Date: November 28th, 2006
Location: McMurdo Station
Latitude: 77 degrees, 51 minutes South
Longitude: 166 degrees, 40 minutes
East
Temperature: 2°C (36°F)
Wind Speed: 1.7 knots
Wind Chill: 2°C (35°F)
Elevation: 34 meters
Written by: Dan D.
Still at VMF
We have been given orders from Denver to apply several strengthening upgrades to the spreader bars. This will slow down our progress, but it will result in a very strong and reliable set of bars. Brian phoned in from Taylor Dome during the morning check-in and requested several more items from around town. I spent much of the day collecting materials for the Taylor Dome requests and getting them safely into the cargo system.
Date: November 29th 2006
Location: McMurdo Station
Latitude: 77 degrees, 51 minutes
South
Longitude: 166 degrees, 40 minutes
East
Temperature: -2°C (28°F)
Wind Speed: 1.7 knots
Wind Chill: -3°C (27°F)
Elevation: 34 meters
Written by: Dan D.
The spreader bars are taking a lot longer to complete than originally thought. In the end it should be well worth the effort as we glide effortlessly over the ice sheet. The spreader bars are designed as a large rigid triangular towing bar. The apex of the triangle hitches to the tractor and two sleds hitch to each of the other corners of the bar (with the possibility of hitching a third in the middle). The theory behind this idea is that the sleds will travel through the snow better if they are not within each other’s tracks. We will not know how well this works until we connect everything up at Taylor Dome and do some testing. A similar bar was built for the heavy South Pole Traverse and it worked very well.
Date: November 30th, 2006
More Work at VMF
Rick, Dan B., and I spent the majority of Thursday (1pm Thurs to 8am Fri) working hard on the spreader bars again. The reason for the mad rush was that our flight was due to leave on Friday afternoon. As it turned out, we didn’t get the bars finished in time for the flight and now it has been postponed until Monday. Normally, our flight would have only been postponed by one day, but as it happens, this weekend the McMurdo airport is being moved from the sea ice to the Ross Ice Shelf. The beginning of December is the traditional time for the airport to be moved. It happens on this date every year. Now that the giant iceberg, B–15, had gone, there is a good chance that the sea ice surrounding McMurdo will break up and float out to sea. That will be a welcome sight to all on the base this season.