CTAM (Central Trans Antarctic Mountains) - A camp on the Beardmore Glacier.

I am off to camp tomorrow……I hope. The last several weeks we’ve been told we would be leaving before the end of the week. I think it is real this time though. I have been keeping busy in town. Trying to find work since I don’t really have a job here. I’ve shipped ice off pipes for plumbers, tested gear for the field camp gear issue, updated Excel spreadsheets and population graphs for other field camps, and put in countless bamboo flags and road markers on the ice roads outside of town. With a light wind loose snow blows over the roads surface and makes it almost impossible to see where the road is. Heavy equipments drivers compact the roads regularly and there is a never ending job of picking up dirt from the surface that falls off in clumps from town vehicles. Small rocks and dirt melt out large potholes in the 24 hour sunlight and ruin the surface of the snow roads. It has been a fun department to work with and has allowed me to get out of town for the past week. Lunch on those days is at the NASA balloon launch site and conversations are great.

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday and we all had two days off which has been great, a chance everyone needed to go out or to rest. The galley fed us in four shifts and the meal was truly wonderful. Fresh fruit from New Zealand and desserts covered every inch of tables that did not already host turkeys carved by volunteers from all over town, gravy pots, various stuffings, crab legs, beans, stuffed peppers, cheese and vegetable platters, rolls and so much more. The tables were spread with white tablecloths and we were allowed to bring drinks in. Wine and Scotch (very popular throughout history in Antarctica) drinkers laughed and shared stories and we all left full and happy. It felt very much like a holiday and games and bands played into the night.

C-130 in action.

Today I will ‘bag drag’, take all my gear up to cargo to be weighed in for my flight on a C-130 to camp in the morning. My list of last minute tasks is growing: laundry, one more hot shower, phone calls, emails, packing, sending gifts home for the holidays, saying good bye to friends in town, and who knows what else. Once I get to camp I will not have internet or phone until early February when we brake the camp down and return to McMurdo. I will have a text only email at one-third the speed of dial up. I will still blog when I can. Until then I wish everyone the best of holidays and fun filled winters.

At last I am breathing the cold air and marveling at the crystal clear views of the frozen sea ice and mountains outside McMurdo, Antarctica. Weather kept up us in Christchurch for an extra four days. We could not get far from the city as we were always on call for departure. I took a long hike on the peninsula and soaked up some vitamin D while I could. I also spent time at the botanical gardens imprinting green into my memory.

McMurdo is a large base of close to 1,200 people. It sits on the southern most point of Ross Island which is in the frozen Ross Sea below New Zealand. The island is home to Mount Erebus, one of the most active volcanoes in the world. Town is nestled in hills that sit over the flat blue ice of the sea. Across the ice (our airport until December) the coastal mountains of mainland sparkle in white grandeur and they jut into the air.

My first week was primarily training (GPS, outdoor safety/survival skills, forklift and vehicle ops, fire extinguisher, environmental impact, etc.). Part of my camp staff has flow out to set up the camp. I will follow around Nov 18th after the final scramble for things we will need for our three months in the Trans Antarctics. When our camp aircraft arrives and radio comms are up we will start welcoming the first of 18 different science groups in early December.

A summer client at home put me in contact with a diver and I have been able to ‘tend’ a few dives since I arrived. In a small tracked vehicle we rumble over the frozen sea to dive huts that are set over holes forged through the ice. The water below is cold, calm, and clear. It was inspiring to be so close to something so different to anywhere I have dove and see a glimpse of a totally different side of Antarctica. Tiny starfish and urchins are brought up to be weighed and counted, various experiments of water temperature and CO2 levels and currents are underway, and small metal samples are set to rest to test what minerals accumulate on them over time. There is an Observation Tube for those who can’t dive sunk below the ice just outside of town. After descending into a narrow shaft you emerged into a small glass and metal space where you can look out under the ice. It forms a cloudy sky over a land 80ft below that is cluttered with sponges, corrals, and scallops so that it seems like you are floating in the fading light over a hilled forest.

Last weekend I attended “Happy Camper” school where as a group of twenty we used wood saws to cut blocks of packed snow to build walls. We set up stoves and tents and dug sleep trenches. We spent the night and ate rations like those in the survival bags we’ll have anytime we leave camp (dehydrated food, snack bars and coco). The next day we practiced radio use, and simulated white out conditions by trying to find a missing person with buckets on our heads. It was great to get out of town and practice skills I use all summer but this time in a cold environment.

The weather has been mild, ranging from -10F to 20F with winds making it seem a little cooler at times. Our gear is great though and in town we are rarely outside except when between buildings. I am enjoying town as a melting pot of interesting people from all over. I have been able to learn about various science projects depending on who I sit with in the crowded galley during mealtimes. That said I am eager to get to camp and start my job and see the interior mountains.