South Pole Centennial Celebration

December 14th:  the 100 year anniversary of Roald Amundsen's arrival at the South Pole.  To celebrate the event, the Norwegian Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg, and his entourage visited the Pole (along with hundreds of other tourists).  The folks working there put on a terrific celebratory event, complete with muscial renditions of the Norwegian national anthem, a sculpted ice-bust of Amundsen (created by a Norwegian artist), and a very fancy Norwegian-themed dinner.  It seems like it was an amazing experience for our Polie brethren and I must say that I am incredibly envious of them. 

Here is a transcript of the speech given by the Prime Minister to the crowd and by live telecast to the people of Norway (courtesy of the Norwegian Governmental website):

Dear friends,
Congratulations!
Exactly one hundred years ago, on the 14th of December 1911,
five brave Norwegians led by Roald Amundsen were the first people to reach the South Pole.
We are here today to honour these five men.
We are here to celebrate one of the most outstanding achievements of mankind.
And we are here to highlight the importance of this cold continent for the warming of the globe.
14th of December 1911 was a proud day for Norway.
A young nation that had gained its full independence only six years earlier.
The polar expeditions of Roald Amundsen helped to form our new national identity.
And the qualities that enabled Amundsen, Hassel, Bjaaland, Hanssen and Wisting to reach the South Pole, were precisely those that the young nation wanted to be recognised by:
Courage, determination and endurance.
Today is also the time to pay tribute to the bravery of Robert Scott and his men.
Scott and his team paid the ultimate prize.
But their names will forever be inscribed in Polar history.
They will always be remembered for their courage and determination in reaching one of the most unhospitable places on earth.
When Amundsen reached the Pole the team put up its tent,
and they named the camp “Polheim” – Home at the Pole.
Today the South Pole is “home” for many of you who are celebrating with us today.
More than 200 people have their daily work here at the Amundsen-Scott Base during the summer season. 
I would like to thank you and the US National Science Foundation for receiving us here with such warm hospitality in a frozen environment.
Some of you have experienced the hardship of skiing to the Pole. 
You have seen the beauty and the fascination of the Antarctic wilderness. 
And you have learned how challenging and unpredictable this frozen continent can be.
Today, Antarctica is a continent of international cooperation,
regulated by a well-functioning Antarctic Treaty,
where peace and stability,
environmental protection and international research, are at the heart of our joint efforts.
Researchers from all over the world are trying to discover the secrets of this vast continent. 
The Norwegian Troll Station is at the forefront of Norwegian research in Antarctica.
Norway and the United States have a long history of scientific cooperation.
The US – Norwegian Antarctic Scientific Traverse in 2007 made important findings.
The Antarctic continent has been changing more rapidly in recent years than at any time in the past 800 years.
The loss of ice in Antarctica can have  dramatic global effects.
It is our common responsibility to save this planet for future generations.
Roald Amundsen, Robert Scott and their men were prepared to make an extraordinary effort in order to reach their ambitious goals.
We need to be prepared to do the same.
That is the best way to honour a century of science and exploration at the South Pole.
Thank you.
To mark the historic achievements a hundred years ago, it is now my privilege to unveil this bust of Roald Amundsen here at the South Pole, made by the Norwegian artist Håkon Anton Fagerås.

If you live in Europe, you might have seen live footage of Prime Minister Stoltenberg speaking at the ceremonial Pole surrounded by flags of the nations participating in the Antarctic Treaty.  (I saw some footage on the BBC.)  Otherwise, here are some links that give you a good feel for the festivities.

http://kiellanddaniel.wordpress.com/tag/jens-stoltenberg/  This is a blog written by a Materialsperson working at Pole.  Terrific photos that capture the events better than any of the reports I've seen in the media.

http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/Slik-er-livet-p-Sydpolen-6720391.html   - it's useful if you read Norwegian, but, if not, you can just enjoy the photos.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/statsministerenskontor  Official Norwegian Government photos

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=76659&src=eoa-iotd  NASA's image of the day on December 14

and finally, an article that suggests that Robert Scott, though he didn't get to the Pole first and he and his men perished on the return journey, has done more for advancing scientific research in Antarctica than Amundsen did.  http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v480/n7375/full/480029a.html

Happy Anniversary, South Pole!

Antarctica in the News

December 14th marks the 100 year anniversary of Norwegian, Roald Amundsen's arrival at the South Pole.  In honor of this historic event, hundreds of tourists are descending on South Pole Station - by plane and on skis.  Additionally, the Prime Minister of Norway will make his way there to do a live broadcast back to his country (which the folks in our IT Department are working hard on supporting).  As you can imagine, there is a lot of media coverage. 

Perhaps you've already seen or heard reports on Antarctica on the TV news, on NPR radio or in magazines.  With the anniversary celebrations and the scientific research about to start at Pine Island Glacier, an ice sheet that is dangerously close to cracking (calving) off a giant iceberg - this is a big year for Antarctic public relations.

For a sample of the kinds of activities going on in the adventure travel world, check out the website of Antarctic Logistics Associates (ALE) which is one of the largest adventure tour operators in the Antarctic and a company that one of my British friends from France is working for this season.

CBS News in the US put together a nice piece of video about the South Pole - complete with footage of my current Pilates instructor, Hillary.  The reporter, Josh Landis, was working at McMurdo for the Antarctic Sun newspaper when I first started with the program in 2000.  Check it out here:  http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7390504n&tag=mncol;lst;1

The most current edition of the Antarctic Sun has an article about the anniversary activity.

Rolling Stone magazine did a fabulous lead article last year about disappearing ice sheets which focuses quite a bit of attention on Pine Island Glacier (PIG).  There is a field camp and several helicopters heading out to this remote, windswept and (supposedly) miserable location any day now.  It is hugely high-profile, especially because a giant crack in the glacier appeared this Spring.  http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/on-thin-ice-20100922



NASA satellite image

It's quite an exciting time to be down here!

Erebus Glacier Tongue Camp

On a calm, warm and sunny Saturday, I got to spend a half-day as a guest Communications Technician.  One of the sea ice research camps, Erebus Glacier Tongue Camp, was closing up for the season and the buildings were about to be dragged back the 10 miles (or so) to station.  Not that the Comms Techs NEEDED assistance.  This was a small task, but travel off station requires two people (for safety reasons) and on beautiful days, the people who do fun things for work try to offer a seat in their vehicles to folks like me who don't get to leave town very often.

The sea ice camps all close right about now.  The annual sea ice is getting too thin to support the structures anthat have been placed there to support science throughout WinFly (Aug-Oct) and early Mainbody (Oct-the first wekend in December).  The camp we visited supported 7 scientists who are engaged in long-term Weddell seal studies.  Needless to say, the building where they disrobed after tagging and probing seals smelled pretty awful!

Our job was to remove the antennae, telephones, wireless router and any other IT gear from the 5 structure camp.  I was amazed at how comfortable this place was.  They had two heated spaces for sleeping (2 bunk beds in each), a big outhouse with insulated toilet seats and an incredible view of the active volcano, Mt. Erebus, from the urinal, a work/science structure (with the bad stink) and a kitchen building with a big view of Erebus through a picture window next to the dining table.  Furthermore, since camp was so close to the Station, the scientists could easily return to their rooms in town to do laundry, take showers and attend big parties.  Sounds perfect to me!




The view of volcanic Mt. Erebus (notice the smoking plume from the top) from the camp.

  

Thanksgiving Morning

Thanksgiving morning in McMurdo always falls on a Saturday.  We don't get the real Thanksgiving Day holiday, but the closest Saturday and Sunday are days off and we celebrate Thanksgiving with our annual 5K running race at 10:00 AM.  The Turkey Trot almost always brings out some great costumes and a variety of attitudes and seriousness about racing.  Here are some shots from this year's event. 


The starter turkeys

 



The start and finish line are at the Chapel

 

Completely overheating with my 4 layers of clothing

 By the way, it's definitely a benefit being over-40 in these races as my "competition" consisted of a group of 9.  I think I came in fourth in this grouping after a very poor performance, multiple lace tyings, dead mp3 player and fighting a cold.

WAIS Divide for Thanksgiving

Michiel won't be spending the rare two-day holiday weekend with me in McMurdo this year.  Instead, he is out at the WAIS Divide field camp installing their email server.  WAIS stands for West Antarctic Ice Sheet and WAIS Divide is a multi-year camp primarily focused on getting ice cores for scientific research.

Rather than trying to explain it, I'll let these videos, one of which is narrated by my friend, Gifford Wong, tell the story.

http://science360.gov/series/WAIS+Divide/bba68a0e-1005-484d-a343-cb458621a1a6

How Not to Land A Plane in Antarctica

On October 8, 1970, a Lockheed Constellation aircraft flown by the US Navy in support of Operation Deep Freeze (the official name for the military support to the Antarctic Program) was carrying 80 passengers from Christchurch, New Zealand to McMurdo Station.  It was the first flight of the 1970 season and the weather that day was, well, not conducive to landing.  The aircraft, named "Pegasus", made six low passes and the pilot attempted to land in zero visibility with winds gusting to 40 miles per hour in 90-degree crosswinds.  No one was killed; only 5 people on board were mildly injured.  The starboard wing was torn off completely and the tail unit was broken.

The plane was attempting to land at Williams Field, which is several miles away from this area on the permanent ice shelf.  The crash site is now adjacent to our permanent ice runway called (not coincidentally) "Pegasus" and serves as a destination for occasional after-work morale trips.

The environmental group has plans to remediate this site (meaning:  disassembling the plane and shipping the parts off-continent), so I decided that it was finally time to get out there.  Getting to Pegasus field involves a one hour drive in a Delta, which can be bumpy and uncomfortable, but there was nothing else going on this past Saturday evening, the skies cleared up on the way out and I got to sit in the front cab, so it was a really pleasant road trip.

Pictures of the Pegasus Plane.  They had a lot of snow this winter, so the plane was even more buried than prior years.

The view of the Trans-Antarctic Range from the Pegasus site.  So peaceful...

Photos I Wish I Took

The warm temperatures have been melting all of the roads and the snow on the hills and mountains, creating a huge amount of run-off.  This relatively warm run-off flows into Winter Quarters Bay and raises the temperature of the water which speeds up the melting of the Ice Pier from underneath.  Remember that Ice Pier I mentioned in a prior post?  It now has 4 feet of good ice and the rest of its thickness is slush.  Not good news...

The powers-that-be have been brainstorming alternative methods of off-loading all of the cargo arriving by resupply vessel since the Ice Pier has finally and officially been deemed un-usable.

They are down to 2 options:  offload all of the cargo in Lyttleton, NZ and fly 150 extra C-17 missions or use some kind of modular "Lego" pier to do an offload here.  Too bad the NSF didn't want to consider other options when the alarm bell was sounded by our Fleet Operations personnel back in August.  Over half of our cargo has already been containerized in California and ready to load onto the Resupply vessel.  This cargo will likely get re-prioritized and need to be re-containerized.  

On a brighter note, everyone who bet money on the NSF missing their stated deadline to announce the new subcontractor for the USAP is now richer.  Although...no one would have bet against this happening.  After two contract extensions, we were supposed to hear today who our new "boss" will be, but it is silent at the Denver Headquarters.  Many think that we'll hear right before Thanksgiving.

Finally, to end my week on a happy note, here are some great photos that I WISH I took.  They have been "borrowed" from the public photo storage location on the network.  Enjoy!



Penguin Chick under one of its parents



McMudhole

The gorgeous weather of the last few days has turned our roads into slushy mud pits, but it sure is nice to feel the warm sun on a face that doesn't need to be covered from the wind!

Olympic Competitors - Another Reason to Love McMurdo!

Last night, I attended another installment of the wonderful new talk series here in McMurdo called "Secret Lives".  It features two people each week telling stories of their off-ice lives.  Yesterday's was particularly exciting; it starred our Nurse Practitioner, who is an Olympic level figure skating judge, and the head of our Housing department, who competed for 12 years as the brakeman for the two-man bobsled team representing TRINIDAD!

Curtis was a star sprinter and was recruited to train in Lake Placid, New York for the Trinidad and Tobago team.  He competed in the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer and in 1998 in Nagano, Japan.  He talked about the mechanics of racing bobsleds (or bobsleigh), the agony of being in a thin piece of fiberglass moving at speeds up to 90 miles per hour with 4 g of gravitational force and the effects of crashing (ripped off skin).  He balanced those stories with tales of luxury and grandeur at the Olympic Games (masseuses, chefs at your beck and call, drivers and interpreters, and designated driving lanes on the roadways just for athletes).  Utterly fascinating!

There is another Olympian on station who also competed in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano.  Deborah is here with the military and I've gotten to know her through my IT training classes.  She competed in the biathlon for the US.  

Olympic results are here:

Curtis: http://www.todor66.com/olim/1994w/Bobsleigh_Doubles.html                    
Deborah:  http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/no/deborah-nordyke-1.html
  
Hooray for our tremendous community!



The control towers and buildings at the Ice Runway

 I admit it...I love the flying machines of Antarctica.  On Sunday, the people who work the airfield and the crews who fly the various aircraft allowed the community to come and check out these beautiful planes and helos up close.  We even got to sit in the cockpits of some of them!


LC-130 Hercules - flown by the New York Air National Guard

 





In the cockpit of a Bell 212 helicopter - normally flown by PHI



The most beautiful of the Antarctic aircraft, a Basler BT-67, flown by Kenn Borek Air of Canada.



A DeHavilland DHC-6 Twin Otter - also flown by Kenn Borek.

 It is a real privilege to be able to say that I've flown in almost all of these (except for the Twin Otter) and every time is still thrilling.

At the end of the day, we also got the opportunity to go up into the Air Traffic Control Tower.

Inside the tower

 The interesting cloudscape added to the enjoyment of the day and the beauty of the photos.

It's HOT!

Well, it's hot for Antarctica.  The snow and ice on the roofs and eaves of all the buildings is melting off into giant puddles.  The roadways have a super slick surface of hard packed snow.  The sun is bright and shiny; the sky is blue and the winds are almost non-existent.  Conditions like this never last but while we have them, everyone is cheerful.....except for the people who are concerned about the thickness of our new new ice pier, which is used during annual vessel (goods, supplies, and vehicles) and tanker (fuel) offload.

At the end of last season, the new ice pier floated away in a storm.  It's been spotted some 20 miles or so away from station, complete with electrical poles, quonset hut, and bollards for tying up the ships.  Here is a photo taken from a helicopter of the ice pier lodged in annual sea ice.

The environmental team will work on removing all of the material out there on the sea ice but in the meantime, fleet operations have been working on making a new ice pier this winter and winfly.  With our incredibly warm temperatures this year, the new new ice pier is only 9 feet thick but it should be 17 feet thick at this point in the season.  We'll see how this one works out for us...

Rockin' the Chalet Deck

Condition Fun is a band that has been around for many years and is the brainchild of Sandwich and Bill.  They excel at writing fun and catchy tunes about the vehicles of McMurdo.  Last season, they asked me to join them on drums to fill out their sound.  Now we're up to five members with a sixth contributing clarinet and cigar-box guitar onarious numbers.

Last Saturday, Condition Fun was asked to participate in a live video tele-conference with the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California by the Pricipal Investigator for one of the marine science projects, Gretchen Hoffman.  Gretchen did 2 live interviews from the deck of the Chalet (Sation and NSF management offices), which, by the way, has the best views of any place on Station.  The first interview was with a group of six graders and the second interview occured at night in California during the aquarium's Halloween cocktail party and shindig.

Gretchen thought it would be fun to have us "play out" her interview with a popular tune, C-17.  It was a great treat for us and I think it came out quite well.

The video is on Youtube.  Check it out here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Joghsyhnsjc

McMurdo 1955

After one month, I am finally catching my breath and finding time to blog again.  In the past four weeks, the population has doubled and will nearly triple (from WinFly) in the next couple of weeks.  This has been a huge shift in my understanding of what winterovers go through (on a much bigger scale!) when the first flight of WinFly arrives. 

It doesn't take long to get into a rhythm here and to get lulled into the peacefulness of a small population.  Our lives during Mainbody, when the population can soar to over 1150, get focused on planning and scheduling everything.  Even he most mundane things like going to the gym or going to the dining hall have to be carefully planned so that you don't go right at noon or 5:30 pm.  We even get to the point where we don't go to lunch on the half hour or hour because it's too crowded.  After 6 seasons of this behavior, it was an exceptional treat to go wherever I wanted, when I wanted.  All that ended on November 3.

Since then, I've been teaching 3 or 4 software training classes per day and spending the rest of my work time providing software assistance one-on-one or editing the McMurdo intranet.  The station is full of people trying to get to their field camps, the South Pole, Australians (heading to Casey, one of the Australian stations), Italians (heading to Terra Nova) and loads of scientists wishing to get out into the field to do their research.

The weather and the condition of the sea ice this year have made it difficult for anyone to get anywhere. There are giant cracks in the ice where we would normally have an ice road and this has meant that many scientists now need helicopter support to get to locations they would otherwise drive to.  We've also had many days of blowing snow and near white-out conditions which mean that no one goes anywhere!  Right now, 24 Australians are sleeping in "man camp" (a big bunk room) because we can't get a flight out to their station.  Meanwhile,  other program participants heading south have been stuck in LA and elsewhere while the Qantas fleet has been grounded.  There's always a challenge in this program - for many, that's what keeps them coming back year-after-year.  It's never the same!

Another thing that CERTAINLY has not stayed the same over the years is the condition and the look of McMurdo.  Today, I discovered some photos taken in McMurdo in 1955.  They did not have any of the same safety or environmental concerns that we do today and had very different rules.  Back then, dogs were used for pulling sleds.  No one is permitted to bring animals to Antarctica any more - especially when they discovered that dogs were passing along the canine distemper virus to seals.

Today, we'd never be allowed to scamper around the sea ice in those conditions!

We still have a chapel but it doesn't have a picket fence!  Nor is it a quonset hut.

The one thing that hasn't changed...

Note the beer cans.

Snow Day!

In Antarctica, when you have a snow day, you don't get to stay home and go sledding BUT they do cancel flights.  Today is supposed to be the first day of the Mainbody season, the time when almost all of our science occurs and station population can swell to 1200.  Many of the winterovers are scheduled to fly out after 8 months or (in many cases) one year and are giddy with excitement.

On the schedule today are two flights, one a C-17 and the other an Airbus.  The Airbus was slated to bring 70 people to station but now that it has been cancelled due to blowing snow and low visibility, ten priority passengers have been moved to the C-17 which can land in worse conditions than the Airbus.  The C-17 has been delayed and may yet be cancelled, but for now, we're planning on losing 38 people and getting 40.  I can live with that.

Here are some more amazing photos from the science group that is gathering worms on the ocean floor for genetic analysis.

Changeable

From -81F/-60C wind chill to 1F/17C in just two days.  The clouds have moved in overhead and have brought warm, moist air with them.

In the meantime, we are all preparing (mentally, spiritually, physically) for the beginning of Mainbody starting next Monday.  With each flight, we'll get 140 new people and lose only about 100 winterover personnel (in total!).  It will get crazy busy very quickly.  To commemorate the end of WinFly, the carpenters are throwing a big party with live music this Saturday night.  Sadly, I agreed to cover someone's bartending shift so I won't be able to attend.  I hope some people actually come to the bar!

The Carp shop

Gallagher's Pub, where I'll be bartending

More Nacreous Photos

Here are photos of some stunning nacreous clouds we observed a couple of nights ago.  Unfortunately, the photos don't completely capture the variety and clarity of the pastel colors, but you get a good idea of what makes this place so special.

Recreating During WinFly

Even though the temperatures have been quite low recently, we do try to get out and recreate when it's Condition 3 (good visibility and not less than -60F wind chill).  There are several marked hiking trails and a software program that helps us plan our route and check out with the Firehouse (when the program is working properly!).  Checkouts are mandatory for certain routes and at certain times of the season.  During WinFly, since the weather is vey changeable and cold, most routes require a checkout and a radio.  The software is updated to inform us if we need radios and checkouts.

Last Sunday, we hiked the Ob Hill Loop in temperatures that might have gotten down to -30F wind chill.  For about an hour and half, we hiked in the swirling snow, searching for our path, which had been drifted over.  At times, the gusts made it difficult to move forward, but that just added to the "workout".

It was good fun, but after such an outing, lots of water, warm drinks and calories are imperative. 




The Coldest I've Ever Experienced....

I thought the other day was cold but, today, I reached my new record for low wind chill....-76 degrees F.  Woo Hoo!  Not a bit of skin can be showing in temperatures like these.  We're grateful for "big red", the parka we get issued.  Mine has real coyote fur around the hood. Check out the What to Wear post for a photo.

Oh, wait...it just got colder.....

And by the way...that is awful, deadly cold.  The wind gusts almost knock me over and even covered body parts are close to frost nip in a very short amount of time.  The roar of the wind is ferocious and a bit scary.  On my way from lunch back to the building where I work (uphill and into the wind!), I did a little experiment with a cup of water.  I tossed the water into the air and it froze instantly into a spray of ice.  Pretty neat but it was too bitter to hang around outside long enough to ponder the science behind it.