February 1, 2010

Vessel

The resupply vessel arrived this Monday via Port Hueneme, CA, USA to Lytellton, NZ to McMurdo Station, Antarctica. The vessel has supplies for the next year. It returns to the USA with among other things waste generated on station and in field camps. This includes but is not limited to food waste (ends up being composted), recyclables (plastics, aluminum cans, bottles, metals), human waste (from field camps), hazardous waste, items to be auctioned off, etc. It actually goes back to Port Hueneme and Washington. Approximately 65% of waste is recycled from the station.

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Vessel arrival signals dramatic changes int town. NZ Army and US Navy Chaps are brought in to help with unloading/loading the vessel of millvans. Certain roads and parts of town have limited access for the large trucks and loaders rumbling through town. This is for safety reasons and to expediate the process. I heard that it is approximately $45,000 for every day that the vessel is in port (not sure what that encompasses/does not encompass). Lots of dust is kicked up with all the vehicular traffic and with the drier conditions. The town also becomes a dry town - no bars are open and no alcoholic beverages are sold in the store while unloading/loading is happening. It usually takes 7-9 days. Large parts of town also go on 24-hr operations with 12-hr worker shifts. I've heard from multiple people that have been here all season, that this is the only time that they lock their doors during the season- I'm guessing with a large surge in people that are here for just a week or two there are security concerns or there has been events in the past that led to this worry. Although I haven't seen anything to say I understand where the concern is. Possibly once they finish or when they first got here and the town was not dry yet...
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Note: This year has been the largest amount of open water in front of the station in many years. The water is not open all the way to the open ocean, but is in front of station and then goes to a slushy-looking, ice floes created by the icebreaker and the tanker and vessel that just arrived. One thing that comes with the open water is more common sightings of whales (meinkes and orcas) and sometimes penguins.
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Vessel outside of Mcmurdo, with Icebreaker in background.


Vessel is just outside of docking in McMurdo.

January 27, 2010

Blood Falls Trip

So, went out on a debris recovery trip to Blood Falls, which is in the Dry Valleys Antarctica Specially Managed Area (ASMA). It is also considered a more strictly managed area or special feature within the ASMA. This is due to the glacial feature of a distinctive red-orange color caused by a saline, iron rich water in the Taylor glacier - from hence its name came. Its more distinct at other times or in other years but you can still see it clearly (as in the picture above).

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I was able to visit this area earlier in the year as part of an environmental audit, but this trip we made to recover some sampling equipment left by a science group. This area is likely to recieve additional protection by being named an Antarctica Specially Protected Area (ASPA) in the near future and the NSF wanted us to remove this old equipment in the area. The science equipment was a stream weir to the south of Blood Falls (and the Taylor glacier) in a stream running adjacent to the glacier.

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Here's just an assortment of pictures from the trip.

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Mummified seal buried in debris near the stream weir.

Mass of icicles dripping off the Rhone Glacier. You can see Calkin Glacier flowing into the valley from the mountainous background and the Taylor Glacier in the valley.

An ice falls coming off the Rhone glacier. Appears to me to be where glacier melt accumulates and flows off glacier. Dirty with sediment blown/deposited in/on glacier.

View of dry valley area from helo.

During our return trip from the Valleys to McMurdo, we got delayed on the ground for 3-4 hours. Although the weather in the Valleys was beautiful - not windy, sunny, warm, weather at McMurdo was stormy - windy and snowing. Thus we were not going to head back until the weather cleared enough. It was even possible we might overnite at Marble Point in the Valleys.
Marble Point is a field camp with buildings and bunks and food - so it would have been no problem, but we got word that the weather cleared and we headed back.

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On the way, the weather was cloudy, but it didn't look horrible. Then we entered this really foggy area and the Viz (that's short for visibility for you who don't know Helo talk- J/K) was horrible. I took the following picture...It is washed out, but the visibility was bad.

The pilot and helo tech did not seem overly concerned, but I'm not sure if that was just the face they put on or if they had the situation completely under control or some of both. But it was a little disconcerting being able to see nothing and having no frames of reference - it probably didn't help that I was sitting facing away from our direction of travel. It cleared quickly though and we made it back without incident.

January 16, 2010

Byrd Surface Camp - Extra Notes

Here's a picture of me setting up tent and rainfly at Byrd. Outhouse in the back right.


Me bundled up awaiting flight home from Byrd. All ECW (extreme cold weather gear on). Insulated carhartt parka and overalls, insulated FDX boots, as well as underlayers.


Loading the Hercules (LC-130) from the rear.

Wearing ECW gear when boarding the plane is required in case of any emergency, you'll have it with you or on. But usually people take their gear partially off in the plane because its warm on the plane. But this trip we had a "cold deck" because we were transporting ice cores as well as passengers and other cargo back to McMurdo as well. Let me tell you this flight was horrible. Horrible (capital H). It was alright during the first hour of the three hour flight, the second hour was uncomfortable, but during the last hour I was so freezing. My hands and feet felt like they were going to have frostbite - it was that cold. I got up and walked around for the last 45 minutes but I was still freezing. It sucked. After landing and going outside it was nicer. Usually things seem better after you do them. But that sucked all around - I remember how painful that was.

This picture isn't of me, but it was how I was bundled up.

January 12-16, 2010

Jamesway before recovery/retrieving begins

Byrd Surface Camp - Jamesway Recovery

Flew out on a LC-130, Herc out to Byrd Surface Camp, which is on the continent - somewhat in the deep field. I'll try and find a picture of its location.

Its definitely on the plateau - meaning its flat white out there. However, there was a place they actually called Byrd Mountain out there, but that is just a hill that was formed over the years from drift accumulation due to the old station. There is actually a fairly large station abandoned in 1972 that is completely buried there - I'm guessing its in the size range of a Costco - (not including the parking lot or the $1.50 hot dogs and a coke). But its between 5-30 meters under snow.

The reason I went out there (with a crew of 3 others) was too retrieve a structure called a Jamesway that was part of another camp that was partially buried since 2003-2004. By the Antarctic Treaty we are not supposed to leave old unused structures out in the snow. We are supposed to minimize our footprint and our short and long-term effects when possible. Jamesway are cool structures but they are definitely old- from the -40s and -50s. They are strong, but the blankets covering them are torn and kind of old. They are made to be portable shelters. I heard that these just have been approved recently as being architecturally very strong by engineers, but now they are kind of the dying breed. A newer, very similiar design called a RAC-tent is now being used.

It was tough work b/c we had to shovel and use picks to dig and cut thru a large portion of snow and ice. What happens is that as the Jamesway is heated or during summer months and the snow melts on the roof or condensation forms on the top of the tent and then drips down under and along the floorboards they freeze in over time.

We ended salvaging a few sections of the Jamesway but a lot of it was just old and will get disposed of or reused some other way.

One of the interesting things out here was that i got to spend 4 days sleeping in a tent on the snow. Was actually quite warm (surprsingly). was on a sleeping pad, inflatable pad and in a sleeping bag with a liner. Was actually rather toasty, except for the first few minutes when my feet were cold climbing into the sleeping bag.

Its even harder to estimate the time though - cause you know when you are camping and you don't have an alarm and you can't really tell what time it is b/c your sleeping somewhat in a foreign place... Its the same way here but worse because of the constant light. I woke up at 2 am and then 4 am one night, thinking it was 6:30 am.

The following are pics of the Jamesway Recovery.

Blanket Removal



Frame of Jamesway. Purlins and blankets are made to fit into two floor sections (that form a box). Arches stored separately.


Arches folded up for storage.




Floor Section. Two of these form a box.

Random Things

Just thought these were some good, or at least interesting pictures.
Top: Tracked Motorcycle. My new ride.
Bottom: Me at base of glacier in the Dry Valleys (I'm the small black speck in the very bottom middle)

Welcome Sign to McMurdo on Sea Ice (and in front of large ice chunk)

Route 66 - A road out to the Pegasus Skiway (runway for all fixed wing traffic)

Picture of Gym (3-on-3 soccer). I'm not in the picture, but I thought it was a good shot. Also available for volleyball, basketball, ultimate frisbee, dodgeball, etc. in this space.

Late January 2010 - Icebreaker and Tanker Arrival

In late January - The Swiss Icebreaker Oden first shows up on the horizon and makes its way to the Pier. The Pier is simply a flattened out, compacted dirt area slightly above sea level that is partially protected in the cove in the Northwest end of McMurdo Station. Ballards, or large pilings are sunk into the ground for the boat to tie off on. The Odin showed up about a week and a half to two weeks before the Tanker arrived. The Oden breaks up the ice pack and creates a path for vessels to reach McMurdo. I believe there are three main vessels -

-The Icebreaker - to break the ice

-The Tanker - for fuel for the station

-Vessel - brings cargo/supplies (leaves with solid, liquid, and haz wastes, etc. - arrives later)

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Here is a picture of the Oden just outside of the pier. You can see the broken up ice pack in front of and behind it.

Here some time later is the tanker easing into the pier. The Odin is in the background. It goes out to meet the tanker in open waterand escort it into McMurdo. The tanker arrived around the 18th of January.

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On Saturday, January 23, The Oil Spill team was called given the order to boom the boat. This hasn't been done in years, but is a precautionary measure and also a training exercise in the case of an actual spill. The Environmental Group that I am a part of is on the Oil Spill team.

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Here is a picture of the deployment of our skiff off of the pier. This skiff has never seen the water, so their was some anxiousness as it was dropped off into the water. There wasn't much of a launch ramp!
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Here is a picture of the oil spill crew ferrying boom into the water, while the skiff drags the boom around the tanker. It was attached to the opposite side of the tanker using magnets and then formed a semicirclish holding area for a possible fuel spill. The yellow boom has a float on the top and a chain on the bottom - this serves to hold the boom upright in the water column and to contain any fuel from exiting out of the cove and into McMurdo Sound.


This is the final product - boom around the south west section of the boat.
The mountain in the middle backround of the picture is Observation Hill.


Close-up of skiff, tanker and helicopter in the background.

January 2, 2010

The New Year

December 31, 2009 - January 1, 2010

New Years day fell on Friday out here on the Ice. We were given an extra day off for the week, but it wasn't until Saturday. So, on the actual New Years Eve I went to the bar with a couple of my roommates and made it about half an hour into the New Year. There were actual a good amount of people our for it being a work nite...

January 2, 2010

The New Years celebration was pushed into the weekend and on Saturday the big event occurred: ICESTOCK. This is one of the larger events for sure - people turned out to let loose, drink, party, and have fun. Its all outside from 12pm - 6pm with live bands and free schwag: face-painting, hoola-hooping, tie-dye-your-own scarf or shirt, chili, bbq brats and burgers, and H1N1 shots. (I already got mine the week before) There's even a $15 official ICESTOCK tie-dye shirt and of course $2 beers. The festivities continued after 6pm with acoustic music at the coffeehouse and bands at Gallagher's (one of the two bars).

Here's pictures of two of the bands-

One of the highlights of the show was in between bands a bunch of robots showed up and started dancing... It definitely pumped up the atmosphere after a couple of more mellow bands.



And then sonme ninjas showed up and they started battling...

Not dance battling, but fighting...

All were vanquished except for one robot and one ninja and they became friends or more than friends?
My only thoughts were I should've been a robot. Missed the boat on that one.

Here's a picture of the ICESTOCK venue, the day after.

January 3, 2010

This morning was the 10K run. Got up grudgingly and ran...Course was a little short. I was a little sick - congested, sore throat. I was tired. Time looked good, but course was definitely short. There was a strong wind going one direction as well - I was cold.