So long, Antarctic home...

If all had gone according to the second-to-last plan, according to plan, this post would have gone live right was I am leaving Antarctica, after an almost-two-week delay. But I've gotten pushed out just a couple more days, to give me enough time to do turn-over with the incoming store clerks for a day (yesterday) and then have today and tomorrow to take apart my room and pack up to go. A bittersweet transition that I hope I'm not making for the last time. But I do hope that things actually happen as I'm expecting this time around and I fly out of here on Wednesday.


I'll leave you this time around with some links to program info, as the US Antarctic Program barrels on without me while I head to a tropical beach for some R and R.


If you click here, you can access a USAP "Science Planning Summary" booklet that outlines all of the science that will be happening in Antarctica this summer, now that we've turned things back over to all the summer people.


Here you can see a post about the record-setting delay to the start of the summer season that we just had--and, if you like, start following the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs Facebook feed.


Here's an article about one of my fellow South Pole 2016 winter-overs who has done WAYYYYYY more winters than I ever will.


And here's a parting shot of Ross Sound, my vista for the past 8+ months (when we had enough sun or moonlight to actually see anything, that is). May we meet again.

But for now, the most recent galley whiteboard drawing says it all....



Weekly snapshot #34

I'm still here....


And the day looks okay, but the weather wasn't good enough for them to send planes today. In the previous three days, we've had five planes carrying a total of almost 500 people arrive on station. On the first of those flights, 60+ of our remaining winter-over crew--nearly everyone except a handful of people who decided to stay the summer and another handful, like me, who must wait for their replacements to arrive--got on the plane going north. It was a very tearful goodbye.


My replacements were FINALLY supposed to arrive today, but with today's flights delayed till tomorrow, there's now a question mark of whether I'll actually be able to leave on Monday. Most likely it will happen, but if Antarctica has taught us anything this year, it's to refrain from believing any plane's going to make it here until it's actually wheels down. (And for that matter to refrain from assuming it's going to actually take you back to Christchurch until you've passed the point-of-no-return in the flight north! It's rare for a plane to boomerang back to Antarctica for weather or mechanical, but it has happened....)


If planes arrive tomorrow, tomorrow will be my last day in the office, Sunday will be disassembling my room and packing, and Monday I will fly. So you can imagine that's what's happening unless you hear otherwise. But fingers crossed that the final Antarctic post I have waiting in the wings for you on Monday is really it and the post after that is from the non-frozen world to the north....

Forever Winfly

Some moments-in-photo from delayed-flights life in McMurdo....


Saturday night silliness at Southern bar:

 Game night in Hut 10 (a game called Code Names that I've never seen before but that was very fun):

Contemplating the endless bad weather out the window:

A break in the clouds looking out over the ice shelf toward the continent:

One winter-over trying to comfort another (who has been on the Ice more than 13 months and counting) over the continuing delays, though she cannot at this point be comforted:

Six firefighters and the store's liaison in the Supply department, all frantically digging out the store dock during a brief break in the weather so we could try to get the beverage delivery into the store on time (since the only things worse than people who are stuck here against their will is people stuck here against their will who can't have a glass of wine to calm themselves):

A nod, on the rec schedule on the white board outside the galley, to my favorite childhood movie, "The Neverending Story." And the Swamp of Sadness of a two-week delay to the start of Mainbody....

Weekly snapshot #33

There wasn't supposed to be a snapshot #33! I was scheduled to be back in Christchurch, New Zealand, by now, taking walks in the sunshine without a parka on and eating fresh fruit and vegetables!


But Antarctica had other plans...and that's okay. I will get out of here eventually. I feel worse for the people who were supposed to leave on October 1st, or 3rd...or 5th or 8th...and are also still here. And those who are losing money on travel reservations that they're missing because they're still here. Because, yes, EVERYONE is still here. It's now October 12 and we still haven't seen a flight come in for the start to the summer season. The earliest we could possibly get one is Sunday, but people are talking Tuesday the 16th as more realistic, considering the amount of grooming the airfield is going to need after two weeks of Condition 1 weather out on the ice shelf. I've been officially extended to the 17th but in the next couple days I'll have to check in with my boss to see if we need to push that out even a bit more so the store can continue to open until the summer store people get here.


People are coming up with all kinds of clever plays on words to describe our situation. Usually "Winfly" (the 6-week shoulder season) lasts mid-August to October 1, and then "Mainbody" (summer season) starts. So people are calling this crazy delay "Winfly 2018-2019" (dear lord, let's hope not) or "Mainfly." I'm starting to feel the need to screenprint some t-shirts....


For the most part everyone is handling the delay with grace and an awareness that it's no one's fault, it's just the power of nature. But I'm definitely starting to see a growing polarization between the winter people who are staying through winfly and the summer people who came early for winfly. During the weeks of intended overlap, I feel like everyone was making an effort to co-exist despite our totally different mindsets--the winter people making room on station for the summer folk and tolerating their higher energy levels, the summer people showing a little deference to and understanding of the winter-overs and their relative tiredness and crustiness. But at this point, the winter people are DONE and just want to get out of here and the summer people are antsy for real summer to start and all of their friends to get here and things to be the way they always are in summertime.


When I walked across the street from my dorm to work this morning, it was completely beautiful out--Condition 3 everywhere, some sun poking through the clouds, winds low. And then as I settled in front of my computer to answer a few emails not 30 minutes later, I heard the severe weather call go out over the radio, Condition 2 in town and Condition 1 on the airfield and most other places. Scary how fast the conditions change so drastically! So "the pinwheel" continues all around us...and who knows, there might be a snapshot #34....

Weather!

Since the wild weather has made the past week VERY different from what we had expected, I thought I'd make this week's extra post a few fun pictures and videos of the elements.


Here's a video I took out my bedroom window during the first storm that came through at the beginning of the week when summer season was supposed to be starting:

And then here is one when a few of us were walking home in Condition 2 weather that was about to turn to Condition 1, so the station management sent us all back to our rooms to hunker down for the afternoon:

And in between these two lovely weather events, there were these amazing skies....

Oh, Antarctica....

Weekly snapshot #32

Things are a wee crazy over here. Remember how last snapshot I said that by the time I posted the next one, summer season would have started? Well...I love that Antarctica has the power to foil the best of plans. The start of summer season has been significantly delayed and there are currently several hundred Ice-bound Americans spinning their wheels in Christchurch while some wild weather has roiled Ross Island this past week. Monday's flight was delayed till Tuesday, and then Wednesday, and so on...and at this point the soonest we'll get a flight is Sunday, but word on the street is we're more realistically talking mid-next week. A 10-day delay to the start of Mainbody season in McMurdo is a really big deal! In New Zealand the program is booking out empty ski resort hotels more than an hour outside of Christchurch to try to find space to house all the summer folk that have been flying in. Down here, everyone is trying to figure out when exactly they should actually start packing and strip their beds and--once again--cancel or delay their vacation and return-home plans.


My own departure--originally scheduled for this coming Wednesday the 10th--will very likely be pushed back, as it's looking entirely possible my replacements will not even have arrived by then. That's okay--I hadn't made any reservations for off-Ice, just in case this happened, and every extra day I stay is an extra day of pay that can go to eventual travel. So I'm just waiting this out and we'll see how it all goes!


In the meantime, I have a fun snapshot for today. It's actually two snapshots. We're in what the weather folks are calling a "pinwheel" storm, where one second it's completely nice out and the next you can't see 50 yards away. Case in point, here's the snapshot I took at 12 pm today, as everyone was coming in to lunch:

And then here's what everything looked like one hour later when people were trying to head back to work after lunch:

So Antarctica is dishing it up till the very end for me. I wouldn't have it any other way!

Crater Hill

One of the things I love about Antarctica is that it's a place where the word "boondoggle" is used in everyday conversation. AND I got to go on a short-but-sweet boondoggle last week! It was to Crater Hill, a high point above town where a bunch of IT/Comms equipment lives, and several folks from IT needed to go up to do some maintenance and had a couple extra seats to invite others along. I was really happy to be one of those others. (And especially happy that the trip finally actually happened before Mainbody started, as it was delayed day after day for almost a week due to weather and/or Pisten Bully availability.


Totally worth the wait, though. The views were amazing, the wind formidable, the PB ride an adventure, and the trip out of town: very refreshing!


When we got to the top of the ridge, the wind was so strong I could just lean back into it and it was holding me up.

There were spectacular sun dogs going...

The view back to town made it look very small and far away....

I got some satisfying ice crystals collecting on my eyelashes...

You can see Castle Rock in the background of this photo, just to the right of my jacket hood flap. And if it hadn't been overcast, you'd have been able to see mighty Mount Erebus behind that.

That's me on the left way out on that ridge. Sooooooooo beautiful!

Weekly snapshot #31

This week a dozer with a snow bucket was doing its thing directly in front of my snapshot--kind of funny! Hopefully you can tell from the background that the weather is overcast and getting iffy. Things are pretty crazy here right now, as the "Mainbody" (summer) season is supposed to officially start on Monday, with 118 people arriving that day and an average of 75 more arriving every day after that for the rest of the week. Just the thought of it makes me dizzy. But a five-day forecast yesterday predicted a possible Condition 1 on Monday, so the chances seem high that all these flights will not go exactly according to plan.


In any case, I imagine that by next week's snapshot, at least a few planes will have made it here and even the "fake winter" shoulder season will be officially over. And until my own flight is delayed, next week's snapshot will be my last from here, at least for the foreseeable future. Having a hard time wrapping my brain around that, but the days are ticking by frighteningly quickly, and it's all happening whether I'm ready or not!

Weekly snapshot #30

It's a GORGEOUS day at McMurdo. The sun is shining (so weird to feel sun on my face, and I can't stop squinting every time I go outside, but at the same time I can't force myself yet to put on a pair of sunglasses) and it's breezy, but the breeze actually feels WARM. Wow.


And activity is really ramping up, as the summer season bears down upon us. You get a bonus 'dozer heading back to work after the lunch-hour in this week's snapshot!

Spring skies at McMurdo

The promised gorgeous sunrises and sunsets (plus iridescent nacreous clouds) of the shoulder season here have not disappointed. And at this point the sun is rising and setting at what at home we would consider "normal" hours, so that we're not all trying to wake up in the darkness of winter or go to sleep under the constant blazing sun of summer. What a treat! As were the real-world sights of the skies in these pictures. Enjoy!

Weekly snapshot #29

I think this might be the first weekly snapshot that actually shows some true blue skies since the sun has returned to us? It's still plenty-chilly out (yet probably good weather for the afternoon of shoveling off the receiving dock at the store stockroom) but spring is here...and it's less than a month till I'm not here anymore....

Condition 1

All winter I've been wanting to experience "Condition 1" weather at McMurdo. There's a weather-grading system here to give guidelines for safe activities. In Condition 3, it's business as usual, as visibility and winds are deemed fine for normal operations. Condition 2, things are getting dicey and people who usually work outside are typically sidelined for the day or given indoor tasking. Condition 1 is winds so high and visibility so poor that no one is allowed to even walk from building to building without permission, in case of getting hit by something knocked loose in the wind or not being able to see across roads and potentially getting disoriented--dangerous in such cold temps.


At Pole we didn't operate on a conditions system--we didn't get the coastal storms that McMurdo can get. So I was really hoping my McMurdo experience would involve one of those storms. I've been sad as the whole winter has passed without it happening.


But now that we're in the shoulder season with only about a month left of my time here, we finally had a Condition 1! It was actually a big pain for a lot of people as it coincided with a burst pipe that leaked 50,000 gallons of reverse-osmosis-ed water before it was caught and repaired, which led to the whole station being on water rations (no showers, no laundry, paper plates and cups in the galley) for a couple days until the water treatment plant could refill its reserves to a level deemed safe in case the fire department had an emergency need for water. When the weather got bad on the night in question, I closed the store early and took advantage of a travel window to race home across the street to my dorm with a couple other people (safety in numbers) and hunker down for the night. It got way worse out than it was in these pictures/video, but at least I can honestly say I experienced a Con 1 at McMurdo.


At first, last Monday, it was still Con 2 in town for us and for the Kiwis at Scott Base, but at Phoenix Airfield and pretty much everywhere else around Ross Island, it was Con 1.

Then on Tuesday the whole island went Con 1--the first time I've ever been here that I've seen this weather snapshot, with that whole row of red 1's. There are even some long-time, full-time people here now who are generally only here for summers who said this was the first Con 1 they'd ever experienced, especially during work hours when everyone had to be accounted for and some people were stranded for the night in buildings other than the ones where they lived.

It was pretty funny to see the indoors vestibules of most buildings covered in snow, as the wind was blowing it through any area that was not perfectly sealed.

Once the Con 1 officially started but before it got dark out and as bad as it was going to, I did get outside in the wind to take a few pics and a video....

Weekly snapshot #28

All's pretty quiet on the southern front right now. It wasn't so at the beginning of the week, and I'll tell you all about that in my next post. But for now, we're just trying to stay warm in some chilly, overcast weather and I've got the space heater running in my office as I type this...

First sunrise! (belated post)

These photos are a bit late coming to you, but I saw the sun (!) for the first time in four months from Arrival Heights back on August 20. (As you saw in the weekly snapshots, there was lots of light in the sky before then, but the 19th was the date the sun first actually crested the horizon at this latitude, and only a few people who made a trip out to the airfield could see it; it wasn't visible from town.) Crazy to think it's been that long since there's been sun on our faces, as the time has gone by SO FAST. But there it was...

And here is me, welcoming the sun back to this part of the world. (Thanks to R. B-R. for this photo!)

Finally, here is a picture from around that same time, taken from the third floor of one of the dorm buildings, of Observation Hill (with the moon standing guard) overlooking McMurdo town. It's not one of the quaintest destinations on the planet, but McMurdo definitely has its moments.



Weekly snapshot #27

It's an overcast but calm, lovely day on Ross Island. The hours of sunlight each day are quickly growing as we cruise toward the Southern Hemisphere Vernal Equinox (on September 22), at which point there will be more daylight than darkness each day until eventually the skies will never get totally dark during the coming Antarctic summer.


For now, we're still enjoying lovely night skies and long, colorful sunrises and sunsets.


The initial shock of the bigger station population and increased activity of the shoulder season has worn off a bit and we're refinding our daily equilibrium. The store is definitely busier than before but way more manageable than the first few days of Winfly, when all the new folks were coming in to stock up on alcohol and toiletries and see what's new in apparel this year. It was a little insane for a few days there and I'm glad to be back to a more steady business.

Antarctic Winter Film Festival

If you've been following along for at least the past couple years, you might remember that during my winter at South Pole, there was a continent-wide Film Festival where any station that wanted to participate would make a film reflecting life on their base and the winter-in-Antarctica experience.


Since McMurdo is the largest station on continent, we ended up having four people make four separate movie entries into this year's Festival, and I was lucky enough to get to make brief appearances in all of them.


That year we all got YouTube links to all the films posted on-line. That doesn't seem to be happening this year, but two of the four I was in are up online if you're interested in watching them.


The first is an Antarctic version of "Where the Wild Things Are." Click here to view.


The other is a fake trailer for a nonexistent, apocalypse movie that you can see here.


Enjoy!

Weekly snapshot #26

It's a chilly but lovely day for the end of operational winter at McMurdo.


A plane is about to land, with a second about to take off from Christchurch on its way down here around dinnertime, and we had two flights yesterday as well. The end-sum of all this aviation activity is that about 40 of our winter crew have bid us goodbye, and 200 (!!) new folks are settling in for the "Winfly" (Winter Flights) shoulder season--six weeks of increased operations as everyone ramps up for the coming Mainbody (summer) season starting October 1.


The 100 of us winter folk remaining are a wee bit shell-shocked by the nearly-overnight doubling of the station population, with 2/3 of those folks being faces we haven't seen for the past 4+ months, if ever. It's a little overwhelming. But hopefully a week from now we'll all be settled back into our new (albeit busier) normal. And to balance all this slightly stressful craziness/transition time, I'm promised that Winfly is the most beautiful time at McMurdo in terms of the skies, the sunrises/sunsets, etc. So here's to six weeks of that.

Square Frame

The Kiwis at Scott Base (four miles down the road from us here on Ross Island, with a winter population of 12) maintain a sweet little square-frame trailer out on the Ross Sea Ice Sheet (a permanently frozen area, at least for now) to which they are kind enough to invite some of us hooligan Americans from time to time. An overnight at the Square Frame has been on my bucket list all winter, and as the winter is dwindling, it was now or never to organize a trip out there.


I was in a group of three who hadn't gotten to make a trip out there yet this year, and when we stopped at Scott Base for a briefing on the way there, we found all the lights down and half their crew--plus two visiting McMurdoans--wearing masks and sitting in a dark room with an ultraviolet light on, intending to and succeeding in scaring the bejezus out of us.

Then they tried to soothe our nerves Kiwi style...that is, with a shot (which I of course gifted to someone else) before sending us on our way.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but the square frame is ADORABLE. So cozy and tidy and basically I just wanted to move in there and stay forever.

There is an outhouse about 20 yards away, but we brought one of the pee cans into the Square Frame foyer so we wouldn't have to get suited up to go outside so often, and the whole squatting-over-the-funnel method worked great.

 There was a little kitchenette, and a bunk area...

All in all, so perfect.


But the whole point, and the best part of it all, was spending a night out on the ice sheet. We had incredible weather when we went out. My phone camera isn't good enough to take night sky pics, so I don't have those, but the stars were INCREDIBLE. And it was so still out that when I went outside on my own and laid down on the snow, the silence and lack of sensory input--there are few smells in Antarctica, and it was so dark, and with no wind there were basically no sounds--it was almost an out-of-body experience, the quietest being-outside experience of my life, and so lovely I almost cried.


And then in the morning, because we're getting so close to sunrise, all this light started slowly coming back into the sky and we spent a good hour outside enjoying the scenery and taking pictures.

This is the Square Frame seen from the outside, with Castle Rock in the background:

And this is the mighty Mount Erebus, the southern-most active volcano in the world (and, I believe, creator of this island we are living on, Ross Island), and you can see it's actively venting in this photo. With no wind, the puffs of fumes from the crater would just sit on top of the peak like that for up to a minute...totally incredible. It looks really close in this pic and when we were standing there, but it was actually something like 20 miles away from where I was standing when I took this shot.

All in all, this was one of the most magical, special recreational things I've gotten to experience during this winter in McMurdo, and the overnight, though too brief, left me feeling so grateful, and like I'd just woken from an amazing dream.