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2007

Date: November 5, 2007
Location: McMurdo Station
Latitude: 77 degrees, 51 minutes South
Longitude: 166 degrees, 40 minutes East
Temperature: −12°C ( 10°F)
Wind Speed: 35 knots
Wind Chill: −26°C (−14°F)
Elevation: 50 meters (164 feet)
Written by: Dan D.

Today's location reflects Josh and me. The rest of the team are out at the winter–over site:
Latitude: 80 degrees, 18 minutes, 30 seconds South,
Longitude: 144 degrees, 41 minutes, 27 seconds East,
Elevation: 2279m (7477 ft)
I'm sure the temperature is a LOT colder there!

Today is quite quiet for most of the day, Dan B. left the room this morning and flew out to the winter–over site with the rest of the US ITASE team. My remaining three roommates left for the South Pole shortly after Dan. Now I am all alone in my room, still in quarantine thanks to this nasty flu virus. There seems to be somewhat of a mini–epidemic on the station at the moment. Last week, when I went into the doctor's office for a check–up, there were 35 flu cases. Today there are over 80 cases on station! I am starting to feel better though, perhaps my flu bug has run its course and the doctor will release me from quarantine tomorrow...

In the evening, my quiet time comes to an abrupt end. My "South Pole" roommates all burst through the door looking somewhat worse for wear than when they left this morning. It turns out that their plane took off earlier in the day and reached the South Pole only to find that the weather had closed in and they could not land! They circled for an hour before returning to McMurdo. When they got back to McMurdo the weather had deteriorated here as well. The pilot made two attempts at landing, aborted both times, circled the ice runway for three hours (during which time 50% of the passengers became airsick!) and finally managed to land on the third attempt. Phew! I'm glad I wasn't on that flight. The weather channel in McMurdo forecasts bad weather for the rest of the week...

Date: November 5, 2007
Location: ITASE Winter Over Site
Latitude: 80 degrees, 18 minutes South
Longitude: 144 degrees, 41 minutes East
Temperature: −37°C ( −34.6°F)
Wind Speed: 10 knots
Wind Chill: −51°C (−60°F)
Elevation: 2191 meters (7189 feet)
Kilometers Traveled: 0
Ice Core Drilled: 0 meters
Written by: Nicky

Nothing but smooth sailing (or flying rather)!  Our transport is mysteriously bumped back to 8:30AM, but other than that, our trip to the winter-over site begins excellently.  At some point in the flight we hit enough turbulence that the pilot decides to go up to 12500 feet, at which point, as the plane is not pressurized, those passengers not previously exposed to such elevations (myself included) experience the sensations of extreme warmth, difficulty breathing, and what feels like boiling blood.  Coats and hats are anxiously ripped off, and when offered, some of the passengers choose to use the supplemental oxygen system.  These feelings eventually subside and the flight continues without incident.

Because the weather was so fine, the crew along with Paul, Gordon, and Brian decide to anecdotally kill two birds with one stone by flying past the winter–over site to perform reconnaissance of the traverse route.  This mission is positive in that it finds no cracks or large holes in the route, only very large sastrugi.  In short, it’s going to be a BUMPY ride.  I know the recon mission is over when we circle around and I catch a glimpse of a tiny little smoking outpost in the middle of an endless expanse of white.  It is our camp, and the sight of it (for a first timer) is exhilarating!

Upon landing, passengers, and then cargo are quickly unloaded. Before I know it, the carpenters and their equipment have been loaded into the plane and they are gone and we are alone. Its almost like Luci has anticipated our arrival (and our hunger) and a wonderful hot meal awaits us minutes after landing. The put–in crew, the carpenters, mechanics, electricians and the alternative energy specialist have done an amazing job getting camp set up and we are able to rest a bit and acclimatize to our new elevation.  We are instructed to take it easy because the change in elevation is quite large.  Our only real tasks for the day are to set up our bunks, learn the layout of camp, and generally assess the overall situation.

Our second flight is cancelled because a nasty storm (Condition 1 and 2) has blown into McMurdo.  The forecast is such that it looks as though we will not get a plane until Wednesday.  Much of the remainder of the work to be done relies on cargo flights, so we wait.  While we wait, one of the generator problems is fixed, the Piston Bully is started and the radiator and fan on the Dozer Cat are destroyed.  This might mean more waiting, but we can't do anything else right now, so we all fall asleep to the hum of the generator, cozy in our sleeping bags.

 

Date: November 6, 2007
Location: McMurdo Station
Latitude: 77 degrees, 51 minutes South
Longitude: 166 degrees, 40 minutes East
Temperature: −17°C ( 1°F)
Wind Speed: 45 knots
Wind Chill: −34°C (−30°F)
Elevation: 50 meters (164 feet)
Written by: Dan D.

Hooray! Today I was released from quarantine. Now I am free to walk around and get some fresh air. It has been a long time since I have felt the sting of cold wind on my cheeks. As luck would have it, today is extremely cold and windy – much like several slaps in the face after being cooped up in my room for so long.

In the morning I phoned up the ITASE camp site on the satellite phone, gained a list of last–minute loose ends that needed tying up and for the rest of the day I walked around station tying them! It felt good to be walking around, despite the cold wind and my lingering cough. The weather has been so bad in McMurdo that no planes have taken off since yesterday morning, and it doesn't look like clearing up anytime soon. Down on the ice runway it was declared a "condition 1" – that means severe. When a condition 1 is declared, all outside travel is prohibited and you must stay inside the building you are in. Luckily, McMurdo is still in a "condition 3" – safe to travel, although at some points throughout the day I would have thought otherwise.

 

Date: November 6, 2007
Location: ITASE Winter Over Site
Latitude: 80 degrees, 18 minutes South
Longitude: 144 degrees, 41 minutes East
Temperature: −34°C ( −29°F)
Wind Speed: 10 knots
Wind Chill: −48°C (−54°F)
Elevation: 2191 meters (7189 feet)
Kilometers Traveled: 0
Ice Core Drilled: 0 meters
Written by: Nicky

Despite the fact that there is still a lot of equipment and parts to be delivered to the field, there is plenty to do and today is filled with activity.  The two most exciting parts of the day (in my opinion) were an additional crevasse training course, as taught by Paul, and learning to drive the Challenger (Fork CAT).  The purpose of Paul's crevasse training course was to touch upon those things not mentioned in the previous class and to act as a reminder of what we did learn (i.e. can you still tie a prussic??).  The majority of the time was spent learning to self–arrest and to arrest members of your team.  Before learning self–arrest we learned the proper way to carry an ice axe and how to self–arrest with it without stabbing yourself.  Most of us don't fall gracefully and I'm certain we have the leg bruises to prove it.  This exercise became more interesting when we all roped up in a line and had to arrest ourselves as the person in front of us ran.  This meant, if you didn't dig your ice axe into the surface well enough you'd go for a ride.  Each person self–arrested successfully and then it was on to arresting members of your team.  This meant that 2, 3 or 4 people would run and the people/person (3,2,1) behind them would have to simultaneously throw themselves on the ground, using the proper technique, to stop them from running (simulation fall).  Somehow, I ended up as the person on the end of the rope and, I am proud to say, was able to arrest all 4 members of my team after being dragged for only a short distance!

Learning to drive the Challenger was also quite fun.  To give you some idea of scale, for those of you that know me, I am 62.5 inches tall.  The tracks on the Challenger are 60 inches tall and that doesn't include anything above the tracks.  Basically, this is a massive tractor and driving for the traverse will be a massive responsibility.  Kasey, our temporary heavy shop mechanic, takes us all for a quick walk around the vehicle telling us things we should check for and beware of (i.e. don't let snow build up here, watch for leaks here) and then we each take a turn driving with Kasey at our side to guide us.  The Challenger feels stable for the most part and is relatively straightforward to drive.  You set your desired RPMs by hand using a lever on your right side (instead of an accelerator foot pedal).  The only other foreign thing (to me anyway) is the gear–shifting lever (similar to a joystick), which is the type where you push it to the right to go to a higher gear and the left to go to a lower gear. To put it in forward drive you push the lever forwards and to put it in reverse push it backwards. My ride is long because I ask a million questions (what happens if I do this, what happens if I do that) and Kasey willingly answers them.

The remainder of the day is spent on working on little projects here and there.  Mike set up the weather station on top of the kitchen.  Elena collects snow to melt for water. We complete an inventory of the food in the cold boxes attached to the back of the kitchen.  Brian begins to get his radar shack set up and moves it closer to camp. Gordon and Dan B. begin to get their radar equipment set up as well.  Luke and Brian get all three Herman Nelsons running (hot air blowers for warming up equipment and mechanics hands in the cold) and Luke even finds the time to build Elena and me some stellar shelves for our bunks. Paul and Gordon continue to coordinate flights and required items through MacOps and we find out that Josh is still very sick and we likely wont see him for another week and a half, but that Dan is getting better and will be here Friday or Saturday.

Tomorrow we learn to drive the Piston Bully, which goes faster than the whopping 4.7km/hr I achieved in the Challenger...this could be interesting.