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I made it home in 2009, but only barely, arriving at SFO in the early afternoon of Dec. 31st.

The days of waiting for the C-17 were also days of snow, which was beautiful, but limited our outdoor opportunities. The picture above is actually in color! The snow also caused a 24 hour flight delay, from Dec. 29th to Dec. 30th.

The 30th was sunny, which was doubly fortunate because we had to wait outside while the plane landed and then while they unloaded the incoming cargo and loaded the outgoing. The flight was fairly quiet - there were only about 20 of us. The cargo load was also light - my seat had a view of a large hydraulic jack, used, per the stencil, to raise airplane noses. I'm not sure what it was doing in Antarctica, or why it rated air cargo back.


One nice thing about the wait was that we got to see both the C-17 and a Basler land. A Basler is a re-engined, updated DC-3 - a 60+ year old airframe from a 75 year old design! These are the mid-sized transports, between the smaller "Twin Otters" and the larger LC-130's.


We got back to Christchurch around 8 pm that evening, leaving just enough time for dinner and a nights sleep before catching an 8:40 am flight to Auckland. Unfortunately, there was no time for another visit to the botanical garden.

Auckland was a rough return to civilization. First, there was a 5-hour layover. This was followed by an introduction to post-Dec-25th airport security. After the metal detector and X-ray machines, we were frisked and our carry-on luggage was minutely inspected. Quite a contrast from the -17, where the security check was a reminder not to pack anything sharp in your carry-on luggage.

Now that the trip is over, I will post less frequently to the blog. I have a few more trip-related posts, but, in the longer term I want to talk about how our data analysis is going, what we've learned from ARIANNA, and how it fits into the wider world.

Christmas in McMurdo

The guest post seems to have fallen through, so I’ll write a bit about Christmas here. It’s a big deal here - a 2-day weekend (the normal RPSC (Raytheon Polar Services Corp.) workweek is 6 days – 54 hours). It started on Dec. 24th, with a big party in the VMF (Vehicle Maintenance Facility), with food and drinks, a slideshow of contributed family photos, some dancing and lots of talking. Plus a chance to visit with Santa, on his sleigh (below; it's very rare to see a Santas sleigh that is actually designed for the North Pole). All in a cavernous building usually used to repair heavy machinery. Or course, there was plenty of snow outside.


On Christmas Day, the main event was dinner, served in 3 shifts (3 pm, 5 pm and 7 pm). The dining crew pulled out all the stops – roast duck, prime rib with horseradish sauce, and lobster tails in herbed butter. Thorsten and I were invited to eat in the BFC (“Berg Field Camp,” also known by residents as “Building Full of Chicks”, for the gender of the people who work there). It was nice to eat with a smaller crowd (~ 25 people, again from helicopter pilots to mountaineers, even if it did mean require carrying our plates of food through the sub-freezing outdoors.
After dinner, we all walked over to MAAG (McMurdo Alternative Art Gallery), which I discussed in the last post. It was a nice evening, even for someone who doesn’t celebrate Christmas.

Waiting for Godot (the C-17)

The past few days in McMurdo have been largely a waiting period, waiting for the next flight out, on Dec. 29th. The 6-day gap between flights is partly because of Christmas, which is a big holiday here, with a party, a festive dinner and two days off work. The days were Friday and Saturday (the 25th and 26th), with Sunday a normal work day. But, Sunday isn't a normal work day for the Air Force. Ergo, a long gap between flights.

Anyway, I'm working on a special guest post on "Christmas in McMurdo" from a long-time resident. In the meantime, here is a picture from "MAAG," McMurdo Alternative Art Gallery, which was also on the 25th. The name is actually a pretty good description of the event; there was a wide variety of art on display, plus some music and a juggler. Longtime IceCubers will recognize P. J. Charpentier on the violin, above. The picture below shows one local organization; more details are available here



Another interesting exhibit was a room sized camera obscura (pinhole camera) a darkened room with a single hole; the outside was bright enough to project an upside down image of most of McMurdo.

Otherwise, we have been collecting data with the station, filling out various forms, including a detailed environmental survey and starting to work on a journal article about the station.

It has been interesting to see how my body has adapted to the cold. Right now, it is 27 degrees (Fahrenheit), and very lightly snowing, and I'm comfortably walking around in a long sleeve shirt and fleece jacket, jeans and sneakers and wool socks. Three weeks ago, I would have been wearing way more clothes.

McMurdo Station

I should probably say a little about McMurdo station, especially since I will be here for several days, waiting for the next flight out. It is a very interesting place, with a summer population currently about 1100, and about 200+ people who winter over.

As you can see from the picture (taken from "Ob Hill") McMurdo is mostly a logistics base, supporting scientific expeditions elswhere in Antarctica. Nearby sites include the dry valleys (one place I'd love to visit is "Blood Falls"), glaciers, the Antarctic mountains and the edge of the ice shelf (including penguin research). McMurdo also support expeditions further afield, including the South Pole Station. The WAIS (West Antarctic Ice Sheet) Divide drilling project is a multi-year effort to drill 3400 meter deep ice cores to study the climate over the past 100,00 years. This is a key effort in learning how climate has evolved over time. And, of course, McMurdo supports the South Pole, including IceCube, which is a major effort there, and probably the biggest project on the continent.

So, most of what goes on here involves logistics - shipping supplies to these camps via a variety of helicopters and aircraft, and providing temporary storage facilities. There are also some scientific laboratories which are mostly used for "local" studies around McMurdo, including studies of sea life under the ice.

Since "supplies" includes everything from various types of fuel to mountaineering equipment to camping gear and scientific equipment, there is a pretty wide range of activities here.

One neat thing about the place is being able to meet people from a huge range of backgrounds. Today (Friday), I ate brunch in the galley (below) with some people from the Army Corps of Engineers, studying drainage issues around McMurdo, and a Catholic priest from New Zealand (here as a chaplain). I've also talked with heavy equipment repairman, helicopter and Twin Otter pilots and mechanics, a handful of carpenters in the New Zealand Army, and a woman studying penguins. There are also groups from the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guards, flying the LC-130s and C-17s.


Most of Mcmurdo consists of various types of storage yards and motor pools, and dormitory buildings (many of the buildings that look like barracks). There is also a kitchen and galley (this accounts for about 100 of the people here), a hospital, library, gym, bowling alley (apparently non-functional), small store, post office, chapel, coffee house and bar. Most of the 'recreational' activities operate very limited hours. Since many people work the night shift, some recreational activities are scheduled for the early morning, to accommodate them.

Our Stuff Returns

Thursday. Our sling load came home today, on (todays) schedule. The top photo shows the sling load being deposited on the helipad.

Unloading was quick; the bottom photo shows it caught in a traffic jam on the way to BFC, where we will unpack it and send the scientific stuff North. Our stuff is the wooden box on the frontloader, plus the load in the stake truck behind it.


I should probably also mention that the station continues to communicate, and we are taking data continuously. The next step is to get a more serious data analysis effort going.

We go

Wednesday morning. The third time is a charm. At our 8 am call to Helo Ops, we learn that, even though we are scheduled for the afternoon, they are launching in an hour (9 am), and we should be ready. Although they don't say this, they are making a special effort to get us out today.

This is very welcome news on many fronts, especially as we contemplate our dwindling food supply. Most of what we have left is quasi-emergency rations - a variety of freeze-dried foods that are definitely not like Mom used to make.

That said, here's no way that we can take down camp in an hour, much less build a sling load. Fortunately, they realize this, and the helo will wait while the Josh (the helo tech) leads us through building the slings. This is much appreciated, on many fronts.

By around 9:45, as we are still frantically trying to unbury the "deadman" anchors, break the ice away from the sides of the tens, and pack everything, neatly divided for the helicopter and the sling load), the helo is on the radio

They are approaching, but warn us that weather conditions are not great - it is cloudy, so surface definition is not great and a landing is not assured. This instantly brings work to a standstill - it would not be fun to set up camp again.

It makes one approach, decides the weather is OK, and comes back to land. This time, it spends what seems like a considerable time (at least many seconds) hovering just a few feet off the ground, while we lie on our bags, to keep things from blowing away. Finally, it settles down. Although the photo above is from when the sling load was delivered, it's a pretty good representation of things.

From there, it's all uphill. It takes another hour and a quarter to pack up our gear and make the sling load. Because of the weather, they will not pick up the sling load today.

Then, we climbed aboard and take off and watch the station recede into the distance, obscured by clouds of snow blown up by the helicopter rotors.

On our arrival, we were met by a truck which ferried us and our gear up to Berg Field Camp. At this point, it was noon, and the galley was serving lunch for another hour. Since there were some things that absolutely had to be done, this left us with a dilemma: showers first, and risk missing lunch, or lunch? My apologies to anyone who sat near us during lunch.

Coming back to McMurdo has required some adjustments. Besides the masses of people, there are the conveniences - flush toilets, sinks with running water, rooms that can be dark, etc. It's nice to be able to be indoors again.

We stay ... and stay

It's Tuesday afternoon, and we're still here. Shortly after my last posting, Helo Ops threw in the towel for the day - the weather wasn't getting any better.

Today was the same story - calls every few hours, before finally calling things off. The weather was better than yesterday, but not enough better. The photo above, taken around 6 pm, shows the pass that the helicopter would have to fly over, with lots of clouds. This is worse than it was during the day, but not a lot worse.

So, we spend the day taking it easy, waiting for the call to action to disassemble camp. All of our science gear is well buried; we're collecting data, but can't do any more fiddling.

Tomorrow for sure. We hope.