Q: Does it get dark enough down there to see any stars?
A: No it does not. Even during the middle of the night, the sun is out and shining. The only time it "darkens" is when clouds or storms move through and block the sun. But even then, the light level is only that of early evening before sunset.
Q: Or will it get dark enough by the time you leave to see stars?
A: It will not. McMurdo's next sunset is expected to occur on February 21, 2012, a couple weeks after I am scheduled to leave.
It took most of the season, but I finally got my picture taken by the welcome sign.
Barring weather delays, I'm northbound on February 1st. Being down here has been an interesting experience with plenty of unique challenges and opportunities. While I didn't accomplish everything I set out to do while I was here, I accomplished more than enough to feel that overall, the experience was worth it.
I'm sure most people want to know if I will come back. I can see myself coming back someday, but the most likely scenario is as a tourist or with a science group. To come back to work would require I come down as something other than a Network Engineer or would require a major change in the role and responsibilities of a Network Engineer on ice.
For those who think they would like to come down here, I would highly recommend it. McMurdo functions like a small town in the US and just about any kind of job you find in your local community can be found down here. If coming down to work, I would highly recommend only coming for a summer season your first year in case you discover it's not a good fit for you. If you get down here and discover you love it, that's great! But, ignore the winter over recruiting, finish the season, return to the US, and then think about wintering over. A lot that goes on every season and everybody who comes down for the first time does so wearing blinders to a certain degree.
As my time at McMurdo comes to a end, so too does the blog's Antarctica focus. While I have many more pictures and experiences I could write about, I'll save it for face to face conversations. There should also be a little bit of mystery for those who may be interested in coming down here themselves! I want to thank everybody who has followed the blog these past few months and I hope you have enjoyed it.
Going forward, I intend on taking this blog in a more technical direction with posts related my experiences as a Network Engineer and my views on the IT industry. You are more than welcome to continue following, though I understand if the material becomes uninteresting and you stop following. Posting will be less frequent as demands if "the real world" reassert themselves so for those still interested in following, I would recommend using an RSS reader if you are not already doing so.
We'll end with one last picture of our intrepid adventurers out at the Pegasus crash site. The Pegasus was a US Navy C-121 that crash on the Ross Ice Shelf in 1970 and is where Pegasus Field get's its name.
Another hiking option in the Mcmurdo area is Observation Hill, or Ob Hill as it's commonly known. At around 750 feet tall, it's a pretty good climb, doesn't take too long, and gives a great view of the area on clear days.
A view of the old nuclear reactor site from about half way up. The Navy ran the reactor for most of the 1960s and decommissioned it in the early 1970s.
McMurdo from about half way up to the top.
The cross and plaque shown above were erected in memory of Captain Robert F. Scott and his party that perished on their return from the South Pole.
From the summit looking out towards ice shelf and the area where Happy Camper and the Long Duration Balloon Facility are located. The Kiwi wind turbines can be seen off the the left.
Some of the rock at the summit. White Island can just be seen to the left.
McMurdo from the summit.
The sea ice runway as seen from the summit with Black Island in the background.
For those playing "Where's Darth Maul", he appeared once in this post.
Continuing our tour around Byrd, we pick up with getting water for drinking, washing, and use in the Galley.
Obviously, with the large abundance of snow, water is available, but in the wrong state and must be melted. As seen in Part 1, stock pots on Kuma stoves can be used to melt snow, but that method is time consuming and requires constant attention. While it works for the small, mobile camps, the water demand at the larger, fixed camps has led to a dedicated melting system like the one shown above. Operation is as expected: snow is collected and added to the snow melter on the right with the resulting water is stored in the tank on the left. Not shown to the left of the storage tank is a filtration system and water heater.
Directly behind the Galley tent is the snow mine, where the snow for the melter is collected. Even though the water is filtered, snow is only collected from the mine and it is flagged to prevent people from walking through it and contaminating it with dirt and debris. As the mine diminishes, the heavy equipment operators dump more snow which is gathered from another designated place away from camp.
Collecting snow is almost a full time job, though nobody at the camp is dedicated to it. Therefore, every person in camp is asked to fill at least two buckets a day to support their water use. If a person plans on taking a shower, a third bucket should be filled, essentially letting people can shower as often as they like. The buckets pictured are standard plastic trash cans and it only takes 5-10 minutes to fill two. While the water created from the snow is filtered, it isn't the same level of filtration done at McMurdo or in the US, so the buckets and the shovel at the snow mine, are flagged for gathering snow only. Despite a lower level of filtration, the water at Byrd tasted much better.
The Galley is the largest building in camp and according to one of the members of the camp staff, the largest Rac-Tent in the world by a couple sections. It's open 24 hours a day for people to warm up, grab a snack/drink, or gather. One of my tasks at Byrd was setting up two desktop computers and and a printer for people to use.
The three main deep field camps (Byrd, WAIS, and PIG) all have limited connectivity to the outside world via Iridium data modems multiplexed together and a local e-mail/FTP server. While a generally unstable connection (modems lose their connection frequently as the satellites come in and out of range), the Iridium system provides slightly slower than dial up speeds to the camps. With the exception of the camp manager, each person is limited to messages no larger than 50KB and the local server sends and receives mail and FTP files as there is connectivity. Web browsing is not permitted due to the lack of bandwidth. People at Byrd can use their personal computers on the local wireless cloud to access the webmail interface of the sever or they can use the computers we set up in the Galley.
Behind the Galley and to the right of the snow mine is the freeze cave where food stores are kept. It may not see like an issue, but as the summer progresses, the rising temperatures along with the constant sunlight can cause issues. While nothing more than a large hole in the ground with a plywood and snow ceiling, it is incredibly effective. In the picture of the entrance (top), the interesting thing to note is the level of the snow. Three years ago when Byrd was moved to it's current location, the base of the door was at ground level.
Taken from the winter berm (aka Byrd Hill), the high point in the area, the video above gives a good perspective of the surrounding terrain features, or lack there of. The blowing snow stopped by the buildings and cargo lines (Byrd was at one time located where the berm is), along with intentional build up for winter storage of the camp are responsible for the abnormal elevation change. The video starts facing east and turns counterclockwise.
A picture of Byrd from the winter berm.
Despite the impression given by the pictures and videos, the weather was not constant sunshine. Taken from the area in front of the Galley on the day before I left, the video above shows what could be considered an "overcast" day for Byrd. I stated in Part 1 that the motto for Byrd is "If a plane lands, get on it!" and the weather is the primary reason. A day with winds of 5-15 miles per hour is considered "calm" and more often than not, the wind is a lot stronger and moving some snow around. Originally, I was supposed to go out to Byrd about 2 weeks prior to Thanksgiving, but due to weather delays of my flight and the flights before mine, I didn't leave until the week after Thanksgiving.
And yes, that is somebody waving from the peegloo at the end of the video.
A plane! This was actually the second plane than was able to land in the 5 days I was there, though the first arrived around 2am the day after I arrived and since I didn't have my work done, I couldn't get on it.
Overall, I enjoyed my time at Byrd. While the work that took me there was almost exclusively indoors, I had a lot of free time and was able to get outside and shovel snow and help with a couple other small projects. I don't think I would want to spend the entire season there, but I would go back for a few days to a week if necessary.
If you are interested in more information and some interviews with previous camp staff (some of which are back again this year), an independent site exists at http://www.byrdcamp.com.
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.
A short walk from town, out on the ice just past the transition from solid ground to the sea ice, is this sight:
Not a Mario Brothers tribute (though there a few folks here that could pass as Mario or Luigi in their Carhart bibs), this is the Observation Tube. It's a large sewer pipe that has been modified to include a small room at one end that gives an amazing 360 degree view under the sea ice. There's only room for one person at a time to go in and it's recommended that Big Red be left in the warming hut (the temperature was cool, but manageable in the tube). The dive shack is nearby and if you're lucky, divers will be coming in or out of the water when you're there, or even see seals moving around (I wasn't that lucky). Even if you don't see any seals, you usually hear them calling to each other.
Unfortunately, getting good pictures or video is very difficult and can't begin to convey the experience. Here are best pictures out of the batch I took. I do have a video where you can hear seals calling to each other, but I need to shorten the lenght to make online viewing more manageable.
From the bottom of the tube, looking up. The observation room is 10-15 feet down.
Looking out one of the windows up at the sea ice. If you look closely, you can see ice stalactites that have formed under the ice sheet.
The water was full of these little sea creatures.
Another shot with a wider angle. You can see an ice stalactite with a small minnow sized fish in front of it. The other light colored specks are more of the sea creatures shown in the picture above.
Some folks will recognize our protagonist in these next pictures. Shortly after starting my "real" job (how I refer to the job I am currently on a leave of absence from to purse this adventure), I was given a Star Wars bobblehead for my desk by a coworker. A few others had one and the bobblehead was supposed to be somewhat symbolic of our personality. Originally, I was given a Tusken Raider ("easily startled, but soon they'll be back and in greater numbers" - yeah, not really me), but after being particularly devious one day, I was upgraded to Darth Maul (I was amused and proud, but did follow it with "Hey, wait a minute...").
As I was cleanup my cubicle prior to leaving, I wasn't sure if I should give him back or leave him to guard the cubicle while I was gone. After some discussion with coworkers, the traveling gnome idea was thrown out. Here are pictures from his first excursion, which was with me on the Hut Point hike.
Finally, here's a short video of him out and about. There was a slight breeze that was strong enough to make his head bob slightly. Initially, there is nothing to hear. No need to turn up your speakers, that's the silence I talked about in the Hut Point Hike post. The video is about 50MB, so those on slower connections will want to wait and watch it when a faster connection is available.
The voice cut off at the very end was Travis yelling "Put on a hat, Darth!"
