Running

So cold, it froze my beard.

This season has seen a lot of running again. When we just get down here in October, it is rather cold (-40F/C wind chill easily) and it is really a challenge to run outside. The alternative is an old gym which houses some 'crappy' treadmills and other fitness equipment. The treadmills often don't incline and sometimes lie about their speed if they run at all. In their defense I must say that they are old and are being worked very hard (.......numbers here........) Another bad point about the gym is that it is warm, smelly and lacking oxygen.

Quite a lot of races have been organized; some of which we have run. Turkey Trot (extra prizes for dressing up) Ob Hill up Hill (short distance but very steep) ; Scott Hut Race (5K) . And I joined a couple of people in a self invented Grand Slam, where we connected 4 recreational routes in 1 go. It earned us a commemorative trail marker and much respect.



On the bus to the start. Do I look scared? At the starting line. Running near the Willy Field Runway.

The master of all races was of course the Marathon. 26 miles on the sea-ice for runners and skiers. This year the conditions were less favorable than last year between -2C and 3C (28 to 37F) with wind chill temps at 14F/-10C. Wind speed of 24 knots (44 kph or 28 mph)
Not very cold, but very windy.
The numbers:
7 skiers (first place was an incredible 2:17:12)
18 runners (first place 3:36:51)
I came in 6th with 4:18:38 which is (I am proud to say) 1 hour faster than last year.

Sheri was one of the half marathon runners, and despite the fact that she has had a cold and not a lot of training she managed to finish in a decent time and not be overly sore the next day. Not bad for someone who isn't all that fond of running.


Start of the Turkey Trot.

Rock AND Roll

Performance at the Helo Hangar Party. A fan kissing the drummer.

It has been a couple of weeks of Saturday evening live music shows and I've been a part of several of them, including IceStock, our outdoor music festival, the helo hangar party and the Waste Barn party. Our band, called "A Girl, A Guy, Another Girl, Plus One More Guy" (not too easy to remember) does cover versions of rock songs (mostly) with female lead vocals (Pat Benatar, Joan Jett, Veruca Salt, Letters to Cleo). We've been extremely well received and our audiences have been filled with enthusiastic dancers.

Performance at IceStock Dancing crowd,and even the cacti are dancing.

The Furthest South Possible.....

The famous ceremonial South Pole

I was able to finally step foot on the actual continent of Antarctica (McMurdo is actually on an island that is attached to the continent by an ice shelf) and can now say that I have been at the bottom of the world.

My position as Passenger Services, Senior allows me the opportunity to organize the movement of over 1200 people from Antarctica to Christchurch, New Zealand (the process is known as "Redeployment"), including all of the employees who work at the South Pole. I was able to spend a day at the Pole working with my liaison there on the redeployment process and got a full tour of not only the new station (which was completed last year), but also of the old Dome station, the Ice Cube Project, where they are drilling 70 holes for neutrino-detecting sensors, and the new telescope (didn't get to go inside, though).

LC-130 transportation towards Pole Some of the transportation at Pole

I flew with my counterpart from Christchurch at 8 AM on an LC-130 Hercules aircraft and spent a good portion of the trip enjoying the incredible scenery over the Trans-Antarctic Mountains from the cockpit. (I was also able to spend the last hour on the way back to McMurdo in the cockpit! The flight crew was great and enjoyed my enthusiasm about the scenery as much as I was enjoying the scenery!)

The runway is only about 200 feet away from the new station, which sits on stilts in order to avoid being covered over by drifting snow. It was about -35 degrees F/-37 C with the wind chill and it certainly felt cold after the balmy temps in the 40's (6-7 degrees C) we had been enjoying at McMurdo. After walking up the 2 flights of stairs to the station entrance, I could certainly feel the physio-altitude of 10,374 feet/3168 meters. Apparently, something about the atmospheric pressure at the Pole makes high altitudes feel even higher. There have been lots of problems with people working too much, too soon after they arrive at Pole and having to get evacuated to McMurdo to recover. In order to reduce the negative effects of going quickly to these altitudes, the medical clinic has been giving the same medication (Diamox)used by climbers to everyone who goes to the Pole.

It was a great day and I thoroughly enjoyed the hospitality of not only my host, but also of everyone in that small community. Here are some highlights of my day: Walking under the dome of the old station, seeing the glaciers and mountains that make up the Trans-Antarctic Range, seeing all of the science projects that we support in our logistics department (cargo and passenger movement), getting to spend time with someone I work VERY closely with via email and seeing the new South Pole station.

Note: The ceremonial pole in the photos isn't really at the magnetic south pole. The real furthest south point moves constantly and every year, they hold a big ceremony and move the marker for the true South Pole.

more pictures

Penguin Invasion!!!!

After seeing one (1!) Adelie penguin during the whole previous season, we were invaded by a very big group recently. Sunday, January 7 was a lovely sunny day and the icebreaker Oden was busy clearing the ice channel for the supply vessel that arrives in early February. On the ice near the channel were several groups of Adelies running away from the movement of the ship, some of them towards shore.

Word got around town pretty fast, and in no time there were lots of red parkas at Hut Point enjoying the sight. Needless to say that there was a very high camera density.















I spent a couple of hours watching and enjoying the animals. Luckily, I had my laptop with me, so I could empty the memory card of my camera onto it. I can safely say that it was the highlight of the season.

We want to keep these blog postings accessible for people with slow internet connections, so there are only a couple of pictures here, for more stuff click on the links below.

Our picture website

Movies:
Penguins amongst humans
Penguins on the run from icebreaker
slippery

Pinguin Invasie (in het Nederlands)

Toen we vorig jaar hier waren hebben in totaal maar 1 pinguin gezien. Erg teleurstellend. Dit jaar kwam er een invasie van pinguins. Zondag 7 januari was een mooie zonnige dag en de ijsbreker " Oden" was bezig met het ijsvrij maken van een kanaal zodat later het bevoorraadingsschip hier kan komen. Dichtbij waar de ijsbreker aan het werk was waren er verschillende groepen Adelie pinguins die zich snel uit de voeten maakten als het schip te dicht bij kwam. Sommige groepjes kwamen naar het land toe.
In ons "dorpje" hier verspreidde het nieuws zich razendsnel, en dus waren er vele rode jassen (bijna iedereen heeft een dikke rode winterjas) bij Hut Point. Het spreekt vanzelf dat er heel erg veel foto camera's waren.















ik heb een paar uur doorgebracht met het bekijken van de beestjes (ze komen zeker niet hoger dan mijn knie) en had gelukkig mijn laptop meegenomen zodat ik mijn camera geheugen kon vrijmaken en weer nieuwe foto's kon nemen. Het was fantastisch om deze mooie beestjes die zo nieuwsgierig zijn van dichtbij te zien en te horen. ik kan nu al zeggen dat het het hoogtepunt is van het jaar.

Ik kan hier niet te veel foto's plaatsten maar je kunt meer zien door op de volgende links te klikken:


Our picture website

Movies:
Penguins amongst humans
Penguins on the run from icebreaker
slippery