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.