Happy Holidays!

It is was a Merry Christmas and will be a Happy Holidays!
It seams that everyone is very difficult to reach this time of year, so my apologies for the lack of phone calls. I hope everyone has had a fabulous holiday season and is ready for what 2010 will bring. I have been quite busy this season since the last update.

Nov 5 – Took a flight to Cape Royds to set up one of the outhouse I built during winfly. Cape Royds has a large penguin rookery a lot of research is done here. It was fitting that we placed the outhouse with the penguin shaped window at Royds.

Cape Royds may sound familiar to the Scotch drinkers of the world.  Yes this is the location that the Scotch was found under the floor board of the Nimrod hut from Shackletons visit in 1909. We had the opportunity to take a peek inside, but we did not check under the floorboards for the aged liquor. It is shocking that over 15 people lived inside this small hut. It is in great condition thanks to the help of the New Zealand Antarctic Trust.   You can see the shelves are still stacked with 100 year old food.

 
November 18 - 21 South Pole Station
Shortly after my trip to Cape Royds I took off to South Pole Station (9,000')  to acclimatize for the set up of a deep field camp, AGAP, that is located at 11,000 feet. I am really excited I got the chance to visit South Pole Station. I experienced a warm welcome from the Polies that worked in McMurdo during winfly this season.  The Station is quite reminiscent of a Space Station I worked on when I was at Space Camp.

While I was there I also got the opportunity to see the old South Pole Station Dome before it was dismantled.

It is one thing to say you have been to South Pole but it is not official until you have taken your picture by the Ceremonial Pole.  I could not resist the cartwheel.




This is the Ceremonial Pole but the actual Geographic Pole is located just off the the Ceremonial pole. The geographic pole move aprox 10 meters per year.

November 21 - December 2 AGAP
The GAP – AGAP (Antarctica's Gamburtsev Province). The mission for those of us who chose to accept it was to dig out the camp that was left up over winter. This doesn’t sound half bad but when there is no machine support there was a lot of  D-1, hand shoveling. Shoveling at 11,000’ + requires many rest between scoops as we shoveled snow out away from the buildings and over 6’ walls of snow.

Life at camp was enjoyable with lots of good people. Thanksgiving dinner was created by our fabulous camp chef who created the entire feast on white gas Colman stoves. A new friend, Kara and I; were on Truffle duty. I believe everyone one at camp loved the decadent treat.

December 5 Pressure Ridge Tour
When I returned to  McMurdo I took a tour through the Pressure Ridges. They are caused by the constantly moving ice that collides with the shore causing ice to shoot upward, creating beautiful structures on the sea ice.


Seals often can be seen in the pressure ridge areas as they come up to the surface through the cracks.  We ran across a baby seal squacking for it's mother while we were on the walk.

 

December 15 - 19 Endurance Camp Take-Out
I had the chance to lead the take out of the Endurance camp on Lake Bonney. I helped set this camp up in October, it was great to be a part of both set up and take down. There were over 15 helocopter sling loads on the project so we had the help of a Helo Tec each day. Ryan got to come out on the first day to evaluate the rigging of the loads. When we were done for the day Ry and I took a little walk to the Taylor Glacier and Blood Fall.

 The Rhone Glacier is behind us.

Blood Falls in the background.

Got him to smile ;)

 

The Endurance hard-working Crew!

Once all the sling loads were gone, we had a celebratory dance!
 

That takes me up to December - Soon, I will fill you on with Christmas, MAAG, IceStock and more...
Enjoy start of the new Year!