McMurdo panorama

This is a picture I took about five days ago from the road between NZ Scott base and US McMurdo base. You can see NZ base on the left side of the picture - it is fairly small and all buildings are painted green. McMurdo buildings are behind the Ob hill on the right side of the picture, so they are not visible. The distance between the two bases is about 3 km.

You can also see the sea ice breaking up to the left of Ob hill. On the other side of the sound you can see Mt Discovery.

And most importantly I want to thank my friend Bella, who put the panorama together. I have limited access to software here and I am also not very good at making panoramas. So big thank you, it came out perfect!

Leaving for West Antarctica

Hello!
I am a little backed up on posts, mainly because it takes forever to sort out pictures and also a long time to download them. I have a lot of pictures, they are not of perfect quality, but I really want to share some of them, so please bare with me.

 We have had bad weather for the last couple of days, it's snowy and windy and we're not flying. Aside from being a little frustrated, I am doing really well. I have explored a lot of things around McMurdo. I found a "crafts" room where I could borrow yarn and most importantly some patterns. This would be handy for my upcoming trip to WAIS - West Antarctic Ice Station. I will not have internet access there, so I will not update for a while. I will try to keep notes on my computer though, so I can post them when I get back.

Also, there's a "work" blog that I writing now. Unfortunately there hasn't been much to report, but I am hoping it will get better soon: amrc.ssec.wisc.edu/blog/

I have visited New Zealand's Scott base, found a bike to bike around, did most of the hikes in the area, saw penguins and seals and even went to a yoga class. Zozo continues to be a very recognizable penguin on the station. In fact I lost him once and my colleague Lee found him, so I continue to introduce Zozo to everyone ;) I hope Zozo will not try to run away from me again.

 Here's Zozo having a glass of NZ sauvignon blanc at Scott base.

Cheers, Masha

January 2-3, 2013: snow training

Everyone involved in field work in Antarctica need to go through a "happy camper" school - a snow survival training. A group of us (eight total) were taken to the Ross ice shelf and left there overnight. Well, first our instructor told us what to do ;)

The weather was magnificent both days and it felt like an incredibly fun hiking trip. Before we went to the field we talked in the classroom about the importance to be prepared for unexpected weather changes. Our instructor, Alasdair, worked as a tour guide and in search and rescue in many different places all over the world and he had many stories to share.

The first thing we needed to do - mark a path from our "camp central" to the outhouses. Since US Antarctic program continuously brings people out to the ice shelf - an "permanent" outhouses were installed. And what a view they have - Mt Erebus in the background.

The Sun was bright and the idea of putting flag every meter or so to mark the path seemed like an overkill. However, in the morning we woke up to a foggy weather, and couldn't see beyond several meters (only for a short time though) and flags were there to help orient us around.

Our camp consisted of two Scott tents, two different kinds of mountain tents, a kitchen and a few snow trenches people dug out. Here's how it looked from the distance:

 A Scott tent is the same design as used by Scott's expeditions in earl 1900s. It is amazingly sturdy and can sustain crazy Antarctic winds. The floor of the tent is a separate piece of material, which I have never seen before, but it seems practical. The only disadvantage of a Scott tent - it is not particularly well isolated and it is colder then a mountain tent.

First we put up two Scott tents, making sure to secure them in the snow. A short bamboo stack is all we used, Alasdair showed us a couple of knots and taught us how to dig a hole to put the anchor in. Sides of Scott tent were also heaved down with snow.

After we were done with Scott tents we build a snow wall to protect smaller mountain tents from being blown away. We started a quarry and then used a "snow saw" (a regular saw actually) to cut out blocks. We managed to put up a wall really fast. Although not perfectly aligned, it was solid.

(April, Zozo, Masha, Mitch and Jenny by the newly constructed snow wall)

Here's a picture of our snow quarry - you can see shovels and saws we used and can sort off guess how/where the cutting was done. It is important to cut out through pristine part of the snow, so the area behind the quarry was off limits.

Upon completing a snow wall we put up a mountain tent behind it:

(Jeff in front of his tent, which is behind a snow wall)

The next task was to dig out a kitchen. We decided to do an island table in the middle first (and dig around it to allow us to stand up around it, While working on this design we thought it would be fun to carve sitting area out in the snow - so we ended up with three 2/3 seater benches around the table. We put the stove on the table and managed to have a great dinner as group. (A few hours later once we melted the snow for food!)

(April and Danette were working on getting the snow melted, while others worked on snow trenches)

(Water finally boiled! At this point we are almost done with snow trenches and are quite tired. We had dehydrated dinner available in our green "kitchen" bag)

Digging a snow trench was a lot of fun. Here's Zozo - picking out a spot to dig:

I have to admit though I did a rookie mistake and dug a really wide trench. You are supposed to completely cover the trench up with snow (or whatever material you can find. It is wise to dig a hole as narrow as possible - it will be easier to close it. You can later on widen your trench, a friend of mine actually dug a 2-person trench once, so your sleeping quarters can be as luxurious as you have energy for them to be! At the same time it will be really hard to get in and out. 

Since the Sun was up and it was really warm, the snow started to melt and to fall apart. Cutting blocks wide enough for my trench was impossible, in fact even more narrow trenches had issues. Zozo and I decided to improvise and used banana sleds over the top:

(also mainly sitting in my pocket or on the snow, Zozo got really tired digging the trench and couldn't even stand up when I asked him to pose)

(Almost finished trench)

Now I have to admit defeat. Although I finished my trench and even brought my stuff inside and layed it out I decided not to sleep in there. I could get good sleep in, but the idea of waking up and going to the bathroom in the middle of the night freaked me out. In the hindsight, I probably should have made my trench a bit roomier, wider and deeper - maybe moving inside would be a little easier then. But from what I hear it was quite awkward to move around.

(My post somehow turns to the bathroom topic over and over, but here we go again. We were given pee bootles - regular water bottles designated for this purpose. The idea is to use it in the field if you don't have an outhouse to preserve the landscape as much as possible. Pee bootles also come handy  if you are too lazy to get up and go to the camp outhouse in the middle of the night.  Since my trench was somewhat narrow and unlike Zozo I'm not a boy, I doubted my ability to use the pee bottle inside a trench "without accidents" and opted out to sleep in a tent.)

Here's a photo of Mitch's trench - His entrance was actually really nice and narrow and he managed to be able to cut snow blocks wide enough (some block did collapse in the process since the snow was too warm):

(Zozo by Mitch's trench. Every trench was also designated by flags to make 

sure people do not walk over it)

Sleeping in a mountain tent was warm. No, VERY WARM! The Sun is always out and the tent basically acts as a greenhouse. I opened all windows and left the door open and I was still rather warm in my super-warm sleeping bag. Which makes me feel so good about my upcoming trip to West Antarctica - I will likely be sleeping in a tent there as well. 

In the morning we woke up around 6:30 am or so, boiled snow again for some oatmeal and tea and started disassembling our camp. We had to be ready by 8:30 am, when Alasdair came to pick us up and continue the survival training. All the trenches, the kitchen, and the quarry needed to be leveled up, the tents put away and all our stuff collected. The site looked like we were never there!

The rest of the morning we spent talking about snow survival. One of the exercises was scenario simulation. A scenario was - a member of our team went to the bathroom (about 50m away from the house we were in, marked by flags every meter or so). Bad weather came suddenly and we are now in a complete white out situation and our team member has not come back. What shall we do?

We started a rescue operation. 

To simulate the complete white out conditions nobody could leave the house without a white bucket on their head. It is amazing  how easy it is to loose the sense of direction once you can not see where you are going. The white bucket also prevents you from hearing well, so you can only talk to a person standing right next to you.

Our team failed to rescue the missing team member. It was only eight of us and we did not have a strong leader. We were also quite clueless about how to proceed and what technique would work best. Here's a picture of me being quite clueless:

I managed to find the first flag (thanks to the broom!), but went way of course in search for the second one.  My partner Andy actually tried to steer me back – he could feel that I went in the wrong direction, but it was hard to understand his signals via rope  and I couldn’t hear him at all.  I eventually corrected myself (with a lot of help from Andy), but we ran out of time and got pulled back in by other team members, who were worried that we will get hypothermia (whiteout conditions are associated with high winds and low wind chill temperatures). I had a lot of ideas on what to do once I got back, but we ran out of time and had to go back to McMurdo.

What can I say - all in all I am a happy camper ;)

And so is Zozo:

Short Sunday update

Hello!
I have a lot of things to write about and not enough time to sit down and write it all up.
I went to snow school for two days (January 2-3), where we learned the basic survival skills and I am not allowed to actually go to stations and do field work, Yay! I am also preparing to go West Antarctica on January 9th, so Lee and I processed some cargo shipments for that.

The weather has been continuously warm, so we are still having troubles with the runway. Planes are taking off and landing now (mainly because we can not afford so many people being backed up), but it is a pain to get to the runway as the road is in the really bad condition. As a result we are also canceled even more often then "usually" for our day trips to visit the AWS stations - it takes us so long to get to the runway and back that unless we start first thing in the morning we can not return on time for the pilots to have their rest.

Yesterday (Saturday, January 5) was one of those days, when we were supposed to fly, got all ready and did not have a "go".  We were scheduled to go to one of the most magnificent AWS sites - the Alexander Tall Tower!, but a combination of bad weather on site in the morning and a long drive out to Pegasus runway resulted in us being stuck in McMurdo.
 
This is my photo-response to the situation:

(I just wanna fly already. I am proud to say that I took this picture myself - on a timer. 

Granted it took be about  twenty tries to get the jump somewhat right ;) Well, my flight was canceled, so I had some time ;)

I am really hoping not to get canceled again tomorrow, but if I am - I promise to write another post.
Thanks for reading!
Masha

PS Zozo says hi. He's happy to report he saw some penguins today (Sunday, January, 6). I will have to sort through pictures and hopefully post some of them here!

January 1st Castle Rock hike

Hello all my devoted readers!

Thank you very much for letting me know you exist ;)

I have been busy with getting my trainings done and I haven’t updated for a while. I will try to catch up now.

The last thing I mentioned was the New Years celebration, which was a lot of fun. The Icestock concert lasted till 1 am, and afterwards people were still celebrating for a few more hours – parties here and there ;) Waking up the next morning was a little painful, but I had a big day planned ahead – a hike to Castle Rock.

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This is one of the most spectacular hikes in McMurdo (and the only long one that is open so late in the season, since other long ones involve going on sea ice). Castle Rock is a relatively small (~200m high?) piece of volcanic rock with really steep slopes, sitting on top of the glacier. It is an easy climb, and there are ropes to help you in steeper parts, which become especially useful during the descent. The top provides breathtaking 360-degree view of the mountains surrounding us: Mt Erebus, Mt Terra Nova and Mt Terror on Ross Island; White island and Black island with Minna Bluff in the middle (that’s where we get the nasty weather from, so everyone is always on a look out for those islands) and the Royal Society range.

January 1^st was an amazing day weather wise – it was sunny, clear and the visibility was the best I’ve seen so far. We planned to meet at 11am for breakfast – it was six of us going on the trail (not counting Zozo ;).  After a leisurely breakfast, we packed some snacks + water for the road and checked out radios from the fire station at about quarter to 1pm.

(McMurdo and Ob hill are behind me. You can also see Mt discovery in the distance)

To get to Castle rock you need to hike for about 3.5 away from McMurdo. First you hike about half a mile up dirt road and then the snow trail starts.  All snow trails are marked with flags – red and green colors are used to designate a trail. There are also black flags you sometimes see along the way (off the trail) – these mean danger – a cravas in the glacier or some other type of unsafe terrain.

(Royal Society range from the Castle Rock trail)

(Obs hill is now much smaller - rock triangle on the photo. Mt Discovery and Black island are in the background. You can also see the trail - marked with flags)

(View of Castle rock from the trail. Mt Erebus is on the left and Mt Terror is on the right)

(Jenny, Mitch, Masha and Zozo posing with Royal society range in the background)

The hike goes uphill, so it usually takes about ~1.5-2 hours to get to bottom of the rock, the climb takes about 20 minutes or so. Since the weather can change fast there are two emergency shelters on the trail.

(Zozo sitting in the snow with the red apple - emergency shelter - in the background)

These red capsules remind me of TV series “Lost”. Inside the red capsule you can find everything you need to survive for a few days in a white out conditions – food, stove, sleeping bags, covers. There is also a telephone to call McMurdo and let them know you are stuck.

As we were curious to see how it actually looks from the inside, we used the second apple as a shelter for our snack stop.

(Zozo and Devin inside the shelter)

We were told that McMurdo takes their rescue operations seriously – at check out you give an estimated time of arrival (ETA). Rescue mission will launch within minutes of you missing your ETA – so radios are there for you to call in and let the fire station know you’re safe, just running late. I have to admit all these precautions seem a little overboard on a gorgeous day like January 1^st, but in remote and dangerous places like Antarctica one should always prepare for the worst.

Finally we made it to the bottom of the rock. Although by that time my hiking boots got soaked, I was really happy I was wearing them once we got to steep rocky part – cold weather boots would have been painful to climb in.

Ross Island is made of volcanic rock – highly porous and somewhat crumbly pieces are found all over McMurdo. Castle Rock is steeper and in general easy to climb – there are good natural “handles” and “steps” everywhere.  However, wet shoes do become slippery and the ropes that are available along the trail are quite handy.

After a short and fun climb you get to the top – and if you lucked out with the weather like we did – it just takes you breath away.

(Mt Erebus)

 (Zozo and I on top of Castle Rock with Royal Society range in the background)

(All of us: Masha, Jenny, Eric, Kevin, Devin, Mitch on top of Castle rock with Mt Erebus in the background)

On the way down we were going against the sun, but still couldn’t help but pose for more pictures. Here’s me with Mt Erebus in the background.

(Devin posing with Mt Erebus)

(Masha hanging on the rope)

(Mitch is really happy. The Royal Society range is in the background.)

And now we are getting to the most exciting part of the hike. There is a steep snow-covered slope off Castle Rock that is really fun to slide down. I was wearing snow pants, so I did not even need any special equipment. We have also met a couple of guys on top of the rock, who borrowed cafeteria trays to sled in – these are so much fun! The key thing, though is not let your cafeteria tray go – we watched a girl lose one and the tray went down for a good 500 m without stopping. Considering that the tray can also veer off the safe trail - chasing it might be quite dangerous.

I am happy to report that we successfully used our blue cafeteria trays as sleds without loosing them! It was so much fun – made me feel like a kid before – I guess I haven’t sled down the mountain for a long time.

If you are adventurous enough you can take the long way down to McMurdo – the trail loops around for about 6 miles or so and comes back along the Kiwi base.  We decided return the way we came and hurry up for dinner – during Sundays/holidays dinner is served till 7pm and it was about quarter to five when we were done sledding.

On the way back we met a “Google-maps” guy carrying a 360-degree camera going uphill to take photos of the Castle rock trail. So I am guessing the trail will be online soon. We were circling around the guy for a good 15 minutes to make sure his camera takes pictures of us on the trail.  I suspect, however, we will not make to Google view… Oh maybe, who knows ;)

Thanks for reading!

M

Exploring McMurdo

It has been three days since we arrived at McMurdo. Because of the holidays I am only doing snow school tomorrow and after that I will be allowed to do field work. So I have spent these few days exploring McMurdo and the surrounding area, catching up on the project and learning how things work down here.

When you arrive at the station you are greeted at the Chalet - the main administration building. It is the building with the pretty terrace and flags. There is also a monument for Byrd - a first pilot to fly over the South Pole.

Orientation takes about an hour and then you get the keys to your dorm and can go pick up your luggage.

Another really important building in McMurdo is building 155 - that is where the galley (cafeteria) is located. Usually McMurdo station operates on 6-working day schedule with Sunday being a day off. When we got there, however, Sunday was a working day due to upcoming New Year holidays.

Cafeteria (galley) reminds me of my college years. Food is ok, abundant and somewhat variable (e.g. there is at least two dishes to choose from at every meal). The day I got in I was eating way too much - I guess my body went into panic mode "cold temperatures, help, eat lots". I hope I am adjusted now.

The galley is also the place for community gatherings. There is a science lecture every Sunday night. Targeted at general audience these lectures are a great way to learn about what others are doing. I have attended one on killer whales - very interesting and picturesque.

Outside the galley there are tons of announcements about things that are going on. including an updated head count of the town population:

I have an office in Crary lab - a scientific building. We have great space for lab and cargo. Zozo got really excited and tested what it is like to be inside a weather station. Since quite a few people asked I will try to write a separate post about what I actually do down here.

There are a few trails around McMurdo. A few do not require any additional training or equipment, while for longer hikes you need to check out a radio at the fire station.



One of the shorter ones is called "Hut Point" - it leads to Scott's hut. The Hut was open on December 31 and I got to go inside. There are quite a few things left by the Scott expedition, so I took a lot of pictures. I will try to write a separate post on that.

Another trail is called "Obs hill"- a steep climb up the Observational hill. On a good weather day it gives you a great look around. I climbed it in a cloudy day - so here is a picture of Zozo flying over McTown.

The big blue building is number 155 - the galley. Crary lab is a three leveled building (Zozo's nose is pointing toward it). My office is on the middle level.

On top of the Ob hill there's a cross to commemorate Scott's expedition that made it to the South pole, but never made it back home. The sign on the cross reads:

"To strive, to seek, to fine and not to yield"
This is the last line of the "Ulyses" poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson written in 1833. The Russian translation of this phrase is the motto for Kaverin's novel "Два Капитана" and later on "Nord Ost" musical: "Бороться и искать, найти и не сдаваться"
This was a perfect way to say good bye to 2012!

On December 31 there is a music festival going on all night - it is called Ice Stock and it is a lot of fun. Here is Zozo rocking into the night (and you can see the Obs hill in the background).

Happy New Year everyone!

I am off to the snow school tomorrow and I will not have any computer access. I'm really excited!
Till later,
M

Flying into McMurdo

I am getting into the stage where I have a lot of photos and stories and I feel like I want to tell everything at once. So my posts will probably be lagging the actual events - it is still a story worth telling.

I have been in Christchurch for 4 nights and both Zozo and I were getting pretty anxious to fly down south - we wanted to celebrate New Years in Antarctica. Zozo even filled out his departure card in advance:

Unlike me, who did not fill hers right up until checking in. We were issued cold weather gear the day before and we were supposed to come to the clothing distribution center (CDC) at 8:30am on Thursday, December 29 to check in for the flight. We were required to change into our cold weather gear (to wear it on the plane) and proceed with checking in luggage and all the usual things.  I feel like I have spent the last few days packing and re-packing - deciding what to leave in Christchurch vs what to put in my "boomerang bag" vs how to pack my actual bags. Somehow it was a never-ending process and it continued well into me getting into the CDC as I was changing right there. Also, the weather in Christchurch has been sort of nasty - windy, rainy and cold. And of course on the morning of December 29 it was sunny and hot - just in time for us to wear super-warm parkas and thick boots.

Unlike a normal airport check-in we went through the military terminal, where we had to see to video about the LC-130 plane and how to behave in it. I have to say the video scared me a little..

The plane ride was super loud and crowded. I was sitting in a net seat along the side of the plane and there were people in front of me (knee-to-knee). I did not get any good pictures inside the plane - it was sort of dark and my camera refused to cooperate. Every spare inch of the floor was occupied by cargo, so even when you did not have a person in front of you - there were bags and you were not allowed to lay down and sleep on them either ;)

Luckily I was able to sleep in my seat, so it was not terrible. The sandwiches that they gave us also helped - amazing how hungry you get while sitting in an uncomfortable position ;) Well, honestly since we only had breakfast before 8am (before check in) and landed around 7pm - it would have been hard to go without any food.

About 5 hours into the flight I was allowed to go up into the cockpit. The first time I went there we were still above the clouds and I only got a picture of a map (the blue marker is our plane and the path is outlined too):

I also developed an appreciation for the pilots - there was absolutely nothing to see (white fog) in front of the plane for hours, and they were not freaking out like I was ;) I know they are trained and there are ways to figure out where and how you're going, but it was an eye-opening experience to see it all. I have a lot of friend that fly small planes, but they are only allowed to go up in a good weather conditions. And commercial pilots are now barricaded behind secure locks. So although I knew that flying through clouds is really challenging - I never experienced that feeling of a complete whiteout. Good thing I did - that is something I might encounter on the ground in Antarctica!

About half an hour later we started seeing sea ice through the windows - it was really pretty, various shapes and forms - big flows, little flows. I kept thinking that last time I saw sea ice in the Arctic I was not even dreaming about going down south and looking at its "cousin" - Antarctic sea ice. I am really fascinated by this feature - and I feel extremely lucky to be able to study it and to observe it in different places:

Since the clouds were clearing up I asked to come over to the cockpit once again. The views were breathtaking. I took tons of photos - I can't download them all, but I will show a few.

Here's mount Erebus - Antarctica's active volcano from a distance:

This is probably Cape Royds - the wooden building will be the Shackleton's hut and the tents/trailors around it are an active summer science camp. I am not sure who they are and what they study, but their location is magnificent.

A closer look at Mt Erebus:

At this point we were preparing to land and I got kicked out of the cockpit - needed to go sit down and buckle up into my net.

The landing was really smooth. LC-130 has skis and it seemed for me that we skied forever. I guess with less friction you do not stop short on skis and the runway is about 2 miles long - so there is space for a plane to ski for a long time. As I mentioned before, we were getting into an unseasonably warm runway - note the slushy snow below the wing of an aircraft. It has been like that for a few days and that is why an airbus could not land. There was a really narrow window for an airbus to come down - during the cold season there is a runway built on sea ice - it is much closer to McMurdo, but it can't sustain a heavy plane. Once operations move to Pegasus runway - located on the Ross Ice Shelf (still ice over water, but thicker continental ice) - there is a small window every season before the runway becomes slushy.

The vans (that were supposed to pick us up from the plane) got stuck in the slush, so we had to walk to the "ice road" for a little bit (probably 300m or so). It was a gorgeous walk - sunny, non-windy weather, breathtaking scenery and the joy of being out of a super-loud plane made me super happy. So here's me (and Mt Erebus ;)

There are other mountains surrounding Ross Ice Shelf, but Erebus is very photogenic and I knew that you don't get to see Mt Erebus from the station. Actually McMurdo station is in the valley right in the foothills of the mountain. On the picture above you can see black rocks to the right of me - that's where McMurdo is. The station itself is in a valley surrounded by small hills - I am planning to hike them in the next couple of days and will hopefully provide you more details.

Zozo got a little tired of the walk - it was harder for him, since the slush was about his height. Later on Zozo got to meet some of the air field workers and they assured him that the walking part was a highly unusual thing - never before did people walk from the plane to the shuttle - there was usually a vehicle available for pick up.

When we got to the shuttle stop we saw weird looking vans with tri-wheels. Maybe they would have had less troubles in the slush, who knows.

Zozo is making friends really fast - here's him posing on Mitch's head. Did not quite learn to balance, but got a lot of laughs. We were waiting for the shuttle for some time and Zozo was providing much needed entertainment.

Finally we got picked up by this weirdly looking vehicles called Delta. Zozo and I lucked out and got to ride in the cabin - so we did not experience the awfulness of a metal box with no ventilation conditions. The ride was super slow due to awful conditions of the road - it took about 2 hours, compared to "normal" 40-50mins.

We got into the station, had a short orientation and got settled in our rooms. Here are Zozo and I on the balcony of the "chalet" building - the head administration building at McMurdo. There are flags of all Antarctic nations (there are more that did not fit into the picture). Transantarctic mountain are in the background.

Today (December 30th) I am still settling in. I arranged my training schedule, got in touch with Lee and figured out future plans. We have two holiday days ahead (31st and 1st), which complicates scheduling a lot. I am then going off to "happy camper" school - an overnight trip out in the snow. It is really exciting and I'm very much looking forward to it. After I do that and an environmental training - I will be able to actually join Lee in the field.

Zozo and I took a trip to the Hut point today in search of penguins. We saw some seals in the distance, but Zozo was the only penguin in sight. The sea ice is starting to break, but the coast is not open yet. I have heard that once the icebreaker comes in - our chance on seeing penguins will be much higher. I'm also hoping that we will get to see some on our field trips, so I am really looking forward to getting out there.

Once again, thanks for reading! And let me know you're reading - it will encourage me to write more ;))))