SWS6680

Friends

2006-02-22T11:32:00.000-08:00

This is my last entry from Antarctica. It has been a great 5 months! I am excited to get on to new things but this was an experience that can not be matched. Below are a few friends that made this experience for me.

I'll try and keep the blog going as I travel...

All of us at the bar in dorm 202

Chris in his dress before the cycle cross

Packman and Drew showing off their new tattoos

Dianne, Trish and Holly hiking the Cape Armatige trail

Jawn, me and Trish at new years

Emily, me, Brian and Trish at the LA airport coming down to the ice

The fire crew on Halloween

Russ Clayton hiking on Castle Rock

Me and Jawn on Christmas day

Me, Jawn and Ron at Hut Point

Me, Dianne, Vanessa and Scott hiking on the castle Rock Trail.

The baby seal we had to chase off the road on the way to catch an airplane

Little Fuzzy head the penguin. He was on the road with the baby seal trying to catch the plane to NZ. I wanted to take him home with me, but he didn't want to go all the way back to CO.... Maybe next year.

Random Parting Shots

2006-02-22T10:37:00.000-08:00

Just some parting shots of the area. I am out of here Feb 27,2006. That marks the end of my Antarctic tour for 2005-2006. It's been a good 5 months. I am considering coming back next year. Time will tell....

McMurdo, now Feb 2006.

Ice crystals.

The first moon over the Royal Society Mountain Range. The range is on the other side of the island.

The sun and moon setting over the south pole.

Barn Glacier, the closest Glacier to McMurdo.

Scott Base, the Kiwi Base 2 miles away.

How to catch a penguin

2006-02-22T10:33:00.000-08:00

The proper way to catch a penguin: First find a few Adele penguins that look a bit lost (these were out on the point near town)

Make sure they are walking in the right direction...

It's ok if they choose to slide a bit...

Let them sleep in the middle of the road if necessary...

If all else fails, hunt them down with a plane..

When they start to get tired...

And cranky and begin to throw a tantrum..

Pose next to them (this is XXXL at the airfield)

Look sexy next to them (Capt Walters)

And you might just end up with one in the hand!

Hiking Castle Rock

2006-01-26T18:22:00.000-08:00

It's not all work down here. Here are a few things I like to do on my days off. Hiking on the Castle Rock path.

This is the way we dressed for the first hike of the season. As time went on and the weather warmed up, I wore less and less clothing on the hike.

this is looking up the rock. If it is not too windy we can climb to the top of the rock. There is a foot path and permanent ropes to help.
The path to the rock. It's about 7 miles round trip. This is the back side of the hike. It takes you out onto the snow bed behind the rock.

Most of the hike is on snow and is over rolling terrain.

This is the sliding hill. We take blue cafeteria trays from town and use them to sled down the hill. You can get going quite fast.

These are the warming huts along the way. We call them apples. There are 2 on the hike.

This is inside the apple. It is actually warm. There are phones, emergency food and sleeping bags in case you end up getting stuck.

The view from the top.

Sara goes to South Pole!!!

2005-12-29T15:26:00.000-08:00

A small rendition of my trip to the South Pole, the furthest south any human can go! It was a merry Christmas to me! This trip was suppose to be done earlier in Dec. but was postponed. I found out on Christmas Eve that I was going. We planned to leave Dec 26th and return on the 27th, but the ever changing itinerary did just that - changed. We left for the terminal on Monday Dec 26th at 6:45 am. It included a 1/2 hour ride to the airport and then on to an LC-130 (military) plane for the 3 hour, 800 mile ride to the pole. All started out well. At 9:15 am on the 26th we boarded the LC-130 plane number skier 96. When they went to start the plane, the 3rd engine would not start so they had us deplane and head back to the galley at Willy air field. After an 2 hour wait, they reloaded us on skier 96 and tried again. This time we had take off and I remember thinking I am finally going! How wrong I was. An hour into the flight, the plane had trouble with the auto pilot and we were forced to turn around and head back to McMurdo, Willy airfield and back to the galley. We landed around 11:30 pm and were waiting to see what was going to happen. The first air crew changed and a second crew arrived. Still no plane. Once the auto pilot problem was fixed, they loaded us back on skier 96 and we tried yet a third time to take off. Again engine 3 failed, this time losing parts onto the snow. Off the plane we went and yes back to the galley. By this time we were all ready to head home but the pole wanted us down there asap so we waited for a new plane to be ready. At 9:00 pm after sitting in the galley all day, they put us on skier 00 and tried one last time. This time, with a third air crew, we made it into the air. Again I thought I would make it to the pole this time, again I was wrong. 13 min into the flight, the weather at the pole changed and would not allow us to land so the plane turned around and took us back to the galley. This flight lasted a total of 26min 39 sec. We arrived at the galley at 10:30pm and were finally able to head back to McMurdo and into bed. They decided we would try again tomorrow.

This is skier 96, the plane we loaded an unloaded 3 times before finally deciding that it just was not going to make the flight.

Tuesday Dec. 27th 2005. Trying again to make it to the South Pole. Transport to the airfield at 7:45 am. Out at the Willy airfield galley (again) by 8:15. This time we were suppose to take skier 00 at 8:30. Again the plane did not start. Again we waited in the galley. This time only for 3 hours. At 11:15 am we finally boarded skier 90 and headed to the pole. This time we took off and actually were on the way! This time I actually landed at the pole!

On an LC-130 the passengers, referred to as PAX, sit in the cargo part of the plane in webbing seats. There are no regular seats on a flight like this. It is really loud in the back and ear plugs have to be worn at all times. Also it gets really cold in the back and heavy coats and boots are a must.

Standing on the flight deck with the pilots. I knew the air crew and was able to sit on the flight deck for the flight down. The windshield is actually made up of 20 smaller windows creating a ton of light coming in the window.

This is Matt. In McMurdo we drink a lot of coffee together. He is the co-pilot for this flight. Here he is making me some coffee for the flight.

Pictures of the Trans-Antarctic Mountains. This was about 1 hr 40 min into the flight. These mountains are the major range that separates the pole from McMurdo. There are areas in this range where no human has ever stepped.

We landed at the South Pole at 2:30 pm on Dec. 27,2005. The South Pole station is being rebuilt. The old station was under the dome as on the right, and the new station now sits above ground. The new station is able to hold more people and science experiments. I was able to stay in the new station.

The entrance to the old station and dome.

Under the dome the old structure are being taken out and replaced on the outside.

The structure under the dome and station is dug into the ice. It is like climbing around in a ice mine. It is -65 in the tunnels. They hold the piping structure for water and sewage.

Tons of ice crystals form around the heated lines.

People make shrines in the ice tunnels. The sturgeon has been at the pole since 1996.

The UFO Base and Vostok are some of the more famous "land marks"

The "pole". The reflection in and the flags behind.

The actual pole is moved each new year's day. The ice moves about 2 inches a year so they move the pole each year to keep it exactly where it should be.

There are 3 pole markers at the site. This is the one that looks the most official.

I was at the South Pole until Dec 29th. We were there for a HAZMAT cleanup. Once the job was done, they sent me back to McMurdo. The flight back was not as interesting as the one to the pole and we made it back to McMurdo by 2:30pm with out incident.

And Yes Mom, Noopy did go with me- See..

Meet My Fire Crew

2005-12-19T13:58:00.000-08:00

This is the 20 or so people I work with every day. You can see why work is so much fun.

Chief Sharon DiGicomo. Chief has been down for the last 8 years. She worked as a firefighter before she made chief. Off season she lives in the Denver area.

Capt. Brian Walters and his wife Christin. Christin is a dispatcher. They are from Nebraska where Brian played football. He was on the national championship Nebraska team in 1997. In the off season Brian works for Lincon Fire and Christin is a personal trainer. This is their first year on the ice.

Lt. Drew Martin. He is originally from New Hampshire but now calls California home. This is his third year down on the ice. At home he is a wild land firefighter. Drew is the one who always has playing cards and is a real killer at the game RISK.

Lt. Trent Meyers. He is from Calfornia right now but tends to move around a bit. In the off season he is a river guide. This is Trent's 5th season down on the ice. He is one of the few on the crew who has wintered.

Lt. Scott Brock. Scott is married to the dispatcher Vanessa. They are from Florida but have moved to Georgia. Scott was working as a firefighter in Key West, FL. before they came to the ice. It is the Brock's first year. I hike and recreate with the Brocks quite a bit. When the season is over, they plan on hiking the entire Appellation trail.

JT Tuning (blond) and Nick Caple (dark hair) Nick is the last LT. He is a smoke jumper in the offseson in Idaho.

JT is from Oregon and has been a volunteer firefighter up there. He was the last one to come down this year.

This is a first year for both.

Trish Christenson. Trish is orginally from Utah but now calls CO. home. She works for Pridemark Ambulance and Louisville Fire in the off season. This is her first year. Together with Dianne and myself, we are refered as the "fire flys". Trish also makes a killer berry smoothy!

Emily. She works in CO in the mountains. Emily had a family emergency in late October and had to leave the ice.

Nick Yarns. Nick is from Seattle where he works as a volunteer.
This is Nick's first year.

Brian Spegial. Brian was a dish washer down here last year. Over the summer he did all his fire training so he could return as a firefighter. This is his second year on the ice.

Lori Grevel. Lori is the dispatcher. She has been coming down to the ice 5 years now. She has wintered a few times also. Lori is from Arvada, Co, went to the same Jr. high as I did, swam on the same year round swim team and lives about 3 miles from my mom. I never met her in the states.

Andre Fluette from Baltamore. This is also his first year and he is wintering this year. What was he thinking? Andre is a great photographer and has taken a bunch of the photos I have sent out.

Scott Griffith (in the hat) and Justin Smith (green shirt). These are the 2 youngest firefighters of the bunch. Scott just turned 20 on the ice. He is from Castle Rock CO. We all call him Bobby Brady. Justin is from Florida. He is "New Guy" eventhough he was not the last one here. He is also going to winter.

Shawn Powers. Shane is one of the other medics. He is from Alaska and is not afraid to wear pink! This is his first year.

Diane Mibich. Diane is from San Francisco. She works for the forest service with Drew in the off season. This is her first year. Diane is always up for a party and is a kick to hang with.

Jimmy Widell. We call Jimmy the squirle on crack. He is a hyper one. This is his first year. He plans to come back next year and winter.

Matt Gigolitti. Matt is another of the paramedics. He is from Co. Springs and this is also his first year.

Patrick John. Pat is from Salt Lake. He is a medic and this is his first year

Dispatcher Sheri Nemont. Sheri is the most Sr. person in the fire dept having come down more than anyone can count. Sheri is from the Denver area.

So this is the crew. Hope you like it!

Cycle Cross!!!

2005-12-14T00:10:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday was the McMurdo 3rd Annual Cycle Cross Bike Race !!

It was a day of biking in costume and having a bit of fun. The object was to get as muddy as possible while looking as crazy as possible.

The race was all of 2 miles (it almost killed a few people.) The weather held at a balmy 26 above with over cast skies, a wind of 20 mph and a bit of rain.

Prizes were given out. I was 3rd for the women. The prize consisted of a free game of bowling (yes there is a 2 lane alley here) and a free hamburger with fries (they have burger days on Wed, Fri and Sunday.)

The next big adventure, the 5K re-run of the Turkey Trot.

Seals, Seals everywhere

2005-12-13T23:22:00.000-08:00

For the last few months the seals have been on the ice giving birth. I was never able to go out and see them for myself, but one of the scientists was nice enough to send me some pictures. These are Weddell Seals. The are native to the area. In this particular colony has had every seal has been tagged for the last 35 years.

This is an crabeater seal. The are also native to the area. When pupping time occurs, both species give birth at the same location.

When the seals are first born, they weigh any where from 25 to 30 pounds. This new born is only a few day old.

Pups grow up fast. For the first few months of their lives they live on mom's milk. They do not start swimming until around 6 months. Most of their time is spent next to mom sunbathing.

This is a pup at about 3 months. He now weighs about 90 pounds.

The crabeater seals are mainly white. The pups are similar in size and weight to the Weddell seals. This is a toddler with mom.

The scientist weighs and tag each seal and new born pup. They track how many babies are born and how many babies each mother has over her life time. To get their weight, the scientist places the babies into a weighing bag and hangs them from the scale.

Dive Tending

2005-12-08T18:17:00.000-08:00

As a side trip, I got to go with the divers and help them. This is considered a privilege and is given to people who are doing a good job. With the divers it was my job to keep the hole open and help them in and out of their equipment. As a reward, Steve (one of the divers) gave me a copy of some pictures he took underwater.

This is Steve Clabuesch. He is one of the divers. Back home he works for University of California Santa Cruz as the dive safety officer. He is the one that provided the pictures for me.

Looking up the dive hole at the second diver's flippers. The divers usually go about 70-120 ft down. They say the visibility is about 2000 ft.

This is Steve swimming up the ice trench. The water is about 70 ft deep at this point.

This is Steve Clabuesch swimming along an ice trench. They use dry suits because the water is 28.5 degrees F.

The dark blue is an ice wall about 20 ft thick.

This is some of the coral. Down here it grows twice as big as in the states.

This is one of the fish I caught in it's natural home. (This is the one that got away)

There are large jellyfish here. This one is almost as big as Steve's dive partner.

A big pile of sea worms.

Sea Spiders.

Steve with a large sea sponge.

Small Jellyfish

Happy Camper School

2005-12-05T22:38:00.000-08:00

As part of the training for Antarctica, we have to learn what to do if we are stuck outside when the weather goes bad. With this training comes a class that has become nicknamed "Happy Camper School". This is a 2 day class where we get to camp out for the night. This was the class that I wanted to complete more than anything else while I was here.

As you can see I started the day "Happy"

At this school we learned how to make "snow forts" or quanza huts to sleep in. The quick way to do this is to pile up all the bags you have and pile snow on them. The snow needs to be about 2 feet deep. We piled snow then packed it down with shovels until the 2 feet was obtained. Once we had our depth, we let it sit for about 2 hours so it could harden.

After it hardened we dug down in the snow and made a small opening at the base so we could pull all of the bags out. I was the smallest so it was my job to crawl in and get the bags. At first all I succeeded in doing was getting snow down my back, but eventually I was able to clear out all the bags. What you are left with is a hollow snow fort.
This is looking into the fort while the bags are still in it.

This is the hollow fort from the inside looking out the hole. The blue object is one of the bags used to make the form of the fort.

Crawling in and out of the fort. I am down at ground level at this point. This hole will eventually become the back exit to the fort.

The entrance to the fort is dug below ground level. This allows the cold air to stay out of the fort and in theory keep us warm.

The final dimensions of our fort was 6 feet by 7 feet round. It was suppose to sleep 3 people but we squeezed 4 of us in. It was so tight that I ended up sleeping halfway up the wall. I must say it was warm and the 4 of us were able to sleep though the night. Just a word of caution if you are ever caught in a situation and have to sleep in something like this, don't pick the 3 biggest guys to sleep with and make sure no one's feet smell and that no one snores....

There were a total of 20 of us in the class. With the amount of time it took to make 1 snow fort, not everyone was able to make or sleep in one. The other plan was to sleep in a regular mountain tent.

Because of how windy it gets down here we had to build a snow wall in front of the tent to block the wind and keep the tent in place.

The snow wall is made by cutting blocks of snow with a normal saw and stacking them. The snow is so compact that the blocks can be freed with shovel and lifted into place. Each block weigh about 30 pounds and the wall took about 100 blocks.
The blocks are made in back of the wall in a block quarry. The quarry serves 2 purposes. It provides snow for the wall and when the blocks are removed, the empty hole helps divert the wind away from the wall and tents.

While we were out there they had us pee in an outhouse. Normally we have to find a place away from the wind on the ice to go.

The outhouse was a luxury.

Another fun part was getting to eat dehydrated food. We melted snow for water and made a nice healthy meal of noodles.

Here is what it actually looked like. Let me tell you it was not as good as it looked. I was wishing I packed hot sauce to kill the taste. There was not enough water so the noodles were not totally hydrated and after eating it, the noodles expanded in my stomach causing major bloating. They did feed us as many chocolate bars as we could eat to keep our caloric intake up in the cold. I only managed to eat 2 during the day. I can now say too much chocolate is a bad thing.

This is a shot of the final "town" we built. Over all this was one of the best experiences I have had down here!

Fire Station 2 Ice runway

2005-11-22T01:55:00.000-08:00

I posted about the fire station in town. We also have a station on the sea ice that we call station 2.

This is the runway and station 2 looking down from Observation Hill. Ob hill is the highest point that looks down on the town and runway. It is a marker to Scott and his crew,

It is located in "Ice town" which is about 2 miles from McMurdo. Out at station 2 our main duty is to watch the planes arrive and depart. This is why I had to attend the airport training in Utah this summer.

This is ice town looking down town from the fire house. There is a galley and bathroom located a short walk from the station. We all hate having to go to the bathroom at night because we have to go outside in the cold.

The ice runway is just that; a runway built on the ice. The planes that land are wheeled but also have skier capability. We usually get the bigger C-17's from Christchurch and the C-130's that run
fuel and supplies to the south pole and other out lying science areas.

This is a C-17 landing next to our fire truck.

This is a load master from the airforce walking under the engines of the C-17. The load masters are all dressed in black and we call them the black ninja's. We tease them from our trucks every time they land.

We have a bunch of different types of fire trucks at station 2. This is one of the older ones left over from the navy days. It has the controls of a tank and drives like one. It is the only fire truck on station with a sunroof and I have been know to hangout the sunroof on occasion.

On really nice days, I like to watch the planes from a top the truck. The pilots like it when we do this.

This is red 1. Yep it's not red. It is a dinosaur left over from the navy days too. We call this one the poo truck. It has a petroseal foam in it that is made out of old animal blood and after sitting more than 10 years it is rotting and smells like poo. We all hate this truck but still use it when nothing else is available.

This is the truck of choice. There are actually 2; red 2 and red 5. They drive like a normal F350 except for the tracks on the wheels. They will only do about 25 mph but go over the snow and ice better than a normal truck would.

I like working out at station 2 better than in town. There aren't as many people and the chief is not looking over our shoulders. The only bad part is the weather is worse out on the ice. We get more storms than in town and get snowed in more often. When we get snowed in we stay inside and eat frozen burritos and drink hot chocolate.

This is red 2 parked right outside the station in a condition 2 storm.

This is the walk to to galley from the station in condition 2. Winds are around 20-30 knots and the wind chill gets down to -50 F.

Just a cool picture of the C-17 with the sun coming up behind it.

A Day of Fishing

2005-11-21T20:07:00.000-08:00

On my day off, I was selected to go fishing with the scientists. The group is the Petzel group that consists of a dad and his daughters. He is studying the glycol protein levels in the fish and how this level keeps the fish warm in the 28.5 degree F water. Our job was to catch as many fish as we could in the allotted time.

We rode in a piston bully across the ice about 22 miles away. The piston Bully can only travel at about 12 mph so it took almost 1.5 hours to get there. The actual one I rode in did not have the trailer on the back. The cab can hold 6 people and gear. It has 2 bench seats in the back so it's kind of like riding while sprawling out on a couch.
We went with the 2 daughters, Anne and Jill. We also had a gal from the NSF, a guy from vehicle maintenance, Trish from the fire house and myself.

It was really windy but clear. Trish and I tried to get the wind to hold us up while leaning into it. We almost made it 45 degrees. They say it was 25 degrees F above with a 20-30 knot wind. The wind chill took it to about -30 degrees F.

First we had to drill 2 new holes. The drill makes a 4 foot hole in the ice. They drive a loader across the hole to move all the snow and ice away, then drag the hut over the top.

We drilled a total of 4 holes but keep hitting some rocks before we make it through the ice.

We ended up fishing at a place called Cape Evens. It sits out on the ice and will only be accessible for about 2 more weeks before the ice melts. I was hoping to get another chance to fish, but the project ends Dec 2.

While they were moving the huts, we walked to Cape Evens Hut where Shackelton's group lived for almost a year. The cross is dedicated to another group of men who did not survive.

There is a shack at the bottom of the hill but is considered a historical site and we are not allowed to go there without a guide.

Fishing out here is like ice fishing in MN except there is no hockey or football game on and we were not allowed to bring any beer. We use a barbed hook and 2 nuts as weights. The bottom is only about 13 feet down. These particular fish are bottom feeders.

Inside the ice hut we caught about 25 fish. The were all pretty small, under 10 inches but it was what the scientists wanted. They are some kind of cod species and really are quite ugly. They end up going back to the lab alive where they take blood samples and eventually are dissected. We use the dissected parts as bait.

I also caught a star fish. We put the star fish back. They say they have never had anyone actually hook a star fish.

As we were leaving, the jelly fish started arriving in the hole. This made for a great day off!

The Fire House Station 1

2005-11-18T01:01:00.000-08:00

We have 2 fire stations at McMurdo. There is one in town where the fire engines and ambulance are kept. There is also a station on the ice runway where we take care of the airplanes as they take off and land. We rotate between station each day.

This is the tanker at station 1. It is an open cab meaning that the back is open to the air. It gets really cold riding around in the snow, but this is what they have and there is not funding to change to an closed cab system.

The bay at station 1 with the tanker and engine.

The station has a kitchen:

Day room with TV and pool table:

Training Room:

Bathroom with elevated throne:

And the bunk room where they make us all sleep together. The bunk room is very noisy with all the snoring and gets really hot at night with no way to open the windows.

We work 24 hous on 24 hour off. Every 2 weeks we get what is called a K day which equates to a day off. My K day is on Sunday so I end up getting every Sunday off. On the K day weeks, I get 3 days off in a row. Some times it is hard to fill 3 days down here. The rest of the town works 10 hour days, 6 days a week and get Sunday off. With my K day being the same as the rest of the town's, I get to see people I would not see during the week.

When the weather gets bad we get a lot of fire alarm calls set off by the wind. We still have to respond to each one. Here are the pictures from the last storm.

Sea Ice School

2005-11-06T10:52:00.000-08:00

OK I finally have time and the internet connection has finally been reconnected so I can do some more blogging.

This was the day at Sea Ice School. At this school they taught us how to read the cracks in the ice so we would be able to drive our trucks over the cracks without falling into the ocean. Sounds really scary but in actually was not bad.

Our day stared quit easily with a quick stop to lay around on the ice. Once you get out of town, the ice becomes an amazing color of blue. Once it is chipped off it becomes the clear color you are use to ice being.

The instructor told us that sea ice is not as salty as ocean water so I had to try it for myself. He was right, it there was no salty taste at all.

We loaded up in the haggland and traveled about 1.5 hour outside town which only put us 10-12 miles away.

Along the way we stopped to take pictures of the seals. This is the time that they are pupping so there are up to 60 at a time on the snow.

This is the picture I like to call the seal smiling. I think it was actually telling us to get out of it's space but....

We took measurements of the ice, drilled holes until we hit water and ran some calculations to see if the haggland could cross over the crack. Since the crack was too big, we headed back. This was an 8 hour day away from town. The next part of the training was happy camper school and that is under another blog.

My first blog

2005-11-01T13:02:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of my first hike. They flag the area with the green flags so we can find our way in the snow storms. I am just learning how to post pictures so I will learn how to rotate them for the next entry.