McMurdo, at least for now, is surprisingly beautiful.  Temperatures are mild (around 0F) and the winds are low.  The Sun comes up for a few hours a day and the surrounding area is bathed in a twilight glow.  Truthfully, McMurdo itself isn't very pretty, but the area around us is majestic.  We can look across McMurdo Sound (still frozen) to the Prince Albert Mountains and just next to us is Mt. Erebus, a 12,400 foot active volcano with a constant stream of vapor coming from its summit.

Later in the year when things warm up the snow on the ground melts and the dust kicked up by the infamous winds will be a particularly abrasive volcanic type deposited over centuries by that same majestic volcano.  But about the time that happens I will have been flown off to the South Pole where there is no dirt whatsoever!

My sleep patterns are still wrong, with me dropping off to sleep at 6 pm and sleeping until 2 am, but I hope that will normalize soon.  Work days are long here - nine hours a day, six days a week.  Tomorrow is Saturday, a work day, but then Sunday is a day off for everyone... my first since arriving.

More later, and I hope to get some pictures Sunday to post here.

Enroute

After rushing around for three weeks to get everything ready to leave for Antarctica again, here I am... close but not there yet.  I am in Christchurch, NZ waiting for my flight to the ice tomorrow.  It was originally scheduled for today, Monday the 27th (NZ dates) but because of bad weather the flights have been backing up.  One flight has made it, but Flight 2 has been backed up so they took our spot today.  I am on Flight 3.  If Flight 2 makes it today and the weather holds up in McMurdo I will be leaving tomorrow.

Things are "same, same but different" now that Lockheed Martin has taken over the program.  No Denver training so everyone leaves for Christchurch from their home airport and there is half a day of training here in CHC, and half a day of getting fitted out at the Clothing Distribution Center.  There will be more training in McMurdo in special areas such as safety. 

There appear to be quite a few first-timers this season, at least in WinFly.  A show of hands revelaed about 1/3 first timers in our flight, and about half who have never participated in WinFly (including me).  It is very odd to be the experienced hand with the new people and they ask all kinds of questions, many of which I had during my first deployment.  

I suspect my next post will be from Antarctica unless the weather gets much worse and I have more days in Christchurch.

There and Back Again...

My 2012 Antarctic season is beginning.  I received notice yesterday that I was approved for WinFly.  Back to Antarctica!  WinFly is short for "winter fly-in" and brings personnel into McMurdo Station from Christchurch, NZ to begin relieving the winter-over staff (who have been there all winter).  WinFly happens prior to the main station opening, when the majority of summer residents will arrive.  WinFly usually consists of about 150 people who help get the station ready to receive its full compliment of 1,500 about a month later by doing things like opening dorms and labs, turning on water and heat, and getting the ice runways ready for the main season activities.

Although I expected to be approved for my Antarctic deployment it is never a done deal until you actually pass the PQ process, which I did last week.  Because it was not a sure thing I decided to wait until I knew for sure before posting anything here.  So...

I have 20 days to get ready to leave for Antarctica this year.  I fly out of my home airport in NC on August 23 and spend the next 30 hours in transit to Christchurch.  My route is RDU - DFW - LAX - SYD - CHC.  I then get fitted for ECW gear* and leave for McMurdo the next day - another 5 or 6 hours of flying time in a U.S.Air Force C-17.  The plan, weather permitting, is for me to arrive in McMurdo on August 27 (which is the 26th in the US).  Once I am in McMurdo I will work there for about six weeks and then fly to the South Pole around October 15 for their season opening.  I will work the remainder of the summer season at the cold, windy, high-altitude Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station - a difficult work location at the best of times.  But I prefer it to McMurdo for that very reason.  But I admit I do not have much McMurdo experience so maybe I will like it too.

Until I arrive and can start posting some pics, here is a real-time web cam of McMurdo Station. 
http://www.usap.gov/videoclipsandmaps/mcmwebcam.cfm

You may notice it is always dark [edit - not true any more] because the Sun will not rise above the horizon at McMurdo until around August 15. My office is in the long blue building that goes from the center to about 2:45 in the picture.  The galley, barber shop, store, public access computers, and some dormitory rooms are also in that building.



*ECW gear = Extreme Cold Weather gear.  Usually handed out in Christchurch, NZ since it must be worn on the C-17 flight to the ice.

Trans-Antarctic Mountain Range - 1

Enjoy some pictures of the Trans-Antarctic Range peaks and glaciers from the New York Air National Guard LC-130 windows.  Taken in early November, 2010, these photos were from the first flight out of Pole after the 2010 winter, and most of the 2010 winter-over crew were aboard and on their way to McMurdo and then to New Zealand.  As magnificent as these views are, it felt strange to be looking at these wide open spaces after being cooped up inside the Amundsen Scott Station for the previous ten months.

Yuri Night...

Every year on Yuri Gagarin's birthday, a group of winter-over Polies make the trek to the geographical South Pole and give him a toast. Winter 2010 was no exception so ten of us walked to the South Pole in the darkening skies of early winter.

Heading to the Pole to toast Yuri.

Making the toast.  Station manager Mel McMahon made a short speech and than we all toasted Yuri. Vodka is the drink of choice for this ceremony. Actually drinking anything outdoors at these temperatures is problematic. Cold liquid, 70 below temperatures, wind, cold cups on lips. Although many did make the toast, I hope Yuri won't mind that I brought an empty glass and made a symbolic toast to Earth's first man in space.

Things never to do at South Pole...

Never leave your camera unattended where the Polies can get to it.  Otherwise you are likely to find some "funny pictures" on it!

Actually, I am being made fun of and chastised in these pictures because I did something with a flashlight during our group picture a few weeks earlier.  Luckily I did not entirely ruin the group picture session or I would have had 46 Polies pretty mad at me because they would have had to go outside in the cold again to do it all over.

Another Emergency Fuel Tank Video

Another emergency fuel tank relocation video.  Read the previous post to see why this is being done.  This is one of the five tanks pulled from the End of the World to the main station near the end of the 2010 winter season.  As you can tell it was a typical windy day at South Pole.  At the end of the video we follow the D7 Caterpillar in the LMC tracked vehicle to a warming station.  The heater in the D7 dozer is not strong enough to keep the driver warm in South Pole conditions, so periodically he has to stop at a warming station where a portable heater can warm the cab.  As you will see this particular heater is named "YOKO".

This video has better views of the station and "backyard" area in the pre-sunrise light.  Sunrise is still a week or more away and temperatures are warming but still pretty cold (between -70F and -60F).  The lighted building to the left as the LMC approaches YOKO that looks like it is in a hole is the VMF  (Vehicle Maintenance Facility).  The entrance can only be reached down a snow ramp that has to be kept cleared. The VMF was built several years ago on the surface of the ice, but has gradually become buried by drifting snow during the Antarctic winters. These days a ramp to surface level has to be kept clear so the equipment can be brought into and out of the structure. The vapor you see coming from the area to the left of the VMF is from the power plant exhausts.  The exhaust is actually very clean, but the warm air meeting the cold Antarctic air produces an impressive vapor cloud. Technically that vapor cloud is really an aerosol cloud of microscopic ice crystals since the water vapor freezes almost instantly after leaving the stacks.

The day looks very light in the video because of the camera's exposure settings, but it was actually quite a bit darker. I apologize for the video ending so abruptly, my camera ran out of video memory.

Emergency Fuel Tank Moving

During the next few weeks I will be posting some videos and still pictures of life at the South Pole during the 2010 winter.  The first of these is the repositioning of fuel tanks from the End of the World to nearer the station at the end of the season.  This video was taken on September 9th, 2010 and shows one of the fuel tanks being positioned near the station.  There was still about 45 days before warmer temperatures would bring the first flight since the previous February. Over the next week the fuel in this and other tanks that are brought to the station will be pumped into the station's main fuel storage tanks in the fuel arch.  The outside temperature is failry warm at this time (compared to the deep winter temperatures of only a few weeks earlier), and is probably around -65F.  You can tell it is warm(ish) because the people positioning the tanks have bare skin exposed.

The emergency fuel tanks are on sleds and are stored as far away from the station as is practical during the winter, at a location called End of the World.  This is done to divide the station's fuel into two groups so that a major disaster cannot destroy all of the station's fuel. The emergency fuel tanks had been dug out from winter snowdrifts the previous day. The full tanks shown here will be emptied and then refilled during the summer with fuel brought in during normal replenishing operations.  They will then be put back at the End of the World prior to the 2011 winter.

During the fuel transfer itself a great deal of attention is given to making sure not a drop of fuel spills onto the ice. All exterior valves, connectors and fittings are wrapped in absorbent pads in case there is even a small drip from the very cold connectors.  Transfer operations are monitored by people at the tanks, inside the pumping station, inside the station, and at the fuel arch to make sure there are no spills or accidents.

Below is a photo of the fuel arch where the station's fuel is stored. The fuel we pump from the emergency fuel tanks ends up in these tanks. The curved roof makes up the arch which is now below the snow surface. When originally constructed the arch was on the surface as were these fuel tanks. Now they are several feet under the ice and getting further buried each winter. These large fuel tanks replaced rubber fuel bladders that used to hold the station's fuel. Everything, including the tanks, was flown in on LC-130 aircraft over many summers.

Above is how the tanks are monitored for fuel level.  This area is always at 70 below, even during the summer. This is very cold work because personnel must come in contact with the cold metal of the tanks and their supporting structure. Each active tank is manually dipped and measured daily to make sure there is the expected amount of fuel in it.  High or low levels would mean that something unexpected has happened.   That is James Travis (JT3) dipping the tank.

Some bad news about the upcoming winter stay at the South Pole.  Due to a circumstance beyond my control I will not be going to the South Pole for the 2012 winter season.  I plan to apply for next year, so I do hope to be returning to the Pole and doing the live blog once again.

To keep this blog alive in the meantime I will be recounting some stories from my 2010 winter at the Amundsen Scott South Pole Station. There are a lot of stories and a lot of pictures I have not posted here.  So get ready for a winter 2010 retrospective!

It Begins Again

I received an offer from Raytheon Polar Services last week for another winter at the South Pole for the 2012 season. That is early next January to early November.  I accepted so here we go again!

It is true that I was very tired of being at the Pole last November and wanted to leave, but after a few months away I began to remember how good it was in many ways.  Or maybe I just forgot how annoying some things were! :)  It is a unique place: one long day and one long night, one sunrise and one sunset a year, temperatures that cannot be described, with atmospheric and celestial shows that can be seen nowhere else on the planet. The night sky at the South Pole is a view fewer than 1,400 people have ever seen in the history of mankind.  How could I not go back?

This upcoming year I will at least be able to see when I am outside.  Last winter my glasses frosted over after a minute or two outside and I couldn't see a thing. After the temperature dropped to below -50F this happened every time I went out, without fail.  This winter I will have contact lenses so I will be able to find the flags between buildings easier.  Because of my poor eyesight it was often quite dangerous for me to go outside, particularly on my own when the weather was bad.  I know some people scoffed at my characterization last year that being some places in bad weather were risky, but I don't know how anyone could say being outside in the dark at -85F with a 20 kt wind, blind, would not be a risky thing.  But the risk is part of the allure.  The South Pole in winter is not Disneyland.  The conditions are real and often dangerous.  No matter what happens the crew has to deal with it, and you certainly can't quit and go home.

So I start again with the physical qualifying medical tests called PQ'ing.  I took my first test today and there are many, many to go. There will also be more emergency trauma and fire-fighting training (this time in Salt Lake City I think), and of course another psych test.

It should be a good year.