Goodbye to Antarctica, Hello to Colorado!

My roommate Jim and I climbed Observation Hill on my last Sunday in Antarctica. A fantastic panoramic view of Mount Erebus, Castle Rock, McMurdo Station, the Society Range, and the Ross ice shelf. The weather was a fantastic +5 degrees!! I will be leaving soon for the trip back to Colorado. This was a great opportunity that I will not forget and I wish to thank my family, friends, colleagues, and patients that have made this possible. See you soon!

Best Wishes to all my family and friends!
Bob

Fish Huts and Cape Evans

I had an opportunity to go and set up some fish huts and explore Robert Scott's Terra Nova Hut at Cape Evans. Cape Evans is about 17 miles north of McMurdo Station on Ross island. We hitched up two fish huts and with a Challenger tractor pulled them on their ski bases. The Challenger has rubber tracks and is a modified farm tractor.

A rubber tracked bulldozer pulled a 4 foot diameter ice drill which is used to drill through the 6 to 12 foot sea ice. We drilled a hole at two different locations.

We then pulled a fish hut over the hole. The fish huts have a heater and a generator for electricity. Inaccessible island is in the background.

This is what the hole in the ice looks like from inside the hut. I did not fish or see the divers but other groups have used the huts and have posted the following pictures.

The water is very clear and if you look closely you can see multitudes of star fish on the bottom.

Fish traps are lowered to the bottom and then after a while pulled up with all sorts of sea worms, fish and starfish. The ocean here literally is a cornucopia of life while on the surface there is not one living thing.

Divers are also here and dive through the holes to collect specimens for scientific study.

At Cape Evans we set up a fish hut and then had an opportunity to go inside Robert Scott's "Terra Nova Hut" Which was built in 1911 and was the starting point the next year for the ill fated expedition to the south pole. Scott's party all died on the return trip from the south pole.

The inside of the hut is full of artifacts from the expedition. Due to its remote location, the cold, and restricted access the artifacts are all in great shape.

Some of the sleeping cots in a corner of the hut. There is an adjoining stable where the ponies stayed that were used in the expedition.

There was a very well stocked pantry. A person could spend hours here looking at all the old supplies. We had to leave and it was extremely cold in the hut - when taking a picture you had to hold your breath way before you took the picture or the whole area would be fog!

Best wishes to all my family and friends!

Bob

C121 crash site

A week ago Sunday I participated in a recreation department sponsored trip to a C121 - "Constellation" crash site. The plane crashed in 1970 and was made in 1953. It had to land in a full blizzard, crashed, and the crew and passengers rescued. No one died. The plane was towed to the present site in 1970 so that it would not be visible and impact morale. We took 4wheel drive vans about 20 miles out on the Ross ice shelf and then walked about a mile on the ice to the crash site. In the background are the volcanoes Erebus, Terra Nova, and Mount Terror on Ross island. McMurdo station is on the small dark part of land below Mount Erebus on the left.

The plane is mostly burried by snow but the tail section sticks out. This plane had a 3 tail fin arrangement. Two of the fins or vertical stabilizers have broken off.

I'm standing next to the remaining fin - really slick out there!

Another view of the plane. It was a neat area in that you could look out over the ice for miles in every direction and get just a small feeling for how big this place really is!

Best wishes to all my family and friends!

Bob

Auroras and Nacreous clouds

Last week especially on Sept 11th and Sept 13th there was a great display of Aurora Australis - "Southern Lights". There was a sun spot that was very active and produced some solar particle storms which lit up our skies at night. We are losing our dark nights fast now with an extended dawn and dusk. It will not be long before the sun does not set at all and the sun will just circle in the sky. The sun circles counter clockwise in the sky during the day - just the opposite of when we lived in Alaska when it circled clockwise.

On the 19th of September there were some Nacreous clouds visible at dusk. These clouds (also referred to as "Mother of Pearl clouds") form extremely high in the atmosphere about 9-16 miles high. It has to be very cold and the sun has to be very low on the horizon. When this happens these special clouds glow with irridescent colors and are quite spectacular. I had almost given up on seeing them as once the sun comes up a bit more they cannot be seen. They are another treat for the eyes in Antarctica!

Best wishes to all my family and friends!

Bob

Dentistry on the Ice

I have one operatory at McMurdo General Hospital. My main focus right now is the treatment of the "Winter over" population here at McMurdo. These people spent the winter here without a dentist and no flights in or out from February to August. The medical staff here did an excellent job of treating the dental emergencies that occured over the winter. Many of the Winter-overs left when I arrived and the rest will leave with me in early October. It is fun to talk with them about their travel plans after they get off the ice. People are going to New Zealand,Fiji, Africa, Australia, Europe, Samoa, Hawaii, South America, in other words - everywhere in the World. The people that work here are the best traveled people that I have met.
Best wishes to all my family and friends!
Bob

Castle Rock Loop

Last Sunday, our day off, I hiked the Castle Rock Loop with some friends. This trail is the longest trail you can hike here, being 7 miles in length. Off station travel by foot is limited to marked trails due to crevasses in the area. People have died in the past here by falling into a crevasse. Travel must be in groups of two or more, you must carry a two way radio, and you must check out with the fire house prior to your hike.






The trail is marked with flags and the distances are very difficult to estimate due to snow everywhere. Castle Rock is in the distance.










Castle rock is a volcanic plug that used to be at the core of an ancient volcano. The volcano has eroded away leaving the rock. Just beyond the hikers is an emergency shelter called an "apple".










This is one of three "apples" along the trail. They contain emergency supplies in case bad weather catches hikers on the trail. Complete "white out" conditions are not uncommon.










We hiked around the rock to an overlook but did not climb the rock. In better weather a person can scramble up the rock. We left the rock by sliding down the slope on the left of this picture.











There was an Igloo that had been made by one of the survival schools offered to people that travel off the base.












We then dropped down onto the Ross Ice Shelf which would take us to Scott Base (New Zealand Base). The black flags ahead mark a crevasse crossing the trail.










A bridge of snow covers the crevasse. A SAR (search and rescue) team member was with us and said they had dropped a roped climber through the hole at the bottom of the picture and the crevasse is over 200 feet deep.















We finally made it to Scott Base. We were treated by the New Zealander that hiked with us to an expresso and cookies! What a treat!











This is the trail map for the McMurdo Station area.




Best wishes to all my family and friends!

Bob

Climb up Observation hill

Part of the medical staff had an opportunity to climb "Ob" hill - a steep and slippery trail this time of year.

The view of McMurdo station from the flanks of the hill. Looking northwest over McMurdo sound.

I'm on the way up with the new ice runway in the background.

The view from the summit south over the Ross ice shelf. The shadow is the perfect cone shape of Observation Hill. The road on the ice is the 20 mile road to Pegasus runway where I landed two weeks ago.

"Ice Man" Taylor, one of the Docs here. A normal hike in the -24 degree Antarctic air!

The summit cross was erected in 1913 to honor Robert Scott and his party.

Best wishes to all my family and friends!

Bob

First Sunset

My friend Greg, one of the physicians here, has been here a year and tonight was the first direct sun he had seen since April.

Vince's cross at Hut Point. 4 pm.

The next sunset with the large "snowblast" machines clearing the new ice runway where the planes will land and depart for the first part of the summer. Later, when the sea ice melts, they have to move operations back to the glacier runway at Pegasus runway. This new runway is in the channel where the ships came in last year and the ice is only about 6 feet thick.

Best wishes to all my family and friends!

Bob

A Walk to Scott Base

On Sunday the 28th of August Jim, my roommate, Greg, a physician, and I walked to Scott Base. Scott base is a New Zealand Antarctic base that is about 1.5 miles from McMurdo Station. As usual it was blowing and way below zero but with the right gear on - quite comfortable! You can see the base, which is much smaller than McMurdo, just to the left of the sign down the hill. It also is on McMurdo sound. The transition zone on the ice between the permanent ice shelf and the sea ice is just off of here so that some times the ice is thin and seals can be seen. I have yet to see any.







One of the very few road signs in Antarctica.









Near Scott base on the sea ice are two new large mobile buildings that will be used for the Long Duration Balloon project. These balloons carry scientific payloads and can circumnavigate the Antarctic continent.





The link below explains more on the project.

http://lheawww.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/balloon/balloon_top.html





The walk back with the back side of observation hill in the background. The snow and ice here provides surprising traction - I imagine by being so cold and dry here. A great Sunday stroll!




Best wishes to my family and friends!
Bob

Life at McMurdo Station, Antarctica

The official sign with Hut point in the background.

Vince's cross is barely visible on the point.

Building 155, right across from the hospital. The Galley (cafeteria), store, HR, Finance and other support offices are in this building. The food is good and unlimited so you have to watch your weight!

McMurdo General Hospital. During the winter there was a physician, P.A., and a physical therapist. Right now we have myself, two physicians, a P.A., a nurse, and a lab technician. When main body deployment arrives in October we will add another nurse and a physical therapist.

This is my dorm - #209. This is one of the "upper case" dorms which are pretty nice.

This is my room, my bed is in the background. Almost everyone here has a roommate. I lucked out and I have a good roommate that manages the heavy machinery repair shop.

Recycling is huge here! It is very expensive to ship anything here and equally expensive to ship all the waste out of Antarctica. This whole continent is ruled by the pack it in - pack it out philosophy. Everyone here tries to minimize the impact on the Antarctic environment. Every building has recycle bins such as these where you sort all of your trash. These bins are in my dorm.

A view of the water and power plants. All of the utilities between buildings are above ground. This allows access because the ground is always frozen. Power lines are all over town and the utility pipes which carry water, waste water, and fuel go across town with small bridges over them that allow people to walk over them. In some places they go under the roads for a short distance.

One of the Docs inside of the front door to the Crary Lab, the main research facility at McMurdo. When he opened the door a cloud of -22 degree air swept over us just like you were walking into a freezer.

A better view of a Ford truck with Mat Tracks instead of wheels.

The helicopter pad at the edge of town. In the summer they are used extensively to supply field camps set up to conduct research in places like the dry valley area of Antarctica.

A view of Hut point with Vince's cross and the Society Range of mountains across McMurdo sound.

We sometimes walk out to Scott's hut after work to view the long sunset. Everyone works from 7:30am to 5:30pm six days a week - 54 hours.

The end of another great day at the bottom of the Earth!

Best wishes to family and friends!

Bob