Marble Point and the Dry Valleys

In January, I spent almost as much time away from McMurdo Station as I did in town. I spent a week at PIG. The week after I returned, I went to Marble Point for four days on a project. Marble Point is a helicopter refueling site fifty-some miles north up the McMurdo Sound. It's also used as a staging point for material going to the science field camps in the Dry Valleys. More about those later. As you can see, it's not a big place. There is a generator shack and work shop to the right, a white bunkhouse, another red one to the left and a main building between the two. There are also about six 25,000 gallon fuel tanks and a small pump house. The whole place is operated by a staff of three. The manager is responsible for doing just about everything and anything and goes by the name, "Crunch". I haven't determined why. A lot of people go by names other than the ones on their passports. The carp shop has Woody, Shaggy, Pull Start, Corndog, Sticky, Dog, Sparky, G, Mombok, Captain Ed and Mandy who isn't named Mandy. Anyway, Marble also has an excellent cook named Karen who doesn't cook leftovers, but redesigns food to create great meals. The main part of fueling is done by members of the fuel shop who rotate in and out of the station on a two week basis. It's a privilege to get out there. I now understand why. I was on a three-man crew sent to renovate the station water system. The plumber had the majority of the work. I just had to rewire a couple pumps, the water heater and a few other things. I was usually done by dinner and would take a walk afterwards. This is a shot I took on the way in on the helicopter. It's the face of Wilson Piedmont Glacier behind the station, maybe a mile from the shore of McMurdo Sound. Marble Point station is about half way between the shore and the glacier. And yes, those are lakes formed from snow melt and water from the glacier. They are open only a short period each year. Miro is standing some distance from the glacier. I would estimate the height at about 60-70 feet at this point. The face stretches several miles. Another evening I walked toward shore. This was just one of numerous icebergs frozen in the sea ice. What was more surprising to me was the moss in the foreground. There was algae that looked like leafy mud in the lakes, but this is something actually green. This place never ceases to amaze me. This big squared-off berg is in Bay of Sails just a mile or so up the coast from Marble Point. There's a photo of it that I was able to use to measure to scale. That's about one half mile on the shadowed side. Karen was the cook at Marble last year. She said this particular berg floated in and got stuck - on the bottom? - when the sea ice melted out. It's been a couple weeks since I took this photo and there's a lot more open water everywhere so this berg may be floating again. About a week after my Marble Point trip, I was part of a crew sent to the Lake Fryxell camp in the Dry Valleys.

This is near the end of Taylor Valley going toward McMurdo Sound which would be to the left. It's the east end of Lake Fryxell. The katabatic winds that come roaring down off the Polar Plateau at speeds of up to 140 mph sweep virtually all the snow out of Taylor and other Dry Valleys. The use of 'Dry' refers to the lack of snow, since there are a series of these lakes down through the 'Dry' Valleys. Lake Fryxell is about 3 miles long. This is the research camp at the western end. At the far left is the generator shack. The other four are labs, chemical, electronic, etc. The Jamesway on the right is the galley. The place is somewhat spartan, with an outhouse and designated tent sites out back but then again, we were in contact both by radio and satellite phone. Not bad, especially when the weather was sunny and the winds calm.

This time, our job was to build a foundation for a new generator shack up the hill behind the current camp. Eventually the whole camp will be up there.

The lakes in the valleys are rising. At another camp, the foundation of a lab that was taken down earlier this season is already under water. They - 'they' being scientists - think the snow and ice on the surface of the lakes and glaciers is melting because of sand being blown onto them. The sand causes the surface to warm up more and sooner each year. As far as I know, the terms global warming and climate change haven't been mentioned. The only sure thing is, the water levels in the lakes are coming up noticeably.

This is the other end of Lake Fryxell, just out in front of the camp. Pretty nice scenery. On the right is the end of the Canadian Glacier. Just like at Marble, once our work was done, we were free to take a hike. At this point, the Canadian Glacier is at least 100 feet high.

It extends far into the mountains. We were careful getting close. Rocks and boulders are stuck in the sides, just waiting to fall. Another evening I hiked a couple miles to the east to the Commonwealth Glacier near the east end of Lake Fryxell. On the left side toward the front you can see a little hill jutting into the side of the glacier. It took me an hour to walk to that point. This is looking toward the front of the Commonwealth and down into the valley. I'd estimate the height at about 100 feet again. The sides of Commonwealth were much more vertical. It looks evident that a lot of ice is shearing off and piling up along the bottom. I kept my distance from this one. When we arrived on Friday morning, quite a bit of the lake was thawed, creating what's referred to as 'the moat'. A boat is kept on the land side, with a cable running to a bracket on the ice, to enable people to cross to the ice for research.

By the time we left on Tuesday evening, there was less than a foot of open water. The rough ice is caused by wind-driven water washed up on existing ice which then freezes as ripples. I would guess the lake is frozen over for another year. No matter, after we completed the new generator shack floor, we closed the camp, covering the doors and windows, emptying and shutting things off and lashing everything down. None will spend time there until next year.

This season is fast coming to a close. I'm scheduled to fly out on Feb. 13, a week from tomorrow as I write this. In other words, this will probably be the last blog, at least for this trip. I hope you enjoyed them.

For those of you in and around Johnstown, I'll see you in a few weeks. And for the rest of you, as always, I'll see ya whenever.

PIG

There I was, bundled warm and toasty in my sleeping bag, engrossed in a great suspense novel while an Antarctic storm howled and raged outside the tent, a mere piece of fabric away. Now that's fun! It took a while, but the Pine Island Glacier field camp was finally a reality. The first people started arriving on Dec. 27. By the time I made it to camp on Jan. 3, they were putting up the last structure. The longest, on the left, is the galley. You can see just a bit of the comms/management tent beyond it, then the medical tent and then two more, bright yellow and blue, for the scientists. There were two more similar to medical to the left of the galley. One was used by our science construction crew and the other was used by the camp staff mechanics and equipment operators. We each had individual tents for sleeping a couple hundred yards away from the galley and other rac tents. Eventually there were thirteen of us setting up the camp, a camp staff of ten (cooks, admin, physicians assistant), a helicopter technician and ten scientists. That's a sizable population for a field camp. The scenery is described as 'flat white'. I guess that's what it's like anytime you're on a huge glacier. Like the South Pole - just warmer. Temperatures weren't all that bad. Charles, camp manager, mentioned it was about 7 degrees when I arrived. I know that's cold, but this is Antarctica. Also, when the sun is shining, it seems a lot warmer with all the reflection off the snow. I was expecting something more on the order of -10 or colder. This is inside the galley. We usually ate in two shifts. On the rare occasion that we all ate together, like Sunday brunch, it was a little cramped but we made it work. I installed electric cables along ceiling and down the walls to outlets and equipment like the snow melters and water heater. I cinched them with ty-raps, but when this photo was taken, I wasn't finished. Normally, or maybe I should say ideally, the electricity is finished before the cooks start using the galley. But it didn't happen that way. Lighting came from plastic panels in the tent sections. It's summer down here and the sun is up 24/7. Each section of the tent is 4' wide and about 8' at the peak. There is a separate piece of fabric for each that connect. The ends are plywood that comes apart. The floor is made of 4 by 8 foot shallow boxes turned upside down and latched together. When the tents are taken down, everything is packed into these floor sections with one portion as the bottom of the box and another as the top. Then they're stacked, strapped and moved with around fork lifts.This was the tent next to the galley that our crew used.Heating comes from small, oil-fired stoves. Very warm. When we weren't working, eating or sleeping, this is where we spent most of our time. The fellow in the left rear is on the satellite phone that we had at our disposal. A lot of reading was done, but there was also a scavenger hunt, a couple guys were tying flys, the scientists set up some of their gear which resulted in a hot tub party and we had a reading of an original short story written by one of the carpenters. Oh yeah - and we had a few beers and cocktails. It's a harsh continent, after all. This was the view out the front door of the tent. A little overcast and breezy, but not too bad. This is that same view when a storm blew in - and I do mean BLEW. Charles said the winds got up to 40 mph over night during the first storm. We had two storms for a total of about three days. For the most part, it was sunny and beautiful, with little or even no wind at all. It was difficult to say how much snow fell, but there was a lot of drifting. A lot of time was spent digging out with equipment heavy equipment and a lot of shovels . You can see it drifted around the tents. The purpose of the PIG field camp was to support the scientists' drill camp on the ice shelf about 40 miles away. The scientists were to use a water drill to go down through the shelf, I believe about 500 meters, to do research and monitor the water beneath the shelf. The plan was to have two helicopters torn down, shipped in the C-130's to PIG, reassembled and used to ferry the scientists out and back. As I wrote, it's pretty nice when it's not storming. This gantry was to be used on the helicopters. A large piece of equipment was supposed to be on site to assist in erecting it. For whatever reason, that piece of equipment wasn't there. Apparently the boss suggested digging a pit deep enough to assemble the gantry from 'ground' level. That wasn't a big hit with the crew. One of them came up with this wooden frame. The small fork lift raised it high enough to get the top beam in place and, when it was time, back down again while the legs were walked out on the ground. These folks are really a resourceful bunch. Because of all the delays, the helicopters never made it to camp. Instead, a Twin Otter plane was sent for two days to carry a few of the scientists out to set up some monitoring stations. In other words, after a month of waiting, the PIG project only got about two days of science done on the shelf. However, they'll be back next year. I was only at camp a week. Eight of us came back to McMurdo on Jan. 10, while four others took our place. They will join the people that remained to take down the tents and other equipment, pack it and store it on site to be used again next year. Those folks are scheduled to return to McMurdo next Saturday. Me? Tomorrow I'll take my first helicopter ride when I go out to Marble Point, a refueling site for the helicopters going to the Dry Valley sites. It's a three or four day gig (weather permitting). Who knows, maybe I'll be back with more photos next week.

Still in town

It's about 20 degrees Fahrenheit with 15 mph winds dropping it to a wind chill of about 7 under overcast skies. I'm still in McTown. It was absolutely beautiful the first two weeks after I arrived. Lots of sun with almost cloudless blue skies and temperatures into the upper 30's. Unfortunately, it didn't last.

The following week was more like today. Actually, it was worse, with higher winds and frequent snows. The worst part of it was the postponed flights. A shortage of fresh fruits, vegetables and eggs. There were other inconveniences. No mail, the store ran out of red wine, but nothing life threatening.

The worst thing was the effect on schedules. Science projects and work schedules are very tight and intricate. There are only so many planes and helicopters and crews can only fly so many hours. The schedule for the project I'm working with, PIG - more on the name later - was set back from Nov. 28 to Dec. 7. Except . . . more weather delays. I think they are going to try again tomorrow, Dec. 12. Until the first flight goes out, the remaining ones won't be assigned a date. I'm on flight five, right after a cargo-only flight, right before the helicopters get shipped.

Still, time is going quickly for me. There's a lot happening. As always, holidays are celebrated on Saturdays so a couple weeks ago we had a two-day weekend for Thanksgiving.

About 100 people participated in the Turkey Trot, a 5k race, on Saturday morning. That was followed in the afternoon by three seatings for Thanksgiving dinner to accommodate the 1,000 or so people on station.

Several times before I left, I was asked about the male/female ratio around here. A week or so ago, I saw some figures. There were about 270 women on station. This is a very sexually integrated operation with women in any and all positions. They work in medical, in the carp shop, driving heavy equipment, administration, fuels, cargo and supply, at all levels.

We're waiting to get to the camps, but we aren't sitting around. There's a lot to be done.

This time of year, the sea ice is getting too thin to support aircraft. From about Oct. until Dec. the runway is on the sea ice, close to town. In years past it was right in front of town, a few minutes away. This year it's farther back toward the more permanent ice shelf. Apparently the sea ice isn't as thick as in the past.

Many of the airfield structures are trailers on skis which are towed to the Pegasus airfield on the ice shelf about 19 miles from town by tractors. A few are soft-sided structures. Jamesways like this were used in the past, but better, modern shelters called ractents are being used as the Jamesways are phased out.

These two were actually set up at Pegasus before the sea ice runway was torn down. To give you an idea, the one in the foreground is about 40 feet long and about 8 feet high. It has wooden framing and wooden floor panels. The larger blue one behind it is about 80 feet long and about 12 feet high with metal tube framing.

This is the interior of the larger tent. The wiring is all heavy duty, multi-conductor electrical cord. I've spent the majority of my time assembling and installing these wiring harnesses. This is what's used at the field camps, both the ractents and the wiring systems.

And speaking of the field camp . . . .

The project we are supporting is called the Pine Island Glacier. Everything that possibly can have an acronym down here does. Hence, I'm with PIG. I attended a lecture by the PI (Principal Investigator;translation, scientist in charge). He said the study is actually of the Pine Island Ice Shelf, but they didn't like that acronym. Their studies involve drilling through the ice shelf, about 500 meters (1,500 feet?) and collecting data about the sea underneath. Seems the ice shelf is the fastest moving in Antarctica, about one and a half feet per hour. There is a lot interest in this; if you are interested, too, check out the site I listed at the side.

The next time I post, probably after Christmas or even New Years, I hope to have a bunch of photos and stories from PIG. See ya then.

Back to the Ice, 2011 edition.

(Dated Nov. 6, but it's taken me a week to complete . . .that's the volcano, Mt. Erebus, in the background above. )

They say the first time you come to Antarctica, it's for the adventure. The second time, it's for the money. The third time, it's because your friends are here. The fourth time, it's where you belong. This is my fifth trip.

I got to Johnstown Nov. 9, 2010 and left to head back down here on Oct 31, 2011, just a little less than a year later. That's the longest I've been in the States at one time since I began wandering around back in Oct. 2004.

What did I do during that year?

Well, there were a couple weeks hunting deer unsuccessfully. There were a couple weeks celebrating the holidays. There were numerous months job hunting, eventually somewhat successfully. There were rounds of golf, almost no fishing and very little travel. After bouncing around three or four addresses, I rented an apartment. It was in the same complex that my folks moved to in 1952 or '53, my first home in Johnstown. There was no deja vu.

In June I went to work through a temp agency for a local electrical contractor. Southwest Pennsylvania is still economically depressed. The state doesn't license electricians although it licenses barbers. Anyone can do electrical work, but the pay isn't much. For the first month, I worked mostly nights in commercial buildings changing out fluorescent ballasts and lamps. Then I moved to a crew in a powdered metals mill. The mill has gone through numerous owners and operations in it's 100+ year history. The powdered metal, mostly iron, is as fine as talcum powder. Five minutes after I started, I was filthy and stayed that way, no matter how often I washed. Needless to say, I don't want to work in a mill.

The end of August, I landed a job with the state as a semi-skilled worker at Yellow Creek State Park. It was only a 33 cent pay cut.

The park job is seasonal, but I like it. I mean, who wouldn't like working at a park? Pick litter, clean restrooms, cut grass, clean cabins, pick litter, cut grass, do minor maintenance jobs, pick litter, cut grass, return wandering pups, retrieve drifting sailboats . . .

It's a small park with a staff of ten, a good, friendly crew.

About the time I started at the park, some folks from the Antarctic program contacted me to ask if I'd be interested in working the summer, Nov. through mid-Feb. Again, long story short, my last day at the park was Oct. 21, I flew to Denver Oct. 27, to New Zealand Oct. 31 and here to McTown Nov. 4. My contract officially ends Feb. 15, but it can vary by a couple weeks. Supposedly, I can l start back at the park Mar. 26. How's that for timing?

If the job had been to work around McTown (McMurdo Station in case you don't recall) I may not have taken it. As it is, I am working with another great bunch, Science Construction. We're based here at McTown but will travel out to the field camps where scientists conduct research. That's kind of accurate; actually, we will be travelling out to set-up the camps. In most instances, we will camp out in Antarctica while we do our work. Good thing it's summer!

I expect to have a lot different photos. Good thing, because I think I posted photos of just about everything there is to photograph around town the last time I was here. As I mentioned in my email, I won't have much access to the Internet while I am out, but hopefully I'll be able to post when I get back to town.

The first day I arrived, I got my gear to my room and then headed to dinner. As I walked out of the dorm and across the parking lot to Bldg. 155, it was all extremely familiar to me. Too familiar.

It's unsettling that living in Antarctica is becoming second nature . . . .

Keep an eye on your email.

See ya later - Phil 　 　

First, check this out - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39159500/from/toolbar A week ago, someone had to be flown out due to illness. Apparently it was bigger news on the outside than here. Some people didn't even know it was happening. Many people, including me, got emails asking about it. I read the on-line article about it. WOW! It was windy, but I didn't know we had a blizzard. Nor did I realize that there was just a brief window of daylight. I thought it was light at 6 when I go to breakfast. I swore it was light out at 9 on Saturday night. Unless a lot of people were hiding really, REALLY well, there were only 198 of us over the winter. Whoever wrote that article could make a fortune writing fiction. . . last week's flight wasn't difficult. The first seven Winfly flights a month earlier, now those were difficult. It was the first time pilots wearing night vision goggles landed at McMurdo with passengers. The first flight out carried a fellow with appendicitis. There wasn't any real daylight . . . but that was then. Now . . .

This was taken about 2 PM on Sept. 5. The shadows have moved back a lot since then. Winfly occurred and there are 520-some souls on station. They brought fresh fruits and vegetables which were great while they lasted. They also brought the crud. It's not great and it's lasting much longer. Nothing serious, I just hope I get over it before I leave.

The Southern Bar, a 24/7 bring-your-own-drinks lounge all winter long. A great place after work at the end of the week. My birthday was celebrated with the re-opening of the Southern Bar as, well, a regular bar. No longer BYO. Not that it cost me anything that night. I'm not sure how many whiskeys I had, but it ended with a glass of Jose Cuervo. About the time it hit my stomach, I realized what it was. A beer chaser got rid of the taste and I left before I damaged too many brain cells. And - no, there are no photos, no incriminating evidence . . . not that there was anything incriminating going on . . . that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Condition 2. This was about 8 AM and the sun WAS up!

Our weather during Winfly has been some of the worst we've experienced all year. Certainly more snow than the whole rest of the winter. If you want a good idea of what conditions can get to, go to this youtube link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz2SeEzxMuE&feature=related This Thursday, the 23rd, the first 'summer' flights begin arriving. Even more importantly, we winterovers begin leaving. A few dozen left during Winfly and now the rest of us will. It's definitely time to go. You have to stay up very late or get up way too early to see the Southern Cross constellation. The novelty of seeing the sun has worn off. Several weeks ago, before the sun topped the ridge to shine on town, I walked out to Hut Point to peak 'around the corner'. Didn't even think about looking directly at it, but I remembered pretty quick. . . .

It's too crowded. Someone is sitting in 'my seat' in the galley at break. Someone is hanging their coat on 'my hook'. There are lines. I'm almost out of decent beer, two-ply tp and whiskey. There are holes in my long johns and shirts, in most of my socks. For some of us, it's been over a year already, almost 13 months. The other day someone said they would like to go to sleep and wake up when it was time to go. I understand the feeling. Three weeks from now I will be arriving in Christchurch. While I wrote this, I went under 500 hours to go. We have computer programs to keep track of such things.

Having said that . . . I signed a job offer to return next winter, Feb. through Sept. There are some really great people down here, a number of them good friends. It would be fun to come back as a town electrician. I'll have to see exactly what I get offered.

The United States Antarctic Program. The first time you come for the adventure. The second time is for money. The third time is because your friends are here. After that it's because you don't fit anywhere else. This was my fourth trip. I've spent over three years of my life on the Ice. I believe I qualify as an OAE, Old Antarctic Explorer.

As to my trip back, first stop, about a week in Christchurch to take care of a little business and relax. You may have heard about the earthquake there. It didn't have much affect, not on the company employees, company facilities nor any of the places we generally stay. I plan to eat lots of fresh vegetables and drink some tap beer. Or was it eat some fresh vegetables and . . . Then it's off to Bali for a little over two weeks. So far I have the first seven days scheduled, six of them at a dive resort. I've got some ideas about other things to do, but will wait until I've talked with other people there. After that it's a few days in Sydney, with a trip to the fish market for mud bugs and another to the Opera House for the Symphony. Who knows what else. Then home.

I'll have my computer until I leave, but I'm not packing it with me on my travels. I've got enough just hauling my dive gear around. So if you would, hold all those great jokes, forwards and other stuff until I get back to the States. I'll see you folks in PA after Nov.9.

And to everyone else - see ya whenever

Phil