Journey to Antarctica, or Not

The transit to Antarctica is a complex series of events that generally take a fair amount of time and effort. It is a process, and a process that is frequently impaired by delays. My journey to Antarctica started with leaving from Denver Thursday afternoon. I flew commercial from Denver to Los Angeles, with a five hour layover, followed by a 12-1/2 hour flight from LAX to Auckland, New Zealand, a four-hour layover, and then a relatively short flight from Auckland to Christchurch. I arrived into Christchurch Saturday afternoon with a day lost due to crossing the International Dateline. The door-to-door transit time was about 29 hours. That is the effort just to get to Christchurch, and to prepare for the last leg to Antarctica. 

Most all of the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) travels through Christchurch. The key reason for this is because the largest USAP station, McMurdo Station, is located approximately directly south of Christchurch. The day after arriving into Christchurch, the morning starts with a shuttle ride to the USAP operations at the International Antarctic Center. Generally, we go through a series of videos and briefings, receive our flu shot for the year, are issued extreme cold weather (ECW) gear, and are then free to leave by late morning. For good and bad, they also included on Sunday a series of trainings, which we typically go through every year in McMurdo. These trainings included topics such as how to handle garbage, basics of driving trucks and vans in McMurdo, and fire safety. We will still have more trainings and briefings to go through but the extra effort on Sunday allows us to get many of them out of the way before even arriving at McMurdo Station. This means we also didn't get to leave for the day until mid-afternoon.

All of this leads to earlier today, Monday morning, and the big flight to Antarctica. Except, it didn't. A typical C-17 flight day involves being picked up at the hotel by a shuttle at 5:15 AM. There are different rules and guidelines that apply for the checked bags, including a "boomerang" bag, all of which can't exceed 85 pounds, your carry-on bag, and wearing your ECW gear. I was able to get done with the check-in before 6:30 AM and then it was over to a nearby coffee shop for breakfast. We were operating this morning on a one-hour delay, so that meant we didn't have to return to the Antarctic Passenger Terminal (APT) until 8:30. After that, the process involved going through a security screening, sort of similar to TSA, but more cumbersome because of being dressed in ECW gear. All of this is followed by a bus taking us from the APT to the C-17 on the tarmac waiting for the flight to Antarctica.

This is where all of the effort from the last three days came to a halt. I was on the first of three buses taking the 90 passengers to the plane. We pulled up next to the C-‌17 and waited for awhile on the bus before boarding the plane, which is normal. Then there was talk of a mechanical problem and then the bus was taking us back to the APT. We were still not sure if this would be a 20-30 minute delay or longer. Within about 15 minutes we received an announcement that the C-17 was "properly busted". As a part of the packing process, you pack a "boomerang" bag that you get if the flight doesn't go after your bags have been fully checked. (The term boomerang is in reference to flights that leave and are turned around, due to weather or mechanical difficulties, bringing you back to where you started.) We were all talking about what we packed and didn't pack in our boomerang bag when we were told they would be unloading all of the bags. That is a sure sign that this will not be a short delay.

I received official word late this afternoon that our next scheduled flight is for Thursday morning. A replacement part for the C-17 has to be shipped in from the US to Christchurch. Today is going to be a quiet day for me as I hope to get some work done, catch up on emails from the past week, and a chance to get some rest. My plans for tomorrow are to spend the day working at the University of Canterbury. A colleague at the university is interested in talking about some Antarctic meteorology work and has also offered to let me use an office for the day. I'll try to get in some recreation/tourist activities on Wednesday and then on Thursday we'll start this process all over again.

Lastly, I'll point out that this inconvenience and delay, which is commonplace in going to/from Antarctica, is very minor. A friend of mine from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) field camp from four years ago, has spent the last nine months at South Pole. Six of those winter-over months at the South Pole included the sun being below the horizon and in darkness. This friend left South Pole and got to McMurdo mid last week, and was supposed to go north to Christchurch on a flight last Friday. That flight was delayed due to a mechanical condition until today, and now there is this mechanical delay. My delay in Christchurch, with summer weather, is nothing in comparison to my friend's delay.