Life on Ice

Well I have had quite an eventful first 5 days on ice. It all started with my helicopter ride which I some how made it through without losing my cookies…just barely though. Our pilot, Murphy decided to take us on bit of joy ride since Shakira and I were both first timers. We started off cruising out around the back and over Scott Base, which is run by the Kiwis. Then he thought it would be fun to fly us up in the clouds and rotate the chopper from side to side as we weaved our way through a mass of whiteness. We dropped back down below the clouds and flew over a bunch of icebergs, pressure ridges and few other field camps. To top it off he landed us on an iceberg before dropping us off at camp.



The Chopper


Getting Pukey


McMurdo Station from the helicopter


Scott Base from the helicopter


Ross Sea Ice Shelf


Pressure ridges from where the sea ice meets the ice shelf


The iceberg we landed on/camp water source


Our backyard- Ferrar Valley


After the ride of my life I arrived at camp! What a site it was. Everyone was outside taking pictures and helping us with our bags. It was a pretty sweet homecoming especially since everything was all set up since we arrived fashionable late.



Camp


Dining tent and Scott Tents for sleeping


Inside the science tent


The first night I did not sleep at all. I was pretty cozy in my Arctic Storm Storm Storm sleeping bag but just could not relax enough to sleep. At 6 AM Steve, our fearless leader blew a conch to wake us up, yes I said that right a conch. Much like when I was at happy camper I was so ready to get out of that tent by 6 AM.

Breakfast was at 7 AM and by 8 AM everyone was scurrying off to the field for the day. I had the privilege of staying back to adjust and get myself set up. Since I was staying back at camp I was designated to take care of some camp chores. I did the team’s dishes and then cut blocks of ice to make water. Our water source is an iceberg that’s about a mile from camp (the one we landed on in the chopper). Just about everyday someone rides a snowmobile out there with a sled and cuts large chunks of ice off the iceberg. The blocks of ice are then brought back to camp to be chopped into smaller pieces for making water.


GNG Antarctica


Morning Chores- Chopping Ice


After dinner I went cross-country skiing with David, one of the grad students from Montana. We took off from the back of camp and headed towards the iceberg. It was gorgeous. The light, the mountains and the feeling of gliding across the sea ice was amazing. It was a prefect was to end my first day.




On day two at camp I was sent out with the team to start work on the seismics. We had a very productive morning but then by the afternoon things started breaking. It’s not worth getting into but let’s just say we have had lots of problems with equipment on this expedition. So my afternoon was spent going back and forth between standing around trying to figure out what was going on and hanging out in the back of the Piston Bully (Antarctica vehicle).

Day three was a day of rest for all since there was a lot of broken equipment. We all spent the day writing, watching movies, doing camp chores or fixing equipment. I also went out with our camp manager, Luke who went kite boarding. As he let the wind pull him over the ice on his snowboard I followed behind him on a skidoo (snowmobile). I helped him untangle his kite as needed but mostly just road around on the skidoo or as I like to say I skidoodled around.

Then by day four it was time to catch a chopper back into town (McMurdo Station) for some videoconferences. Before heading into town the moment I had been waiting for arrived….I saw my first penguin! The day I arrived at camp I found out that just about every day penguins had been coming up to camp. Since I arrived I had not seen any and thought they were purposely not coming around anymore. As I sat and waited for the chopper I got a call from Luci (our cook) and Luke saying there was a penguin. I ran outside and could not see a thing. I looked harder and off in the distance was a black dot. Could that really be a penguin? I grabbed my coat and off I went charging toward the dot. As I got closer I could start to see the shape of the penguin emerge. It was glorious. The penguin was indeed the cutest little creature ever. It walked right by us and made it’s way towards our camp. It waddled around by our tents and then took off.

Penguins are pretty much awesome!






Today I am heading back to camp for few days and then back to McMurdo for VCs next week. I am loving the back and forth.