Back to MAC town (McMurdo)

Well I am back in McMurdo now. I have been here for a week now. The South Pole was absolutely amazing. The vast platou, where all you can see is white for miles and miles, is definately a site to see. I can not tell you how beautiful it was there. I got to stay an extra day, because the weather back in McMurdo was bad, they couldnt fly to come pick us up. While I was there I had the opportunity to explore some of the underground tunnels that surround the station, I got to decorate Christmas cookies, and help make the Christmas pies. This was an awesome time. I took a few pictures while I was there, some of me at the Geographical and Ceremonial South Poles. These are 2 different poles. The Geographical South Pole moves slighly everyday. They move the pole once a year, January 1st, this year the Geographic pole is within 50 feet of the ceremonial pole.

While there I walked around the world, this was cool to do. Someone asked me if I was standing at the South Pole what was due North of me. Well the answer to that question... EVERYTHING if I were to walk straight up, I would get to go anywhere in the World. The South Pole is located at 90 degrees South Latitude.

The South Pole

Yes you read that right. I made it to the South Pole! This is definitely an experience of a life time. I flew down here on Saturday and I will be here thru Wednesday. We flew down here on LC-130s, a Skied Hercules, there are only 10 of these in the world and the US owns all of them, 7 of which are down in Antarctica currently. There are only 250 people that live at the South Pole station. I am here for 4 days, just long enough to get to see the environment and experience the altitude here. Currently it is 9,780 ft above sea level. The strange thing about the South Pole is that the elevation changes constantly, dependant about the barometric pressure, it can be found out to 12,000ft above sea level. This doesn’t mean that the actual land raises and lowers, this means that with the environment the elevation here changes. This is what everyone would imagine Antarctica to be, it is flat and all you see for miles upon miles is snow. On clear days you can see 60+ miles out. There is no wildlife here, just flat white surface. Right now the temperature here is -12F with a wind-chill factor making it -33F. This may sound cold to you, but it is very dry here and when the sun is out, and the wind is calm, it can be very warm, even to where you don’t really need the BIG jackets. I am here to work as a DA for a few days, and I am very fortunate to have the ability to live in the new station, that is still under construction. One of the things I got to do since I have been here is play crochet using the geographical South Pole and the Ceremonial South Pole as our markers. It was definitely something that I can say was a once in a life time experience.

The Dry Valley’s

I was given the opportunity to go out to the Dry Valley’s to assist a science group with some research that they were doing. This was suppose to be a day trip but turned out to be a trip that was first canceled due to weather, and then the next day we flew out to the Valley’s but because of bad weather I was not able to meet up with the science group I was suppose to meet up with. I did get to go to another location and see some incredible things along the way. The Dry Valley’s are known for their lakes and the glacier formations. There is so much to learn about this area. I got to see the saltiest lake on the continent, the longest and biggest river on the continent, along with so much else. On the third day we flew again and made it out to the group I was meeting up with. As we got there, we noticed a snow storm was coming in and so instead of getting to do a 5 mile hike we just set the helicopter down and went straight to the site where the grad student downloaded data from his sensors. It is incredible to get to learn everything that is going on in the science field.

Cape Royd’s

My second day back as a GA I was asked to go out with a science group and help clear a lake that is under 5 feet of snow. We all worked hard and hauled snow blocks off of the lake. The scientists are hoping that the lake will melt this season and there will be algae bloom to study. At the site of this lake are two very cool sites to see. Cape Royd’s the site of this lake is home to the Adele Penguin Rookery. There are thousands of Adele nesting out there. This was such an incredible site to see. The other site at this location is a hut that E. H. Shackleton built, The Nimrod Hut, and stayed in during his travels to the South Pole. There is a lot of history in this hut. An old original copy of the London News, boxes that are labeled British Antarctic Expedition 1907, the first coal burning stove on the continent, and the elk fur sleeping bags are just a few things that show this history of the building. The day we were out there was the last day that it was open to visitors for the next three years. The New Zealanders (aka Kiwis) are working on it as a part of the Antarctic Heritage Trust. They are dating and conserving all of the items in the Hut for future visitors. Shackleton was the first to have an automobile on the continent, and there are also traces of that in the hut, along with much much more.

Back to the GA Labor Pool

I have been back to working with my GA coworkers now for about a month and I have been staying busy and catching up on the grunt work that I missed while I was working in Fuels. They were all rotating though the galley and working as Dining Attendants (DAs), and also working as janitors. A part of our job is to step in when a department is short handed or there are people that are injured. So we were helping relieve some of those with repetitive motion injuries. I also was tasked out to the VMF, the heavy equipment garage, here they asked us to clean a room from top to bottom in preparation for a Safety audit that was going to take place. Another job that I have been sent to do as a GA is working in the Waste Barn. This includes helping sort though the garbage that is created by everyone at McMurdo and the South Pole station. We recycle 60% of everything that is used on station. This is incredible, considering that Seattle recycles the most in the USA and they recycle 55% of their garbage. Garbage is separated into 18 different categories, some of which include cardboard, mixed paper, light metal, plastics; broken down into 3 different groups, and burnables. These are then shipped off the continent when the vessel arrives in February.

Fuels Department

I was asked to work for a few weeks in the Fuels department. This was a temporary job that lasted for about a month. I was given the opportunity to have this job full time, but decided to stay with what I already had, as it presented me with many more options for working with many more people and learning more about Antarctica. While in the Fuels department I tested the fuel that is used to fuel the aircrafts. I also was a key player in the fuel transfers to the runways. This took many hands and also a person standing by valves in case of any problems. This was an interesting job that allowed me to learn a lot about one of the most precious commodities that we have down here. Everything that we use in Antarctica requires fuel in one way or another.