Byrd Surface Camp (Part 1)

Okay, back to posts with pictures! As mentioned in the Miscellanea post, last Wednesday (Tuesday in the US) I flew out to Byrd Surface Camp (motto: If a plane lands, get on it!) for 5 days to help with the installation of the network and communications equipment.  I ended up with a lot more pictures and videos than I expected, so I've split this into two posts.

Unfortunately, the best map I could find that shows Byrd's location relative to McMurdo was too large to post with cropping it down.  I left as many reference features as I could while still keeping it clear.  Most maps of Antarctica are orientated such that McMurdo and the Ross Ice Shelf are located towards the bottom center, with the Antarctic Peninsula (the "tail" by Chile and Argentina) in the upper left corner.  Byrd Camp can be found near the center by WAIS Divide.

Byrd is located in Western Antarctica (about 800-900 miles from McMurdo), supports approximately 50 people, and serves as a staging point for science groups and the Pine Island Glacier (PIG) Traverse and PIG Camp.  It's located at 5,270 feet above sea level and is one of the oldest deep field camps in the program, though it has been closed, rebuilt, and moved numerous times since it's initial construction as Byrd Station in 1957.

As you can see from the aerial photograph above (taken from the 2011-12 Byrd Welcome Guide), the camp does not consist of much.  A staging area for the Bassler and Twin Otter aircraft used by the science groups, a few cargo lines, 10 Rac-Tent "buildings", and a tent city where the staff and scientist sleep.  The camp is only open for the summer season and at the end of the season, the buildings, heavy equipment, and other equipment used around camp are packed up and stored on the winter berm (not shown) until the next season.  At the beginning of each season, the staff and a crew of carpenters are flown out in Basslers to pull everything off the berm and rebuild the camp.

Part of rebuilding the camp is creating a ski way so LC-130 flights can begin bringing in cargo and personnel.  There were 11 people, 5 from IT/Communications and 7 scientists from the POLENET science group on my flight in, along with about 20,000 pounds of cargo.  Though the cargo comes right up to the passengers, the flight is only about 3 hours and isn't too bad.

The 5 of us there temporarily lucked out and instead of getting put in tent city, we were put in a couple of the heated Rac-Tents with cots.

This is the front door of the Rac-Tent I was in.  For some reason this was the only door in camp that swung out and there were a couple mornings where we had to unzip the back flap and shovel before we could use the front door.

Shown above is the nice Kuma stove that kept the tent and us warm.  When we arrived, it was on the highest heat setting, which led all three of us sleeping on top of our sleeping bags (rated to -30F) the first night.  None of us slept that well so we turned it down to where sleeping in the bag with it zipped was quite comfortable.

You may notice that the tent walls are not much more than insulated plastic tarps.  With the wind blowing constantly (more on that in Part 2), they make quite a racket when you're trying to sleep so earplugs were a must. Also, since the sun won't set until February, a sleep mask or something to cover ones eyes with is very helpful.

The video was taken outside our sleeping tent the night we arrived.  The video starts by looking north at tent city, pans past the cargo lines (the winter berm can be seen behind the cargo lines) to show the north half of the main building line (the Galley tent is the longest tent seen).  I then walk to the east, show part of tent city again, pan from north to south and walk back to where I started.

Like out at Happy Camper, the bathroom facilities were 5 outhouses spread around camp.  One addition is the "peegloo" seen between the outhouses.  Basically a half circle of snow blocks built up to provide the men in camp urinal services with some wind protection and pseudo-privacy.  The down side to the peegloo is you stand facing into the wind and, in the case of the peegloo above, you are on display for anybody using the main entrance of the Galley tent.

Showers are an option thanks to the "Byrd Bath".

At one end are the two shower units seen above (the one on the left is hidden behind the cubby holes).  Inside each unit is a changing area, a shower stall and a Coleman portable water heater.  Normally, the pump unit is connected to a propane tank and can heat the water up to 160 degrees before pushing it out of the shower head.  To take a shower, fill a 5 gallon bucket with water, place the pump hose inside, and enjoy!  5 gallons may not seem like much, but I found that it was sufficient to provide constant water for 5-7 minutes.

A few days before we arrived, there was a small fire in one of the units, so the propane was disconnected for safety reasons.  Our only option for a hot shower was to fill the bucket with hot water (120 degrees) from the Galley and supplement it with water from the stock pot on the Kuma stove (on the left).  Though the water from the stock pot was boiling and intended more for making hot water bottles to warm sleeping bags at night.  I found that after adjusting to temperatures in the single digits or teens, constant wind, and tents heated to around 60 degrees, a shower with 120 degree water was almost scalding.

The other half of the wash tent was reserved for more cubby hole space as well as a sink for washing.  The sink faucet was connected to a pedal activated pump that sat in a large bucket of water.  Sadly, there was no heater for that water.  It only took one morning of cold water before I found that mixing a couple gallons of boiling water from the stock pot was usually sufficient to get lukewarm water.

In the next post, we'll look at getting water, the Galley, cold storage for food (yes it's an issue), leaving, and a few more videos.