Thursday, November 30, 2006
The Glacier Across the Sound
Lorraine, my neighbor, and I were walking home from a long night of pinsetting at the bowling alley when we stopped to appreciate the view across McMurdo Sound. I'm not sure what this glacier is called, nor did I even knew it existed until tonight. You never get a very good view of it, but tonight the sun was shining (that sounds weird) just right to highlight it. If you look closely it's behind the planes, and it flows between the mountains and spills into the sound. Click on the photo, and then click "All Sizes" to see a larger photo.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Thanks For Posting...
There were a few reasons I asked people to post a comment that they were reading along. One: To be brutally honest, I was getting a little disheartened after posting so many entries and not getting much feedback on the blog. Two: I knew people were reading along (thanks to my
Cluster Map), but I didn't know who was actually reading. And I was surprised to see some of the posts!
I thought I would post a little comment for each of you who took time out to post for me! You'll have to scroll down to find yours; I've put the names in
bold.
To
Ben Bonnet, an OAE (Old Antarctic Explorer): McMurdo's still here. And I've definitely come to realize what the love/hate relationship is. No matter how much I like my job, I will NEVER spend 14 months as a janitor down here. What's the status of your winter contract? Are you coming back or what? And you spent time and money at an internet cafe in Roma to check this site?? That's dedication, man.
Eric from OOOOOhhhh Claire, Wisconsin currently in Deutschland: Is it actually possible to pronounce Herzogenaurach? You've got something like 3 weeks to go before heading home, huh? Bet it's going fast!!
Jenny Jacobson?? How did you get my weblog? Did I give the URL to your mom? I'm happy to see you're reading along!!
Heather in Merrill: Do you have any M-80's? Ha! Ha! Ha! That one never gets old, yeah right.
I'm guessing
cousin AMBER is reading my blog in Chaseburg, Wisconsin. How are you? I'm going to try calling you this weekend. Email me what time would work best!
Hi
Sjoerd!! :)
Kiddo is either my cousin Jacob or my cousin Carrie. I'm thinking Jacob is Kiddo because Squirt is Carrie's name. If it's
Jacob, how did your cross-country season go? If it's
Carrie: LOOK OUT! She turns 16 soon and after passing her exam, will be legally allowed to drive!!! YIKES!! If Kiddo is neither of them, then you shouldn't make me guess like that!
I inspire you,
Mark C??? You inspire me! You're one of the reasons I'm headed to Central Asia in 3 months!! Get your butt back out on the road so we can meet up in Kashgar!
Amy: I wish I got to drive those Deltas. I just get to ride shotgun when my friends are the recreation trip leaders. I drive regular vans jacked up on huge snow tires, and I've really only driven once so far. Good luck on the job hunt!!
I loved the Christmas card,
Donna! Written on a piece of notebook paper: "Merry Christmas, Katie Mae! This is your C-mas card! I haven't found mine yet!" LOVED IT! I'm going to hang it with the rest of the Christmas cards I get!
Glad you're reading along,
Em! Your big day is coming up soon!! Congrats!! Wish I could be there - especially since you're tying the knot in Florida! Hello BEACHES!!
Holly! I'll look into posting some photos using another site just for you! What works for you in Dubai? What are you up to nowadays? Where are you working?
Alissa, my well-traveled, supportive, and motivating darts partner! I'm missing you too! Thanks for keeping up with the reading! When are you thinking you'll be leaving Wisconsin... in the spring? I'll be home at the beginning of April! Hoping to catch you!
I'm keeping up my vball skills down here,
Trish!BIEGS - loved the CD's! Thanks for the package!! I just wanted to let you know: "I cooked that roast real good. I ain't s**tin' ya!"
Erin's Mom: Fortunately, I have Erin sightings every day! I'm happy to hear you're reading other blogs, but your daughter's is fantastic! She's so much more of a writer than I am... I'm just her photo hook-up!
Hey,
Debs! Miss you too! How's the Life o' Debbie? And how's the Teddy-meister?
Hi,
Katy from Madison! Thanks for reading! Keep checking back for photos... I'll have more up later this week!
Love you too,
Aunt Rett! I just hung up that penguin door decoration you sent down. Everyone in my hallway loves it! Your next package will be in the mail later this week... hopefully in time to get there by Christmas!
Hi,
Kai! Happy to hear you're reading a perfect strangers weblog... hope you're entertained!!
BOOTY and BABS!! I'm not sure how tall the penguins are exactly. I never get close enough to measure, but I'll work on that. Sounds like this could be a good penguin-sighting year... in my book, it already has been! We have to go out on the town when I'm back!!
Cousin Annie: Thanks for sending out the package! Loved Abbie's school photo and those huge dimples... wonder if her and I are related?? ;)
PHILLIP: Miller better say Hi! I was the best remote-control-toy-operator-and-battery-stocker he's ever had at the Shack(that's a blatant lie). Tell the boys, past and present, that I say Hello and that I'm still planning to prank call the store soon!
Laura Rohowetz - Your friends worked in the same department I work in!! Well, I know Sacia did at least! Small world! I'm surprised to see you're reading along! How did you get my weblog?? Thanks for keeping up with me!!
Monday, November 27, 2006
'Tis the Season
At break time today, I looked out the window and noticed that someone got paid to hang up wooden Christmas decorations on the telephone poles around town. I thought to myself, "I wonder if the decorations are lined in Christmas lights". It wasn't until I was walking home from work and dinner three hours later that I realized what an idiot I was. Christmas lights would be pretty pointless to have up outside down here since we have NO DARKNESS... Sometimes I'm a little slow.
Thanksgiving Dinner at McMurdo
Thanksgiving has come and gone. I can't believe it's the holiday season. The lack of decorations and huge retail stores are probably to blame for that. Richard was able to reserve the Coffeehouse for a two-hour block of time for a group of us to get together and share Thanksgiving dinner. That meant loading up plates of food at the Galley, and making a run for it in case the skuas were out to attack. (I saw my first skua attack two weeks ago - it was incredible!) Most people dress up and get all fancy-fancy. I decided to wear the sweatshirt my Dad sent down for Christmas since he's been wearing the Antarctica t-shirt I sent him to Thanksgiving dinners back home. Kris Light showed up in a velveteen jacket and suspenders (I'm not sure if it was velveteen, but that's what we called it). Joolee had her hair all done up, and Sandwich even put her hair back on (she shaved it for Halloween and someone made it into a wig as part of their costume). It was nice to have dinner together. And afterwards I went home to just lounge around for awhile. Helen and I headed to the Coffeehouse around 8:30 or 9pm to meet up with some friends. One guy, Ben, mentioned the Adopt-a-DA program where someone covers for them, while the dining attendants get off of work for an hour to eat dinner with friends. Ben thought it wasn't fair to the janitors who still have to work (although, in all fairness, when we work the holidays, only two janitors work and we decide when to clean). He thought there should be an Adopt-a-Janitor program, and I told him that it was funny he said that since I was going to have to start cleaning at midnight that night. Ben actually volunteered to come clean with me and Bethany, so we let him drive the zamboni (aka floor sweeper machine) and mop the floors. He even offered to clean the men's bathroom and was super excited to find a guy passed out on the toilet in there. Ben poked him with his broom and asked if he was okay, and the guy responded with a slew of bodily function noises and a dismal-sounding "yeah" so we left him alone for awhile. He managed to find his way home because an hour later he was gone. That was the excitement in my holiday!
Ana Bell and I at Thanksgiving - See Dad: I'm wearing the sweatshirt you sent me!!
A view of most of us crowded around tables in the Coffeehouse.
Another angle at the Coffeehouse
Kris Light and his fancy suspenders
Sandwich with her hair
DJ, lives down the hall from me
Leah and Megan, the Duluth girls
Richard doing some clean-up
The classic after-Thanksgiving-dinner-cigar
I think Dan said he brought THREE tuxedos with him this season. He has a wide selection of bow-ties and cumberbunds, but he always seems to wear his blue tennis shoes.
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Let the Holidays Begin...
This is the beginning of the worst 6 weeks of the season, from what I've heard on station. The holiday season tends to depress some people here. Once we get through New Year's, we'll see the light at the end of the tunnel and things will start picking up.
The annual Turkey Trot 5k Walk/Run was this morning at 10am. Yesterday, I managed to convince Lori, one of the firehouse dispatchers, to join me.
Everyone gathering at the start of the race
Rachel giving instructions from the top of the steps
Video of the start of the Turkey Trot
Me and Lori walking down the hill at the beginning of the Turkey Trot
I snapped this photo just as we passed Rachel, who took that last pic. You can see the runners starting to spread out as they run towards the Ice Runway.
Go JOOLEE!! I think she was the first place woman runner!
Susan waving
I'm guessing this was some kind of "save a cow, eat a turkey" thing, but I'm not exactly sure.
Atlas waving
View of town from the Ice Runway as we were coming back in
Me and Lori (on my left in the photo) finishing up the Turkey Trot. We came in almost dead last, but we were ok with it as long as there were a few people behind us.
Friday, November 24, 2006
Out On the Cape Armitage Trail
View of McMurdo from the sea ice
Close up of
View of Ob Hill from the
Ice Runway
All the flags marking the trail and the fuel line
Mt Erebus in the distance. Tiny little Hut Point on the very left. McMurdo in the middle at the bottom of all the dirt. Ob Hill on the right.
Ob Hill from the ice at Scott Base
The pressure ridges near Scott Base
Thursday, November 23, 2006
A Busy 2-Day Holiday Weekend Coming Up...
I'm sighing right now as I think about everything I have going on in the next three days. So much for those two free days Raytheon gives us for a holiday "break". I've signed up for the Sunday run for work, which means that I get Friday and Saturday off when most people get Saturday and Sunday. I have a light run of trash pick up in all the dorms, cleaning of the major hallway in the main building, and cleaning of the bars. There are always two people that do Sunday run together, so my co-partner in crime on Sunday will be Bethany. The beauty of a Sunday Run is that you usually finish in 5 or 6 hours instead of working a 9-hour work day.
Tomorrow morning, I'm going to sleep in until 10am. Bethany and I are going to walk the Cape Armitage Trail which takes us on the sea ice from McMurdo to Scott Base around Ob Hill. Should be a nice brisk one and a half hour walk. I'll be putting in my first shift at Burger Bar starting around 6:30pm. For 2 hours, I'll be the cashier while some guy named James flips burgers and fries fries. Hopefully I'll make some good tips. Then I'm going to meet up with some people to end out the night, I'm sure.
Saturday starts off with the annual Turkey Trot 5k Run/Walk at 10am. I've recently convinced an acquaintence named Lori to walk it with me. I'm a lot more excited about it than she is, but it will be great to get out and exercise again and get to know someone a bit better. The Run/Walk starts at the Chapel of the Snows, loops through town, down to the Ice Runway, and back to the chapel. I'm signed up to have Thanksgiving dinner at 5pm, and my friend Richard has booked the Coffeehouse for 2 hours so that a group of us can gather there and enjoy dinner together. We'll each have to take whatever food we want and meet up at the Coffeehouse... there is no delivery service here!!
Sunday early morning... like midnight, Bethany and I will start our Sunday run and hopefully be done by 5 or so in the morning. I'll crash for 6 or 7 hours, and then head over to the Galley for Sunday brunch. I just found out tonight that I won a drawing for a trip to the
ANDRILL site near McMurdo.
ANDRILL is our largest science group on station with something like 50 people, and only 8 of us were picked to go out and see their work. Should be pretty interesting. But that lasts from 1pm until dinnertime, and then my weekend will be almost over!
Werner Herzog is going to show his film,
White Diamond, about
Kaieteur Falls in
Guyana (which I actually visited this January) so I definitely have to make that too.
It's going to go sooooo fast!!!
Monday, November 20, 2006
Crary Lab Touch Tank
I just returned from an adventure in
Crary Lab (once the most expensive building in the world per square foot), the most important building in McMurdo and named after
Albert P. Crary, the first man to reach both poles. The adventure was a visit to the Touch Tank, a tank of Antarctic sea creatures that anyone can go in and touch.
First, we made a stop at the J-Crib, Jesse the janitor's main jan-O closet. Him and his co-worker Nick made a fake aquarium in it. This first sign is modeled after the sign on the door to the Holding Tank room where the Touch Tank is located.
This is a photo looking down the main hallway at Crary Lab. There is a ramp on the right and a set of stairs on the left.
Entering the Holding Tanks Room - the sign I mentioned before.
These fish were not in the Touch Tank, but I took a photo of them anyways.
I loved this curly starfish!
Little, teeny-tiny starfish
Medium-sized starfish
Large and in charge starfish
Other side of the large starfish
Me poking at things in the tank - the water was SO COLD!!
A sea slug - love the bright color. Who would've thought that these things lived in the extremely frigid waters of Antarctica? I thought they'd all be grey and brown and ugly-colored.
This was my natural reaction when I picked up this squirmy cockroach-looking-thingy. It was the only thing that really moved when you took it out of the tank.
A sea spider
A sea urchin on the filter in the tank. It was spiky.
Walking back up the hallway of Crary.
Half-way up, there is a sign posted in one of the windows. The sign commemorates a snow drift named after Mike Ebel, a friend of a friend's that I sometimes sit with at dinner. He's worked something like 17 seasons on the Ice. I joke that you have to die here before they will name anything after you, but I see the good people of Crary Lab have named this after Mike. What an honor! :)
The Ebel Drift
Erin with Ana Bell behind her in the main entrance of Crary.
Hope you enjoyed the photos!!
Emperors on the Runway
Saturday around noon, we got word that there were six emperor penguins out near the Ice Runway. My boss Amanda and I headed for the conference room in Crary Lab since there is a telescope on the second floor which has a great view of the sea ice. By the time we got there, they were pretty far away, but we still spent 15 or 20 minutes taking turns with the other five or six people to watch them through the telescope.
This was my fifth penguin sighting! I was told that you usually don't see many penguins here until January. This could be a really good sign that this will be a big penguin-sighting year!
These amazing photos were put on the common drive here on station for anyone to use. Some were taken by people who work on the runway, and others were taken by the firemen who had to shoo them away. Only firemen are allowed to shoo any Antarctic wildlife. If anyone else does it, it's a violation of the
Antarctic Treaty.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
HAPPY THANKSGIVING, LEUM FAMILY!!
Just wanted to send out a "Happy Thanksgiving" to my Norwegian side of the family. I tried getting a line out to call (there's only 32 going off station), but I couldn't get through until it was 10pm there. Everyone was left, but I was able to wish Uncle Peter a happy Thanksgiving. I'll try to reach you guys at Christmas time. I really missed the family gathering. It doesn't quite feel like the holiday season here. We will celebrate Thanksgiving on Saturday because, like I've said before, Raytheon has permanently rescheduled our holidays to be celebrated on weekends. But it is our first two-day weekend ever! Up until now, I've only had 13 days off since I arrived here in August!
Friday, November 17, 2006
Who's Out There??
I'm just wondering who's reading along. Please post a quick (or long, if you choose) comment telling me who you are and where you're from.
To post a comment:
1. Click on "(#) comments" below this entry. The number will change depending on how many comments there are.
2. Click on "Post a Comment".
3. Write your comment in the box, and add your name at the bottom.
4. Choose "Anonymous".
5. Type in the word verification. (This is to deter spammers.)
6. Click on the button "Log In and Publish" to finish.
THANKS!!
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Guess Who I Met on Saturday??
I've been saying since the day he got here, that I had to meet him. I was sick of waiting for a chance encounter, so Saturday night after the talent show, I just walked up and introduced myself to
Werner Herzog. You may recognize the name as the guy who made
Grizzly Man, a well-known documentary released last year. I'm more interested in meeting him as he made a not-so-well-known movie called
White Diamond in 2004. The movie is based on a novel flying device being flown over none other than KAIETEUR FALLS in Guyana, where I just happened to visit earlier this year. Of all the places!! What's even crazier, is that when I was at Kaieteur Falls, the workers told us stories of this film crew who had been there to make a film and how they were in it. When I first heard this, I thought "I wonder what kind of low-budget flop movie this will be?" When I mentioned to Werner that I had recently been to Kaieteur, he asked if I had seen his movie. I told him I hadn't had a chance to see it, and then he offered to lend me HIS copy!!
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Cold, Hard Facts 11-12-06
Cold, Hard Facts is an item that runs in every edition of the
Antarctic Sun, the Antarctica newspaper.
This was this week's list, titled
The Property Trail:
Total number of property items tracked at McMurdo Station by the USAP: 2,600
Total cost of those items: $101 million
Year of oldest item on record: 1945 (two sheepfoot roller compactors)
Least expensive item in the property inventory: $79 Epson scanner
Most expensive item in the property inventory: $5.1 million Microwave Landing System building and equipment for the airfields
Number of computers on station: 624 desktops and 87 laptops
Cost of Ivan the Terra Bus in 1993: $399,035
Source: Corey Hubbard, RPSC property assistant
Food on Station
The kitchen crew totaled up some interesting numbers for a week of food served two weeks ago. Based on a station population of 1000 to 1100 people.
2500 cookies
250 pounds of chocolate
196 gallons of milk
1800 pounds of flour
1050 sandwiches (approx)
439 pizzas
2090 pounds of poultry
192 pounds of coffee
1925 pounds of beef
1800 sandwiches for flight lunches
That's some serious CHOW!! I've heard that they figure it costs $8 to feed each person each day.
Question from home...
My mom wrote an email to me today and asked where the wood for the huts came from. The Cape Evans hut was made of English birchwood, I think, and the Discovery Hut was made from Australian jarrah wood. Inside both of the huts, you can see marks on the walls where the pieces were all fit together. While the huts were being built, the men (aka Antarctic explorers) would sleep on their ships. Twenty-five men slept in the hut at Cape Evans at one time. The Discovery Hut, however, was never lived in as they found it didn't hold heat like they had hoped (buildings built out of Australian jarrah wood were used in the Outback to keep people cool, but they were hoping it would have reverse effects on the Ice).
Saturday, November 11, 2006
4th Trip to Cape Evans
I did my fourth trip to Cape Evans on Wednesday night this week. Our delta was mostly full of dining attendants who were let off of work early to go on the trip. However, Bethany, one of my janitors was able to go along with, so that really made my day. On the way out, we saw a lone Adelie penguin. It immediately started running away, but everyone on the trip was really excited. That sighting made my sighting rate of penguins 3 for 4 on trips to the cape!
We spotted a seal just past the Ice Runway.
The seal moving away from us. It looks like it takes so much effort for them to move.
Photos from in the hut
The scientist's and the meteorologist's beds
Scott's bunk
Me in the hut
I wonder if it's Wisconsin cheese??
Laura Ebel and I in front of Mt. Erebus
Me and Bethany with the Barne Glacier in the distance
Me climbing into the Delta - it's a long way up!!
Little Razorback Island on the left and Big Razorback Island on the right
Fata Morgana at the Ice Runway - The buildings and planes were all altered in the mirage. You can't see it very well, but I tried to get a photo of it.
Most of McMurdo (also known as Mactown) from the Ice Runway road as we drove back home.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Random Photos
I thought I would just post a couple of photos I can't remember if I've actually posted before or not.
Me driving in Antarctica! On sea ice!
Richard, Ana Bell, Stacy and me on one of Stacy's last nights in town.
A photo I snapped of Hut Point a few weeks ago.
Monday, November 06, 2006
My Third Trip Out To Cape Evans
Some more photos from Cape Evans. I took these during my third trip out there.
A photo from where we made our first stop.
Mt. Erebus through the delta window
Mt. Erebus and the moon, or what we can see of the moon
Close-up photos of the Barne Glacier
Seal blubber on the floor and tent poles up above.
Views of the stables
One of the mules' names, stenciled on the wall across from its stall in the stables. The mules were brought down when they went to search for Scott's party that died while returning from the South Pole.
Losses to Date: A photo from inside the hut at Cape Evans. From the 1915-1917 expedition. On the inside of Dick Richards’ bunk was penciled: “RW Richards August 14, 1916–Losses to Date” and then four names: “Haywood, Mack, Smith and Shack (?)” because Ernest Shackleton had by then been stranded thousands of miles away and was presumed dead. Shackleton survived his ordeal after loosing his ship Discovery to the ice and returned in 1917 to rescue his men.
The officers' bunks in the hut.
Me in front of Erebus on the top of Windvane Hill
View from Windvane Hill of the Delta, the hut, and Barne Glacier.
The cross on top of Windvane Hill.
Me with the cross at the top of Windvane.
View looking away from Erebus on Windvane Hill
Inaccessible Island from Windvane Hill
A guy walking down Windvane Hill.
Tent Island and Inaccessible Island
Sandwich
Me on the sea ice just before boarding the Delta. I look like I'm going to school.
Mick, our Delta driver
Very close up shot of Erebus
Inaccessible Island with the moon in the corner.
Sunlight bouncing off the Erebus Ice Tongue
View of the Royal Society Mountains
Sunday, November 05, 2006
From The Desk of Richard:
Richard, the sound guy from the film crew who is currently out in the Dry Valleys, happened to get his hands on some photos from the Halloween party. Apparently someone printed out some color photos and sent along a disc of photos for the crew to see. Richard wrote
this great posting on
his weblog by sending a CD with a letter that our friend Deany posts for him:
"Along with a couple of empty urine barrels a helicopter dropoff yesterday included the excitement of a mail delivery all the way to our windswept mountain retreat. Eagerly awaited and forever to be appreciated were a tub of miso paste, some jasmine pearl tea and the most recent issue of the New Yorker, literary criticism and encouragement from Mac-Ops McMurdo, the latest edition of the "Antarctic Sun" newspaper and some color xeroxes of the notorious Halloween party you town-dwellers seem to make an annual event of, at which a trio of wags, perhaps starved for inspiration, appear to have taken advantage of our absence to impersonate our happy film crew. Pleased as we were to all be thus immortalized Sylvestre seemed slightly put out as his imitator, in his estimation, made him look "gay." Anne very much appreciated the genius Katie showed in destroying a pair of eyeglasses and hanging them around her neck on a rubber band. A true eye for the telling detail. For my part I need to warn you and the entire McMurdo community that I am certain, after careful analysis of the images, that the person wearing a false beard and carrying an inflated black plastic garbage bag on the end of a stick in a churlish effort to denigrate those of us in the sound-recording trade, is none other than wanted ice-terrorist Ali Fatah Morgana, living right in your midst. Show extreme caution when approaching this individual."
Friday, November 03, 2006
McMurdo's Halloween Bash
The Halloween party at McMurdo is claimed to be the biggest party on the continent. People here spend weeks preparing their costumes for the contest. The prize for the winner of each category (Best Group, Best Antarctic Theme, Scariest, Funniest, and Best Overall) is a trip to Room With a View (at the base of Erebus). Unfortunately, my group got robbed. We didn't even place in the top 5 for the group category, and everyone was very shocked! They still are... just tonight someone told me that they thought we should've won.
So what did we actually dress as? Well, I had an idea a few weeks ago to go as the
film crew who is here shooting a documentary. I figured I would be Anne the director, but I needed to find two guys to be
Richard the sound guy and Sylvestre the camera man. Luckily, I was able to convince Jesse, one of our new janitors, to be Richard the sound guy since they both have a 'fro going on (just different colored). I made him a beard out of some curly brown material, and I through together a boom microphone. Jesse wore an atheltic jacket, which is what Richard has worn around town for weeks. Three days before the party, I asked Jude, a guy who lives in my dorm, if he had a costume planned. He didn't, and he agreed to be Sylvestre. I was able to track down a video camera that really worked, a backbelt, and some red framed glasses. He showed up in dark clothes which is what Sylvestre wore while filming. I wore a purple down jacket that my friend Matt found for me that afternoon, and I added a little duct tape to the back right shoulder. Anne ripped her jacket and did her own patch job on it. I poofed out my hair and put a little powder in it to make it look a little gray. I also took the sides off my glasses because Anne broke hers during Win-Fly and would wear them with rubberbands so they fit like goggles so I did the same. We walked around as a group, and Jude would put the camera right up in people's faces imitating Sylvestre as much as possible. Jesse would walk around carrying the boom mic over the people who were being filmed. I would rub my neck with my hand (people told me that she did that all the time, although I hadn't really noticed), and then I would imitate her voice and say how we didn't really know what we were making a film about.
Every time someone asks Anne what they're doing here, she says that they originally came to
film the science being done here, but once they became a part of the community they decided to start filming us working folks too. Every single person we went up to that was here during Win-Fly cracked up! Some of them took a minute to realize who we were. One guy even thought I was volunteering with the film crew that night and didn't realize I "was" the film crew until later that night.
Unfortunately, the film crew is spending 7 weeks at Mt. Boreas in the Dry Valleys. They missed the party, but
Deany who's a mutual friend of mine and Richard put together a CD of photos from the Halloween party. Hopefully they will get it with their next food and supplies drop-off early this next week. If I know Richard, he will have the biggest laugh of all of them!!
This next photo is one I got from Travis the janitor (on the right side of the photo). This is the REAL film crew... just so you can compare us!
Kelly, my favorite Polie and I
Ralph's favorite line of the night: "I can't hear you! I'm wearing a helmet!!"
Your Mom and I
He's Here!
From the Halloween party in McMurdo, said to be the biggest party on the continent...
He made an appearance!!
More photos to come soon!
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Cape Evans, Part Deux
Sunday the 29th was my second trip out to Cape Evans. This time I was the Hut Guide (aka the One in Charge). My friend Susan was a Hut Guide Trainee. We were supposed to go out to the Cape the Sunday before, but the weather decided to flare up and the trip was postponed. Luckily, I had told Kelly, a janitor who'll be spending the summer at the South Pole (we call people that work there Polies), to sign up for the trip the week before. She was still in town as the flights to Pole were postpones for almost two weeks straight, and boy was she happy to have gotten the chance to get out there... especially when we saw three Adelie penguins on the way home. Here are the photos from the day:
The "tourists" reading their info packets about the Hut at Cape Evans inside the Delta.
Susan, Kelly (my favorite Polie), and I in the Delta.
Our view of Erebus on the way out to the cape.
Me and Susan in front of Erebus.
Attempting to make a pyramid in front of Mt. Erebus. Bottom: Delaney, Jeff, and Kelly. Middle: me and Susan Top: Taryn - This photo was taken as I fell in between Jeff and Delaney!
SUCCESS!!
Me in front of the Royal Societies.
A Weddell seal on the ice!
Me Being a Hut Guide - arms full of flashlights so people can see their way around the hut!
Just inside the door.
Seal blubber on the ground in the hut. I think those are tent poles above the blubber.
Sledges in the rafters of the hut.
Photos from in the hut:
Horse snowshoes in the stable area at the hut.
"Sledding" on our butts near the hut.
The tidal cracks are getting bigger!
The Adelie penguins that we saw on the way home! I've seen penguins twice in one month!! There were people on our Delta who had been down two years, and this was their first penguin sighting!
The penguins waddling off into the "sunset".
Me and Taryn (one of our new janitors and a native WISCONSINITE - we talk cheese on a regular basis!!)
Kelly, me, and Taryn
Look at the white sticker on the top left. This was inside the delta.
We stopped on the way home to look at a patch of blue ice. I found this hole in the ice. Someone was out drilling there.
