Boondoggle here is a special trip or assignment outside of one's normal work to visit and witness cool and unusual things in order to build moral. I got my first one, a field trip to Cape Evans, the site of Scott's Antarctic headquarters. (FYI He died on the 1912 trip to the pole on his way. He was attempting to be the first there but missed by about a week, Amundsen from Norway beat him to it and then he (Scott,) and all his men perished in a blizzard on the way back to this hut. They died of starvation and exposure, his last entry into his diary was on March 12, 1912. ) Shackleton also used this site for 2 of his trips as well. Several folks wintered over here, I can't even imagine it.
We rode in the delta, an old Navy tracked vehicle, that is repaired with duct tape! Not exactly the comfort ride! It takes about 1 hour to get out there if one does not stop for any reason. They stop for wild life. And there was some.
As mentioned earlier, there is far more life under the ice than above. But there on the ice were ice slugs, Weddell seals that look like slugs. You can see one in the pix with me in it. They are pretty boring on the ice. The cool thing is to see them coming out of the seal holes, many of which have been bored by scientists to encourage them to come up and get tagged for study. I attended a talk on seal research here and in other places around the world. They were looking into the huge decline in the seal population a few years back. Under the water, they are far cooler to watch.
So after taking shots of that and of Mount Erebus, one of the most active volcanoes in the world and only 1 of three of that particular type, we climbed back in and rode on out to Cape Evans where Scott's Terra Nova hut is. It is run by the kiwis historical society and they were excavating and removing snow drifts from around the hut. It still smells like seal blubber, the main source of food and heat, yum. There was also an old bicycle there and a dead penguin on the table, desert anyone? The shelves are stocked with food presumably brought in about 1916. There were things like Heinz ketchup, anchovy paste, canned cheese and rhubarb. The shoes left here had wooden strips nailed to the bottom to increase traction. The4re were some room dividers but for the most part it was one large open room. They even had horses here at one point, the stable being attached to the living quarters. They also had dogs. In the 1990’s a new treaty was signed that forbid the bringing of any non native species to the continent, save humans. That was a very controversial thing, there are people who left and vowed to never come back because of that.
This boondoggle is not for the faint of heart tourist; once we leave McMurdo, there is no place to pee, never on the snow, it is a violation of the Antarctic treaty! There are some places it's allowed but not there. The kiwis live in camps and the human and hazardous waste is choppered out. In the delta we took to get there, driving on the sea ice about 7 feet thick and 500-800 feet deep under that, there was a plastic lidded bucket and it was rolling around. Someone picked it up and it said HUMAN WASTE. That was the toilet, no one wanted to use it or do that to the rest of us in the delta, there is no privacy so one just holds it. You should have seen the rush to the bathrooms when we returned! It was a 5 hour trip and it was worth it. When we started out it was actually hot, for Antarctica, +26 sunny and no wind. We all have to take all our special issued survival gear in case we were stuck out there. It is too damn much to wear, I would have been sweating profusely! So I wore my own clothes and carried my ECW. (extreme weather gear). Also got up really close to an Adelie penguin that had strayed from the colony. We are not allowed to touch or approach it, but we sat or stood very still and it came right over to us, it was about a foot away! They are the little penguins, about 2 ½ feet tall. Besides the skua, this was the first real wildlife I had seen up close.
This was a big week, I got out on my first ski trip from Scott Base to McMurdo with my new skis and it was great, the wind was at our backs. I got a tour of the South Pole Traverse set-up. They are dragging fuel to the Pole for the year on these giant plastic sleds with huge fuel bladders. To fly in the 130's it take 4,000 lbs of fuel to deliver 3500 lbs. This trip is semi historic for the US. Its the most that is being attempted to be pulled such a distance in such conditions by the USA. Others have already used this method to refuel and supply inland camps. It will take them about 45 days to get 1,000 miles. It's not quite that far but the road isn't a straight line. I got to befriend one of the guys going, Bill McCormick, who gave us a tour last Sunday before we went skiing. They have some pretty nice accommodations for such a trip which gets pulled on gigantic tractors. The lead tractor uses radar and sonar to find crevasses and the others fill in the crevasse to build the road as they go.
Also climbed Observation Hill for the first time. It rises up taller than the IDS tower and it was a crystal clear evening, at 9PM bright sun, very little wind. I could see open water 20 miles away. And I bowled a phenomenal 163 at the world’s most unique bowling alley!
In the continuing story of the Snafu/catch 22, an Airbus was to fly in from NZ today, but suddenly it was realized that there was no ramp to fit it. The jet may have landed, the door open and someone says, oh shit, we forgot the stairs. Yes they could use the slide but getting back in would be a bitch, especially with the survival gear everyone has to have in order to fly in here just in case. This is a test of feasibility to determine if it would be more cost affective to fly the humans down in a regular jet rather than the C- 17 as addendums to cargo.
Actually they may have figured on a staircase for the occasion, but there does look to be a possible Herbie (storms that move in from the southeast and carry drifting snow, the kind that kept hitting when I was first here, you know those first 2 weeks when the WC here was colder than the South Pole! ) It feels more like summer now, one can venture out without the tons of gear, thankfully.
This was a good week, I even got my broom closet room redesigned with the help of the head carpenter down here, for the price of a bottle of rum. For next week, the powers that be have decided that our Thanksgiving will be on Saturday to coincide with the weekend, thus we get off early on Friday, AND have Sat. and Sunday off. Tomorrow is the Andrill open house, the biggee research on coring down into the actual land, through the 2 miles of snow and ice to check out the distant past of the continent, the climatic shifts and geology. It appears there are many lakes, a rival perhaps to the 10,000 of Minnesota. After all this continent is bigger than all the of lower 48 by some piece. There should be lots of things here! It's just they're so hard to find. Would make ice fishing a real challenge!
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
Audrey in Antarctica
We rode in the delta, an old Navy tracked vehicle, that is repaired with duct tape! Not exactly the comfort ride! It takes about 1 hour to get out there if one does not stop for any reason. They stop for wild life. And there was some.
As mentioned earlier, there is far more life under the ice than above. But there on the ice were ice slugs, Weddell seals that look like slugs. You can see one in the pix with me in it. They are pretty boring on the ice. The cool thing is to see them coming out of the seal holes, many of which have been bored by scientists to encourage them to come up and get tagged for study. I attended a talk on seal research here and in other places around the world. They were looking into the huge decline in the seal population a few years back. Under the water, they are far cooler to watch.
So after taking shots of that and of Mount Erebus, one of the most active volcanoes in the world and only 1 of three of that particular type, we climbed back in and rode on out to Cape Evans where Scott's Terra Nova hut is. It is run by the kiwis historical society and they were excavating and removing snow drifts from around the hut. It still smells like seal blubber, the main source of food and heat, yum. There was also an old bicycle there and a dead penguin on the table, desert anyone? The shelves are stocked with food presumably brought in about 1916. There were things like Heinz ketchup, anchovy paste, canned cheese and rhubarb. The shoes left here had wooden strips nailed to the bottom to increase traction. The4re were some room dividers but for the most part it was one large open room. They even had horses here at one point, the stable being attached to the living quarters. They also had dogs. In the 1990’s a new treaty was signed that forbid the bringing of any non native species to the continent, save humans. That was a very controversial thing, there are people who left and vowed to never come back because of that.
This boondoggle is not for the faint of heart tourist; once we leave McMurdo, there is no place to pee, never on the snow, it is a violation of the Antarctic treaty! There are some places it's allowed but not there. The kiwis live in camps and the human and hazardous waste is choppered out. In the delta we took to get there, driving on the sea ice about 7 feet thick and 500-800 feet deep under that, there was a plastic lidded bucket and it was rolling around. Someone picked it up and it said HUMAN WASTE. That was the toilet, no one wanted to use it or do that to the rest of us in the delta, there is no privacy so one just holds it. You should have seen the rush to the bathrooms when we returned! It was a 5 hour trip and it was worth it. When we started out it was actually hot, for Antarctica, +26 sunny and no wind. We all have to take all our special issued survival gear in case we were stuck out there. It is too damn much to wear, I would have been sweating profusely! So I wore my own clothes and carried my ECW. (extreme weather gear). Also got up really close to an Adelie penguin that had strayed from the colony. We are not allowed to touch or approach it, but we sat or stood very still and it came right over to us, it was about a foot away! They are the little penguins, about 2 ½ feet tall. Besides the skua, this was the first real wildlife I had seen up close.
This was a big week, I got out on my first ski trip from Scott Base to McMurdo with my new skis and it was great, the wind was at our backs. I got a tour of the South Pole Traverse set-up. They are dragging fuel to the Pole for the year on these giant plastic sleds with huge fuel bladders. To fly in the 130's it take 4,000 lbs of fuel to deliver 3500 lbs. This trip is semi historic for the US. Its the most that is being attempted to be pulled such a distance in such conditions by the USA. Others have already used this method to refuel and supply inland camps. It will take them about 45 days to get 1,000 miles. It's not quite that far but the road isn't a straight line. I got to befriend one of the guys going, Bill McCormick, who gave us a tour last Sunday before we went skiing. They have some pretty nice accommodations for such a trip which gets pulled on gigantic tractors. The lead tractor uses radar and sonar to find crevasses and the others fill in the crevasse to build the road as they go.
Also climbed Observation Hill for the first time. It rises up taller than the IDS tower and it was a crystal clear evening, at 9PM bright sun, very little wind. I could see open water 20 miles away. And I bowled a phenomenal 163 at the world’s most unique bowling alley!
In the continuing story of the Snafu/catch 22, an Airbus was to fly in from NZ today, but suddenly it was realized that there was no ramp to fit it. The jet may have landed, the door open and someone says, oh shit, we forgot the stairs. Yes they could use the slide but getting back in would be a bitch, especially with the survival gear everyone has to have in order to fly in here just in case. This is a test of feasibility to determine if it would be more cost affective to fly the humans down in a regular jet rather than the C- 17 as addendums to cargo.
Actually they may have figured on a staircase for the occasion, but there does look to be a possible Herbie (storms that move in from the southeast and carry drifting snow, the kind that kept hitting when I was first here, you know those first 2 weeks when the WC here was colder than the South Pole! ) It feels more like summer now, one can venture out without the tons of gear, thankfully.
This was a good week, I even got my broom closet room redesigned with the help of the head carpenter down here, for the price of a bottle of rum. For next week, the powers that be have decided that our Thanksgiving will be on Saturday to coincide with the weekend, thus we get off early on Friday, AND have Sat. and Sunday off. Tomorrow is the Andrill open house, the biggee research on coring down into the actual land, through the 2 miles of snow and ice to check out the distant past of the continent, the climatic shifts and geology. It appears there are many lakes, a rival perhaps to the 10,000 of Minnesota. After all this continent is bigger than all the of lower 48 by some piece. There should be lots of things here! It's just they're so hard to find. Would make ice fishing a real challenge!
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
Audrey in Antarctica
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