December 24 and 25, 2009

December 24, 2009 - Christmas Eve....

The picture is me with my two friends and Santa C. We are sitting on the back of a vehicle. This was at the town Christmas Party. From left to right, Me, Laura E., the big man himself, and Craig W.

Party was alright - spirits, a little dancing, slideshow, and hobknobbing.

After the festivities, for a late night snack I ate 6 lobster tails. (Leftovers from lunch - that they would throw away, due to health regulations). This was definitely a two-day holiday (actually one normal day off and one holiday day) of massive eating and some drinking... Very filling but not very healthy feeling afterwards.

December 25, 2009 - Christmas

Christmas day

Slept in.

Had a small brunch.

Shot some hoops.

Went to dinner at 1500.

-Lobster, Prime Rib, Mashed potatoes (these were pretty awesome), duck breast chunks (pretty good as well). I went easy on the lobster (only had 1), but had a big piece of Prime Rib and lots of pieces of duck - GORGED!! I actually only had a little bit room left for desserts.

Played board games with some friends and had some drinks (Yes it was Settlers)

Went to bar and played some shuffleboard.

Late Dinner at 0100.

-2 pieces of lobster and a big piece of prime rib.

Bed.

Happy Holidays...

December 24, 2009

Christmas Eve Day

Well its gettin into the Holiday Season... It is kind of strange being down here during this time of year. Can't believe tomorrow is Xmas. Especially since a lot of my family is actually going to be in San Diego at my parents this year. Most definitely Wish I could be there.

Hoping the camera I bought to replace the broken one arrives next week.

By the way - If I didn't send you a postcard from Antarctica - send me your address (I didn't bring an address book, so I don't have addresses- although I did bring a dress for my Halloween costume)

Today (Thursday the 24th) is still a work day. Friday (Christmas Day) and Saturday are days off and Sunday is a work day, as opposed to the normal one day off a week (Sunday). We also get an extra day off next week for New Years (Saturday the 2nd) and the normal Sunday off as well.

Lots of events this week. Tuesday there was the acoustic show - Great assortment of live music, including some Xmas songs. Wednesday night was the Charlie Brown Christmas Play (short half-hour play that was funny). Today - went to a nearby field camp to enjoy in their Xmas lunch - which was really served and eaten like a dinner (lobster, crab, steak, fresh fruit and salad, egg nog, cider) - was delicious and did put me into the post-lunch coma. There is a town party tonite, so we'll see how that goes. Friday - there is a the special dinner in the galley on Station (I heard its goin to be duck, crab, prime rib among other things). It stopped snowing yesterday, but there is a forecast of a chance of rain this evening - which would be really cool (I'll let you know if it happens).

December 21, 2009

Weather
Since October, when I arrived the weather at McMurdo has varied a lot. It was really cold when I got here, I'm guessing in the -20s to -30s degrees C average and then it has slowly warmed. we've gotten some pretty warm days recently with temps closer to -10 to 0 degrees C averages. With the warmer weather a lot of the snow banks and snow accumulation on station have disappeared slowly to the point that they are almost completely gone, it was muddy for about 2-3 weeks and now has gotten quite dusty, and water flows through the roads and in culverts has gone from a trickle to fairly strong flows.

The weather the last two days has been pretty beautiful... snow!! Not just old snow blown off the surrounding mountains, but actual snow. It was just a light fall all day yesterday, but now is coming down fairly thick.

Activities
So- I'm not sure what else to write or what people are interested in so I'm just going to start writing about some facets of life here...there are a lot of off-work/free time activites that are planned or are available for people to do. Although, maybe it just feels that way to me because its my first time here.

Here's some thrown together classification of some of the activities:
Partying
-In people's rooms, lounges at the dorms, at the two bars (Southern Exposure and Gallagher's), and at the Coffeehouse (a coffee and wine bar)
-Wine and beer sold at the Store
-Parties sometimes advertised to all or just to some at work centers
Sports
-basketball, volleyball, dodgeball, soccer, climbing wall (all at the indoor gym) - pickup and/or leagues
Training classes
-light-weights/heavy-repitition classes, weight class, boxing class, zumba, abs, yoga, bellydancing, country dancing
-24-hr open weight room and cardio room
Other
-board games and musical instruments that people own and also available for free rental
-Music room (for bands, whoever to practice)
-Arts and crafts room (for arts and craft obviously)
-Stich-n-Bitch (knitting/sewing and gossip group)
-Cribbage group
-Chapel (supported by two priests but open to all donominations)
-Radio show
-Movie nites
-Travelogue presentations
-Science lectures (by researchers on station usually)
Outdoor
-Skiing, skate skiing, mountain bikes, running, hiking (~4-5 trails), swimming (just kidding, I wish), frisbee golf (A lot of the this equipment is available for free rental, but people also bring their own gear)
Events
-Women's Soiree (kind of talent show, variety show)
-Softball Tourney (was yesterday - 6 teams)
-Rugby Match (US Station vs NZ Station)
-Art and Crafts Fair (homemade crafts for sale)
-Bar and Coffeehouse Events (Burger Bar, Live Music, Themed Parties, Acoustic Nite, Open-Mic Nite, Karaoke Nite)
-Theres always attached events to the holidays as well (Thanksgiving, Xmas, New Years)
-Icestock (big music festival)
-Marathon
-5K Turkey Trot
-Runup Ob Hill (short uphill run)
-MAAG (McMurdo Alt Art Gallery) show

-Snoopy Christmas Play

-Xmas Acoustic Show (waste barn sponsored)

-Xmas Party

-Halloween Party

I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of now.

Some of my recent activities
Recently I did the Ob Hill run...about 20 people showed up for it. Its a 1 mile or less run up a steep mountain. Everyone had to hike/run up parts of it due to the difficulty and the terrain (skree slope). I took third, but was about a minute behind first and second finishers. (8:11, I believe was my time). Pretty rigorous short run.

Also recently finished a volleyball league. We made it to the finals and went through an intense and crazy few games. The team that I was playin with had gone all season without losing a match...It takes two matches to win a game. So we went into the finals of a double-elimination tourney having beat our opponent already once in the tourney in the first round. We took the first match and then lost the next two to take our first lost game. But being a double elimination tourney we had to play again. This time we lost the first two, but beforehand it had been decided to be a best-of-5 instead of a best-of-3 final game. So we had one more chance...and we pulled it out by winning three straight matches in a do-or-die situation. It was awesome!!! Was definitely dragged out, brutal, intense, adrenaline-filled 2-hours of volleyball...

Over the season, I've been watching a lot of movies. There are two stations on our TV that run movies all day and there are also free rentals from the store. So I've definitely been watching a lot of movies, probably more here than in the past couple of years combined....

Here's a list of some of the ones I've seen:


Movie List


300
Adventureland
Australia
Borat
Breaking Away
Defiance
Himalaya
Into the Wild
Dexter (Season 1)
Flight of the Conchords (Season 1)
Road to Perdition
Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto
Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple
Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island
Shanghai Kiss
Star Trek
The Science of Sleep
The Darjeeling Limited
The Magnificent Seven
The Wire (Season 4)
The Simpsons Movie
The Sand Pebbles
Terminator Salvation
Transformers 2
Zack and Miri make a Porno
Straw Dogs
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
UP
Valkyrie

December 12, 2009

Dry Valleys - Sand Dunes trip

Went on a day trip to get a view of the Sand Dunes in the dry Valleys and an idea of how to set boundaries for it. Possibly use river as a natural boundary...

Pictured above: Landing site at area with good vantage point for sand dunes (special feature) and Lake Vanda in the Dry Valleys.

Pictured below: Sand Dunes at bottom of picture (a unique habitat in Dry Valleys). Classified as a special feature. Glacier on the left mountain.



Helo ride over the sea ice edge...
ICEBERG!!!



Sea Ice Floes

On the ride we saw penguins in the water and on the sea ice edge...

There were seals laying out as well.

We were hoping to spot some orcas, but had no luck this time. Although we probably just missed some because there was some V's that disturbed the water surface indicating some whales had just dived down under the sea ice.

December 7, 2009

New Harbor and Explorer's Cove Trip

I took a short day trip out to the Dry Valleys - to do a camp environmental audit at New Harbor and to assist two subcontractors in their mapping of the adjacent special feature at Explorer's Cove. The Dry Valleys are an Anarctic Specially Managed Area (ASMA), that is subject to higher envt protections because of its unique habitats and biological and geological importance. Special Features are within the ASMA and are subject to even more envt. protection. We took a helo out to the site, and had about 8-9 hours of ground time before we were to be picked up and returned back home to McMurdo.

For the first couple of hours I worked alone and did an environmental audit - which includes, but is not limited to, checking if there was the appropriate storage and secondary containment for fuels, greywater, human waste; proper receptacles for trash and sorting trash; pre-season camp construction plans were followed; followup of any past issues; any noticeable new problems; stocked and available spill kits; correct storage of chemicals; camp and camp equipment is properly secured; any signs of environmental disturbance; ways to decrease the footprint and disturbance of the camp.

After my audit, I ate lunch at the camp with the two subcontractors and then we mapped the special feature tidepools at Explorer's Cove. The tidepools here are a unique habitat and the existing maps of the tidepools were somewhat ambiguous. Thus the subcontractors were here such that they could hike the area utilizing highly accurate GPS and groundtruthing to certain characteristics from aerial maps. From their mapping and field observations of the boundaries of the tidepools a better map and boundaries can be established for this protected area.

This was a great trip...views were spectacular and it was interesting being next to frozen coastline rather than a frozen lake for the first time.

The picture below is a picture facing north. You can see a glacier coming down in the background.

This is a picture of the intersection of small streams (snow and glacier melt I guess) that were feeding into the coastline. Mount Erebus is in the background and the white layer in front of it is the frozen sea ice that is starting to melt and has buckled up from winds, melt, etc. Facing east in the picture.

This is another picture of the intersection of some small streams and the frozen coastal waters. Facing south in the picture.




A skua (seagull-like bird) egg that I happened upon while hiking around and mapping. It was the size of a very large chicken egg, I don't remember the US classifications A, AA, AAA, or is it just extra large, large, medium that describes the size.

November 28, 2009

Thanksgiving

Although Thanksgiving was on the 26th, McMurdo Station did not celebrate it until the 28th. We actually received an extra day off for Thanksgiving, also on the 28th. WooHoo, two days off this week.

Saturday morning there was the annual 5K Turkey Trot. I participated in this. It was a little chilly out and on the run out I was definitely on the cold side, especially my hands. My legs were cold too, but that was probably on account of the shorts I was wearing. Just me and one other guy were only wearing shorts on and not shorts with tights or a baselayer at least. It was a fun run though and a fair amount of people turned out. I still need to find out my time...I think I may have made the top 10 finishers.

Thanksgiving meal was great...Best overall meal yet. Funny thing was that the Turkey was maybe the worst part. For the main meal, We had green bean casserole (with fried onions on top), biscuits with honey butter, mashed potatoes and gravy, potatoes and yams, corn casserole/pudding, beef roast, turkey, cranberry sauce, okra, and King Crab. The King Crab was delicious...

The turkey was a combination of pieces from a whole turkey they cooked but also what is called turkey loaf...which is kind of halfway between turkey lunch meat and the regular whole turkey. It is basically turkey smashed and formed into a loaf form and then cut into big slices. Its not bad, but its not the real thing. Consistency is different.

Desserts were all out as well- Parfaits, truffles, pumpkin pie, chocolate-covered strawberries, some kind of mousse, etc.

We had to sign up for a meal time, because there are not enough seats for everyone to eat at once, so they spread the attendees at 3, 5, and 7 PM. I ate at 3 PM with my roommates. After I volunteered to help in the kitchen. I thought for sure I would be washing dishes, but I got lucky and was put in to help in the bakery. I helped kneed and something else bread that was to be baked for sanwich bread for the week, roll dough for peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, and prepare parfaits for the Thanksgiving desserts.

Then later at midnite there was a meal primarily for the night shift workers, but also after the first half hour for anyone else. I went back for meal 2 and had some turkey and King Crab again... "Today was a good (meal) day." [Ice Cube, I think]

Happy Late Thanksgiving All!

November 25 and November 27, 2009

This week was Wildlife Week. After seeing my fill of dead animals (mummified seals and the penguin skeleton), this week was the week for seeing some Antarctica wildlife. And No, there are no polar bears in Antarctica.

November 25
On November 25, we took a trip to Cape Royds to do some planning for informational signs marking the Specially Protected Areas for some penguin colonies in the area. We also had a team of subcontractors with us that were using very accurate GPS tools to mark the coordinates for locations of interest for a future management plan for the area.

Cape Royds was a good 2-3 hour ride in a Piston Bulley from McMurdo Station. And the ride was more than worth it. Finally I got to see open ocean!!! (other than the blue horizon that I was able to see during the helicopter rides two weeks ago). For some reason it was comforting to see the ocean - I'm not sure how long I could live in a landlocked area...

Here's the view we first saw upon arriving at Cape Royds.

There were two researchers at the Field Camp at Cape Royds. One that has been doing research for the past 20 years or so on these colonies, that had continued from research started by his college advisor resulting in data going back 40-50 years or so... Quite a good set of long term population data.

The other researcher has been involved at this field camp for 4-5 years, but of interest was that she runs an educational outreach program that involves schools back in the States. The program among other things has a webcam, Q and A sessions, will fly a flag designed by the students at the site, has a website, and will send pre addressed postcards to the students postmarked from Antarctica. Most of the students are in grade school. There is no cost to join the program...

Check out penguinscience.com for more info or let me know if you have any questions.

Heres the outhouse door at the camp...with an appropriate cutout in the door. My only question is how do you tell if that is male or female?

This is a picture of our piston bulley and its tracks...parked at Cape Royds. We had to walk up some mini bluffs to get to the Camp and to the penguin colonies.

Picture of a skua...

We actually saw a lot of snowy petrals at Cape Royds as well. The skua resembles a large brownish seagull.

Penguin!!! Adelie.





Here's a picture of an Adelie colony spread out over the bluffs.

Adelie penguins are the primary penguin species found here, but we were lucky to have seen some Emperor penguins at Cape Royds as well. Here they are moving along the sea ice out towards the open ocean. Emperors are much larger and have a colorful band along their neck.

In this picture you can see both species of penguins heading out towards the ocean on the sea ice. The larger ones are the Emperors and the smaller ones are the Adelies.



This is a pic of a Adelie penguin egg that was just captured and began to be feasted on by some skuas. It is larger than chicken eggs, I would say it is closer to the size of a softball.

The penguins were simply awesome. Very curious towards our, the human presence. The Adelies are quite small, I want to say maybe 3 feet tall. The belly slide is funny... The Emperors are more magnificent looking. But both were so interesting to watch. Have to say this may be one of my favorite visits.

Heres a couple of videos I took of some Adelies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bVjnKfMjLo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZXljMoNtLA

At Cape Royds there is also a hut of Historic Importance that early Antarctic explorers utilized. Here's just a few random pics from inside:

Ummm, sounds tasty....

Boots.

Greens...

Piston-Bulley on the ride home.

As the summer season gets further underway, more of the sea ice has started to melt and more holes in the ice have popped up and thus the presence of Weddell seals has been much more frequent. Here's a pic of one we passed on our way home. You'll just see black logs that are just on the white snow that can't be anything other than seals, because there are no other features on the flat ice...

November 27

Wildlife Week continues. On the 27th, we took a trip out to Big Razorback Island, which was approximately 1-1.5 hours from McMurdo Station.

Here's a picture of the end of the island. The camp was out here, maybe a quarter mile from the rock/ice interchange. It was interesting to find out that there are a set of islands (Big Razorback included), that are all different shaped but are the remants of the outer ring of a former volcano...

The rock/ice interchange causes a lot of cracks and openings to form and thus a large population of Weddell seals can be found in this area. The group of scientists out here have also been involved in long term research on the population. They tag and weigh the seals here among other things.

We had attempted to make a visit out to this site earlier in the season, maybe 3-4 weeks ago, but had run into issues with our vehicle halfway there and had to turn around. So we missed when the seal pups were just being born, but we were still able to see moms and there pups...

A pup feeding.

Pup, with some of its newborn fur still scratching his/her back on the ice.

With the researchers we were able to get pretty close to the seals...The seals were very interested in us, but did not appear to feel threatened and did not threaten us. We were in the vicinity of probably 40 seals at this colony. Some of the research they are looking at is if seals from older mothers have a better survival rate. We heard males and females making sounds, calls. Its funny because some of the sounds were what you would imagine coming from a seal, but some were sounds that were quite electronic-sounding and not very natural.

It was pretty freakin' awesome this week to see the penguins and seals. Very unique experience. Only other time I can remember something like this was seeing/touching the gray whales in Baja. Being this close to sort of rare animals that are not in a zoo or a cage. Crazy, crazy, crazy...

It did remind me of how much I do miss the ocean.