Updates From Around Town

I have now been in Antarctica for a little over five full days. A general rule of thumb that has been used in the past is that it takes a week to get out into the field after arriving into town. Given that we have two sites that are accessible by truck, located about 7 miles and 13 miles from McMurdo, it is a little easier to make it to those sites. We made it to the Phoenix Airfield site earlier today and we were able to do about 75% of the work that we'll need to do to remove that site. We had two men from another project that volunteered to help us today and that was a big difference with all of the digging that was done. We are on the Twin Otter (a small, twin-engine, turbo-prop airplane) schedule tomorrow as a backup mission. However, the primary mission has been delayed for the past eight days so there is a good chance it will be delayed again. If/when we fly to the Lorne site, the goal is to remove all of the equipment in a single day. The cargo that we are retro'ing to town is so much that it will take two return flights. Fortunately, each leg of the flight is no more than 45 minutes.

There is nothing too significant that has happened thus far into the season so I will instead share with you a collection of updates and snippets of information on life here.

Standing over what used to the be location of the precipitation gauge installed at Phoenix Airfield.

Boondogglers:
For that flight to Lorne site tomorrow, we'll have four "boondogglers" on the trip. When extra assistance is needed in the field, or sometimes if there are available seats on a plane or helicopter, a request is made to the station administration. Work centers have a running list of workers who have been doing a good job and they are rewarded with "morale trips". The station administration contacts the work centers and volunteers are provided for our flight. This is a HUGE deal for the contract workers because most of them never get out of town during their 4 to 5 month contract. Depending on the boondoggle, it could easily be one of the highlights to their season. We also specify what is needed of the boondogglers and for the trip to Lorne we specified "hearty shovelers" to help with all of the digging.

The work being done in digging out the precipitation gauge and mounting hardware at Phoenix Airfield.

C-17:
Do you remember the three-day mechanical delay that I had with the C-17 to get to McMurdo Station? That three-day delay is now looking minor. They have yet to get in another flight since I arrived five days ago. There are three or four flights that are now backed up in Christchurch.

Cargo:
As big of a deal that it is that passengers are getting backed up in Christchurch, the situation with cargo is likely just as critical. Once a year, in January, there is a cargo resupply vessel that makes its trip from California to McMurdo. Most of the supplies that are needed for the next year and forward are shipped on the vessel. A year-plus of food for the entire station has to be ordered and shipped on the vessel. Anything that does not go on the vessel, has to arrive by the military cargo planes, at a much greater cost. A large share of this cargo going by plane is the equipment and supplies for the scientists to do their work in the field. Because of this backlog of C-17 flights, the cargo is also getting backlogged in Christchurch and it has reached the levels where some groups are at a standstill because they are waiting on their cargo to arrive. Fortunately, the only thing that was shipped for my project is empty shipping cases so we can wait another week or two until we need to use those cases.

Good Weather:
What makes things worse with the mechanical issues with the C-17 flights is that most of the main body season has had excellent weather. For this time of year the temperatures have been relatively warm and there has only been one minor snow event in something like the last month. Generally, whenever there is a stretch of great weather like this, it is amazing the amount of work that gets done in a short period of time. Except that is not quite happening this time around because of the C-17 delays and the backlog of personnel and cargo. A running comment among people in McMurdo is that eventually the C-17 will get fixed and then we'll have a stretch of bad weather that cancels the C-17 flights.

The view towards the north Phoenix Airfield. It is Ross Island in the distance, with Mt. Erebus as the dominant peak towards the left, and the Ross Ice Shelf leading up to the base of Ross Island.

Stickers:
During much of the first week, our time is spent going around town and attending various briefing and trainings. For example, this afternoon we had a training with "MacOps", which is the radio dispatch center for the station and all of the field camps. During this training they go through all of the protocols and methods of communication that we are to use while we are away from McMurdo Station. We are assigned a VHF (hand-held) radio and an Iridium satellite phone. When we are near town we are able to communicate by VHF radio and we have the Iridium to use when we are outside of radio range. Two years ago, I designed (with the assistance of a great friend) and created a sticker for the project. Most all of the time whenever we are meeting with people, I will give them a sticker for the project. I am always amazed how much people appreciate getting a sticker and the value that the stickers hold in this community. The image below is that of the sticker for the project. The "O-456" is our event number and for many people that is what we are known by in their dealings with our project.

McMurdo Rebuild:
I'll do an entire post on this in the future. The quick update for now is that Congress has funded a rebuild of McMurdo Station and that rebuild is starting during this main body season. The first major task is constructing a building that was originally thought would be built about a dozen years ago. The presence of the rebuild is being noticed throughout the town. There are a number of construction workers as a part of the population, and some of the cargo that is backed up in Christchurch is for the rebuild. Starting over the winter and into next main body season, the rebuild will increase in scope. Earlier I said that there is a single vessel resupply ship each year. For this year, and likely coming years, there will be two vessels bring the necessary equipment and supplies for the rebuild.

Those are some of the minor updates of life around McMurdo Station during my first week in town. I am still seeing and catching up with friends from recent seasons, which always makes me happy. I have yet to really start to meet new friends. That always seems to take at least half of the season.