Notes on daily life:
Yea! Ben, Brian, Marcus, and Zach passed their safety training school. Around here they call safety training school "Happy Camper School". Though we all have some mountaineering experience from other parts of the globe, Happy Camper School was a great opportunity for us to learn more about Antarctica and take a refresher course on how to work safely in difficult weather conditions. The other members of the team took Happy Camper School their first time in Antarctica and were required to take a short refresher course when they arrived this year. Paul, Chris, Bert, Mark, and Gordon continued to work on readying our equipment for the flight to Byrd camp now scheduled for Monday. Steve and the put-in crew continue to organize Byrd camp and prepare the plane runway for more scheduled cargo shipments.
The weather here was magnificent the past two days. There were no clouds, only a slight breeze, and brilliant sunshine. The weather was still cold and the temperature fell to about -15 degrees Celsius (5°F) during the night (remember, the sun is still out here 24 hours a day). The sun was so intense on the reflective snow that there were many mirages.
McMurdo's purpose, as an American base in Antarctica, is to support science and it is very well run by the National Science Foundation. In some of the daily updates we referred to the support people here in McMurdo. There are many different jobs that are done by the support staff here. They all work very hard and do a great job of making it possible for the scientists to do their work. Twice a week there are scheduled science lectures to inform everyone, scientists and support people, about the many science projects that take place in Antarctica. This Sunday's lecture will be give by Dr. Paul Mayewski, the field leader of the US ITASE program, and titled, "Science on the Move: The United States Contribution to the ITASE Program".
Date: 11/10/00Notes on daily life:
Today we awakened to the best weather in a long time. The skies were clear and there was no wind. After several days of not been able to see farther than a few buildings we could now see the mountains on the far side of McMurdo Sound. The conical shape of Mt Discovery, an extinct volcano, rises 8,600 ft above the sea ice. The jagged peaks of the Royal Society rising to over 13,000 ft seem like they are next door but, amazingly, are about 50 miles away across the sound. Days like today remind us of how lucky we are to visit and work in Antarctica.
Ben, Brian, Marcus and Zach, accompanied by Cobi, began their two-day survival school today. This course is referred to locally as snow school and is required of all first time participants in the Antarctic program. It is usually a lot of fun, especially on good weather days like today. The rest of us are sure that the happy campers will return with sunburned faces tomorrow evening.
The remainer of us spent the morning packing the last of our cargo and equipment in preparation for our deep field deployment. Everything is now in the cargo system. We learned today that we are scheduled to leave for Byrd surface camp on Monday. Two flights made it into Byrd today: one carried our refurbished Tucker, Ellie-May, and the other brought in a crew who will prepare the camp for our arrival next week.
We continued with the planning for our 'shakedown' trip to Cape Evans and Cape Royds, which will hopefully take place on Saturday. Two of the most prominent names in Antarctic traverse history, Scott and Shackleton, have huts at Evans and Royds respectively. It promises to be a spectacular trip.
Date: 11/8/00Notes on daily life:
We are still here in McMurdo, or as everyone here calls it "Mactown". Tomorrow Ben, Brain, Marcus, and Zach are off to Antarctic survival training school to learn how to light a stove, set-up a tent, and spend the night outdoors in Antarctica. The school lasts for one night and two days. After that we might all take a trip to the penguin rookery and see some more of the sights. It snowed hard here for three days and it started to let up yesterday afternoon. Since then the sky has remained relatively clear.
All of the food (all 2000 pounds) is packed, all the sleeping gear and tents are packed, 99% of the scientific gear is packed, and only a few items still need to be tracked down and packaged for shipment to Byrd. Since the weather controls everything here we are not sure that we will fly out to Byrd on Saturday as scheduled. If we do not it will be no surprise but then again if we do it will be no surprise. Folks here do what they can when they can and try not to sweat what they can not change, like cancelled flights. Today, though for the first time in three days, a number of cargo flights took off for the interior. We also saw two skuas fly by, an indication of fair weather.
Brain, Ben, Mark and Zach spent a good deal of time outside today preparing the ice core storage boxes to be shipped to Byrd. As a result they all got a little sunburn and wind burn on the faces. Those few pounds that some of us gained in the first few days here are being worn away with all the physical outdoor work. Paul, Bert, Gordon, Marcus, and Chris continued to set-up and test their equipment. Cobi continued to prepare the mountaineering climbing ropes and equipment for the traverse. She will also accompany the four guys going to survival school. Steve is still at Byrd with the crew assigned to open up Byrd camp. They had the same snowy weather that the folks had at McMurdo. The big difference is that at Byrd everything was reburied in snow and has to be dug out again. All is ready and we just need a few good days of nice weather, especially for the guys in survival school.
Date: 11/7/00Notes on daily life:
And it continues to snow. It has now been snowing for three days and it does not seem to be letting up. So far we have gotten about 10" of new snow but with the drifting it is difficult to measure. A few days ago as some of the snow had started to melt and McMurdo was looking a little "dirty" as bear rock was becoming exposed. Now the entire town looks like a winter wonderland. This wonderland is holding up our progress though, by making it difficult to work outside and get cargo flights to Byrd camp. Weather delays of a week or more are standard here but we hope we are not delayed for too long in McMurdo. We are making a lot of progress with our packing here and we will be ready to leave town if our scheduled flight to Byrd camp leaves on time. The temperature here is still relatively warm (-3° C/25° F) and for comparison here is the weekly weather report from the meteorologist at the South Pole-
27 October 2000 Through 2 November 2000 UTC Temperatures:
Now that is cold.
Breakfast today was almost whatever you wanted. Omletes, fried eggs, homefries, waffles, fruit, ham, sausage, juice, coffee, tea, hot chocolate. And lunch was make-your-own sandwiches, tortellini, pasta, meat sause, fish and chips, french fries, and drinks. Somehow I thought that on this trip we would lose weight- I'm sure that it will be different in the field.
Date: 11/06/00Notes on daily life:
Welcome to Antarctica. The weather here is like the joke in New England- if you do not like the weather wait a minute. This morning we woke up to blowing cold but enough visibility to climb observation peak (without getting blown away but close) but by 10 am it was snowing so hard that we could not see 20 feet ahead of us as we walked outside between buildings. In town it is a condition 2 day with condition 1 out on the sea ice runway. Most of the windows are plastered with the fresh snow. A few people went outside of the cafeteria and drew pictures on the windows that we could all enjoy as we sat inside.
Everyone is again very busy collecting and sorting gear and preparing their equipment. On this expedition we will be carrying about 2000 pounds of food and personal gear, 20,000 pounds of fuel, and many thousands of pounds of other gear. Combined with the weight of our sledges we will be towing about 60,000 pounds of equipment with two tractors. Our food is pretty standard fare and includes lots of coffee, tea, and hot chocolate, lots and lots of noodle dinners, crackers, cheese, rice, dried vegetables and fruits, canned meats, and 10's of pounds of chocolate bars. Some of us will live on the noodles, others on the chocolate.
Date: 11/05/00Notes on daily life:
Well, what a difference a day can make. Today we awoke to zero visibility, howling winds, blowing and drifting snow, and lower temperatures. Weather here in Antarctica is classified on a scale from 1 to 3, 3 being the most mild and 1 being the most severe. Everyday that we have been here so far has been classified as a 3, today is 1 on the ice runway and a 2 intown McMurdo. During a class 1 everyone is asked to stay indoors. Some of our cargo was "rearranged" by the wind last night so we strapped everything down again today.
It is Sunday here in McMurdo and most of the support folks have a day off. The US ITASE team, now almost complete with the addition of Paul, Gordon, Bert, and Mark, started the day with a 9 am meeting. These 9 am meeting will be the standard for the next ten weeks. As a group we will review the happenings of the prior day, organize our thoughts and gear, and prepare for the current day's events. It is great to have the team together again. Steve has been at Byrd for the past few days with other folks preparing Byrd camp. There were other flights scheduled to travel to Byrd today with more supplies but they are cancelled until the further notice.
Oh, and the next sunset will be February 20, 2001