Working in WAIS

Last Friday they sent me out to lovely WAIS, a.k.a. the “Western Antarctic Ice Shelf”.  So on Friday morning at 9:00am, the seven of us…two electricians, a lineman, and a couple of “GA’s”, boarded the C130 and headed out.  Flying on a C130 was a cool experience, it is a little smaller than the C17 we flew in on, but the interior is similar and is basically the same set up.  Before we took off, one of the crew members asked my buddy Jacob and I if we wanted to ride in the cockpit, so we headed up there and we were able to sit right behind the pilots and experience the whole flight first hand, which was really awesome.  WAIS itself is about 800 miles into the continent from McMurdo, and the flight takes around 4 hours.  As we took off from McMurdo, we flew over Black Island for about ten minutes, and were able to check out some mountain views, but after that, it is just plain, flat, white, as far as the eye can see for hundreds of miles.  So after a few hours went by we set down on an icy runway in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a few “Jamesways”, and a group of tents in the distance.

The doors opened for us to exit the plane and we were greeted by high winds, low visibility, and temperatures in the neighborhood of –20F.  We grabbed our bags and were led to the “Galley”, which is a small Jamesway set up where all the food is served and is the main meeting area in WAIS.  We were then given some lunch and met the people in the camp, which included a handful of mechanics, carpenters, GA’s, and some camp management.  After which, we followed a trail of flags about 100 yards into the horizon until we reached “tent town”.  This is where all of the tents are set up and is basically home for the duration of our time at camp.  So I proceeded to set up my tent, which is not the easiest task in below zero temps, but I was able to get it staked down really well and the set up went fine.

The next morning, the weather had cleared up a bit and we had a meeting with some of the mechanics and camp management to go over the tasks we needed to take care of, and tried to come up with a plan and prioritize some of our workload.  The main reason we were sent out was to work with the lineman and provide power to the town and connect the drilling arch to the generator power.  The drilling arch is the building that contains the big drill that the scientists use to drill down into the ice and take core samples, which allow them to study climate change, etc.  The trouble is, this building is almost completely buried with over 40ft of snow, and until they dig it out, the only way to access it was by using an extension ladder set up through a small space at the top of the building. 

 So we proceeded to put a full day of work in on Saturday, and aside from some of our parts missing, everything went relatively well.  As it got later in the day the weather continued to get worse and the winds continued to pick up.  So I headed to my tent and tried my best to get settled in, but between the brutal cold temps and the wind blowing, I could tell right away that it was going to be a long night.  We were given two sleeping bags; one mummy bag and a rectangle bag as well, so between the two bags, I really didn’t get too cold, though it was a pain getting in to the tent and getting ready for bed.  The toughest thing for me was the wind, and the light.  The wind blew so hard those first couple of nights that it sounded like I was sleeping inside of a freight train, and much like Happy Camper training, it was tough to wake up at 2:00am and be blinded by the light shining through the tent.

When I woke up Sunday morning the weather had actually got even worse and the visibility was pretty poor.  I was able to follow the flag line back into town without any issues, but because the weather was now in “condition 2” we were not allowed to work, and everyone ended up staying indoors and basically reading magazines the whole day, which made for an extremely long, and boring day.  According to the weather report with the winds the temps dropped to around –35 to –40F, which is a new Antarctic low for me.

Walking to my tent from the outhouse in "condition 2" weather, WAIS. Wind was a little Brisk!

Luckily after that first initial storm came through the weather turned around a bit and we were able to start plugging along pretty well.  Between the lineman, Jacob, and myself, we had the town power up within the next couple of days and then we moved on to the arch.  The arch was actually really cool; we went down into this building completely buried by snow with a couple of flashlights and even though there was no wind it was still –20F.  Inside the arch it looked like a place where you might find some kind of Antarctic experiment gone wrong, or some kind of a creature, or alien, reminded me a lot of the movie “The Thing”, pretty cool  So, we inspected the electrical panels to ensure everything was ready for power and gave the go-ahead and fire up the generator. 

So after a few days of work we had pretty much accomplished everything on our list ahead of schedule, and even though we were originally scheduled for two weeks, we were able to catch a ride home this afternoon on another C130 that was bringing in supplies.  WAIS was cool to see, and wasn’t bad staying there for a week, but it would be rough to stay there until February.  It is brutal cold and windy, and not much to do other than work.  Too bad I wasn’t able to stick around to see the drill up and running, apparently last year they drilled down to the 2-mile mark.  It’s nice to be back at McMurdo tonight, hopefully I will be able to catch up on some sleep.

The Pressure Ridges

Last night I was fortunate enough to head out on one of the Pressure Ridge tours just outside of Scott Base.  The Pressure Ridges are these spectacular looking ice ridges that are formed when the sea ice meets the permanent ice.  I had seen the ridges a couple of times while visiting Scott Base, but it was always from a distance, so I was excited to be able to check them out up close.

There were 9 people on the tour as well as one guide.  So we made our way on foot from Scott Base out onto the sea ice, where we were able to take a trail and weave in and out of these ridges.  The ridges themselves are these large jagged ice formations that come in all different shapes and sizes.  Similar to the ice berg I saw a couple of weeks back, the color on these things is pretty awesome, and when the light hits them certain way they seem to glow.  While making my way through the icy pathway, I couldn’t help but think to myself, that as a whole, this place really is more like another planet than another continent.

As we made our way further along the trail, we came across a weddell seal laying out on the ice.  As soon as our group got close enough it starting barking and rolling around on the ice.  It hung around long enough for us to get a couple of pictures before it made its way into the ridges and out of sight.  We pressed on and came across various other groups of seals along our way, each one seemingly has its own personality, so you never quite know what they are going to do, but all in all they really didn't seem to be bothered by our presence. 

The whole tour took approximately two hours, and was around a mile and half of walking.  The temperature was probably around zero with the wind-chill, but its amazing how tolerable 0 degrees seems when you have the right gear on, and after you are acclimated to the weather/environment.  So all in all, another interesting tour, and I would say that this was another one of those instances when you truly know that you are in Antarctica, and that you are seeing something that you would probably never see anywhere else on earth.  So a pretty cool experience, but I am still waiting for my first penguin sighting!

Next on the agenda....WAIS camp.  Thursday morning I am scheduled to fly out to the Western Antarctic Ice Shelf field camp.  I should be out there for at least two weeks or so, and I will not have any communication with the outside world, other than maybe one satellite phone.  I will try to update my blog with the details when I return.  In the mean time my main focus, other than searching for a Yetti, will be staying warm and getting back to McMurdo ASAP!

Trail Maintenance

For today's Sunday activity I volunteered to be on the trail maintenance crew.  The maintenance crew is a small team of maybe 30 volunteers that get together ever so often to clear the ice and snow on some of the more popular trails around McMurdo.  In addition to shoveling pathways sometimes it is also necessary to replace flags, add signs, trail markers, etc. 

Today my group was in charge of the trail maintenance on the back side of Observation Hill here in McMurdo.  We were divided up into a group of about 15 people and were issued shovels, tools, etc. and we headed up the mountain.  Today was a bit windy, but all in all was a nice day for a hike, and it only took us about 20 minutes to get up to the area we were working on.  Because some of the trails around town get traveled on quite a bit, they tend to get packed down with hard ice and snow and can be pretty slippery and dangerous if not maintained, especially in the steeper areas

So we formed an assembly line and everyone chipped and dug away at the trails for a couple of hours.  The temperature was probably around +10F with the wind-chill, but it was pretty physical work and with all the moving around it was easy to stay warm.  From what they say, a little later in the year when some of the sea ice breaks up a bit, the trail we were working on makes for a good place to whale watch, and occasionally you can see killer whales swimming by.  So a little later in the year I will have to check it out and see if I can get lucky enough to see some wildlife.

So after a couple of hours we had pretty much cleared a safe path around the back side of Ob Hill and called it a day.  A lot of physical work, but all in all it was nice just to get out and check out the area….

Scott Base

Every Thursday night, there are shuttles that run from McMurdo station over to the New Zealand station, Scott Base.  The New Zealanders, or “Kiwis” as they are called around these parts, have a much smaller base than McMurdo, and from what I understand, they only keep a maximum of 85 workers stationed there at one time.  Last night I went over to check out Scott Base for the first time. 

The base is located maybe 2-3 miles from McMurdo, so it only takes a few minutes to get there by shuttle.  There are basically only two reasons to go to the Kiwi base, either to go to the bar, or to buy souvenirs from their station store.  The rest of the base is off limits to us Americans, unless you have special permission.  So, I figured I would head over to check it out for something to do.  Their base is located right on the edge of these “Pressure Ridges” on the ice, which is basically where two slabs of ice collide together to form these huge ice formations.  McMurdo does a tour of the ridges that allows you to get up close and check them out, but it fills up quickly and apparently they only allow a limited amount of people out there each season, so I will be trying to sign up for that one soon! 

As far as size goes, it is definitely smaller than McMurdo, and all of the buildings are painted in a bright green color.  I went in and checked out the small store, and they did have a few cool little souvenirs, but things are pretty pricey.  They do accept American money though, which was nice, so I was able to pick up a couple of small things. 

I spent a little bit of time walking around the outside of the base and checking out the sights for a while before heading back to McMurdo.  For the most part, the Kiwi base is pretty cool, and is a lot less hectic than McMurdo, which has a lot of people passing through on their way to other camps.  I will probably try to head over there from time to time just to check things out and to talk to some of the New Zealanders.

A Close Encounter!

A few days back there was an email sent out around the base telling us about an “observation tube” that had been set up by the divers, out on the sea ice off of Hut Point.  So this afternoon, after dinner, my buddy and I went out to take a look.  This observation tube is a “pod-like” cylinder that has been drilled down into the sea ice.  It is an extremely tight fit, and is definitely not for the claustrophobic, but you can actually climb down this small ladder, into a little glass corridor and sit beneath the sea ice in the open ocean.  As you climb down, you can’t help but feel a little bit of panic, due to the extremely tight space, but once you get to the bottom is well worth it!  I actually got to sit in this little room under the sea ice, with glass views 360 degrees around me. 

As you sit there, the water is so clear that you can see all the way to the bottom in every direction, and it is probably around 100 feet deep. I could see all kinds of little glow in the dark sea creatures floating around me and in the distance there were some good-sized jellyfish as well.  I have talked to some of the divers around here in the past and they say that this is by far the clearest water they have ever been in, and after seeing it for myself, I believe them.  I tried to take several pictures while in the tube, but unfortunately due to the glare from the glass none of them really came out.

So, after we had both taken a turn in the tube, we headed over to a little “dive shack” that had been set up not far from where we were.  In the dive shack there is a hole that has been drilled into the ice, where the divers come in and out of the frigid water when making their dives.  Again, you can look down into the water and see 100 feet down to the ocean floor with glowing creatures below.  So as we were sitting there looking down into this hole, suddenly a massive seal comes swimming up to the surface for a breath of air!  This thing was huge! And it was awesome to be able to see it up close, I could have easily reached out and touched it no problem.  It came up gasping for air, but didn’t seem to mind that we were there at all.  All the while, we are within arms reach of this thing snapping pictures and taking videos.  So after hanging out at the surface for a few minutes, it had caught its breath, and was ready to be on its way.  It was interesting to see it dive back down, in that it really didn’t put forth any effort; instead it took one final deep breath and just kind of sunk peacefully into the depths of the Ross Sea. 

Within the past month of being in Antarctica I have now seen several seals, but always from a distance, and always laying on the ice like large slugs, and until now they didn’t seem very exciting.  When you see them up close however, it is a completely different story.  I never realized how massive they actually are, and how graceful they are as soon as they are in the water.  Now if I could only see a damn penguin up close I would be good to go!

Dorm Life...

The dorm rooms here at McMurdo can be summed up with one word, tight!  There are approximately 150 more people here this year than there have been in years past due to the work load and the number of projects going on this year.  You don’t really tend to notice a whole lot of people when you are working, or out around the station, but when lunch and dinner time come around, it gets pretty crowded. 

Raytheon’s solution to accommodate the large amount of people this year?…Bunk Beds!  Yes that’s right, installing bunk beds and cramming as many of us into a room as they can.  I lucked out in the fact that I don’t have any bunks in my room, but I do have to share a room (a small room) with four other roommates.  My roommates are all really pretty laid back and we all tend to get along really well so I guess I lucked out in that area.  The hardest thing to get used to around here I would say has to be the shower and laundry situation.  There are basically only four shower stalls on the whole first level of my dorm, none of which has very much privacy, and everyone has to take turns so it can get a little frustrating from time to time. 

As if that wasn’t enough, the laundry situation is a nightmare.  There is one small room that has around four washers and four dryers.  For the most part, every time I have gone down there at least two of the machines are broken and under repair.  If you are lucky enough to actually get a machine to use, then you have to wait around for a dryer forever, and the whole process takes around two hours from start to finish, and that’s for one load.  

Although I’m not too thrilled about the whole cramped living situation, I guess I will just have to try and adapt for now, and just dream about my king size bed waiting for me at home.  Although I’m pretty sure Rusty has officially taken over my place on my bed at home…. Damn..Oh well.