New Harbor & the Dry Valley's

Last Wednesday I was scheduled to fly out to do some work in place called New Harbor. New Harbor is located about 50 miles from McMurdo.  I was especially excited about this job for a couple of reasons, the main reason is that the only way to access the camp is by helicopter, and the second reason is that New Harbor is located right at the mouth of the “Dry Valleys”.  The Dry Valleys are unique in that they are not covered in ice; in fact they look more like a frozen desert than anything.  A frozen desert that is surrounded by mountains that is, which means there are hikes in the area.  Not to mention that it is just another one of those places where not many people have the opportunity to go, and those are usually the coolest places.

So, the helicopter picked us up as planned on Wednesday morning.  There were four of us in total scheduled to fly out, along with three others waiting for us at camp.  Well, all I can say is that flying in a helicopter is pretty awesome.  As we lifted off we shot straight up into the air like a rocket…. held steady for a second, and “boom!” we were off!  For the first part of the flight we flew over the frozen Ross Sea where we could see open water in the distance.  Below us, along the cracks in the ice, you could see seals basking in the sun and the mountains on the horizon.  As we got closer to the Dry Valleys we flew along side the base of some mountains until the snow and ice eventually turned into a desert-like terrain.  After about 30 minutes, and a few more ridges we could see the small camp in the distance.  New Harbor camp is located right at the edge of the Ross Sea in the Taylor Valley, which more or less looks like the surface of the moon.  Surrounding the camp there are snow covered mountains and glaciers in every direction.  The main purpose of the New Harbor camp is to support diving.  From my understanding the ice in the area is much darker and the sun has a hard time penetrating though, therefore the environment is more like one that would be found in much deeper waters.

After landing, we were led into the Jamesways and were shown what we needed to do, which was a simple task, just swapping out some old wiring and doing some inspections to get the camp ready to be closed up for the winter.  Well, within about 4 or 5 hours we had completed all of our work and were ready to go check out the area.  We decided to hike out to the Commonwealth Glacier, which was about two miles out.  The hike was slow going because you are pretty much walking through sand and rock for the most part, but the rocks are really interesting.  There are billions of them, and they are all different shapes, sizes, and colors.  After about an hour we came to the edge of the glacier, which was pretty incredible, every once and a while it would crack and pieces would break off and come crashing down.  So, we took some pictures and hung out for a half hour before starting back.  On the way back we came across a seal carcass, which was interesting because it was miles away from the ocean, and it looked like something you would be more likely to find in Death Valley than in Antarctica.

That night we slept on cots in the Jamesway and were scheduled to be picked up by helicopter the next day.  So in the morning, we woke up and packed up our sleep kits and got ready to head out.  Well, not long after, we got word on the radio that a big storm was hitting McMurdo and that there would be no flights going out all day.  Everyone was fine with this; after all there are definitely worse places to be stuck, however there wasn’t much food for the seven of us, and there wasn’t much to do.  There were a few snacks here and there so we ate those throughout the day, and went on a few walks/hikes around the area as well to make the time go by a little faster.  When we woke up the next morning, the storm that had hit McMurdo, was now hitting us.  There was wind blowing and snow falling and yet again, the flights for the day were cancelled.  Again…no big deal, but now we were getting seriously low on food, but luckily there was a survival box that we were able to tap into, that was filled with nasty, salty, powdered soups, and a few chocolate bars.  So we ate that throughout the day and figured that if our flight got cancelled again, we would take a 12-mile hike over to Marble Point, which is another camp in the area, and grab some supplies there.

Well, to make a long story short, we woke up the next day and the storm had lifted enough to get the chopper in.  On the way back I was able to ride in the front seat of the helicopter so it was a pretty cool experience.  Although it was kind of nice to get back to McMurdo, it was a pretty cool adventure and it was nice to have a break from the normal town activities and work.