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