Weekly snapshot #5

I think this week's pic is pretty much identical to last week's, except that you can tell that at noon the sun is now not making it too far above the horizon each day. But the weather remains mild (for comparison, it's -57F at Pole today), and while it definitely feels like things are changing in the skies, that mostly takes place hours before and after these noontime shots. And all in all, the weather is beautiful as winter is slowly but surely closes in!

A little bonus for you today: Kiwi Anthony Powell, who has spent seasons at McMurdo as well as at New Zealand's Scott Base, 4 miles from us, is the filmmaker of the documentary "A Year On Ice." If you haven't seen that, I'd really recommend it for an idea of the culture on station here in the winter. (Also, you can see on camera the woman who was my predecessor at the South Pole store and helped me get the job there, starting me on this store-running path.) In the meantime, Powell has released this video, from footage taken on an underwater camera near said Kiwi base down the road, of a minke whale--beautiful!

The Store

I don't want to jinx anything, but I pretty much LOVE my job at McMurdo this winter so far. Never in my life did I think that running a retail store in Antarctica (which, in the winter, mostly entails selling cigarettes and alcohol, and then putting price tags on thousands of items that arrived on this year's vessel to sell here and at South Pole over the coming year) would be something that would make me so happy. But:

1) It's a great blend of manual labor (when we do our weekly beverage pulls and bi-weekly retail pulls from storage areas in other buildings, plus all the day-to-day stocking and tidying up) and computer work. So I'm not exhausted at the end of the day, nor am I stiff from sitting in a desk chair for hours on end.

2) It's a perfect (for me) blend of socializing (when the store is open, which is generally an hour at lunchtime and two hours at dinnertime) and independent work.

3) There is ALWAYS something to do here, so that I am never bored, but the things to do are almost never urgent, so I'm also never stressed out. Perfect!



So, all that said: Here's my realm this winter.

First, my office space, which is great:





Then the store itself:

One friend has requested a picture of me behind the cash register, doing my job. But I haven't been able to bring myself to ask anyone to take that picture (yet?). Instead, here's a bonus shot of one of my favorite things about the store: the loitering that happens here when we're open. We even have a designated spot for it. And our two-hour evening opening is the perfect amount of time to show a movie each night. I wouldn't blame you for not believing me, but this crowd is gathered to watch "Ice Castles." Which just cracked me up, because if you haven't seen "Ice Castles" (ever, or recently), I have to strongly suggest that you don't, because it has NOT aged well in the past 40 years. The groaning and mocking that was going on was the actual evening's entertainment.

Finally, I HATE seeing myself on camera, but I'm doing this for you all: one of the other winter-overs is doing a video blog and recently published a video about the store in which he briefly interviewed me. You can see that video here. And can follow his vlog in general here.

Weekly snapshot #4

It's a pretty nice day out; not too windy, not too cold, the sun breaking through a bit this afternoon...

At Pole right now it's a balmy (for them) -30F, windchill -53F. And for them, the sun is starting to set. Those of you who were following along when I was there two years ago might remember that that is a three-week process; only one sunset per year down there.

Up here at McMurdo, we're having daily sunsets right now, which is very beautiful. And kind of odd to have a "normal" feeling day cycle at the moment--it's light half the day and dark half the day. This is the first time I've ever experienced that in Antarctica! It won't last long. At the beginning of this month, we had more than 17 hours of daytime in each 24-hour period. But each "day" is about 20 minutes shorter than the previous one, so that by the end of the month, we'll be down to less than 10 hours of time each day when the sun is above the horizon. We're headed toward our own (shorter than Pole's) several months of total darkness. If you want to follow along with saying goodbye to the Antarctic sun, here's an interesting website: http://www.sunrise-and-sunset.com/en/sun/antarctica/mcmurdo-station/2018/march. If you switch forward to April, you'll see that our "Polar Night" will have begun by the end of next month (though I think it will take awhile after the sun stops making it above the horizon before we have no light in the sky mid-day; my weekly snapshots will be interesting around that time, hopefully).



New room

I am SOOOOOO happy to be luxuriating in my very own room for the winter--and it's twice as big as a single at Pole (because in the summer here everyone has roommates--another reason to come for the winter instead!).

When I first got news from Lodging that their end-of-summer inspection was complete and I could start moving in, things looked a little sad and dingy. (The dorm I'm staying in for the winter is slated for renovation in the coming years and definitely needs it.) The biggest bonuses were that the previous occupants were a married couple who had the two twin beds already pushed together to make a bigger, double bed, AND they had TWO back-to-back TVs (the one you see here, and another you can watch from bed), each with DVD player, already hooked up and ready to go. That definitely doesn't come standard!

And, luckily for me, my departing summer-season friends were incredibly good to me, and left me all kinds of homey wall-hangings and other comfort items that, in the span of two days, turned what basically felt like a bad motel room into a cozy home that I look forward to getting back to every evening.

So McMurdo is definitely feeling like home, for now, and I'm really happy to be settled in here as the days darken.

Weekly snapshot #3

Before I give this week's snapshot, I just have to post this video that I took from the doorway of my dorm, just like 5 hours after last week's snapshot. Just to show how fast the weather can change and give a little taste of what the beginning of inclement weather can look like here.

 

We were supposed to have our first winter flight two days ago, but first the plane was delayed 24 hours, and then today they got all 56 passengers through the goodbye tunnel (all of us staying line up to say goodbyes to everyone departing as they get checked in...a sweet little tradition that I haven't really gotten to participate in much, because on most flight days the store is open right about the time transport to the airfield is scheduled) and onto transport and were about to pull away and start the 40-minute drive to Phoenix airfield, when the message came through that the plane had boomeranged back to Christchurch just 10 minutes before its point-of-no-return on the trip to Antarctica. (Frustrating, since it was due to weather here, but the weather here is actually pretty decent.) So there are 57 pretty bummed people skulking around the station today, especially since the weather looks worse for the next few days. They'll get out of here eventually, but I know from experience that's no consolation when you're the one all packed up and excited to head north!



Anyway, now that that video is finally done uploading, back to the snapshot. It feels much more biting out today than it looks from this pic and the weather report. But again, no complaints...at Pole today it's -77F, with a windchill of -123F!

Also, I just have to post this shot; we're starting to get some incredibly gorgeous sunset skies. In my next weekly snapshot post I'll talk more about the sunrise/sunset pattern this month. In the meantime, enjoy!

Evening at Hut Point

I'm a couple weeks late in posting this, but there was one night shortly after the last summer plane left, when it had been such a beautiful day that when I finished work in the evening I decided to take the 15-20 minute walk out to Hut Point, where the English explorer Robert Scott's supply hut still stands, to enjoy the sunset. Also, there had reportedly been six Adelie penguins hanging around there recently and I'd been meaning to go visit them.

The penguins had moved on, but oh my gosh, was the evening gorgeous. The view back to McMurdo from the point, with the golden sunset light, made even McMurdo (which, I'm not going to lie, is not exactly a charming-looking town) look lovely.

And there was almost NO wind, so that I was able to stand up there for nearly a half-hour before I started getting too chilly, just listening to the seals out on the ice making their strange sounds and watching the sky turn colors and enjoying the extreme peace and quiet. It was an absolute gift.

And left me feeling very lucky to be here.

Weekly snapshot #2

This pic looks like the sun might be very low, but it's actually just really overcast. Around noontime, it's still broad daylight around here, though we're starting to get a few hours of darkness every night. The main weather thing I'm noticing (other than the temp dropping a bit) is the wind! It's still pretty intense. People who have spent time here before tell me that it's been unusually windy the past month, which makes me feel better, because sheesh! But still, it's so much warmer than at Pole (right now, down there it's -61F, with a -102F windchill), it almost seems silly to comment about the cold and wind here....



Adelie in town

Someone gave me a tip that an Adelie penguin had dug itself a little snow cave as shelter down at the sea edge, by where the water treatment plant outflow is. (Random fact: unlike at Pole where all of our water was melted from the ice sheet, at McMurdo they have a reverse osmosis treatment plant that turns sea water into our sweet water.)

So I walked down to the sea ice view point there, as instructed...

...and then stood on the right edge of the platform and looked down, and sure enough there were little penguin footprints leading to the edge below the platform...

...and when I bent down I could see a little cave, and it was occupied! Being able to hold my phone down level with the platform gave a great view of this little guy.

...and then zooming in...even better! He's molting and looks very cozy and settled in there. I wonder how long he'll stay, as the sea ice is really freezing over. Makes me realize how little I know about the habits of penguins. I'll have to check back in on him in a few more weeks.

Weekly snapshot #1

Okay, I'm going to revive the weekly snapshot tradition from Pole. So here's week 1...

A photo looking out the door of the building I work in toward the bay that Ross Island sits in:

It looks very blowy and wintery out, eh? The wind is definitely annoying, in that it whips snow and dirt into the eyes, but the temps are WAYYYY more mild than Pole, and you can see that despite the wind, etc., all areas in and around the base are still Condition-3, with no restrictions on movement or activities: