A few more pics of 1882

Current Temp Ambient:   35    Windchill:    n/a
Windspeed (knots):   none

It's a lovely day in Mactown.  We are getting ready for our 2nd two day weekend in a row for New Year's.  Tomorrow evening is Icestock, our outdoor music festival complete with chili cook off.  There are about 12 bands slated to play and it should a great time.  In season's past, it's been my favorite day of the year!

But I digress, here are a few more pics of my Dry Valleys adventure from last week:

Crazy Rock Formation

Baby Duck fixing the dish (this is his job!  It would suck on a cold, windy day)

The wind did this:

Reminded me of being in Australia or the Carribean, water and wind can both do this to rocks!

Amazing!

Coolest thing I've ever done - Dry Valleys

Current Temp Ambient:     36        Windchill:     29
Windspeed (knots):     light and variable

Last week I got extremely lucky and got to ride in a helicopter to the Dry Valleys, a series of valleys that are part of the Royal Society Mountain range across the Ross Sea from where McMurdo is on Ross Island.  The Dry Valleys are one of the most unique environments on the planet.  There are dry parts, glaciers, lakes, crazy rock formations, simply amazing.

I went with my friend Brian (nickname Baby Duck, don't ask, you don't want to know), who is a comms tech.  That means he setsup radio repeaters and satellite dishes so all of the scientists and staff at the field camps in the Dry Valleys can look at Facebook while they are out there (and call McMurdo, and email and stuff).  They had a bunch of extra seats on the flight, and it was my turn to go on a fun trip, so he took me with him!  We made two stops, first to Mt. Voslyps, not that exciting, then to a mountain called 1882 (in reference to it's height in meters), which is by far the coolest place I've ever been.  It was a gorgeous day, GORGEOUS!  I didn't even need Big Red (the parka they give us), though I wore it just so it wouldn't blow away in case of a gust.

In this video, you will see the same type of helicopter I went in, a Bell 212, picking up a load of lumber to take to one of the field camps.  Next you'll see the inside of the helo I was in, then a view or two from inside, then the landing, and finally my hiking video from the top of 1882.

Awesome, awesome day, enjoy the video!

Happy Freakin' Camper

Current Temp Ambient:   14    Windchill:      7
Windspeed (knots):            4
Next Sunset:                      Feb 16 2012

For today's entry you get to hear all about my recent "Happy" Camper experience.  Happy Camper is an overnight snow school/survival course that everyone who is going out to the field is required to endure.  I took Happy Camper my first season, and after that we are just required to do a 4 hour lecture "push" or refresher course...unless you have been out of the program for 5+ years.  Yours truly falls into that 5+ years out of the program category, so I couldn't get away with just the push course.  Trust me, I tried!

Truth be told, I learned a lot in Happy Camper the first time around, things that have helped me enjoy regular camping and outdoor winter activities much more than I had in the past.  If nothing else, I learned this time around that I indeed retained that valuable knowledge.  Here are a few things I re-tained/learned:

1. Cotton is soft and lovely against your skin, like the 780 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets that I ordered on August 3rd and have yet to receive, for example.  But in the cold, especially if you are active, cotton is your enemy. Because it retains moisture, your sweat creates a nice cooling layer right against your skin.  This can lead to discomfort at best and hypothermia at worst.  So remember folks, go poly or wool.  Silk is better than cotton, but not by much in extreme cold.  
2. Don't be a complete idiot when your life is at risk.  Stop, take your time, and think about how to get yourself to safety as quickly as possible.  Think about the resources you have at your disposal and use them wisely.  Consult others in your group for good ideas and expertise.
3. Camping in the cold sucks and I have no idea why anyone would willingly do that to themselves.
4. Group scenario activities are a drag.
5. Just because someone has a Ph.D doesn't necessarily mean they have any common sense or will be useful in a crisis situation.  Trust the electrician.

Anyway, we got really lucky on the weather, so I actually had a great time shovelling, making snow blocks for our wall that we used to block the non-existent wind, melting snow to make water, and being in an absolutely beautiful place.

Here is a pic of where we were on the ice shefl, that's Mt. Erebus, our 12k ft volcano:

Here I am with Mt. Erebus in the background, proof that I was there:

This is the snow wall we built by sawing blocks out of the show on the ice shelf, popping them out with a shovel, and stacking them to about 3/4 the height of our mountaineering tents.  It took is several hours to get this done, there were 20 of us:

Here is the dining room (which, BTW, I designed, thank you very much, coming soon to Interior Designer's  Digest) and we all built together out of the remnants of our ice wall block quarry, complete with centerpiece flags and a sculpture that Justin made.  Notice the U shaped bench and the table in the middle where we ate our delicious MREs for dinner:

That is about it, I'll post more pics if anything awesome shows up from the other folks in the group.

Zisman warm, inside and OUT

Fishin' Antarctica Style

Current Temp Ambient:      18      Windchill:      5
Windspeed (knots):              14
Sunrise:                                Negatory
Sunset:                                 Nope

A friend of mind down here is a scientist working on a fish project.  Yesterday she ran into some scuba divers who offered to film her fishing from under the ice.  The video shows an number of interesting things:

  a) she needs to work on her technique;
  b) the absolute clarity of the water down here;
  c) the diverse and dense wildlife in the Ross Sea; and
  d) the Sea Ice from underneath.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5PDgCgX0AoY

Enjoy!

Dumb asses

Current Temp Ambient:  23    Windchill:   9
Windspeed (knots):    13
Sunrise:                      N/A
Sunset:                       N/A

Not the most polite blog title perhaps, but do consider the source.

Next month marks the 100th anniversary of the first successful expedition to the South Pole.  Though Robert Falcon Scott is perhaps most well known (because he died and had a more dramatic trip), he actually led the second expedition to reach the South Pole.  He was beaten by about 5 weeks by a Norwegian, Roald Amunsden.   He was beaten in more ways that one; not only did Amunsden get there first, he also made it back and lived to tell the story.  Some say Scott was greedy, took too many men for his provisions, and refused to dump any of his samples.  So he schlepped rocks around and as a result, suffered what must have been an awful, horrible, slow, painful death, as did his men.

There are lots and lots of books available on the subject of the OAEs (Old Antarctic Explorers), if you are interested, a simple Google search will yield a ton of results, especially with the 100th anniversary upon us.  Personally, I liked Shackleton's Endurance, but there are many, many others that I'm sure are great.

This anniversary is expected to bring the dumb asses out in droves.  Why do I call them "dumb asses" and not "adventurers" or "heroes," you ask?  Because this is Antarctica.  The harshest continent on the planet.  Unprepared, ignorant people die here trying to do things like ski to the South Pole.  It reminds me of those who try to climb Mount Everest and require Sherpas and oxygen tanks, which they often leave behind, cluttering the very natural wonder they risk their lives to see with trash and bodies.  You simply cannot "conquer" a mountain, or the most extreme place on earth.  Treat it with some respect, put together a plan, gather some useful information, spend lots of time acclimating, and sure, go for it without my harsh judgement.  Unfortunately, more often than not, well...dumb asses.

Last year some Norwegians died trying to be mavericks and do it their own way http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4720296/Search-for-Berserk-suspended).  They loaded their boat up with ATVs and all sorts of unnecessary gear.  Of course my heart goes out to their friends and family, but people who take stupid risks and take their own lives into their hands also risk the lives of would-be rescuers.

McMurdo has already seen the first of what is expected to be many dumb asses this year.  Three Brits were dropped of at the ice edge and spotted yesterday dragging their equipment directly over our fuel lines.  So while trying to "conquer" this natural wonder, they put this beautiful, nearly pristine place at great risk of a hazardous waste nightmare by skiing directly over fuel lines.  Luckily our fuels department is top notch and nothing bad happened.  Yet.  They are on skis.  I wish them all a safe and successful, well planned, respectful trip, I really do.

I'm not optimistic.

Dumb asses.

SEALS

Current Temp Ambient:     14        Windchill:     3
Windspeed (knots):            6
Sunrise:                             irrelevant
Sunset                               irrelevant

Finally some early summer action with seals!  Yesterday on our way out to the Ice Runway a young seal was in the road, poor thing seemed lost and confused and should have been with it's mother.  We had a big 2 day snow storm, it must have lost it's hole.  By the time I came back from the runway, it was gone so hopefully it got back where it needed to be.  the first video is that young seal and a stupid man who was WAY too close.  You can sort of hear me trying to politely tell him to back the hell off.

The second video is from my coworker Ricky who went Ice Fishing with a scientist yesterday and they had a visit from a seal.  They come up to breathe and can then stay underwater for around 30 minutes to fish!

Pretty cool!

Mini-series

Current Temp Ambient:  -11  Windchill:   -40
Windspeed (knots):    23


No more sunrise or sunset, we are at 24 hours of sun in the sky.  Today we are on day 2 of a big storm, so I can only assume the sun is up there somewhere.

Populate is overwhelming, soon lots of people will leave town for the South Pole, field camps, and other bases, so I'm looking forward to the storm clearing up and a few hundred people clearing out!

A woman who is down here now has put this mini-series together, start from Episode 1 and you will get a great idea of what our life is like.

Enjoy!
http://nbtvtoday.com/nbtv-abroad/antarctica-the-harsh-continent/ep-1-the-beginning-of-a-long-journey

PENGUIN!

Current Temp Ambient:    1   Windchill:     -27
Windspeed (knots):            13
Sunrise:                              0227 
Sunset:                               0116

My coworker Ricky, who is new this season, got to see an emperor penguin this morning on his way to the ice runway!

He (the penguin, not Ricky) is schootching himself along on his belly using his feet to propel himself, it's called toboggining, and they can really move quickly this way, normally, (unlike this poor fella, I'm worried about him and why he's all alone).

Enjoy!

Current Temp Ambient:    3      Windchill:        3
Windspeed (knots):            Calm
Sunrise:                             0227
Sunset                                0116 


Just wanted to post this nice picture I took at the Ice Runway, that huge mountain in the back is Mt. Erebus, our volcano, the pointy hill is Ob Hill, then lovely McMurdo is on the left.

Lovely day!

Ice Runway

Current Temp Ambient:   1     Windchill:   1
Windspeed (knots):        Calm
Sunrise:                          0328
Sunset:                           0002 (12:02AM)

Down to about 3.5 hours of the sun being down, but it's light out all the time now.

The Ice Runway is officially open, it's our airfield on the frozen ocean.  Hopefully by February it'll be open water so I can see whales and penguins!  We went out there yesterday and today to setup some computers in some of the huts out there.

We actually have 2 airfields, Pegasus, which is on the permanent, 500 foot ice shelf, that I flew in on and will fly out of, and now the Ice Runway.  They build the Ice Runway because it's much closer to McMurdo and therefore saves fuel and time getting people and cargo between planes and town.

Here are a couple of pics of our "airport," and you thought La Guardia was a POS...

Hikes and Rescues (unrelated to each other!)

Current Temp Ambient:  -2  Windchill:   -22
Windspeed (knots):   12
Sunrise:                     0419
Sunset:                      2308

The woman who had a stroke at the South Pole is on a plane heading for McMurdo then Christchurch as I type this, so that is that!

As for the hike, yesterday was the first Sunday nice enough to get out and enjoy a hike, so I did!  Though I had to turn back as there was slippery slide down about 300 feet directly into a crack in the Sea Ice potentially in my future, however, it was a fantastic hike!

In the video you I refer to Mt. Erebus, which is the southern most active volcano in the world, however that's actually Mt. Terror, not Erebus, in the video, oops!.

Beautiful, just beautiful!

Setting the record straight

Current Temp Ambient:  -8  Windchill:   -8
Windspeed (knots):   calm
Sunrise:                     0430
Sunset:                       2257 (10:57PM)

As you can see, we have sunlight about 19 hours a day now, makes it easy to wake up but hard to get to sleep.

Not much new to report except that we are getting 200-300 new people each week, so that's keeping us busy at work, and waiting around for exercise equipment, food, water, and watching people stand around in narrow hallways creating unnecessary congestion (new people have an excuse, old timers, STOP DOING THAT!)  On the flip side, freshies are available at pretty much every meal.

I've had a lot of questions about the woman who had a minor stroke at the South Pole.  Apparently her daughter and family have petitioned the White House and are causing a ruckus because they think that Raytheon has the ability to get her out but they are simply refusing.  If you know me at all, you know that I am NOT a fan of huge corporations, particularly my current employer, however, there have been many a medevac and I know for a fact that if nothing else, the NSF and Raytheon don't want to get sued.  If someone needs medical attention beyond the capacity of the medical staff down here, they make every effort to get them off continent as quickly as possible.

Problem is, when jet fuel gets cold, it turns into a gel, and planes can't fly that way.  Even in the short amount of time they are on the ground, the fuel can gel.  South Pole is much colder than McMurdo, for example, it's currently -71 AMBIENT at the South Pole, and the fuel freezes around -50.  I also heard a rumor that she needs to be on a plane that has the ability to pressurize the cabin, and not all the aircraft down here have that capability.

Of course I hope she is OK and gets out soon, I think the first flight down to Pole is scheduled for Tuesday, which is earlier than normal.  They will get her out as soon as is possible without risking the lives of the crew on the plane.  After next week, anyone could get out pretty much any day they needed to.

So there you have it.  Don't believe the hype, if we need to get out, they get us out as soon as possible, even if they are a warmongering, greedy corporation.

Rant over, Zisman out...

Coffee, NASA and Dancing

Current Temp Ambient:  18     Windchill:   3  (NOTE:  there are no minus signs!)
Windspeed (knots):   12
Sunrise:                      0553
Sunset:                       2136

I hear it's windy in Denver today.  Gee, so sorry, I hope you're all OK!  My heart goes out to you all.  What is it, down to 50?  How do you do it?

So we are short a help desk person for the next couple of weeks and therefore every other day I'm back at my old job helping folks on the phone with their computer problems.  The Help Desk is now in a new building called JSOC (for Joint Space Operating Center, but we call it Just Slightly Off Center because it is!).  The Joint is between NASA and the NSF, it's where our network and servers live, and where NASA has a bunch of boxes with flashing lights and graphs and stuff.  I got a tour of the NASA part of the building recently (an old buddy who used to work in the USAP works there now) it was very boring.  Like I said, boxes with flashing lights.  BUT, what they are doing is not at all boring.

NASA monitors a lot of different stuff from down here and in fact, very little of what they do is even Antarctic in nature.  It's just a good place to monitor stuff, very little interference from cell towers, radio waves, airplanes, that sort of stuff.  So they are collecting and sending data for scientists all over the world studying the sun, the ocean, jeez, it's been 2 weeks and I hardly remember all the things Rex told me.  But it's very cool.

And they have a really fancy coffee machine with really delicious coffee, which they are kind enough to share.

Gotta go, we are having a spontaneous dance party at the help desk now to some Thai pop rap.

Freshies and Tablets

Current Temp Ambient:  5      Windchill:   -9
Windspeed (knots):   8
Sunrise:                     0553
Sunset:                      2136 (9:36PM)

How quickly things change around here.  When I got up at 5:00AM to go to the gym yesterday, it was light.  When I came home from my friends' radio show and the bar last night at 11:00 PM, it was still light.

With the hoards of new people also come hoards of fresh food. I just ate an apple, my first fresh fruit in about a month, and that's just the beginning!  Yesterday we got 10,000 lbs of freshies!  I don't know how I wintered and abstained for 5 months, not something I plan to do again (nor did I plan to do it once, don't worry mom, not wintering this year for sure!).  The woman who served me beer last night and made me a fresh egg scramble this morning told me to except salad either at lunch or dinner today. Oh salad, I hope I've never taken you for granted, I love you, I miss you, I can't wait to eat you!  And rumor has it there are avocados, too!

As for tablets, I cannot recommend them enough.  Even without Internet, my tablet is so handy.  I have loads of books, music, movies, TV shows, games, a cribbage board, all in one neat little 1.5 lb package.  If anyone is in the market for a new laptop, I really recommend you check out a tablet first!  I got an Asus EEE Transformer with a little keyboard that snaps on, and I love it, I use it every day.  And that's without Internet!

Don't ask why I combined these two topics today, they are just what I'm most excited about!

Animal pics coming soon, seals on the sea ice daily now.

zisman out

Flight on it's way

Current Temp Ambient:    0  Windchill:   -8
Windspeed (knots):     3
Sunrise:                       0609
Sunset:                        2120 (9:20 PM)

After a 24 hour delay yesterday due to an actual snow storm, with snow falling from the sky VERTICALLY for a change, we are expecting 2 passenger flights worth of people and one cargo flight.   I sure hope  my 780 thread count Egyptian Cotton Sheets are on that flight, but it's doubtful.  I'd rather have a salad anyway.

Days are longer, town will be filling up, mainbody is upon us!

Seasons

Current Temp Ambient:     -11      Windchill:   -33
Windspeed (knots):              11
Sunrise:                                0633
Sunset:                                 2058 (8:58 PM)

This will be a horribly boring post.  All I've been doing is working basically, so if you want to hear about the RAM I upgraded or the power supply I replaced, just email me and I'd be happy to tell you all about it.

We have basically three work related seasons down here.  Of course the solstice is still relevant, we are still on the planet, but we define these work seasons as such:

Winter - from about March 1st to about August 20th.  There are no flights down here during the winter season.    Though it doesn't go completely dark until about mid-June, Antarctica loses daylight at the same rapid pace with which we are gaining it now (around 15 minutes a day or so).  There are about 200 people in McMurdo in the winter.

Winfly - from about August 20th to October 3rd or so.  So that's now!  Winfly is just a pormanteau (2 words squished together) for Winter and Flight.  There are 3 flights that come down around the last week of August to get another 350 or so people down here to help the winter-overs get read for the main summer season.  Some winter overs leave at Winfly, but most stay, so population jumps to about 500 or so.  Winfly officially ends on Monday when the first flight of Mainbody gets here.  What is mainbody you ask?  What a coincidence, I was just getting to that...

Mainbody - October 3rdish to March 1stish.  During mainbody we have several flights a week, sometimes more than one in a day, and although the rest of the haggered, pale winter overs will leave, population will jump to about 1200 in McMurdo.  Although there are a bunch of people I want to see, I've really enjoyed the pace of Winfly and I'm not sure I'm ready for the hoards of people, but as I have no choice, I'll just have to adapt!  In the plus column are fresh food, mail, and and an increased work pace that will help the days go by faster.

As for the sun, when I first got here, the sunrise was around 9:00 AM and sunset at about 4:00 PM.  After just a month, we went from about 7 hours of daylight to about 14.  By the end of October, we'll be at 24/7 sun in the sky.  The weather will get nicer and nicer and I'll get to hike, so I am looking forward to that!

Wake up, the boring post is over!

Heatwave at -17 and some stuff about Sea Ice and Early Explorers

Current Temp Ambient:  -17   Windchill:   -29
Windspeed (knots):   Light and variable
Sunrise:                     0704
Sunset:                      2029  (8:29 PM) 


Yes, -81 was brutal.  Yes, my room was freezing (the thermostat doesn't read below 50, I think it was probably around 40 in my room).  I had to shove my big orange duffle bags with all of my ECW (extreme cold weather) gear in the window sill as the wind was so severe it blew snow through the tiny little gaps.  Yes, I slept in long johns, fleece pants, fleece top and sweatshirt, two pairs of socks with hand warmers in the middle layer, a hat, and 2 down comforters.  BUT I was warm with all those layers.  It rarely gets that cold, and today, my room is about 78.

The next day, however, was absolutely beautiful, so I took a nice walk out to Hut Point.

Hut Point is this little peninsula right outside of McMurdo.  It's less than a mile from my dorm room.  It's right next to the Ice Pier, which is where the fuel tanker and cargo vessel dock when they bring us stuff at the end of the season.  You may recall we didn't have an ice breaker lined up, but now we do.  The ice breaker cuts a channel through the sea ice all the way to the Ice Pier.

Last season all of the sea ice blew out, meaning there was open water all around McMurdo Sound.  While it was great for penguin viewing (and I hope it happens again this year), it is a nightmare for building the Ice Pier and the Ice Runway.  Building the Ice Pier consists of heavy equipment operators freezing water (from the ocean), making it flat, drilling a hole for more water, letting it freeze, flattening it, and at some point they thread fat metal cables through the layers for extra reinforcement.  That is a super simplistic explanation, but it's a pretty big deal.  While I was walking Sunday they were working with a layer of water, so there was steam everywhere, it was pretty darn cool.  In the picture below, you can see the Hut (I'll get to that in a second) with the Ice Pier and steam in the background, and them McMurdo off to the right.  The 4 identical brown buildings are some of the dorms, the one I live in is 2nd from the right.  At the top of the picture you can see the three wind turbines that I blogged about a couple of weeks back after my Comms outing.

The early Antarctic explorers Shackleton and Scott brought and stayed in these huts.  Scott's Discovery Hut in the picture was the first one that was brought and built in around 1901.  There are three huts total on Ross Island, all were pre-fabbed Australian huts and the thinking was if they were insulated for the Australian outback, they could also work here.  What they didn't consider was the wind blowing snow between the cracks that eventually turned to thick, solid ice in places.  Scott's party first used this hut as a base on their expedition to get to the South Pole (which didn't happen until about a decade later, and though he made it to the Pole, he never did make it back, long story, there are many books on the subject.)  Future expeditions had to use the huts to winter over when their ships became engulfed by pack ice.  I've been fortunate to get into all 3 huts (Scott's Discovery Hut here, Scott's Hut at Cape Evans, and finally Shackleton's hut at Cape Royds) in past seasons and it's sort of unreal.  They left a lot of their stuff when they took off, so it's like being in a museum with no glass.  There is food, clothing, seal meat and just stuff all over, it's very depressing.  I can't imagine wintering in those huts.  But they are historically pretty important to anyone interested in Antarctica.

The picture below shows Ob Hill (short for Observation Hill) on the left.  The early explorers would climb Ob Hill several times a day to look for rescue ships.  It's about 800 vertical feet to the top and a nice hike on a warm day.  I'll send pics once it's nice enough for me to hike.  All of the flat white is Sea Ice, and the white land mass in the back of the picture is White Island, another island a midst the frozen ocean.

Finally, I included a photo of some cracks in the sea ice.  You do NOT want to fall into a crack in the sea ice.  Seals tend to hang out around cracks, but they must have all been at dinner in the galley when I was out there.  Soon I'll be posting seal pics I'm sure.

-81 is no joke!

Current Temp Ambient:  -33   Windchill:  -65
Windspeed (knots):  18 gusts at 25
Sunrise:                   0627
Sunset:                   1908 (but who cares at -65!) 


So it's warmed up significantly from -81 as I write this at -65 (I'm inside, yes, but that cold is hard to shake even with hand warmers in my boots, long johns, a fleece and a jacket on - inside!)

Earlier today when it was -81 me and all my coworkers went outside and threw a cup of hot coffee into the air...check out what happens!  That's me in the starring role, apparently as the only woman in the tech shop, I'm also the "face" of McMurdo IT.

This link shows my friend Dave doing the same thing, his video captures the coffee a little better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBLFTCZGEls&feature=youtu.be

Don't worry mom, I have everything I need to stay nice and cozy!

Nacreous cloud video a la Spencer Moorman

Current Temp Ambient:  -18   Windchill:   -38
Windspeed (knots):   09
Sunrise:                   0635
Sunset:                    1901

Just a quick blog entry today to show you the video my coworker Spencer took, this is over about 30 minutes, beautiful!

Glitter and Sun Dog

Current Temp Ambient:   -22     Windchill:  -22
Windspeed (knots):   CALM!
Sunrise:                     0642
Sunset:                      1845


Note that we had our first day of 12 hours of sunlight.  I need to make sure to check out the night sky before I lose my chance for the year!


This (crappy quality, granted, but still cool) video shows this crazy thing that happens on occasion when there is a wee bit of moisture in the air.  When it's still enough, it freezes and there is basically what looks like glitter everywhere!  That, or the vampires from Twilight are here!  Either way, beautiful!  At the end of the video is a Sun Dog (the only sort of dog we see). It looks like a complete circle rainbow around the sun.

Gorgeous day!

Underwater in Antarctica

Current Temp Ambient:    -24    Windchill:   -53
Windspeed (knots):   17
Sunrise:   0650
Sunset:    1847

Yesterday I got to go dive tending instead of working.  Dive tending is basically going out with the scuba divers and helping them and all of their gear in and out of the water.

The ocean here is super salinated because as the top layer freezes, the salt gets pushed out of the ice and into the water, so there is more salt then in any other ocean.  Because salt causes water to freeze at a lower temperature than normal, so the water temperature her is about 29 degrees F.  Yikes!

Yesterday's mission was to clean up some old science experiments and equipment that's been left down there, unfortunately, for decades.

Here are some pics of the sea ice, a Pisten Bully (a small tracked vehicle used to get around on sea ice) the divers getting ready, the hole they jumped into (I have jumped into holes like that on several occasions, but with no dive suit, no nothing!  I don't really feel the need to repeat that polar plunge, but I sure am glad I did it!), and also the dive hut from the outside.

Yesterday was a LOT nicer than today, so I got really, really lucky!

Comms

Current Temp Ambient:  -20   Windchill:   -44
Wind speed (knots):   11
Sunrise:                      0728
Sunset:                       1813

Brrrr!  -44 is really freaking cold, if you were wondering.

This may be incredibly boring to some of you, but here is the rundown of my actual job and how our IT department works.  If you read to the end you'll hear about my cool tour of it all yesterday!

We are comprised of the basically 3 departments:

The computer side of things is made up of :
- network operations (they deal with the internet as well as local area network, computer accounts, email, etc...)
- the help desk (my job for 3 seasons), first line of defense for anyone needing computer help of any kind
- pc techs (which is what I am now, we help out the folks that the help desk can't help, mostly trouble shooting hardware issues, installing software, fixing broken machines, stuff like that for the non-science staff down here)
- scientists pc techs (they do what we do but for the scientists)
- the trainer (which i did for 2 seasons) teaching folks how to use the databases and all the software we use down here to find supplies, check in cargo, do email, etc...
- AREV administrator (which I did for a season) AREV is a suite of databases developed in 1907 that we use to track cargo, supplies, and personnel
*if you are confused about the number of seasons, in the winter i was the help desk, the trainer, and the AREV administrator

Then we have Telco, they deal with the phones

Finally there is the Comms (communications) shop who manages all of the radios (HF, VHF and other Fs I don't really understand), antennas and communications to and from field camps.  They have antenna riggers who climb up 100 foot towers all over the place to setup antennas that communicate all over the rest of the places they set up towers.  Comms also manages Black Island, which an island is about 30 miles (as the crow flies) from Ross Island where McMurdo is located.  Black island is where our satellite dishes are, so all communications off continent go via Black Island.  No Black Island, no phone, no internet, no TV.  Speaking of TV, TV and radio are part of IT but I'm not sure if it 's Comms or it's own department of 1.  We get a few Armed Forces stations (BBC America and a few others), an Australian channel, and then we broadcast our own channels with movies.  Anyone can be a DJ and it's super fun.  I've done it all of my past seasons but not quite interested in a radio show of my own yet, we shall see.

So yesterday Joe, who runs McMurdo IT, took a group of us all around town and the outlying areas to show us how it all works.  It' was fascinating.  Joe was a PC tech way back when, then he worked in the network, and he knows his shit, let me tell you!  He knows everything about all of it and he's a great teacher, boss,  leader, and person to boot.

Below is a picture of some of the antennas at T-site (T for transmitter) where a lot of our comms do the sending and receiving, a picture of Black Island, and finally of the three wind mills that generate like 20% of our power and most of Scott Base (the Kiwi base up the road from us) from just those three windmills!

Sorry if I just bored anyone to tears...but I like learning how different shit works.  It's one of the best benefits of being here.

Nacreous clouds

Current Temp Ambient:   -8   Windchill:   about the same (weather didn't post it for some reason)
Windspeed (knots):   calm, hurray!
Sunrise:    0735
Sunset:     1806

These are Nacreous clouds, a beautiful phenomenon seen only in extremely frigid, and typically polar environments.  These rare clouds exist in the Stratosphere (middle level of the atmosphere), as opposed to the Troposphere (lower level of the atmosphere) where normal clouds hang out (ha, get it, hang...).  They are something like 70k or 80k feet above the planet and the colors are amazing.  Nacreous clouds get light from the sun that has already set or has not yet risen and they are chemically different somehow, but I'm too lazy to look that up right now.  Here is a link to the wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_stratospheric_cloud.

I saw them on my way home last night, and on my way in to work this morning.  These pics are not blurry, that's just how the clouds look.

This place is sometimes like being on another planet...

Out on the town

Current Temp Ambient:   1   Windchill:  1
Windspeed (knots):   Calm
Sunrise:                     0743
Sunset:                      1759

What a difference a day makes!  Today is absolutely beautiful, I was able to walk all over town without Big Red and was very comfortable.  Don't get me wrong, it's still Antarctica, but with no wind and the sun getting higher and higher, it's quite delightful at 1.

One of my favorite things about McMurdo is how much I learn about logistics in general, not just related to being down here.  For example, today I had to go to water plant to fix a computer.  It's down by the waste water treatment plant, which was built while I was down here a decade ago.  It's amazing to learn how that stuff works, and how little it stinks!  WWTP is the acronym for waste water treatment plant, but of course people down here make up new names, like Wee Wee Tee Pee, Well Worn Toilet Paper, etc... and a host of others I'll spare you.

I'm not saying I could work at either plant, I'm just saying I never gave much thought to things like how towns get power, fresh water, treat non-fresh water, etc..

Short but stinky blog today, I know, but this is a day in the life...

zisman out

Current Temp Ambient: 10 Windchill: -4
Windspeed (knots): 9
Sunrise: 0758
Sunset:  1745


Little by little it's getting lighter for longer.

The on-going storm that impeded lots of important prep work has finally passed.  The heavy equipment operators are trying to get the road to the runway maintained, but it's been Condition 1 out there, so they haven't been able to get out there to work.  Without that road, people can't get to the runway to set up the buildings at Pegasus airfield (that I flew into), or start building the Ice Runway (that I'll fly out from), or fill the fuel tanks, or get power setup, etc...  So we are all glad this storm has passed, finally, and now everyone will be working extra hard to catch up.

This only affects me in that two of my closest friends down here will be those working to catch up.  One is an equipment operator, and the other supervises fuels operations.  So now I'll have to be patient and wait for them to get done catching up so we can catch up with each other and have some fun.

Saturday night was a super fun dance party, we danced non-stop for hours.  One of my favorite things about McMurdo is the dance parties.

Tonight is boot-camp night.  Free working out is another great thing about the Ice.

OK, back to work, it's Monday here, time to get some computers fixed!

Apologies for the boring post.

zisman out

Staring at snow

Current Temp:  3, -22 Windchill
Wind Speed:    30 knots gusting to 42
Sunrise:            0814
Sunset:             1730

Spent about an hour watching a snow drift form outside through the window last night.

Less than 2 weeks in and I already find staring at white nothingness entertaining.  Is that something to be concerned about?

Current temp:  0 ambient,  -22 windchill
Wind:              30 knots gusting at 42
Sunrise:           irrelevant cuz can't see shit anyway but 0822
Sunset:            1723




Quick update.  It's been a cold one today!  We are in the midst of a big storm, it's condition 1 everywhere but McMurdo.  We have three weather conditions we go by:


Condition 3 = Normal day, hike, bike, do whatever you want


Condition 2 = Restricted travel by foot and vehicle, no recreational activities allowed


Condition 1 = Stay where you are, it's sucks outside (OK, that's not official, but it is true).


So basically, if it was our day off, it would be Con 1 in town, but they want you all to get your tax dollars worth, so we are all stuck working.


Earlier today my coworker (who is 6'11") was nice enough to drive me to a different building to drop off a really heavy back up power supply, and then the weather got really bad.  On our way back to our work center, he sort of accidentally went off the road (but in his defense, you can hardly see your hand in front of you when it gets this bad), and it took us and a couple of other guys and a van to get us out.  After about 20 minutes outside in full ECW gear i was still pretty warm except my hands.  I just had my every day gloves on, hands in my pockets.  But overall I still haven't warmed up!


Just goes to show you, proper gear makes all the difference.  


If you are checking out the webcam, yes there is snow on the lens but it makes no difference, we can't see McMurdo either!


Stay warm...

Week 2 begins

Current temp:  9F ambient, -8F wind chill
Wind speed:   11 knots
Sunrise:  0911
Sunset:  1638  (hey, if I have to learn military time all over again, you will suffer with me)

After a long 1 day and 1 hour weekend (the extra hour due to the all hands meeting that went as expected), week 2 officially begins.  -24 was just too darn cold for hiking so I rode the exercise bike in my dorm lounge looking out at the view I would have had while hiking, that sort of counts?

Here are a few pics of why I'm here, this place is just beautiful.  The mountains were hiding behind clouds my first few days, but now we have these views constantly during the day.  In order, you see Mt. Discovery, then Mt. Discovery with the Royal Societies, then Black Island, and finally just the Royal Societies.  All the white in front of the mountain range is sea ice (frozen ocean).

Enjoy the pics and the nice weather!

zisman out

Week 1 comes to an end

Since everyone always wants to know these things, I'll start my blog posts with:

Current Temp:  9 F
Wind speed:     15 knots
Sunrise:            0911
Sunset:             1638

So finally it's Saturday, our Friday, and it's a short day because we have an all-hands meeting, which means we will stand around and listen to the station manager or the area directorate (I don't know what the difference is honestly, redundancy maybe?) tell us what our supervisors have already told us.  This is what I predict we'll hear:

1.  Ice breaker is a go but still no official word on whether or not we will have a full season (you can ask why but nobody can answer that)
2.  The building that used to house the bowling alley, ceramics studio, weight lifting gym and climbing wall had to be demolished a few years back, but plans are rolling to get the aforementioned recreational items back up and running, which is FANTASTIC!
3.  We are not supposed to do illegal things even though there is no police force or any laws up in here.
4.  We are supposed to be safe at all times, and now that I don't just sit on my ass in an office all day, I understand why all this talk about safety!  There are heaps of huge machines driving around town plowing snow, which we have had a ton of lately, lifting things (like tons of snow), dozing (yes, snow), etc...
5.  I'm making a list of things that are better down here, my "McProvements" list, and it's actually pretty long, surprisingly.  If you care, the list is as follows:
     a.  New staircase replacing a slippery hill up to the building where we get our mail from was built from wood from the bowling alley building (way to repurpose!)
     b.  MUCH faster internet and computers in general, and a much friendly IT department that actually wants people's computers to work properly even if they are used by 70 year old plumbers who hate computers
     d.  A groovy map of town that folds up into a business card sized case (this is coming in VERY handy for me as I'm constantly trying to find buildings I've never even heard of before)
     e.  We have new beds!  They used to be those jail-house type striped mattresses, but now I have like 18 inches of pillow top, and the comforters are fantastic!  Had I known, I would not have sent myself $200 worth of 780 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets. OK, that's a lie, but still, the beds are AWESOME!
     f.  We have a wind-farm now that provides us with about 20% of our power, and growing.  I never understood why we didn't have it before, but I'm glad we have it now

The rest of the list probably won't make any sense to anyone who hasn't been here before, but it's growing.  I know we have a lot of new hiking trails, one of which I will check out tomorrow, so stay posted for some pics.

Speaking of pics, the new blog pic is from a place called Fortress Rock, it's town with Mt. Discovery on the left, the super rounded mountain, and then the Royal Society range on the right, in the background.  I can't remember the names of the islands in front of Mt. Discovery, ice people, feel free to jump in!

Also, here is the link to the webcam again  http://www.usap.gov/videoclipsandmaps/mcmWebCam.cfm
If you go left from the big blue building in the middle, my work center is in the lower of the twin green buildings right next to each other.  If you want, shoot me an email and I'll go outside and wave if the timing is right!

That's it for now, peace and zisman out

Made it!

After a few delays in ChCh, including a mechanical delay once we were finally geared up (at which point I asked a friend of mine if my bunny boots made my ass look fat and he said "no, but your ass makes those carharts look fat."  ...ah McMurdo, I sure do love a place where we dish it out completely uncensored) we made it to McMurdo 2 days ago!  It's like I never left, and I am so happy to be back.  Lots of old friends are still here, it's amazing how many people have done 10 or 15 seasons on the ice and can still hold a conversation.

In all of my past seasons I've been an inside worker as the outside workers have kindly pointed out (i.e. don't come to lunch after your 3 minute walk from a cozy building where you work all day and complain to your friend who has been outside fueling tanks all day and proclaim "it sure is cold today!" without expecting a little harassment in return.)  But this season, even though I'll be doing my actual job inside, I have to go from building to building to building.  Yesterday I had to wear my big red and goggles, I tried going out without them and couldn't see a thing. The bottom of my jeans froze in about 2 minutes.  But with the proper gear, it's actually quite lovely...ish.

Speaking of buildings and weather, here is a link to McMurdo's webcam http://www.usap.gov/videoclipsandmaps/mcmWebCam.cfm where you can see what's going on in real time (or with a 10 second delay).  Sometimes snow blows onto the camera, but typically you can get a really good shot of good ol' Mactown.

OK, off to help some poor outside worker with a computer issue...more later.

zisman out...for now anyway

4 hour delay

It's currently 0315 and we are on a 4 hour delay, a 4 hour delay...

Note to self - if you ask for a wake up call, answer the freaking phone, don't just hang up on the nice man at the front desk calling to tell you you can go back to sleep for 4.5 hours even if you think its just the automated wake up call-a-tron.

24 hour delay

Hurray!  Getting paid my full pay to get paid $60 a day to hang out in chch, woo hoo!

Set to pop today

Yesterday's flight landed, we are on deck.

It's 4:24am and we bomeranged from the hotel room to the office and back, we are on a 4 hour delay.  Seems to me they knew soon enough to let us know before we walked all our shit to the front office, but I guess I'm property of the US government so I'll refrain from further bitching.

And so it begins...please stand by

Duh' icebreaker update

Apparently we do have an icebreaker lined up!

Stardate...not sure

Greetings friends and family from Christchurch.  I've been here for a few days now, I want to say 3 but i honestly have no clue exactly how long, time travel confuses a gal!  (and a guy of course.)  I'm just here spending your tax dollars (and my own in all fairness) waiting around for storms on the ice to break so the flight ahead of mine can leave so my flight can get delayed by storms.  That flight is supposedly leaving right now, and for their sakes I hope it does because they've had to get up every day for like a week now (hard to say exactly how many days since I'm fuzzy on what today is) only to have to try again the next day. They haven't had to actually go anywhere because the hotels are called in the wee hours to inform them when the flight is cancelled, so its not like my first season when we boomeranged (get 5 hours into the flight, 30 minutes from mcmurdo, only to have to turn around and head back to chch because the pilots can't land due to weather) or had to board the plane then get sent home day after exhausting day, but it's still a massive pain. They already checked their bags, so everyone on that flight ahead of mine has been washing undies in the sink, etc...for a weekish now. Because of the earthquake damage, there aren't enough hotels or rooms to accommodate both flights, so we all have roommates.  Mine is actually awesome so i got lucky but we were all looking forward to a few last nights of space.  whatevs.  beyond our control.

Storms on the ice are, of course, the culprit.  There is supposed to be a break today, then another, bigger storm tomorrow, so if they actually make it today, next its our turn to check our bags and try every day to fly south, get cancelled, and wear the same shit over and over. But until they leave, we get to sleep in and relax.  All I can do is go with the flow.

Yesterday was gear issue, I got a great "big red" parka with a great zipper on my 2nd try, which is frankly very important!  It's a drag to fight with ones zipper all season (in more ways than one, but that is a topic for a different day!)  So if today's flight was delayed, cancelled or boomerangs, i can relax and get paid to hang out in lovely Christchurch (chch), if not, I'm on deck and will start trying either tomorrow or Monday.  Yeay!  i just figured out that its Saturday!  Phew...

As for chch, we are staying in a new area of town since city center is basically still condemned. Chch is small compared to Denver, so lots of stuff is still within walking distance (as long as you don't mind walking a little farther, which of course i do not!) but the hotels, restaurants and shops aren't as used to us ice folk and are actually even nicer to us than our usual stomping grounds somehow, not yet bored with the hoards of Americans heading even farther south.  There is so much clean up and rebuilding to be done, its just very different here. Kiwis are the nicest people in the world. Sorry Mexicans, but yes, even nicer than you somehow.

I've seen my friend Deane from civvie a lot, he lives really close to my hotel. His wife and kids are awesome too, so that's a lovely treat.  Yesterday he and his wife took me to Sumner on the coast after he finshed his super early workday (he is keeping Denver hours, so his workday begins at 2:00 am) and it was very beautiful and very sad.  The area around here is hilly, and many hillsides were destroyed as were the houses built on them.  I didn't take any pictures because it seems strange to me to document tragedy, I'd be an awful journalist.  Apparently many of the 187 deaths were caused by drivers panicking and killing pedestrians.  Awful.  Just awful.  Deane's daughter Charli did a hilarious reenactment of herself wobbling in an aftershock, that would have been worth documenting! 

Ok, that's all I know at the moment, I will keep you posted as my adventure south continues south.

Enjoy yourselves!

Zisman out...

First Entry

This horribly boring post is just to let you know my adventure starts on August 23rd. I leave Denver on the 23rd and arrive in New Zealand on August 25th. Crossing the international dateline means I miss August 24th completely this year (if only it was my birthday!), but I'll get that day back on my way home.

Tune in toward the end of August for something of actual interest.

Be well, be nice, have fun!