Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving weekend at McMurdo Station is a pretty big deal. One of the reasons why it is such a big deal is because it is a rare two day weekend with most all other weekends a single day (Sunday). That means it gives people a chance to unwind and relax a little more. The station and operations also shut down more than a typical weekend. The focus of the two-day weekend is the Saturday, when Thanksgiving is celebrated. There are a variety of activities throughout the day, the bars are a little livelier, and some workcenters are also frequently hosting smaller parties. From Friday evening until Sunday afternoon it can be a flurry of activities, or a chance to relax and rest, which oftentimes does not happen.

The start of the Turkey Trot 5K. I am in the fourth from the left, in all black, and bib number 1143.

One of the big events for Thanksgiving is the Turkey Trot 5K race. There are actually two 5K races. The Turducken is run Friday evening for those that are working during the actual Turkey Trot. There are also some people who run both. The Turkey Trot has become a big event for those that run, and those that prefer to walk the 5K. For this year's Turkey Trot there were 150 entrants with a current station population of 895 people, or about a sixth of the station. Typically, a large number of the participants dress up in all sorts of costumes for the Turkey Trot. There are collections of costumes throughout the station that have been around for years and emerge for big events such as Halloween and the Turkey Trot. The actual race is sort of brutal. Roughly the first half of the race is run uphill on a crushed rock road and the second half is the return run downhill. The temperature was reasonable this year at 23F but there was a biting wind that cut through most running gear and costumes. There are a few good and serious runners but most of the participants are more in it for the experience, fun, and a great way to kickoff Thanksgiving in McMurdo.

The finish line of the Turkey Trot in front of the Chapel of the Snows. It is easy to see some of the costumes worn by some of the runners.

These two turkey costumes were new creations for this years Turkey Trot. The two guys made them the night before and stood at the finish line cheering on the runners, including the bullhorn, as the runners finished. The number of 150 participants in the Turkey Trot does not include all of those who volunteered and cheered on during the event to make it a little more special for everybody.

The galley (dining hall) serves multiple Thanksgiving dinners throughout the day. Contrary to most meals, when some people grab their food and leave, the Thanksgiving meal is eaten together as friends. For many of the long time contract workers, their friends and coworkers are closer to them than their actual families. The dining staff has their own meal as a precursor at 12:30 and then they serve meals at 3:00, 5:00, and 7:00. There is another meal closer to midnight for those that are working the night shift. The Thanksgiving meal covers all of the common dishes that you'd see at any Thanksgiving dinner. There are mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, corn, green bean casserole, turkey, gravy, salad, pecan pie, apple pie, and so on. The dining staff do a tremendous job of providing a great meal to the station population. Thanksgiving is also a very unique day in that most everybody cleans up and oftentimes are wearing clothes that are much nicer than you see on just about any other day during the main body season. Sometimes, it can even be difficult to recognize people because you are not used to seeing them look so good and dressed up, at least dressed up for McMurdo.

My Thanksgiving dinner for this year. Except for the wine glass, the dinnerware and utensils are typical of any other meal in the galley. The food is much better than a typical meal in the galley.

It is traditional during each meal sitting for the dining staff to be announced and for them to do a walk through so everybody can thank the dining staff for working and providing such a great meal on Thanksgiving.

My table with coworkers and friends for this year's Thanksgiving dinner.

The Wall Street Journal is in McMurdo for two weeks to cover various aspects of the life and science that occurs here. I've heard word that the WSJ will be having an article on Monday covering the Turkey Trot and Thanksgiving in McMurdo. Be sure to check it out if you have access to the WSJ.

Midway Point

I am one day past the midpoint for this year's field season. It feels much later than that in the season. I think a big reason for that is because we are well over halfway in terms of the work that needs to be done. We have had mostly good weather throughout my time here. The difficult weather conditions that we have had in the last last two weeks have been short lived. The US Antarctic Program uses a rating system of Condition 3 to Condition 1, with 1 being the worst and restricted to no outside movement. I think we have had maybe one day where it was Condition 2 on the ice shelf and snow roads and everything else has been Condition 3. This run of good weather has been very helpful for the station to get caught up from opening the main body season two weeks late due to horrible weather in early October. I am starting to ponder how I am going to handle if I go the entire field season without any fun weather.

There is a chance that we might be able to finish the field season early. I have always felt there was a high probability of this happening this season. The work to do this year, with the maintenance and repair of the Antarctic Precipitation System sites, was anticipated to be reasonable and that has thus far proven to be true. If we do finish early, I am not sure if I'd be able to get on an early northbound flight. There are two flights each of the next two weeks, with my scheduled flight the last of these four flights (Dec. 7). I am hesitant to request to be moved up to an earlier flight until it is certain we will be done early. There is always a chance for bad weather and/or flight delays. Fortunately, I have brought months of work with me so that if we do finish early, I will still have plenty to do here working remotely.

We have been able to get out twice this week to the two local sites. The site at Phoenix Airfield is nearly finished. I estimate about 15 minutes more work to be done at that site. The Willie Field site is dependent on unburying the snow fence shield. We will be having the support of a dozer Sunday night and an excavator all day Monday to assist in removing that equipment. My guess is that it will make for some fun photos. We are also on the schedule tomorrow (Friday) to visit the two remote sites by airplane.

As in the US, we will be having a short work week in recognition of Thanksgiving. Except, how the short week is done is quite different. A typical week for McMurdo Station is six work days and a one day weekend. For Thanksgiving it is a five day work week with Thanksgiving celebrated on Saturday. By late Friday afternoon, things all around town will be shutting down for the long weekend and not much will be happening. In typical Thanksgiving tradition, there will be a turkey trot running race Saturday morning. The galley will also have three sittings for the traditional Thanksgiving meal. It should be a fun weekend.

For all my friends and family in the US, I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving and I hope you have great day with family, friends, turkey, and football.

It Takes a Small Town

Frequently, when most people think of the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) they think of scientists going to Antarctica and the work done by the scientists. That is a fair line of thinking given that the objective of the USAP is to advance science and it is funded by the National Science Foundation. The reality is that USAP is made up of far more occupations than scientists and scientists only make up a small percentage of the people in Antarctica as a part of USAP.

McMurdo Station is like a small town. The station population during the summer months ranges from 800 to 1050. Sometimes McMurdo Station is compared to a small mining town and that is a more fitting comparison. McMurdo is located on the tip of Hut Point Peninsula, which is on the southwest end of Ross Island. McMurdo is located on volcanic rock and it is part of the 2% of Antarctica that is not covered by snow and ice. On top of the physical similarities of a mining town, heavy machinery are constantly moving around the town and are a central part of the roads and work areas. Similar to a small town, McMurdo Station is comprised of a range of occupation and workers that fill the wide range of needs in support of the scientific mission.

There is a large range of job titles for people working in Antarctica and at McMurdo Station. There are the typical range of "trades" jobs including electricians, plumbers, carpenters, mechanics, welders, and heavy equipment operators. The people working these jobs are often highly experienced in their field and many are familiar with working similar contract type jobs that last for a duration of the year (not year round). My guess is that people in these jobs are also some of the most veteran people at McMurdo Station. It is not uncommon to find somebody who has been working here for 15 years or more in the trades. There is also a range of more clerical, administrative, and IT positions. The Crary Lab (the main science lab) has a lab supervisor, two assistants, and three IT personnel. There are many other similar jobs throughout McMurdo. A common entry level position for first timers is dining assistants (work in the kitchen, cleaning tables/dishes, etc.), jano (janitorial), and shuttle drivers. These positions are often filled by young people seeking the adventure shortly after college or some people, and sometimes as couples, looking to do something exciting. I should add that frequently the people working these positions are highly educated and these are the jobs they have taken to experience Antarctica. Lastly, there are the support services that are necessary in any town. There is a large number of people that work in "wastes" as they are responsible for packing and retro'ing all of the garbage and recyclables back to California as nothing is dumped in McMurdo Station. There are also people who work at the waste water treatment plant, the station store, lodging, and the list goes on. The scientists are the focus of all that is done here but it is the efforts of a small town of people that allows the science work to be done.

Tall Tower - Part 1

On Tuesday we were able to make a trip to the Tall Tower Antarctic Precipitation  System site. Transportation around Antarctica falls into three categories: wheeled vehicles in McMurdo and on the groomed snow roads to the airfields, tracked vehicles for generally nearby locations on the ice shelf, and by air using helicopter or airplane. Helicopter is used primarily for locations within 50 miles of McMurdo Station and airplane is used for locations beyond that range. The Tall Tower site is about 100 miles to the southeast of McMurdo Station so we took the Twin Otter airplane to do the work on the APS site. The Twin Otter flight to Tall Tower is relatively short as it took about 45 minutes in the air. The Twin Otters are ski equipped so that they can do open field landings. It is really amazing how they can land most anywhere, other than regions where there are crevasses, or cracks in the snow/ice, and it takes very little for them to takeoff.

The APS site at Tall Tower was found to be in relatively good condition. There was one instrument that were buried and needed to be raised. We raised some other equipment as well as there was about 20" of accumulation at this site. The drifting around the site was also quite variable, which is why one of the instruments was buried. The expectation was that this would be one of two trips to Tall Tower with the primary goals for this trip was to evaluate the condition of the site and retrieve an instrument and datalogger to bring back to the lab. Beyond those tasks, we wanted to do any other work that was worth doing on this flight so that we didn't have too much work on the next visit. The big story of for this visit was that the weather was beautiful. When we landed, the temperature was 0F. That might sound cold but when the sun is out, there is no wind, and you are in your cold weather gear, it is very nice conditions to work. It warmed up to 9F by the time we left. The plan was to do two hours of work at the site. At around two hours I talked with the pilot and commented that we'd prefer to get as much work done as we could with the weather so nice. He agreed and we ended up spending four hours at the site. The amount of work for our next visit should be very reasonable to complete and probably doable even if the weather is a little rough. On our second visit to Tall Tower last year we were working in 20 knot winds and it was a challenge.

Beyond the visit to Tall Tower, we took one trip by truck to one of the local sites, Willie Field, and will be doing another later today. The rest of the time this week was spent in the lab in town reviewing the instruments, dataloggers, programs, and the work that needs to be done. Thus far, the weather continues to be moderate to fairly good for this field season.

Trainings and Briefings

Much of the first few week, and especially the first few days after arriving at McMurdo Station, is filled with a series of trainings and briefings. One example is the "Arrival In-brief", which occurs immediately after we are dropped off following the transport from the airfield. There are also individual briefings with groups supporting us during the field season, such as with MacOps - the communications control center. The trainings include: fire, medical, waste, light vehicle (these four are referred to as "core training"), outdoor safety for hiking, and mattrack training to drive the tracked trucks. A new training this year was "Harassment Awareness Training" in response to much of what has occurred during the past year. Afterwards, I had a discussion with one of the senior officials and he said that he'd like to see the harassment training to be more specific to what might happen in the field and among research teams. Overall, I counted 18 different trainings and briefings. We did all but one of them during our first four full days in McMurdo. Our last briefing is with helicopter ops tomorrow to discuss our helicopter support needs. The longest of all of these trainings was the Field Support and Training (FS&T) Antarctic Field Safety course. This course is required for anybody that is leaving McMurdo Station for any length of time and the course is encouraged for everybody. This course is entirely indoors and lasts about four hours.

The current form of the Antarctic Field Safety course is similar to what used to be a refresher course for people working in the field after they had taken "Survival School", also referred to as "Happy Camper School". For years (~15-20 years) the survival school was required for any first year person in the US Antarctic Program who was going into the field. On my first trip, it was required only if you were staying overnight in the field. I did not have to take the course that year as we only did day trips into the field. I was required to take the course when I returned to Antarctica in January 2005. The happy camper school would take about 8-12 people into a nearby location on the ice shelf. The class would consist of building emergency shelters, such as a snow mound or an ice cave, setting up tents, creating a cooking area that is protected from the wind, making dinner, radio comms, and spending the night in a tent, snow mound, or ice cave. I've included some photos from my 2005 training below. It was so much fun! We also had great weather for our happy camper school, which always helps.

The complete project, a snow mound. Looks like a great option for a night of sleep in 2005.

Having dinner in our cutout "kitchen" during the happy camper school in 2005.

Ready for a night of sleep in the snow mound. Keep in mind that there are 24 hour days in Antarctica during the summer field season. This photo was taken at about midnight and bright enough to need sunglasses.

The old rules were that after you completed going through happy camper school, each subsequent year in Antarctica, you had to take a refresher course. About four years ago, the requirement for the happy camper school was eliminated and the refresher course was turned into roughly the field safety course's current form. The training is completed in approximately 3-1/2 hours. It is a mixture of classroom discussion and activities. The classroom lecture and discussion include topics such as risk and safety, cold weather health and injuries - including photos of frostbite, and a video covering helicopter safety. The practical activities are more focused on getting you through a situation where you would be fine if you have to use a "survival bag". The survival bag is gear and food for two people to exist for three days. Survival bags are put on all forms of transportation whenever you leave the maintained snow roads. For example, on today's Twin Otter flight there were two flight crew members and five passengers. Therefore, there had to be four survival bags on the plane. One part of the practical exercises is to go through all of the gear and food that are included in a survival bag. Next we go through how to light the gas stove that is included in the survival bag. Having a stove is one of the keys to survival because melting snow for water to drink is critical. We also learn how to setup the tent provided in the survival bag, and then take a few minutes in groups of 4-5 to set up one of the tents. We even cover some basic knots that would be useful in setting up the emergency shelters. Learning all of this in a nice warm building and out of the wind is far from reality, especially for the situations where you might have to open up a survival bag. However, it is still useful to review mentally and physically some of the tricks to make a difficult situation safe.

The Antarctic safety instructor laying out all of the gear and food in a survival bag.

Groups practicing lighting the Whisperlite stoves that are included in the survival bag.

Practicing setting up tents as a part of the Antarctic safety training. These tents were chosen specifically because of their design with having interior poles. This makes the tents easier to set up from the inside in high winds.

I have never had to use a survival bag. There was one helicopter flight, in strong winds and blowing snow, where before the helicopter left us, we were reminded to not hesitate to use the survival bag. There was another helicopter flight on a beautiful day in the field. However, after a few hours, snowed moved into the region obscuring the visibility. After we were picked up, the helicopter pilot commented that the conditions had nearly deteoriated to the point where he couldn't make out the horizon, necessary for him to land. Overall, it is very rare for a survival bag to be used but the training is done each year so that anybody in the position to do so, will be fine.

Initial Visit to Two APS Sites

When this project was initially proposed, a focus was placed on having two of the Antarctic Precipitation Sites (APSs) within range of being able to drive to the sites. One of the main reasons for this is that it is considerably easier to visit a site by truck or mattrack (a truck with tracked wheels) than by helicopter or Twin Otter airplane. We benefitted from that close proximity last year as we did many visits to the Phoenix and Willie Field sites as we constructed the precipitation systems and made the final engineering decisions and tests. Similarly, the nearby locations benefitted us today as we were able to take the mattrack to visit the same two sites and do an initial evaluation of how the sites survived the Antarctic winter. Two colleagues visited the sites a week ago and had sent us pictures so what we saw was not a complete surprise but it was still different to actually see the sites.

Willie Field APS - Drifting and Accumulation

The obvious feature that is immediately apparent from the Willie Field site is the significant accumulation of snow at the site. In this region of Antarctica, past experience with automatic weather stations is that the area gets about one to two feet of snow accumulation each year. The ice sheets in Antarctica accumulate snow each year and the ice sheets are slowly pushed out towards the ocean. Eventually, the ice sheet calves off into icebergs and drifts away in the ocean. I was expecting this same 1-2 feet of accumulation at Willie Field. Instead, we found about 25-38 inches of accumulation. The range is because the Double Fence Intercomparison Reference (DFIR) shield resulted in significant drifting and accumulation and that accumulation varied throughout the installation. You can roughly think of the DFIR as two rings of wooden snowfences surrounding the precipitation gauge. At installation, not quite a year ago, the top of the DFIR was 78" above the snow surface. There is now only 3" of the DFIR above the snow surface (over six feet of accumulation at the DFIR). In looking at the past observations, it appears that already in mid-March the snow had accumulated to the point where the drifting snow filled the bucket of the precipitation gauge. I've include some photos from a year ago and now to show the changes due to accumulation. The initial task will be to dig out the DFIR and then we'll decide what we should do for this upcoming year.

Phoenix APS - A Wind Shield In Trouble

The good news from the Willie Field APS location is that the wind shields surrounding the precipitation gauges were in very good condition. The double-ring wind shield is designed to slow the winds and increase the ability of the gauge to catch the snow. However, that also means that the wind shields are encountering the significant winds of Antarctica and can take a beating. The wind shields at Willie Field APS survived and looked good. In mid-August, I viewed a video clip of the Phoenix APS site and saw that one of the corners had become disassembled and it was flapping in the wind. I contacted a colleague who was in McMurdo at the time and they visited the site to do a repair hoping to keep the shield intact. Sometime in the last couple weeks, the wind shield at Phoenix had significantly come apart at multiple points and was barely staying together. That is the condition that we found the wind shield today. We lowered the shield and spent about an hour putting it back together and the shield was able to return to much closer to the original condition than I ever imagined with such minimal effort. We'll be going back to this site to do some reinforcing of the joints, and other final details, before raising the wind shield back into place.

Conclusions

Some of the unknowns of this field season were what condition would we find the APS sites and what work will need to be done to repair the sites for a second year of observations. Today, we were able to take an initial visit to two of the sites and I'd classify the results as mixed. There are big questions as to how we'll dig out the DFIR and what we'll do with it for next year. Yet the overall repairs that need to be done seem reasonable. We will now make some decisions on how to go forward with these two sites and then start planning for what we can expect for the two sites accessible by helicopter and Twin Otter airplane.

Never Gets Old

The southbound trip from Christchurch is one that is both a combination of excitement and "been there, done that". I have tried always maintain the same sense of wonder and a feeling of being fortunate on every trip. There is no doubt that those feelings and emotions are not as strong as they were on the early trips, or my WinFly trip from two years ago. However, I still hope that I don't lose sight of the reality that I am traveling to Antarctica and when I get off the plane this place is unlike most everywhere else on Earth. I noticed on this southbound trip that not a lot of people were taking photos. Meanwhile, I was still trying to take photos as I've always done. Unfortunately,  many of the photos look almost the exact same as last year and I'm confident they are not that different from previous years as well.

Waiting in line to check-in at the Antarctic Passenger Terminal in Christchurch.

The day starts with a 4:30 AM wake-up in order to pack and be ready for a 5:15 AM shuttle to the Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) and Antarctic Passenger Terminal (APT), which are located next to the Christchurch International Airport. Once arriving at the CDC, you switch into the required cold weather gear for the flight to Antarctica, as well as do the final packing and preparations to check-in for the flight. All non carry-on luggage is checked-in starting at 6:00 AM. The baggage goes through a security screening process similar to that of a commercial flight and then we have about an hour before we need to return to the APT. That gives us a chance to walk to a local coffee shop or store for breakfast. We return to the APT by 7:30 for another video introducing us to Antarctica and another briefing. From there it is through one last security screening, including removing laptops from the carry on, and then loading a bus to take us onto the tarmac and to the military cargo plane. For this flight we had a C-17, which is about as nice as it gets for a military cargo flight. There are a few flights each year for the US Antarctic Program that use an Airbus or a Boeing 757 but I have yet to have one of those flights. We get off the bus, grabbed a bag lunch, and then boarded the plane for our southbound flight. The flight on Monday had 71 passengers and about 2/3 of the middle of the plane was filled with cargo.

One of the benefits of the C-17 is that it is much faster than the C-130 cargo plane. The flight from Christchurch to Phoenix Airfield took us 5 hours and 10 minutes on Monday. There is not too much to be done during the flight as it is fairly loud. Everybody has either ear plugs or noise cancelling headphones throughout the flight. There is room to stretch out and walk around and that is done frequently. The flight on Monday took off a few minutes early and landed at a little after 2:00 PM, McMurdo time. Because of the close proximity and dependence of the US Antarctic Program on Christchurch, New Zealand, the USAP operates on New Zealand time. With daylight savings this past weekend that means it is plus one day and minus 4 hours, or plus 20 hours, from Colorado time.

Getting off of the airplane is always one of the highlights in going to Antarctica. For this flight we landed with somewhat low cloud ceilings and we could not see as far as is normal when landing. The flight landed at Phoenix Airfield, which is about 15 miles from McMurdo Station. Everybody loaded into a passenger vehicle called the Cress. The Cress is not made for speed and it took an hour to travel from Phoenix Airfield into McMurdo Station where we were greeted by friends when we got off of the Cress and then the arrival briefing, which is yet one of many in the series of trainings and briefings.

Routine and Not Routine

This is my fourth year in a row in taking a trip to Antarctica and it is my seventh trip overall. The result of this experience is that some things become routine and consistent, even with the unpredictability and uncertainty of traveling to and working in Antarctica. The most routine part of the trip is in the preparations, the travel to/from Christchurch, New Zealand, and the initial day and a half in Christchurch. After that, the biggest thing that is routine is the uncertainty with how most everything is done.

I have kept pack lists of what I have brought with me for each of my trips to Antarctica. The two key reasons for this are to make packing easier the next time around, even if it is unknown if there will be another trip. The second reason is that having the pack list helps me to minimize what I pack. I was noticing during my packing a few days ago that not only is what I bring consistent but I have also gotten into a pattern in how it is packed. I use two duffel bags and a daypack backpack. The two duffel bags gives me the flexibility to comply with the two checked bags less than 50 pounds for commercial air travel and the Antarctic limitation of 85 pounds in any number of bags. I also pack only gear and clothing to be used in Antarctica in one duffel bag so that I never have to open that bag while in New Zealand.

Duffel bags and daypack with my clothing, gear, and electronics for this year's trip to Antarctica.

The first full day in Christchurch is spent doing a series of introduction and orientation videos at the International Antarctic Center in Christchurch. These videos are the same year after year and they are very routine. From there, we get our flu vaccination, instruction on the clothing issue, followed by receiving the extreme cold weather gear that is issued to us for our time in Antarctica. Over the years, I have progressively brought more and more of my own cold weather clothing. It has gotten to the point that the only items that I take with me are the major items: the "big red" parka, insulated bibs, bunny boots, and a collection of hats, mittens, gloves, facemask, and goggles. The "big red" parka has sort of a serial number to track since they are worth so much. That number also indicates the year it was initially issued and I think my "big red" parka for this season is from 1989.

Receiving the instruction on the process of getting the issued cold weather gear and packing the baggage for the southbound flight. The instruction is given in the Antarctic Passenger Terminal in Christchurch.

Trying on my "big red" parka, bibs, and bunny boots issued to be at the CDC. The poster on the wall indicates what is required to be worn, or on you, when you board the plane for the trip to Antarctica.

The remainder of the full day in Christchurch is spent as you wish. I ended up taking a nap and working on my laptop in catching up with a collection of projects and tasks from work and home. It is always a flurry of activity when leaving Colorado. This year things were even a little more crazy as I moved a month ago and I still getting settled into my new home. I also had dinner with a group of friends, new and old, that are also on the same southbound flight.

For the most part, this is where the routine comes to an end. We were told during the instruction on the clothing issue that it was expected that we would not be flying today because of the weather. The confidence that it was told to me caught me a little off guard as I didn't think the weather forecast was that certain. The plan was that we would be notified by 4:30 AM if the flight was cancelled. I went to bed unsure if we'd be going and I was leaning towards we would not be flying. I woke up at 4:30 AM without having received a phone call. I checked the flight hotline and it said that we were confirmed for today's flight. From there it was shower, pack, and transport to the CDC. At the CDC we changed into our extreme cold weather gear and checked in the baggage to be placed on a pallet to be included in the military cargo flight. A break for breakfast and then the process of going through security, riding a bus to the C-17 cargo plane, and eventually taking off. In the end, we arrived into McMurdo this afternoon at a little after 2:00 PM. This is my sixth southbound flight (one trip was on a ship) and it is only the second time that I have arrived on my scheduled flight and time. Like I said, from here forward the only thing that is routine is that things aren't routine.

I'll update you more on arriving into Antarctica and getting settled in my next post.