Pressure Ridges and Weddell Seals!

Scott and I had Sea Ice Training today! This is a one day course that teaches us important things like: how to avoid driving over cracks in the ice that are too big for your vehicle, how to anchor a tent to bare ice, how to avoid falling into holes in the ice, how to help someone who has fallen into the ice, etc. We did a small amount of classroom prep, then hopped into the Hagglund to drive over the sea ice to an area that had some cracks in it.

The coast immediately around McMurdo station has remained frozen since around 2000, so we had to drive a way out before we could find ice thin enough to have developed good, measure able cracks. This afforded us some amazing scenery. Also, driving over the ocean is a Hagglund is awesome!

The ice was covered in over a foot of new snow from the blizzard, so our instructor pointed out areas where he had previously GPS marked cracks. Before we could measure the cracks, we had to dig away all the snow. As a general rule, if the ice is less and 30 inches thick in the crack, you can only drive over it if the width of the crack is less and 1/3 the length of your vehicles contact point. For example our hagglund covers 6 feet of ground as it drives, so we could cross a two foot crack, even if it went all the way to the water.

to measure thickness, you drill holes into the deepest part of the crack, and the edges of the crack. You have to keep adding lengths of drill, because the ice is often several meters thick.

Once you hit seawater, you stick a measuring tape with a heavy metal bar tied to it into the hole. When you pull the tape, the bar gets pulled sideways and hits on the bottom of the ice. You can then find out whether or not the ice in the crack is thin enough to worry about measuring the width of the crack.

Although this is all useful information, we do not have vehicles at Cape Crozier. Our main concern will be not stepping into a crack and getting hypothermia. This was covered briefly in the course a well, as we wandered around in the pressure ridges, looking for danger. And seals. Soon to come: Pressure Ridges and Weddell seal photos!!!!

Food selection and Scott Bas

Day 4 at McMurdo:
Today was spent mostly getting our gear together and packing our food for the entire field season. 'Shopping' for that much food was AWESOME. I was surprised at the quality of choices we had. We'll be eating lots of canned, frozen, or dried goods. But no SPAM! Imagine my disappointment.


In the evening we visited Scott Base, the New Zealand Antarctic Station. It is just a 45 minute walk away. On Thusdays they invite the Americans over to their pub. I got to see the closest thing we get to a sunset on the way back home to McMurdo.

Happy Camper and McMurdo Station

Its day three at McMurdo Field Station. I spent the first two days at Happy Camper, a 2 day long training session that occurs on the fast ice near McMurdo. This training is required for anyone spending any time at remote field camps in Antarctica. Basically we were driven out onto the ice and dropped off for 36 hours to build our own camp, set up tents, cook, and keep warm. There were 20 of us, mostly new to the ice, as veterans just take a short refresher course.


First we went over the basics in the classroom at McMurdo: How to avoid hypothermia, frostbite, sunburn, trenchfoot, etc. Then we picked up our lunches and hopped into 'Delta Trucks', which took us to the Happy Camper site. At this point we got issued 'sleep kits' containing two sleeping pads, a heavy sleeping bag, and a fleece liner. This is more or less what I'll be sleeping on for the rest of the season, with the added bonus of a thermarest, Yay! At this point we hiked out to an untouched area of the ice, and began to set up camp.


First we set up Scott tents. These are canvas tents that were invented at about the same time Captain Scott was trudging his way around Antarctica (1901-1912). They are simple, and can handle winds up to 100 miles per hour if anchored properly.


Next was the Quinzhee Hut. This is constructed by making a massive pile of snow and then digging out the inside. We cheated by piling snow on top of all our gear. Next you dig an entrance into the hut that approaches the interior from underneath. This way all the warm air gets trapped inside. It took 20 people several hours to make one hut, and in the end it only held three people. But I'm told they slept quite warmly.

We also set up 6 Mountain Tents, which are a little more intense than your standard backpacking tent. They hold 2 people and use the usual titanium and bungee pole system. They can't handle nearly the wind the Scott tents do, but their small size makes for warmer sleeping. To insure they did not blow away, we quarried large snow blocks from the pristine snow nearby and built a 50 ft long wall to shelter all the mountain tents. We used shovels and saws to get out the blocks, and stacked them like bricks to create a 4 foot tall wind barrier.

We constructed a trench kitchen with a wind wall surrounding it, and used Wisperlite stoves for melting snow to drink and cook with. Dinner consisted of all the dehydrated soup you could ask for and freeze-dried, packaged dinners. Those that wanted to dug individual trenches with roofes on top to sleep in. I decided I didn't want to dig any more trenches, and slept in one of the Scott tents, which was awesome. I stayed warm and would have gotten a lot of sleep if I wasn't so excited. I'm finding that with 24 hours of broad daylight, I have a difficult time unwinding at the end of the day.

The weather stayed nice (15-20 degrees) for most of the day, but around 3 am, the wind came up and things got colder. It was hard getting out of my cocoon of warmth in the morning. Making breakfast and breaking down all the tents took about 2 hours. Then we were picked up by our instructors, who gave us several hours of additional training on VHF and HF radio operation, communication protocol, helicopter safety, and rescue. One exercise involved wandering around in the snow with a bucket over our heads, looking for a lost teammate. The bucket simulated the total lack of vision and sound that occurs during a whiteout. Overall it was an extremely fun experience, but I had to take a long nap yesterday afternoon.

McMurdo Station

The view from the c-17 as we passed over the Ross Sea.




My blinding view of the ice while stepping of the Jet after a 5.5 hour flight.




These jets are large enough to hold two helicopters yet they land them on the layer of 'fast ice' that covers the southern portion of the Ross Sea.


I finally made it to the ice! I will have more to come, but I am very tired from the long flight down in our C-17. We have 'Happy Campers' tomorrow morning. This is the two day extreme climate survival course we all have to take before working out in the field. Also to come is Sea Ice Training. I am anxious to get some rest. It is 10PM here and still broad daylight. I hope I can convince my body to go to sleep!

Getting to the ice

This multi-leg journey to the ice is proving to be a bit of a challenge. I left the Portland International Airport at 5PM Monday for a three hour flight to LA. Then came the 15 hour flight to Syndey, Australia, quickly followed by a 3 hour flight to Christchurch, New Zealand. Arriving in Christchurch at 2PM on Wednesday, I was pleasently greeted with clear skies and the warm summer weather of the temperate Southern Hemishphere. After meeting with my crew to discuss some penguin project details, I caught some much needed sleep at our charming bed and breakfast.

Thursday we all filed into shuttles to be dropped off at the Clothing Distribution Center. This is where we were all giving two duffel bags filled with down parkas, windproof pants, fur gauntletts, extreme weather boots, and long underwear. It is extremely inportant that everything fit perfectly, so it took some time to try everything on and exchange for different sizes.

It is now Friday. After an early morning of getting suited up, watching a safety breifing, and waiting next to our giant, Air Force C-17 for half an hour, we were told that the jet had mechanical problems and would not be flying to the ice. The next available C-17 will come to Christchurch on Monday. Bummer!

I'm going to attempt to make the most of the next couple of days in Christchurch by taking some hikes and attempting to get a glimpse of some native wildlife.