Survivor Antarctica!

Snow School (aka "Snow Craft One" or "Happy Camper") started easily enough, with about two hours of classroom lectures on hypothermia and frostbite, with only a few graphic pictures. Then, we (10 students + Brian, our instructor) climbed onto the Delta (shown below, coming to pick us up), grabbed lunch from the kitchen, and headed off to the middle of nowhere (actually, only a few miles from town).


After learning how the stoves worked, checking our food and gear, and eating lunch in a hut, we gathered our gear, moved to an open area, and started making camp. This entailed setting up tents, building a snow wall upwind to protect them:


The "kitchen" was a pit to stand in, a flat area for the stoves, and another snow wall upwind, to keep out the wind:

That's Brian in the kitchen. Brian also showed us how to dig an emergency snow cave:


One of the 'students' decided to finish this, and sleep in it.

Building snow walls was interesting. You start with an undisturbed patch of snow, and dig a trench along it. Then, you use a snow saw (a regular wood saw would work fine too) to cut the snow into blocks about 1 foot by 2 feet. Then, you can put a shovel underneath the blocks, and pop them out of the ground. With a little care, they come out intact, and can be easily built into walls, etc. They are easy to saw into special shapes, so one can easily fill in the irregular areas.

Setting up camp took most of the afternoon. Afterwards, Brian handed us a radio, bade us good night, and headed back to the I-Hut. This photo shows our camp, from the upwind side.

We were lucky with the weather. It was fairly warm, right around freezing, and mostly not too windy. However, as we were setting up camp, it began to get windy, and, by the time we cooked dinner, it was gusting up to 30 miles/hour. This made eating rather difficult, since we had to remove ones gloves to be able to use the plastic spoon to eat out of the freeze-dried food package. One of my roommates in McMurdo said that it was 40 below when he took the class. That must have been rough.

It was also cloudy; this made the snow rather featureless, and it was pretty hard to see the contours of the snow; you couldn't, for example, easily see the edge of a depression, and you had to be careful walking. The lack of contrast also shows in the photos; it is hard to see our snow walls, for example.

Aside from the slightly cramped tents, sleeping was pretty comfortable. We learned the importance of smoothing out the area underneath before setting up our tents. Our sleeping bags were overkill for the temperature, and we left the tent door open, partly because we were warm and our feet were hanging out.

Breakfast was pretty limited, due to a packing oversight. Then, we took down the tents, packed up camp, and headed for the I-hut. This was "Car Camping;" Brian transported most of the gear in a sled behind a snowmobile.

In the I-Hut, we learned about the HF (5-10 MHz) and VHF radios. The VHF radios are line-of-sight, while the HF radios (designed for military use), with appropriate antennae have a transcontinental range, as the signals bounce between the ionosphere and the ground. The HF radio has two roughly 50 foot long wires that are spread out to form a center-fed half-wave dipole antenna; there are alligator clips on each wire that can be removed, to shorten the antenna, to tune it to different frequencies. Since only 6 frequencies are used here, it works pretty well.

Then, it was time for the infamous "head in a bucket" exercise. The buckets simulate white-out conditions - zero visibility and lots of wind noise. Brian, our instructor, went to the bathroom, and never came back. We need decide what to do. We have a rope which can be tied to the building; as long as we hold on to it, we won't get lost. However, how do you coordinate a blind search party? We send two people out to try to find the bathroom; I'm one of them. We will try to follow the line of stakes leading to the bathroom (placed ~ 15 feet apart, to avoid just this scenario) to see if he has taken refuge in there. We find the 4th stake (missing the first three), then get the rope tangled in it, until Brian stops the exercise. For our second try, we send out the entire group, spaced ~ 6 feet apart (we tie loops in the rope to facilitate spacing and holding on). We will try to spread out in line and do a circular sweep. This goes surprisingly well, until we reach the line of flags to the bathroom. Some people want to keep going, while others want to stop, as we had discussed. We end up with a v-shaped 'line.' at which point Brian ended the exercise. He did say, generously, that we might have eventually found him, if he was in the area that we were searching. The clear lesson is not to get lost.

We moved on to the survival bags that are carried on all flights, etc. They contain supplies for two people for 3 days - sleeping bag, tents, stove, food, etc.).

Then, back outside for our 'final exercise. Our plane has crashed and the pilot broke his leg. What do we do? We quickly split up into groups, erecting the tent, keeping our injured pilot warm, building a snow wall, starting a fire to melt snow, etc. I set up the VHF radio. Instead, of calling in an emergency, Brian asks me to radio the South Pole (850 miles away) to ask what the weather is there. The South Pole Ops center is obviously used to these calls; it's a balmy 14 below (probably Fahrenheit).

After that, we clean up, wash dishes (fortunately inside) and board the Delta for the ride back to town. There, we put away everything, refill the food boxes for the next party, and watch a helicopter safety video and try out helicopter seat belts before being dismissed.

Briefings, Briefings and More Briefings

Thursday, our first full day in McMurdo is devoted mostly to briefings. After a cafeteria breakfast, we started in Cracy lab (the main science building) at 8 am, with "Crary Lab Safety", followed at 8:15 by "Environmental Field Brief." We aren't going to the dry valleys, and had already taken the online course on "Protecting Antarctica's Environment." so get out a bit early.

At 9:30, the "Science" (really logistics) briefings began in the "Chalet," the house-sized NSF office building. About 9 people took turns telling us what they did, and why we need to talk to them later. Fortunately, our briefing books list these meetings in more detail:

meet with our "On Ice POC (Point of Contact)
meet with the Crary Lab materials supervisor,
get our laptops set up to use the wireless,
go to a communications briefing
check out radios
meet with the Crary lab management about space
Check out the equipment that is being provided to us
Prepare for "Food Pull" where we will select the food we want to bring
Get trained on our generators and chainsaw
Pick up our generators and chainsaw
Meet with the Helicopter Operations Supervisor about planning our flight and packing our cargo.
Get briefed on waste management

These meetings follow a similar pattern. We are asked "What do you need?" Often, we don't know enough to intelligently answer that question. Fortunately, almost everybody that we talk to does have very good answers, all we have to do is agree with their usually excellent choices.

These meetings also highlight the vital role that planning and logistics play in Antarctic science. In the field, there is no corner store to buy a soldering iron or generator (or even a bottle of juice).

In between the meetings, we look at our gear, unpack the electronics box, and begin testing things. Everything seems to work; the only hiccup is that some network settings for the Iridium satellite modem need changing in the new environment. Also, one antenna needs some glue to repair some transit damage.

The picture shows Bldg. 155, where Thorsten and I are staying. It also houses the cafeteria, store, automatic teller machines (the only ones in Antarctica) and houses some adminstrative functions. Note the finely landscaped boulevard.

Tomorrow: snow school.

Mac Town

After arrival, we were taken directly to a series of briefing, covering health and safety, environmental issues, housing, and our return flights. Thorsten and I are in Bldg. 155, which also houses the cafeteria, store, a crafts room, etc. We are both in rather crowded 5-person rooms; there is not a lot of room for storage (or anything else) in the rooms. One nice thing about this place is that everyone is friendly, and most have very interesting life stories.

The weather here is quite balmy – sunny and only a few degrees below freezing. Unfortunately, it was also pretty windy the first day. On-base, the ground has a pretty thin layer of snow/ice on it. During the day (the sun never goes down, but it is higher in the sky during the day), much of this melts, and there are pools of water, and small streamlets running down the roads. You have to be careful where to step.

Mac Town is a medium sized settlement, with a current population of about 1,100, dropping to around 200 in the winter. The architecture is low-budget mining town; unattractive buildings with dirt/gravel/snow streets. Although there is a push to reduce energy consumption, many of the buildings are quite old, and not exactly energy efficient.

Meals are cafeteria style. At dinner, the main dishes were brisket, thai style catfish, or a chili, plus soup, vegetables, potatoes, deserts, ice cream, etc. Plus a wide selection of drinks. After dinner, Laura, Thorsten and I walked down Discovery Hut (commonly known as Scott’s hut), where the Scott party wintered over in 1902. The top photo shows Discovery hut in the foreground, with the modern McMurdo base in the background – the ultimate in suburban sprawl. The bottom photo, taken from near the hut, shows the Sea Ice “Airport,” with 3 LC130’s. The LC130s can take off and land on both wheels and on skis; the skis are used in softer snow.

Across the Antarctic Ocean

The adventure begins! Check-in at the Antarctic terminal was at 6 am for our 8:30 flight. We changed into ECW (extreme cold weather) gear for the flight, had our temperatures taken (no sick people are allowed in Antarctica) checked our checked luggage and boomerang bag, and checked in for our flight. In addition to our checked baggage, they also weighed the passengers and carry on luggage (“please step up onto the scale.”).

ECW gear is required wearing in case of emergency. My 2006 flight back from the Pole clearly showed why this is a good idea – the cabin heating on our LC-130 failed, and the cabin temperature dropped below freezing. Way below freezing. But, we stayed comfortable.

The ‘boomerang’ bag contains clothing for a day or two, in case we ‘boomerang.’ A ‘boomerang’ is when the flight South is unable to land at McMurdo, so returns to Christchurch; checked luggage stays checked, but the boomerang bag is returned.

Then, we had an hour to kill - time for a light breakfast. Then we watched a safety video (everything from appropriate clothing and frostbite and sunburn to construction safety in 15 minutes), went through security screening, and boarded two buses to drive through the rain to the plane.

The C-17 is a large 4-engine jet transport, built to land on unimproved runways. Ours was operated by the U. S. Air Force transport. There were only 53 passengers on this flight, so the center of the plane was filled with cargo. Most people sat in jump-seats on the side; there were a few airline style seats in the front center. Here are a couple of pictures I took of the passenger/cargo area


and cockpit of the C-17:


There was limited sound insulation, so they passed out earplugs. “Inflight Service” consisted of 3 jugs of water and some cups, plus earplugs (there was limited sound insulation). Bag lunches and water bottles were distributed before boarding.

As we neared the Antarctic coast, the clouds thinned, and we got some views of ice-covered ocean. The ice extended at least 300 miles from land (and this wasn’t even the ice shelf). The photo (below) shows Sturge Island in the background. It is part of the Balleny Island Group. The photo was taken through one of the two less-than-pristine windows on each side of the plane.


Later, we saw the Antarctic 'coast', before we had to sit down and fasten our seat belts for landing.




We landed on the Sea Ice Runway, just offshore from McMurdo station. This runway will close soon, when the ice gets too soft, and C-17 operations will shift from Pegasys field, a “white ice” runway, a 45 minute drive to McMurdo. Here we are deplaning:

Today in Christchurch

Christchurch is a beautiful city, with a lot of beautiful old stone buildings. This picture shows the main cathedral, next to a "The Chalice," (possibly better known as "The Ice Cream Cone").

At breakfast, I ran into Laura Gladstone, a UW (Madison) graduate student on IceCube; she is on her way to the South Pole to test digital optical modules (DOMs). Laura, Thorsten and I then went to the University of Canterbury, where we lunched with the local IceCube group. This is Suruj Seunarine last week there - after 9(?) years he is moving to a faculty position at the University of the West Indies, on Barbados.

After lunch, the main event was our appointment at the Clothing Distribution Center (CDC), where we received everything from long underwear and wool socks to warm parkas and snow goggles. And again, more pairs of gloves and mittens than I knew what to do with - leather mittens, 2 pairs of leather gloves (I gave one back), snow gloves, glove liners.... Since we had to try everything on, this took some time.

Later, Thorsten and I wandered around the Christchurch botanical garden, which is really amazing. Especially the heritage rose garden (below):


There is also a nice display of water plants (below):

We need to be back at the Antarctic center at 6 am tomorrow, for a planned 8:30 (?) departure.

Halfway (?) There

After a long flight and a few adventures, we made it to Christchurch, NZ.

The fun started at SFO. I had no problems, but Qantas (Australian airline) had real problems with Thorsten's boarding passes. At the check-in counter and gate, we heard a string of improbable excuses: You need to get electronic visas for Australia (at a cost of $25) [even though we never went through Australian immigration], New Zealand Immigration thinks that your passport has expired, and, finally, there isn't enough time for him in Sydney between flights [then why did you sell us this ticket? Maybe they think I can run faster than him]. In the end, they gave him a SFO to Sydney boarding pass and told him to try again in Sydney. They also checked all 3 of our bags on my ticket [the alert reader will note a bit of literary foreshadowing here].

The flight to Sydney was as nice as a 14 hour flight can be. The plane was about 1/3 full so we had room to stretch out, there were only a few crying babies, and the food and entertainment system were a cut above most U.S. airlines [n. b. this was a code-share flight and we had "American Airlines" tickets, so satisfied the "Fly America" act]. Due to winds, we took a very westerly route, flying by Hawaii, and then south over the Solomon Islands. Unfortunately, the sun was just coming up,and we couldn't actually see any islands.

In Sydney, we had 40 minutes between flights - plenty if we both had boarding passes. The Qantas "Transit" Desk first ascribed this to NZ immigration, and then said "This happens now and again," and, after a few tries with unanswered phones, was able to reach a supervisor who could override the hold, and print a boarding pass. Thorsten was the last one on board.

After another 3 hours flying, we arrived in Christchurch, went through immigration, and waited for our bags. And waited. And waited. It seems that our bags like Sydney so much that they decided to take a later flight. Unfortunately, our oscilloscope, which requires special customs clearance, was in one of the three bags, checked in my name, even though the customs form listed Thorsten's name. And, we didn't even know which luggage tag it was. As a further complication, we used the same customs form for our carry-on network analyzer (no traveler should be without one). After some confusion, this was at least theoretically sorted out, and the oscilloscope will clear customs and our bags should be delivered to our hotel tomorrow morning.

Fortunately, the FedExed ARIANNA electronics box did arrive and cleared customs, and it scheduled to be on our flight South.

Christchurch hasn't change much in the past year and a half. It is still a very visitor-friendly (and generally friendly) place. Unfortunately, today is cold and slightly rainy (even though it is summer here). And my umbrella is still in Sydney.

Getting There is half the fun

An influential reader (full disclosure: my wife) thought that it would be helpful if I posted a map of Antarctica, showing where we're going. We will be on the Ross Ice Shelf, near the bottom of this map. Initially, we will be based at McMurdo station, shown by the red dot. This is the main U. S. base in Antarctica, a major logistical hub. There, we will go through "Snow School" and other training, gather our food, tents, generators, other equipment, etc. Then, we will be helicoptered to Moore's Bay, about 70 miles away. Very roughly, it is below and to the right of the "F" in "Shelf".

We will travel there via New Zealand. We will fly from San Francisco to Christchurch, NZ, via Sydney, Australia (not the most direct route, but at least it's only one stop), crossing the international date line and arriving Monday morning. On Tuesday, we will go to the Clothing
Distribution Center (CDC), where we will be issued a full range of cold-weather clothing. On Wednesday, weather permitting, we will fly down to McMurdo, most likely on an air force C-17.


This photo, from 2006, shows the C-17 that I flew on to McMurdo, for a trip to work on IceCube. Then, we flew C-17s to McMurdo, spend the night there, and then continued to the South Pole on an LC-130, which landed on skis. The bottom photo shows an LC130 landing at the Pole, also from 2006.