Lookin' out my backdoor: Still in town

Sunday, December 11, 2011

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.

Daily news and announcements

Sometimes temperatures were listed. The season high of 23 above zero was reached while I was in camp. Since our internet connection was so slow, other important information such as the latest NFL results were posted. Educational improvement was provided by a daily word picked at random from a collection submitted by the camp population. The individual who picked the word had to use it in a sentence. This day's word was fugly. Trust me, that was an easy and relatively . . . innocent one.

Sleeping quarters

Unlike some of the other field camps, these Artic Oven tents were provided to each of us. They are quite a step up from the backpacking tents. At about 6 or 7 feet square and 5 feet high in the center, they are almost roomy. Add a folding cot and a wool blanket for a rug. I saw a couple small shelving units in one and another flamingo outside the door. One fellow had a portable solar panel charging unit hung on the side of his. I didn't see a TV antennae, however. You have to take into consideration, this was home for almost three months for some of these folks. Pretty plush for a deep field camp in Antarctica - even if the temperature was sometimes zero or lower when we were climbing into our sleeping bags.

The cores are kept in storage until there are enough to fill a cargo pallet like the one at the end of the room. The pallet is loaded on a C-130 as close to take-off as possible. The plane is actually cooled as low as possible for the flight. There is a cooler to store cores at McMurdo. From there they are loaded in a refrigerator van and onto the cargo ship. A refrigeration tech goes with them on the trip to California where they will be shipped by truck to the Denver Federal Center. The tech told me that in the past they had used two trucks, just in case one broke down. This trip there will be a truck with two separate refrigeration units in case one fails. There are over 40 projects examining the ice. Some of it is kept in cold storage in Denver as an archive.

McTown and the off-load

Don't ask me to translate McMurdoese - instead of unloading the ship, it's an off load. Instead of setting up and tearing down a camp, it's put in and take-out. Whatever, the ship is at the pier. It's been unloaded and they are slowly getting it reloaded with waste, wornout vehicles, helicopters for the out-going contractor, and - the ice cores. With a little luck, a lot more hard work and good weather, they should be in Denver within a month or so. I had a day off and it was (obviously) beautiful. I hadn't hiked up Ob Hill in a few seasons, so I climbed up and took this picture. After I got down, I remembered why I don't do that more often. Gettin' older ain't for sissies.

"How long does it take?"

From time to time, people have asked me how long it takes to get here. This time I kept track. As it so happens, I think this was the fewest flights I've ever had. For one thing, a stop for a few days of orientation in Denver has been eliminated - unfortunately. Also, in the past when we flew to Sydney, we went to Auckland, NZ and then to Christchurch. And I actually flew from Johnstown instead of Pittsburgh but that didn't eliminate a flight, just cut down on travel time. Here's the breakdown -

I left about 9:30 AM, Sept. 28
Johnstown to Dulles, about 1 hour.
Dulles to Los Angeles, about 5 hours.
Los Angeles to Sydney, about 14 hours.
Sydney to Christchurch, about 5 hours.
Christchurch to McMurdo, about 5 hours.

Including layovers, 31 hours to Sydney, 38 to Christchurch.

We arrived in Christchurch in the afternoon. The next day we received our extreme cold weather gear and sat through some orientation lectures. the next morning we took off for McMurdo about 9AM.

The total from Johnstown to McMurdo was about 80 hours.

A Solid Foundation

These are the footer pads, posts and beams that the floor sections were put on. The pads are 36" squares of 2X6's enclosed in 3/4" plywood. It was all two of us wanted to move them. The posts are sections of 12x12. The beams are 4X8's. It was all bolted together with 1/4" steel angle brackets and 1x2" x 6" lag bolts driven in with impact guns. The floor sections were 2x6's on 12" centers with 3/4" plywood top and bottom. All this for a 12' by 16' shack to house a generator that probably doesn't weight more than 1,000 lbs. Now that's some heavy duty construction.

Seal

On the way back from Canadian, we came across the desicated remains of a sizeable seal. It was the third we found between camp and the Canadian Glacier. There was at the edge of Lake Fryxell and another very close to the side of the glacier. This is miles and miles from McMurdo Sound. No one seems to have an explanation although there is a rumor that when the Navy was running this show, the helo crews might have been having some fun with the scientists by planting these. they went to a lot of trouble if that's the case. And if not, again, why are these seals up here?