recently finished the 3rd month of insanity.  People are starting to get into it.  There are about 4 different groups on base doing it now.  My group who does it in the fstp classroom has recently decided to do something called discipline december.  Thought there were some funny email involved with them.  So I've included them in the blog.

Also at the bottom is the Antarctic version of the famous Onion newspaper, The Antarctic Scallion, put out by Bob the dentist.  I couldn't get the pictures to work, but the articles are pretty funny

Comrades of the crippled quadriceps,

I write to you on the lustrous eve of destiny.  Verily, the sun sets on the long day of gluttony and fragile will power.  Tomorrow dawns a new day of fortitude, dedication, and power squats that ripple in the wind like bountiful wheat as far as the eye can see.  Even as the sun rises (somewhere, not here...it's a metaphor cut me some slack) we will find ourselves embarking on the greatest challenge undertaken by Antarctic man and woman this long Austral Summer. 

Indeed, Discipline December is upon us.

Thusly we enter the unbreakable pact of dessert ditching, tator tot tossing, frosty boy forgetting dedication that will deliver us unto the holy land of abs that Shaun T has promised these many arduous weeks.

Should you choose to carry the unruly, cruel cross of commitment the rules will be as follow:

1.    From Monday until Saturday night, beer, soda, bread, pasta, tator tots, scalloped potatoes, desserts and all other insidious delicacies are strictly forbidden. If it's not on this list, but you would hassle Mitch for eating it, you probably shouldn't eat it either.

2.    In a nod to realistic expectations, Saturday night is a free night.indulge in beer, dessert, or whatever your heart so desires. Likewise, Sunday brunch is unrestricted.

3.    Eat as much fresh fruit, veggies, and salad as you wish.at least while it's here.

4.    Protein is your friend.eat as much of it as you can.  The second month of Insanity is going to suck, your muscles will thank you. 

5.    Water, water, water.drink a lot of water. Then drink some more.

Obviously our diets are beholden to the fickle powers of the galley, thusly there is some wiggle room with the above rules.  Example: tortillas or wholewheat bread at the sandwich station, granola for breakfast, etc.  The general point of Discipline December is to avoid those foods that are going to hinder our relocation to Sixpackville. Use your discretion; you know what those foods are.

Will you join me in this greatest of human endeavors?  Do you dare? 

With sincerity and a perpetually tight core,

Zach 

I accept your challenge with one concession.Christmas Dinner, which falls on a Monday night. I will thus swap my "free" night for this eve and next morning of gluttonous brunchery.

Damn you Shaun T and your illustrious promises of flat abs and tight buttocks!

Discipline December it is then...core on!

-Monica

 

Well someone has to sacrifice, to take one for the team so to speak.  You all need an example of what not to do.  Someone to give you motivation, to kick you while you’re down, to make you want it more.  Someone to focus your pain, anguish, and hate on as you strive towards perfection.  I am willing to be that person…to step it up…to take one for the team in order to help you reach your goal.

I will bear your burdens, you can pass them on to me.  When you have that bottle of wine or 6 pack of beer on a Wednesday night, I will suck it up and drink it for you.  When Frosty boy calls your name Monday at lunch, I will relieve you of the cone.  When dear dear sweet Aunt Sally sends you gourmet chocolates, I will grin and bear and consume them for you.

I look forward to suffering so that you can succeed.  Wish me luck.  I will need it.  I am getting nervous (like Shawn T for cardio) about this.  To ease my nerves you may want to pull a few extra desserts for me today.  Maybe even gift me with some Coors Light.  But don’t worry too much.  I will make it through.

Warm regards,

Touch the Floor!

Travis

PS: This email took forever to write.  It’s hard to type with sticky cinnamon roll fingers

PPS: I received a large box of soap today in the mail.  Mitch has reserved most of it, but I will be handing the remainder of it out

Yes, I also hereby concede to the concession....um...uh...what....I'm in:)  Minus the Christmas holiday celebration time...bc it is important for me to be in the Christmas spirit...like  fruit cake and such, ha ha!

Let the core transform!

-Elisha



I pledge, with all my core, to your core doctrine……….core

-mitch

The Antarctic Scallion

“We don’t ruin a good story with the facts”

McMurdo administration announces personnel reduction strategy

Following recommendations from the Blue Ribbon Panel, Rec has been authorized by the Chalet to post sign up sheets for:

Crevasse jumping- In an effort to dispose of vehicles long past their life cycle as well as employees who have outlived their usefulness, sign up sheets are up for a one way excursion in a Tucker or Stretch 8 dozer provided by the new Kamikaze division of Shuttles. Check with housing and leave keys and linen before departure.

     Gear issue will provide waivers, insurance forms making LM the beneficiaries of all your worldly possessions and a copy of the Bible, Koran or Torah with highlighted sections of the last rites.

Erebus crater rappelling and optional lava lake picnic- pick up asbestos suits made in the craft shop from materials gathered from the dorm remodels. The suits were made for one time use and do not require any deposit. Pick up hot dogs, buns and supplies for smores from the galley for an Erebus lava lake cookout.

Mt Erebus beckons for adventure!

Weather- sunny and cold, with possible clouds for the next 10-15,000 years in the summer, with a 100% chance of darkness and cold in the winter months.

Melt pool laps at the pressure ridges- better than a polar plunge. You can pick up a spandex lined Weddell seal skin swim suit from Gear Issue in hopes of attracting some orcas to assist one of the PI’s in her study of feeding habits of orcas. You’ll be asked to swallow a small radio transmitter prior to your swim so if you become an orca meal the researchers will be able to accurately track your remains and determine the time it takes food to pass through the gut of your host. Once located, the stool sample with the transmitter will be retrieved and sent to loved ones to assist in the grieving process and issues of closure.

Pressure Ridge melt lap pool

Arrival Heights- off limits- people just don’t get it. Blackbriar Ops, a wholly owned subsidiary of a Chinese fireworks company, has been brought in as a new subcontractor to lay land mines to discourage people from going off the trails. If you still feel the need to go off trail, you can increase your chances of survival by taking Harry’s land mine defusing class in the metals shop on Mondays and Wednesday evenings, which is a pre-requisite for the prosthetic limb replacement class next door with the carps.

Fire Dept prefers single gear vehicles

In a bold cost cutting move that earned kudus from the bean counters back in Denver, the Antarctic Fire department purchased new engines that use only one gear. Welders were called in to cut new doors on the far end of the building to accommodate the new engines entering and leaving the building in reverse only.

Medical news- Lead doc Jim McKeith said they had an interesting case of a PI in the clinic that could only talk in acronyms. His speech was unintelligible, and he kept referring to a paper in his pocket about research projects for drilling in the ice in search of negatrons, a hypothetical subatomic particle. His grad students brought him in and Jim reassured them that a few days in the Navy hyperbaric chamber would restore his brain to full function, and if not he could always work on the PQ processing team.

Happy Camper- Numerous complaints have been received about Happy Camper being too soft and easy to survive without losing any limbs or appendages. Proposals have been forwarded to FSTP for an advanced class where students will be air dropped blindfolded somewhere on the polar plateau and left with nothing but a copy of the “The art of survival” by Robert Scott, with tips on reading weather patterns by Ernest Shackleton. 

New Traverse- In response to the men who like to stay on the road without having to shave, shower, brush their teeth, or generally pay any attention to personal hygiene for endless periods of time, a new pole to pole traverse has been proposed. - Caterpillar will showcase their new amphibious vehicles to bring supplies to both polar regions without ever stopping. Because of the fuel demands the traverse team only has enough room to bring mill van croissants.

Sea and Ice trails underway for the Pole to Pole Traverse

Bob the dentist tries a few new gigs

In an effort to work at every dept on base, Bob was spotted in the library reading C-130 flight manuals and playing video flight simulators, so look for him in the crew box on your next flight off continent. In other news, he picked up a bottle of chloroform from Crary for a supposed root canal procedure, but inside sources revealed it was put to use on an unrelenting snoring roommate with great success.

Banana hoarding has been reported. If you know or suspect someone of hoarding bananas, please call the Chalet and report it. Your name will be strictly confidential, and you will move up the list of morale trips to Erebus and the dry valleys. In a related story, room inspections will continue and the Kiwis have agreed to provide specially trained banana sniffing dogs from their supply in Cheech. If caught, you will be sent on a demoralizing trip. You’ll be told you’re going to the south pole, and will fly there, but just as you’re about to land the gear will malfunction and you’ll have to boomerang back to McMurdo, work a night shift, and be assigned a new roommate that snores like a chainsaw, gets mind numbing drunk every night and is trying to set a new record for wearing unwashed clothes for the whole season.

The Days of Our Mcmurdo

11-28
Life has been proceeding as normal, or unnormal as things go here.  Of course with a small population (950 right now) and lots of crazy and mostly single people, there is lots of goings arounds and gossip.  As Cassa likes to always say, just another episode of "Days of our McMurdo" (after the soap opera days of our lives in case you didn't know)

With the population nearing the summer high and the holidays approaching, there have been lots of activities, and I have been incredibly busy.

A couple of weeks ago, we had the dodgeball tournament.  We made up a team of lab staff and grantees (aka beekers).  I originally didn't have much hope for our team remembering how bad we got creamed last year with shuttles and thinking we were all nerdy scientists.  The team consisted of Bev (my supervisor), Abe (the other lab assistant), and then Clint, Eric, and Laughlin from B-174 (studying the food web in the Ross Sea).  We dressed up in lab coats, wore lab goggles, and each wore one latex glove.  Our team name was, "bend over and cough"  We ended up going undefeated and delivering dominating performances.  Who would have guessed that the nerdy beakers would have walked in a smoked everyone?

A couple of weeks ago we also had the Crary lab Icecream social.  It was the height of our lab and grantee population, so we held a get together for all the scientists up in the Crary library with fancy cheeses and wines.  We also used liquid nitrogen to make some amazing icecream.  The best flavours being peanut butter, baileys, and kahlua.  The night was closed out by one of the popular bands here, "Condition Fun" a play on the weather term, condition one, given to the worst storms.  They write their own mcmurdo related songs (Ivan the Terra Bus) as well as take songs you are familiar with and add McMurdo twists to them (C-17 to the tune of Sweet Caroline).

Last week there were some Kiwi distinguished visitors that came down.  I had the honor of giving them the Crary lab tour.  When the Scott Base representative introduced them to me, he used words like, "chancellor", "magistrate" and "his excellency"  They were very nice guys though and invited me to visit them if I ever make my way through Auckland. 

Last week we also had the final run through of what we call the MCI (mass casualty incident) drill.  Our hospital here is capable of handling up to 3 emergency type patients, but if we have more than that, then it becomes a mass casualty incident.  This year I volunteered to be a member of the MCI response team.  I am a stretcher bearer, as is Abe.  Elisha and Mitch are runners and set-up.  This year we practiced 3 times before doing the final "live" practice with fake victims.  The victims are dressed up and have make up on to make it look like they actually have the injuries they have.  Interestingly, almost all the victims for the practice were kiwis, so we figured the accident must have been a kiwi vehicle driving on the wrong side of the road and getting run over by Ivan

Last week, Elisha and I also went on a pressure ridge tour to see the beautiful pressure ridges and melt pools where the sea ice meets in the land.  The pressure ridges are basically giant frozen waves that hae gorgeous blue colors.  When you walk through the pressure ridges, you feel like you are in the Antarctica that you read about in books with all the ice formations.  Last weekend Elisha and I also skate skied from Scott Base on the cape armitage loop and out to the ice runway and back.

The week of Thanksgiving was quite the week of parties, activities, and amazing food.  It started out on our Thanksgiving Day (thursday) with the Crary Lab staff thanksgiving party at hut 10.  We had brugers, brats, shrimp quiche, and tasty cheese, as well as delicious chocolate brought by Mindy's Austrian husband Reinhart.  We of course made more liquid nitrogen icecream.  On Friday (you all's Thanksgiving back in America), the Shuttle Family had a Hut 10 party.  This was of course a blast bc it was with all my current shuttle friends and shuttle friends from last year who have moved on.  We had Filet Mignon (yum!!  I had 3 pieces), portobello mushrooms, fancy cheeses, and then a tasty peanut butter/chocolate popcorn dessert made by one of the shuttlers.  We played the always hilarious and tear-laugh producing telephone pictionary game.  That night Jerod and I also led a Historic Hut tour to Scott's hut for some grantees.  In the evening we headed out to watch Shuttle Brian and his 80's cover band play some music at Gallaghers.  I tried to go to bed somewhat early because I was tired form the week and had the race the next day, but I was on the duty pager, and I got a page in the middle of the night because the aquarium was flooding.

On Saturday we had the 5k Turkey Trot.  It was a gorgeous day, and I ran in shorts and rolled up the sleeves on my wicking top.  I ended up doing really well, running the tough course (it's straight uphill the 1st half of the race as the turnaround is on the scott base pass) in 22:30 and finishing 5th overall in the men's division.  Out of American's though, I finished 3rd.  Elisha did quite well too, finishing 7th in women's.  The turkey trot is a fun race and includes lots of people wearing awesome costumes, and with 1km to go an aid station where I shotgunned a Coors Light thanks to SciCo (Science Cargo) Jenn.  After the race, as it was such a gorgeous day, Elisha and I skate skied out to the ice runway.  We made it back in time to grab a chai at the coffee house, grab a quick sauna, and then get dressed up for the big McMurdo Thanksgiving.  I sat at the shuttles family table for dinner bc as Sharona says, "once a shuttle driver, always a shuttle driver".  Plus crary didn’t organize a table for a “family” dinner.  The dinner was of course fantastic.  I got three drumsticks and lots of crab legs.  There was also pecan pie, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, and a huge assortment of fudge.

After dinner it was time to prepare our costumes for freezing man.  Jerod, Elisha, and I pre-funked at steph and jeff’s room where jeff was having fun making unusual cocktails.  His coral spawn drink complete with chia seeds and dried mangoes was tasty.  However, is Gin and Jerky, not so much. 

Freezing man (the Antarctic equivalent to Burning Man…google it if you don’t know what it is) was of course amazing.  Cassa was the planner behind the whole event, so I helped out a bit with the organization.  There were cool little booths set up around the big gym and of course face painting and plenty of dancing (and I always love the anonymous dance screen).  Everyone dresses up in goofy costumes and lets out the hippy from within.  I wore ice packs from the lab (to be a freezing man) and of course Cassa's disco ball that I wore last year as she would have been so disappointed if I didn't wear it again since it was such a big hit last year.

Because of Thanksgiving, we actually had a TWO day weekend.  Which is always greatly appreciated.  I spent the 2nd day relaxing for the most part.  Helped clean up the big gym after the party, took a hike around the arrival heights loop, and then watched some movies.

On Sunday night, I finally got a much needed haircut.  My hair had been in my eyes and bugging me.  So Elisha volunteered to cut my hair so that I didn't have to pay the barber (they are charging now).  She did a nice job and everyone says they could hardly recognize me.  I guess I look a lot younger and much different without the huge mop of long hair.

Yesterday I attended a fireside reading at the coffee house that I had helped to organize.  The writer and artist grantee that is here, Larissa, had wanted to share some of her work, so I arranged a "fireside" reading for her and a contract worker who had recently had her Antarctic poems published.  It was a cool little event that I think people enjoyed.

Of course volleyball and basketball, ballroom dance, insanity, and game nights have continued.  As well as some glee watching.

It's been getting very warm here of late, though it still hasn't quite broken above freezing yet.  I liked this weather report we had the day after thanksgiving...

Regional Summary	11/23/2012 5:25:34 AM
Fair weather, a few high clouds , light winds and sunny skies as high pressure builds in today. Hang up “big red” and break out the t-shirts and shorts as we may even reach the freezing point today.

Update on Antarctic Funger Games..the War on Fun

11-11-12

An update on how the new policies are affecting life on base bc a few of you, specifically Lael, are interested and want updates.

Because of being short staffed at the Vehicle Maintenance Facility, they have decided that Rec trips will not happen this year bc they cannot spare vehicles on Sundays for them.  So this means no tours out to the Pegasus crash site (I went last year), no trips out to Cape Evans and the historic hut there (last year, we couldn't go bc of sea ice conditions), and no trips to the ice caves (again, couldn't go last year bc of poor sea ice condtions).  This is the newest additon to the Funger games.  Well that and they have decided they will no longer be giving work center food for snacks unless your work center works the majority of the time outside.  And in that case, they will only be giving powerbars.  It may be better for the health of the station, but considering there is no place to buy snacks, it's kind of sad.  They used to give us tons of food like candy bars, cliff bars, chips, crackers, cookies, nuts, dried fruit, chocolates, and sometimes trail mix.  I'll be okay bc I'm good at taking excess food from the galley to be used later, especially fruit, but this could cause some issues for people.  Soon there won't be freshies (fresh fruit and veg) as there will be no flights from thanksgiving until near the end of January.  The winter-overs are also bumming bc they used to get 1 two day weekend each month, but Lockheed has threatened to take that away.  The big parties have also been a bit lamer this year bc of new alcohol policies and the building codes.  One of the best dance parties last year, the homecoming at the BFC, will not happen bc that building has been given a fire code of having a maximum of 17 people.  So obviously you can't have a party there this year, sadly!

But have no fear, we have still been having lots of fun and working around it.  Elisha, Cassa, Jerod, Stef, Jeff, and lots of others have started taking ballroom dance classes.  It's pretty fun and we're actually learning stuff bc the instructor is a professional.  As he said, classes like this back home would cost nearly 50 bucks a session.  So it's a treat.  Cassa has also been sponsoring game night at the coffee house, which has been fun.  I'm actually currently at the coffee shop now.  This year they decided to not allow alcoholic beverages to be sold there, so there are no cool alcoholic coffee drinks with baileys and kahlua and such, but bc of this, they have made all the drinks here free, so that's nice.  Elisha is a barista right now, and she has been making me lots of special drinks as I sit here doing internet chores and doing some christmas shopping.  Very tasty!  And she has been playing Josh Ritter, which I appreciate.

Of course basketball, volleyball, insanity, movies at the coffeehouse, glee, and ping pong continue unhindered

Wastey (as in he works for Waste, not is a wasted guy) James has been organizing these awesome dance parties on Saturday nights that sneak by some of the rules.  He has been labeling some as a dance fitness class.  But they started getting really big and he wanted only the hardcore and serious dancers to come, so he has now been advertising them as math club.  They are sweet bc he has 1 from 8pm to 9pm right after drinks at dinner, where we all dance crazy.  Then another one from 1130 to 1230 after the bars close.

Debates and discussions about all of this have been intense, interesting, and amusing in the galley.  A lot of people are very upset about how they can enforce select government rules (fire and building codes) only for select events (for parties but not for all-hands meetings or science lectures) and not enforce others that would have to be followed back home (handicap accessibility, labor laws (we work 60 hour weeks without OT).

Today was my day off, but I didn't do much bc they had an airfield show where you could view the planes.  I'm not super into seeing the inside of the planes, and I've seen plenty from the outside with shuttles.  Abe was super excited to see them, but he was on Sunday duty this week, so I volunteered to work for him so he could go.  It made me feel good to see how happy he was to go.

It was fun to follow the election from here, though there was really not much talk about it here.  People were too busy and pretty much everyone here wanted the the same person to win.  Well maybe it was the NSF backed Antarctic Support Contractors vs the Air National Guard with who they wanted to win.  But there is always some tension between them and each was probably voting for the guy that they thought would continue to give them a job.  Science vs Military. 

A real Antarctic Field Science Day

11-4

The base has these things called morale trips (aka boondoggles) for the contract workers to do something fun every now and a very long while to help out with something that scientists need an extra hand on.  Usually it's dive tending (which is what Jerod and Elisha did this year). As a shuttle driver, our boondoggle was to happy camp.  Happy camp is required for most work centers, but not for shuttles, so that was our boondoggle.  Some workcenters don't get the option to do many boondoggles because they are too busy (shuttles).  Also, you need to have some seniority to get the good boondoggles (flights to help dig out fuel caches in the mountains or on the plateaus). 
The problem with our work center is that Bev believes we shouldn't really get boondoggles from the Chalet (the Chalet is where the NSF reps are and the ones who give the boondoggles for the scientists) bc if the lab is getting boondoggles, people around town might thing Crary is getting favoritism.  However, there is one way around this..the so called "emergency" morale trip.  Because of paperwork (it's always the paperwork down here isn't it?), a grantee needs to request the need for help 24 hours in advance.  Sometimes they forget or have last minute good weather and need someone.  If that's the case, they can't go through the chalet and the Crary lab staff "has" to do it.  This is how mitch, abe, and bryan got boondoggles to Dive Tend for Andrew Thurber and Stacy Kim's group.  I have been offered a few dive tending boondoggles, but the thing is, is that you only get 1 or 2 boondoggles a season likely.  So you have to play a bit of a gambling game to see if you should take the boondoggle or hold out for a better one.  I'm not too interested in dive tending, so I've been holding out on that one.  The boondoggle I hope for the most is a sleigh ride...a trip to the south pole.  This isn't necessarily directly through the NSF, so doing a grantee help morale trip doesn't necessarily hinder your chances at that, other than if your work center only gets say 2 sleigh rides, then the 2 people most likely to go would be the 2 people with the least amount (or less cool) boondoggles.  Boondoggles in the past have included flights to the dry valeys, flights to different areas around the continent to help dig out fuel caches, flights for aerial studies with grantees, and helo flights up to Mt. Erebus.  However, these are very rare, so again it's a gamble as to what you hold out for.  If you keep turning things down, you may be too busy when the next comes along or there just may not be a next one. 

Anyways, Ross and Rachel (Rachel is the Phd adviser to Ross at Dartmouth.  They are studying how bromide is transferred in the snow, and how this bromide is causing the ozone hole over Antarctica) have become pretty good friends with me.  In fact, I like them a lot, and I really hope that my advisor-advisee relationship can be as happy as theres.  They wanted me to go out on a cool boondoggle with them, so they purposely waited until under the 24 hour deadline for the NSF chalet so that their trip would be an emergency morale trip, and I could go.  I still had a pretty good inner debate as whether I should take it or hold out on it for something better, but in the end, I figured it wouldn't affect me getting to the south pole and since I really liked them, that it would be awesome.  But after talking to them, I decided to take it!

Their plan was to go out on the sea ice and take some ice cores as well as take a lot of snow samples and measure ice thickness.  The sweet thing about going with them, as I would find out, was that they had some data collect, but not too much, so we could have some fun.  Also, they think a lot of the NSF regulations are just crazy too, so they were totally willing to look the other way on some things.

So bright and early in the morning, we loaded up their supplies and sled in a truck and headed down to the ice to load up snowmobiles and attach the trailer.  I have been officially "trained" on snowmobiles yet, so I'm not technically allowed to drive one, but Rachel said I should!  So that was fun.  First we sped out to their furthest away field site.  I'm not sure how far we drove, but maybe 25ish miles?  At first the ice was fairly smooth, but as we got closer to the ice edge, the ice got very rough and there were lots of cool ice features around that we had to navigate through.  The last several miles we went much slower, and it was like going through an obstacle course.  The cool thing about being on the sea ice is that you can basically drive where ever you want.  But as we got closer, there were large cracks and obstacles that we had to avoid and find safe paths through.  I would almost describe these features and finding our way through it, very similar to biking on the slick-rock of Utah.  You are free to bike whereever, and the bike can handle it, but sometimes you run across features that you can't cross or you have to navigate around.  All the snow drifts and ice chunks allowed us to have some fun catching pretty big air as well.  And it was just a fun and exhilerating experience to be out there on the snow mobiles, pulling a sled and maneuvering through the sea ice without a road or track.  And it was cool bc we were really far from town and civilization.  There wasn't safety flags or roads or anything like that.  We were truly on our own and having to make real decisions for us.  There were seals all around the cracks.  Especially the crack Big Bertha, which could potentially be dangerous to cross, so we had to find a safe spot to cross it.  It felt like being on those TV shows where they are filming people up near the Arctic circle taking sleds and snowmobiles to get around on the ice.  I LOVED it!

When we finally reached the farthest out field site, we were set to take an ice core.  We couldn't get the badger drill to run, so we had to do all the coring by hand.  We set up all the pieces and then took turns cranking away.  I had to laugh bc it was like insanity (the workout) had prepared me for it.  The ice where we were was about 2m (6feet) thick.  After we had taken out the ice core, taken temperature measurements at different levels of the core, and packed it up, we then measured ice thickness and collected snow for analysis. 

At this point we were as far out on the ice sheet as they needed to go for their research, but they wanted to take me close to the ice edge to try and show me penguins as they had seen some along the ice edge when they had a helo ride earlier that week.  Problem was that one of our snowmobiles was eating a lot of gas and was at 1/2 a tank.  So Rachel said, "we have a few options.  1. We don't go out there.  2. You two go out there and I'll wait.  3. We all go out on both snowmobiles and risk one running out of gas, and 4. We pile 3 of us on one".  Option 4 was against snowmobile protocol, but we decided for that option.  So we drove out another 3 miles or so until we got near to the sea ice edge.  It got a bit nerve racking being out there on the thinning ice, but they knew what they were doing.  When we parked the snowmobile and went my foot, the ice was pretty thin, and a bit slushy.  We walked out on some very recently formed ice (ice that if a big wind or storm came up, would break out).  On this ice there are these really cool ice formation called ice feathers.  We got down on our stomachs to look at them and to eat a couple of them (very salty).  These things are what Rachel had done her PostDoc on as they had originally thought bromide may be passed into the air by these.  Unfortunately there were no penguins, but it was a totally cool feeling to be out there on the sea-ice edge, standing on thin ice.  From where we were we could see the open ocean.  Also, since we were so far from town, we had some unique views of Erebus as well as some different perspectives of the dry valleys and the Royal Soceity Range. 

It was a cold day, about -5F ambient with -25 to -30F when the wind picked up.  And rachel was so nice, like a mom.  She had made us big piping hot thermoses of hot cocoa.  After we left the sea ice edge, we backtracked and stopped at about 5 other sites to collect samples and measure sea-ice thickness. 

They still wanted to show me penguins, so towards the end of the day, they decided to skip some sites and do those at a later date and instead take me on a detour to another place that they had heard there were penguin sightings.  This detour took us by Big Razorback, Inaccessible, and Tent Islands.  Cool rocks sticking out above the ice.  It also took us passed the Erebus glacier ice tongue.  These are where a lot of the fish huts are set up for the grantee groups studying fish.  We didn't see any penguins there, but on the way back to base, we caught up to an Emperor Penguin sliding its way along the ice, so that was cool.

All in all, a super sweet day.  It was great to get out of the office and out into the field, into the real Antarctica, and to help out with some important science.  Wish I could do that a lot more.

It's Sunday today, last night we took it pretty chill.  I had a fun dinner with Clint and his adviser Stacy and a few other people from their team.  They are lots of fun and they brought some good wine from the US to share with us.  Clint and Stacy are like Ross and Rachel, and they are some of my favorite grantees. I went to a dance party for a bit with the grantees.  Then hung out with Cassa (and Spring) for a bit while she had breakfast (she's on night shift now) and we chatted and caught up on gossip.  As she always likes to say about all the drama here: "The days of Our McMurdo" after the soap opera.  After that I headed back to the dorm and watched a movie with Jerod, Stef, and Elisha in the lounge

Hilarious...Antarctica #6 on top 10 deadliest places in the world

A couple emails I sent to co-workers and to my mom

Dear Bev,

Can we take an office boondoggle to the new McDonald’s at Scott Base?  Pretty Please!

http://listverse.com/2008/04/08/top-10-most-dangerous-places-on-earth/  (#6)

Sincerely,

Travis

PS: I do realize we have little chance of survival in those regularly -100F temps, but I promise the McFlurry and playpen will be worth it

PPS: Does the lab have a gun we can take?  As one commenter pointed out, there may not be people living in Antarctica, but the polar bears here can be rather dangerous

PPPS: Shouldn’t we be ranked as 2^nd most dangerous, right behind Iraq?  We do have to ride in the Kress Vehicle to and from the airfield as well as go weeks at a time without Frosty Boy.

 

http://listverse.com/2008/04/08/top-10-most-dangerous-places-on-earth/

This is just hilarious.  And the reason why you just can’t believe too much of what you read unless you know it’s a credible source.

Almost everything he said about Antarctica is wrong.  From what I understand, there are several rapes a year here, which is a lot considering the population.  The coldest I have seen it in all my time here was -30F with -65F windchill.  Most certainly doesn’t regularly drop below -100F.  I think the south pole maybe gets a few days like this.  If exposed to those temps, you most certainly will not die what with all the gear you have to have down here  We do have a hospital.  Scott Base most certainly has no McDonald’s.  I would say Antarctica may actually be the safest place on earth bc there are hardly any people, no traffic, few diseases, clean water, clean air.  Sure the weather can be bad, but they have us over prepared, over-trained.  They have incredible search and rescue and first response (unlike what this says), rigorous checkout procedures so people know exactly where you are supposed to be if you don’t show up, radios, back up radios, survival bags, etc.  Also, the severely limit what you can do.  You can die on a mountain just outside of Denver, but here, you can’t climb that mountain

Oh and I liked one person’s comment later on saying that Antarctica would be dangerous because of all the polar bears

Michael Phelps visits Antarctica

11-02

The last week has been filled with parties.  One of my best friends down here, Chandra, who works for the field safety program left a couple of days ago.  She did a short contract this year so that she could be back earlier to teach her wilderness first responder courses and other outdoor safety things.  We originally bonded last year when she would ride front seat in my delta when I took the Happy Camper classes that she taught out into the field over field biology (she got her master's at Western Washington).  It was sad to see her go, but her boyfriend Cory threw a good party for her at the BFC building complete with lots of White Russians.

The next day, one of the grantee advisers threw a cool surprise birthday party for her grad student Ross.  It was a fun party with all my favorite grantees at Hut 10.  One of them had brought glacial ice, so we had whiskey on glacial ice

Then of course we had our big Halloween party.  I went as Michael Phelps, complete with his blue shoes, jammer, goggles, phelps cap (homemade), headphones, and gold medals, though I decided not to shave my legs (you have to have some protection from the biting Antarctic wind.  Plus 6 weeks of insanity workout to try and acquire a swim body similar to Phelps'. 

My friend Dacre had one of my favorite costumes.  A Kress Vehicle transformer.  Cassa was a jackalope and part of the Noah's Ark Rejects group..animals that were rejected by Noah's ark: jackalope, unicorn, mermaid, trilobite, centaur.  Elisha and Steph went as amazonian women.  They are both very tall and thin (above 6 feet) and they added really high heels (I think 8inches) so that they towered over everyone.  Then they did their hair and makeup and wore clothes that are apparently amazonian
The party wasn't as wild as last year (people think maybe bc of all the talk of reducing alcohol and bc of building code issues), but still lots of fun

Last Sunday it was actually warm enough out on the sea ice to go for a skate ski.  The temps had climbed to the high single digits and the wind was fairly light.  So Elisha and I skate skied out to the new location of the icerunway, our first ski of the year.  This year the ice runway is in a completely different location than last year because of some huge cracks in the sea ice where it had been last summer.

Here's a few pics from Halloween.  Hopefully more to come later.

Antarctic Life Continues

10-24-12

I haven't really added anything to the blog in a while, mainly because there hasn't been much out of the ordinary going on, and I have been pretty busy.  Just the normal mcmurdo life of work, time with friends, sports, and occasional walking trips outside when the weather clears up.  Soon the weather will start getting better and we will be doing more outdoor stuff.  They closed the ice runway for the C-17 super early this year.  They closed it by the first week of October.  Elisha had to arrive on the icerunway by airbus.  The 17 is now landing out at Pegasus.  Last year they closed the Icerunway after thanksgiving.  Very thin ice (well as it relates to landing a giant military plane on it) this year in McMurdo sound.  But they are still landing airbusses and LC-130s on it.

Things have ramped up since winfly as the mainbody folks have come in.  This mean a much louder cafeteria, busier computers, difficulty finding a place to hang my coat, and a loss of the relaxed atmosphere.  But at the same time this has brought more people to participate in basketball, ping pong, volleyball, and hopefully pickleball soon.  It's also brought back lots of the old friends and some new ones as well.  And the lab is now busy with grantees.  It has been nice this year getting to know the grantees in a closer manner and to actually become friends with some of them.  Around town, people often think of grantees as this higher up thing and they don't get incorporated into activities as much nor do they mingle much with the town folk.  So with my new job, I've been able to hang out with them much more, and I'm trying hard to include them in events and get them to come to parties and sports events so that people can see that althought they may be brilliant scientists, they are also people as well.  But I've enjoyed learning about the projects, especially the ones doing vertebrate zoology projects.  I've also got a lot of firsthand experience seeing how principle investigators (PI's) who are grad advisors work with the grad students.  It's quite interesting to see the dynamic between them.  Some advisers are just cranky and no fun and you can see their students suffer and aren't happy (even down here).  Their labs have a sad, depressed, miserable feel to them.  Whereas other labs with fun advisers who care about their students and realize that science isn't the only thing in someone's life or in the world have very happy students.  Their labs have a fun, relaxed, positive feel to them.  And I've noticed it does't matter if the group is studying orcas or seals but have a bad adviser, they will be miserable.  Or if a group is studying sedimentary worms or bacteria, but have a sweet advisor, then their lives are happy and good.  So it is making me feel really good about picking Todd for my adviser in Florida.  After working with him, I really like his vibe, and I think he's a great guy and cares about the happiness of his students.

The mainbody flights also brought in Elisha and Cassa!  It was good to see Elisha after not seeing her for several months, and I welcomed her with a sign in Russian (Libor the Crary UT guy from the Czech Rep who speaks Russian helped me with it) and some McMurdo flowers (fake ones of course).  It took her a little bit to make it down bc of weather, but finally she made it!  Of course when Cassa Grant arrives to McMurdo the whole base changes it's dynamic and become a bit more lively and crazy.  As Spring told me, Winfly is the time where we all get plenty of sleep and rest in preparation for Cassa's arrival as things won't be the same once she gets here.  I welcomed her to the base with a Shamalama sign and a McMurdo beer (frozen beer of course).

We had our shuttles family party the other day, which was tons of fun.  I miss all the shuttlers and the shuttle family and we always have the best time together.  We had some good food at Hut 10 and then played a game where we were all rolling on the floor laughing
Last week we also had the ATO family (ATO is what shuttles is under) party, which was also tons of fun bc I love the cargo people as well.  That also had good bbq steak, freeze booze, and a sweet dancy party (that Katy Perry medley was amazing! haha)

I'm still doing insanity and working out extra hard and eating extra less in preparation for my Halloween costume.  It's a secret so I can't tell you yet, but Cassa just loves how I've been working out for 2 months in preparation for this costume.  This one guy here that we're all friends with, he is going to be a scrotum for halloween.  For his costume, he is asking everyone (guys and girls) he can on base to donate their pubes to put on his costume.  Haha..should be quite interesting, though I have a feeling he will not have much luck with girls trying to grind up on him at this year's dance party.

I also got the 3 seasons of glee in the mail, so Elisha and I are going to go through the glee seasons this year which I am excited about.

The last sunset/sunrise of the year was a couple of days ago.  Elisha and I got to witness an amazing one a bit over a week ago from the top of ob hill where we said our goodbyes to sunsets and any shadows of darkness.