Michelangelo On Ice

Finally Done!

2008-02-01T19:23:00.001-08:00

I've been holed up in my Christchurch hotel for the last few days putting the finishing touches on my Antarctic Correspondent's Diary for the Economist's online edition. 4,500 words hot off the presses. At the moment, it's supposed to appear the week of February 11th, one entry each day for the week. If you go here, you'll see the Correspondent's Diary section on the upper right. I'm told there's a chance it may get pushed back to make room for a diary from the political riots in Kenya. Understandably a little more important and timely right now than Antarctica.

At the moment, I'm sitting in the ferry terminal surrounded by lush green mountains waiting to go from New Zealand's South Island to the North. Couldn't be happier!!

The Best Shave of My Life

2008-01-29T17:38:00.000-08:00

Well, I was paroled from Antarctica last night. Unfortunately, I left a little bit of me behind. No, I'm not talking about my sanity (I'm hoping that will eventually come back someday...) However, I did lose my iPod somewhere on a hiking trail at McMurdo. Oh well. It was only a Shuffle, and it was already a few years old. No penguins this time either. There were killer whales though, and I could hear them surfacing and blowing water out of their blow-holes while I was out hiking.

We got into Christchurch around 8 last night. Our flight was truly international. There were a bunch of Kiwis, some people from the Italian Antarctic program, and some seriously hardcore Russian guys. They lived up to the stereotype: One of them was so drunk he kept falling over on the flight and had to be picked up. Last I saw of him, he was laying on a pile of coats in the immigration line. Wonder if they let him into the country or not...

After some drinking last night, I woke up to a beautifully overcast drizzle today. Just smelling moisture has been amazing. After breakfast, I headed to get a much needed shave and a haircut. I went to this fancy place called the Groom Room. It was one of these wood-paneled British barbershops that looked like it belonged in Sweeney Todd. Totally unbelievable. The woman tipped the chair back and put hot towels on my face, gave me a massage, and then gave me an old-school straight-razor shave. Something only a guy can truly appreciate. She even offered to pluck the stray hairs on my eyebrows. Did I take her up on the offer? You'll just have to guess.

So now I have a few days here. I've got to finish writing my Correspondent's Diary for the Economist website (it's supposed to run the week of February 11th). Then off to meet Willoughby for some traveling!!

How To Relax At The South Pole II

2008-01-27T01:54:00.000-08:00

Yes indeed. That's bocce in front of the geographical pole. Click here for the animation. Don't know why it doesn't display above...

Sorry I haven't finished Science Lesson Part II yet. I've been switching to days, so I've been exhausted and sans satellite. I leave tomorrow morning (fingers crossed on the weather...) so I'll finish it soon...

Science Lesson Part I

2008-01-23T10:27:00.000-08:00

I promised the other day that I'd actually write something substantive about science, so here it is. (I can't resist mentioning it though: I did indeed take my record-breaking third shower of the season a few days ago...)

I had a really interesting conversation yesterday with this professor from Dartmouth who just arrived at the Pole as part of a joint Norwegian-US Traverse, and I think it may spawn another Economist article. It has to do with ice sheets, global warming, rising sea levels, and how you go about figuring all this stuff out.

Let me back up a little bit. Everyone knows about global warming. And everyone knows that one of the really bad things that could happen with global warming is a rise in global sea levels. There's this nice google map that shows what parts of the world will get flooded when sea levels rise. It's pretty cool. You can adjust the amount of sea level rise and then check out your own favorite neighborhood-Bangladesh, Manhattan, Florida, etc.- to see if it's still above water or not. Anyway, rising sea levels come from two things. First off, as temperatures increase, water expands. This is just basic science: hotter things take up more room. In a hot air balloon, turning on the flame heats the air in the balloon. The air expands and the balloon becomes buoyant.

The second cause is the big one. When you melt ice that's sitting on land (such as the three mile thick ice sheet I'm sitting on right now), the water flows into the ocean and causes the sea level to rise. Just to be clear, this only happens for ice sitting on land, not ice that's already floating on water. The usual analogy is an icecube in a full glass of water. When it melts, the glass doesn't overflow. This is because the meltwater takes up the space that the ice was already taking up. Because of this, all the stuff you see on the melting of the Artic and the North Pole doesn't contribute to rising sea levels. That ice was already floating in water. The melting of the Artic is alarming for other reasons which I won't get into right now...

This brings me back to Antarctica. Most of the Earth's fresh water is locked up in the icesheets here, so obviously what they're doing is really important for sea levels. We do know that West Antarctica, the part that juts out towards South America, is warming up and melting really quickly. The problem is that the ice in East Antarctica, the huge part closer to where I am, may actually be getting thicker. That's because, in a warmer climate, it's expected to snow more. That snow falls onto the ice and stays there. If more snow falls than ice melts, the sea level actually goes back down.

So here's the real kicker: we don't actually know if Antarctica is losing ice or gaining ice, overall. There are models and calculations and some satellite data, but there's very little on the ground data from East Antarctica. We just don't know. I even think the recent IPCC report concluded that it was too early to say whether Antarctica is losing ice or not (though I have to check on that).

This is all an interesting little tidbit. One that doesn't usually get reported amidst all the scary stuff you see on the news. I'm guessing the media thinks that people are too stupid to digest complicated information. "Well, if Antarctica isn't melting, that means that global warming isn't real and we don't have to do anything about it." I trust you guys more than that.

So how do we figure out what's really happening in East Antarctica? I'll save that for Science Lesson Part II. But for those of you who just can't wait, I'll give you a preview: You get in some tractors and you spend two-and-a-half months driving across the ice...

Thwarted!

2008-01-20T12:11:00.000-08:00

Well, I had just gone for a long, stinky run and was psyched to take my record-breaking third shower of the season. I walk into the bathroom just as this guy is posting signs saying that all showers are forbidden for the next few days. Apparently they're doing maintenance on the well where they melt the snow to get our water. Damn.

For whatever reason, I feel like I'm only writing about hygiene this year. You all must be getting bored. I think I'll make my next few posts about something interesting and scientific, just to keep y'all entertained :)

Article Link

2008-01-18T02:40:00.000-08:00

In case you care, you can find my Economist article here. The photo is mine too...

Shower Counter

2008-01-17T08:59:00.000-08:00

Well, last night was number two. That already ties my total from last year. And considering that I did laundry last week for the first time ever down here, I'd say that I've reached a new hygienic high. I even went for a two mile run on the treadmill last night. With the altitude, that's not too bad either...

It Really Can Be a Harsh Continent

2008-01-16T08:16:00.000-08:00

In case we needed any reminder that this is a pretty harsh place, we all got a bit of a scare the other day. I was out working in a lab with my coworker Tim at about 4:30 in the morning. All of the sudden we hear this loud alarm go off. We look around because we're freaked out that it was something we did. Then this scary voice comes on and says "Attention. There is a medical emergency at DA. There is a medical emergency at DA." DA is one of the entranceways to the main station. We ran outside to see what we could see, but we were about a mile out, so we could only see some vehicles off in the distance. We figured we had better just go about our business.

We walked to another building where our coworker Sean, a grad student from Madison, was supposed to be finishing up some stuff. He wasn't there, and his work hadn't been done. We cursed him out under our breath and got started finishing the work. Slowly, as we talked about it, it began to dawn on us that the medical emergency could have been Sean. He was in that area of the station. He hadn't shown up where he was supposed to. And he didn't have a radio to let anyone know if there was a problem.

Eventually, someone called and let us know that it was indeed Sean. We hopped on a snowmobile and raced to the station to find out what had happened. He had been out riding a snowmobile, and he hit a deep rut in the ice. He lost control, and somehow his leg got caught and pulled up into the treads of the snowmobile. It was so far wedged in that he couldn't get it out. It was the middle of the night, and he didn't have a radio, so he just laid there in the snow for at least ten minutes, until someone happened upon him and called in the alarm.

Basically, Sean was incredibly lucky. He was hopped up on morphine when we got to see him, but he didn't break his leg, and he hadn't cut himself. If he had torn up his leg and spent ten minutes in the snow before anyone found him, he would have been in some serious trouble. Now he's just got a nasty bruise and is walking around on crutches, all the better for impressing the women when he gets back to New Zealand.

All's well that ends well, but it freaked us all out at least a little bit. We're so far away from anything here, that when something goes wrong, it has the potential to go really wrong. Under the best case scenario, it takes about 24 hours to get to a real hospital in New Zealand. A driller on my experiment was seriously injured a few years ago and it took them that long before they could operate on him in Christchurch. Everything ended up well with him too, and he's actually back down here this season working again. Some of these guys are truly crazy.

In the meantime, I'll say a prayer and knock on some wood just in case. Oh, and I'll be careful too.

I just found out that an article I wrote from down here is going to be in next week's issue of the Economist. It's called "Snow Place Like Home" and it's on the new station dedication. Check it out if you get the chance...

The New Station

2008-01-13T09:10:00.000-08:00

The last few days have been pretty busy around here. Saturday was the official dedication ceremony for the new South Pole station (you know, the fancy new facility that I get to walk back and forth to from my tent every morning and evening). The weather had been really crappy and all flights were being cancelled, but luckily it lifted just in time for all the special visitors to make it in. These included the director of the National Science Foundation (the primary US science funding agency), a few more congressmen, and all sorts of officials from the State Department and Homeland Security and the military. In general, it's annoying to have these people down here, since all work basically comes to a stop so that they can be catered to and given tours. But the ceremony actually turned out to be pretty cool. We took a group photo in front of the old station, this geodesic dome structure you can see in the photo of my coworker Ryan and I below:

Then, the US flag on top was lowered and passed from person to person to the new station, where it was eventually raised. It was generally a pretty moving ceremony, since a lot of people have put in so much time and effort down here to make the new station a reality. It really is light years better than the old facilities (which weren't even heated), and it's the state-of-the-art as far as Antarctic living quarters go. Here it is:

On the other hand, the whole nationalistic thing with the flag and the government officials was a little bit ridiculous. To me, it only underscored the fact that no one can really ever own Antarctica. It's too big and it's too harsh. People can have a toe-hold here, and that's great and really useful for science. But it's not part of the US, and the US can never really own it. We put our flag here, but it's in no way ours.

If you're interested in reading more about the station, you can check out this Chicago Tribune article (thanks Ann!). It's a little misleading, since the dateline makes it seem like the guy is actually down here, which he doesn't seem to be...

In other news, yesterday I got to take part in a live webcast to the San Francisco Exploratorium (kinda like the Museum of Science and Industry or the Adler Planetarium, for my Chicago friends). It was pretty fun. Sorry I didn't let y'all know in time to see it live (I only had time to let my SF friends know) but if you want to check it out, it's still online. The webpage is here and the direct link to the realmedia webcast is here.

Damn. I'm Getting Old

2008-01-10T09:21:00.000-08:00

So as you would expect, I've stopped shaving so that my burly mountaineer's beard can provide some measure of protection against the harsh elements down here. Now that's it's growing out, I'm discovering that I have a bunch of gray hairs in my beard. What the hell?!?

Shower Counter

2008-01-10T06:15:00.001-08:00

For those of you keeping track at home, I took my first shower in 10 days last night. And oh was it sweet...

A Real Post From the Pole

2008-01-09T04:17:00.000-08:00

Well, the windchill is -40F, but I'm sitting inside with some tea and finally have a free minute of satellite time to sit down and write about the last week. Let’s start all the way back at last Wednesday. On Wednesday, we flew down to McMurdo, about a five hour flight from New Zealand. The flight was actually perfect—smoother than the flight across the Pacific to New Zealand was. We landed at McMurdo on the frozen sea-ice, and it was so smooth we weren’t even sure when we touched down. Here's me just after getting off the plane:

I mentioned before that there was a congressional delegation on our flight. They were mostly members of the House Science Committee and the Ways and Means Committee as well as the Deputy Director of the NSF. It’s funny how well these people get treated. They get shiny brand new bags, while ours are all faded and beat up. They don’t even have to carry their own bags (I think you can see someone picking up their bags in the photo above). They board at the last minute, and they get the nicest seats up front. They continued on to the South Pole with us, so we actually got to talk to them quite a bit. More on that below…

McMurdo was nice, but nowhere near as amazing as last time. First off, let me just get this out of the way. I didn’t see any penguins. Zero. Zilch. So there will be no penguin souvenirs. Maybe I'll be luckier on the way out. The chances are better then, since the icebreaker will have come in and cleared a channel already. So keep your fingers crossed for me. Second, the souvenir shop was closed. What the hell. I came all the way down to Antarctica and couldn’t even buy a f*ing t-shirt.

Thursday morning we left for the Pole early. There were maybe 30 people on our flight, about half of them from this congressional delegation. Most of us got a chance to shoot the shit with them. Nogg, I spent some time talking to one of your representatives from the fair state of Nebraska. There was a woman from Cali and a few stereotypically dirty congressmen from Tennessee and Louisiana.

It was funny though. A bunch of us had just been discussing how badly science fared in the recently passed budget. High energy physics (including Fermilab) got crushed, and they actually pulled the US out of an international treaty for this big fusion energy project. So a couple of us asked the congress-people about this. And none of them knew that it had even happened. I might not expect your average congressman to be up on the science news, but these people are one the science committee, for God’s sake. What are they doing with their time if they don’t even read the bills they’re passing?

Well, we found out the answer when we got down here. They were more interested in playing golf than in their two hour whirlwind tour of the Pole before they got back on the plane. The guy from Tennessee reacted to the altitude so badly (we’re at 10,000 feet after all) that he had to be put on an oxygen tank. That didn’t stop him though. He was out there, golfing away, oxygen tank and all. The medical people were actually really concerned since his oxygen tubes were starting to freeze up. Guess that explains why they couldn’t be bothered to read the science budget…

Once again, I'm staying in a Korean-War-era tent (think MASH) a few minutes walk from the main station. I had a little trouble getting acclimated to the altitude (some lightheadedness, dizziness, etc.) but I already feel better acclimated than I ever did last year. At least I can walk up the stairs. And things are actually a little bit more relaxing this year than last. I have less to do, and I know what to expect. So I think I'll be able to get my Economist side projects done without arousing the suspicion of my bosses down here.

One last photo. It may be hard to see, but there's a beautiful rainbow around the sun from floating ice crystals:

Yes Mom, I'm Still Alive

2008-01-06T07:19:00.000-08:00

Wow. It's been a long time since I've posted. I know you've all been waiting with bated breath for my next report. It's been an eventful few days, including my flight to McMurdo and then on to the Pole (among my co-travellers was a distinguished congressional delegation. I've got much, much more to say about that...)

Unfortunately, you'll have to wait just a teeny, tiny bit longer for the full story. There have been problems with the satellite connection at Pole, so I've been without the luxury of the internet for awhile now. Fortunately, the problem seems to be fixed, and I'm in the process of transitioning to night shift, so I should once again be basking in the warm glow of the Internet soon. I'll give a more full report (with pictures) sometime tomorrow...

P.S. I just found out that I'm getting to write a five article series of diary articles for the Economist's website. Should be fun. And should be a good chance to recycle some of the material from this blog...

Stopping to Smell the Roses

2008-01-01T01:35:00.001-08:00

Today was a pretty relaxing day, culminating in a stroll through the botanic gardens. I figured I'd better get a whiff of the roses since I'm about to enter the land without smells. Well, I should say the land without pleasant smells. Of course there are plenty of disgusting, unshowered human smells.

We're supposed to report at oh-six-hundred tomorrow morning for the flight down there. If all goes well, I'll be writing next from Antarctica...

Deja Vu All Over Again

2007-12-30T18:57:00.001-08:00

Well, here I am sitting in Christchurch again. I thought about calling this post "The First Shall Be Last" when I realized that I arrived in New Zealand on the first day of 2007 and then again today, the last day of 2007. But this surreal deja vu feeling I've been having all day won out.

Every step along the way of this trip so far has been similar but subtly different than last year. I feel like I'm in a dream or somehow reliving the past. I'm staying in the same bed and breakfast with the same friendly owners (and the same dog sleeping on the porch). My room is one door down from my room last year. I'm walking around Christchurch seeing the same shops and restaurants, knowing my way without needing a map. I spent the morning at the clothing distribution center again getting all the same cold weather gear from all the same Kiwi workers. It's almost like the last year hasn't passed. Of course, I'll be lucky if I still have this deja vu feeling when I'm staring at hundreds of penguins again in McMurdo, but I'm not holding my breath.

After reading some of my old blog posts from the end of my trip last year, I'm remembering just how miserable I was and just how much I wasn't expecting to be coming back down here. That's part of the reason this all feels so weird. But slowly, the excitement is creeping back in. I think when I get hit with that first blast of Antarctic air it'll be back (at least for awhile, before every last ounce of energy gets sucked out of me completely at Pole and I'm left with nothing but a vacant stare...)

We're scheduled to leave Christchurch for McMurdo on January 2nd. Tonight, though, is New Year's Eve. Some of you may remember my tortured post last year on New Year's and the international dateline, but there's no need to worry about anything like that this year. Ryan and I will be out on the town having a good time (if we can stay awake, that is...) Happy New Year's everyone!!

Free At Last, Free At Last

2007-02-02T20:21:00.000-08:00

Thank God Almighty I'm free at last. It's been a surprisingly hectic last few days, but I'm here in Christchurch again. I said peace-out to the Pole Thursday afternoon:

The weather was a little iffy, so we were nervous about not making it out, but in the end it was good enough to fly. We had an interesting experience on the flight out. I mentioned awhile back that the altitude at Pole is at around 10,000 feet. Right after we took off, there was a loud whining sound in the plane (the military flights are always an assault on the ears). Anyway, my co-worker Keith realized that they were pressurizing the cabin, so he took out his GPS, which has an altimeter on it. Here's the video . Since we started out so high, even though the plane is ascending, the altimeter shows that we're going down as the cabin pressurizes. You could immediately notice the difference. Oxygen at last!!

Landing back in McMurdo was such an amazing experience after the Pole. The weather was a balmy 32 F, and the mountains and open ocean and icebergs after a month of nothing but white expanse was a site for sore eyes. It was a little overwhelming, actually. The oxygen combined with a galley full of hundreds of people combined to make me feel a little out of it--dizzy and confused at the hubub around me. Man, I'd been isolated for far too long. We had some wine in the wine bar (McMurdo is a spa compared to the Pole), which cleared my head a little bit, and then I went to bed.

The next day I woke up early and headed out to Hut Point where I'd seen all the penguins on my way in. It was pretty dramatically different--all open ocean where before there had been sea ice. The icebreakers had done their job, and the resupply vessel was safely offloading its cargo in the port. So alas, no penguins, but I did get another pleasant surprise--Minke whales. You couldn't see all that much, but occassionally a group would surface and blow a spray of water up into the air.

In the afternoon, we climbed Observation Hill, this sharp volcanic hill that has an amazing panorama of McMurdo sound--the ice, the mountains, Mt. Erebus (the southernmost active volcano in the world), etc. etc. Here's a photo of me at the top:

Our C-17 flight left around 9, which meant we got into Christchurch after it was dark. Seeing darkness for the first time in a month was quite an experience, though it was quicklly overwhelmed by smell. I had heard this, but I didn't really think about it: There are no smells in Antarctica. There are no plants, no pollen, nothing alive. When we landed, it was a little bit wet, and the first thing I noticed were all the smells around me. Finally there was life around me again.

Yesterday and today have been consumed by the complete pursuit of pleasure--drinking coffee outside and reading the paper, dozing along a river bank in the sun while feeling the grass beneath my bare toes, drinking tons and tons of beer while watching the Bears embarass Chicago, etc. etc. I'm renting a car tomorrow, and Justin arrives after that. We'll be road-tripping it and hiking for a week, then I head to Melbourne for a week and Sydney for a week after that. It's Michelangelo-On-Vacation until the end of the month...

I'm Out...

2007-01-31T10:48:00.000-08:00

Well, the day has finally come. I'm off to McMurdo today and then Christchurch tomorrow. I'm longing for some humidity, a breath of fully oxygenated air, and the chance to heal (I've had a cut on my finger that's been open for 30 days now. Sweet.) A few more photos to take before I head out. Hopefully the penguins will be back in McMurdo upon my return...

How to Relax at the South Pole

2007-01-30T10:40:00.000-08:00

My Last Few Days

2007-01-30T02:15:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm officially exhausted. After another 24 hour shift, some serious whiskey drinking, and another switch from night shift to day shift (hopefully the last), I think I'm officially on the verge of losing my mind. Thank God I'm leaving the South Pole the day after tomorrow. As of now, I'm scheduled to be in Christchurch three days from now, but there's a chance I may stay in McMurdo for the weekend to work on my Economist article. Which would be cool, since then I'd get to watch the Super Bowl from Antarctica (and which, apparently, guarentees that the Bears will win.) Anyway, I couldn't be more ready to leave. I'll post some funny last minute photos tomorrow....

Moving Poles

2007-01-26T07:57:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd write in today with your friendly geography lesson for the week. We had a discussion today about moving poles, and that reminded me that I had been meaning to post on that for awhile now...

I took this photo in the cockpit of the C-130 on our flight from McMurdo to the Pole. If you look closely over the co-pilot's knee, you'll see the plane's electronic compass. And if you look really closely, you'll notice it says that we're flying North, not South. "What the?!", you might be asking yourself. "I thought you were going to the South Pole." Well, it turns out that the magnetic South Pole (the one on a compass) and the geographical South Pole (the point around which the Earth spins) are not in the same spot. The magnetic South Pole is quite a ways from here, and it's moving further away each year (the magnetic poles are moving pretty quickly and will eventually change place. Don't know when that's supposed to happen...) During our flight, we had already passed the magnetic South Pole, so technically, we were flying north again. At the magnetic South Pole, any direction you go in is north.

Funny geopolitical fact: After the U.S. established this base at the geographical pole, the Russians got pissed and wanted a piece of the action too. So they built Vostok station at what was then the magnetic pole. Unfortunately for them, it's not there anymore. Gotta love the Cold War.

You'll notice something else interesting in this photo at the geographic pole. I have no idea what Justin's trying to do with the Pole marker, but if you look back into the distance, you'll see a series of othe poles (and ice sculptures). Those poles are there because every year the location of the pole changes. While it feels like the ground underneath my feet is pretty stable, I'm actually sitting on top of a huge moving ice sheet. Ever year, the ice sheet flows a little bit downhill towards the ocean. The rock underneath it stays in the same place, so the actual geographic pole stays in the same place, but the place on the surface that's over the pole changes. Every New Year's, there's a ceremony here where they install a new pole. But I guess, technically, a few minutes later the Pole is no longer where that pole is... I think in a few years the Pole is going to intersect the station. Who knows--maybe the ceremonial marker will be sitting on top of someone's desk.

A Few More Photos

2007-01-23T12:16:00.000-08:00

I've been messing around with stitching together panoramas for my computer, so here are a couple. Two different views of the station (the nice place where I work but don't get to sleep...), here and here . A better photo of me at the Pole . A photo of the new 10 meter South Pole Telescope that's being built down here. And another photo of me that I just like, for some reason.
[Note: The satellite is about to go down, so if some of these links don't work, check back later. I'll get the photos there eventually...]

It's A Harsh Continent

2007-01-23T07:53:00.000-08:00

This is one of my absolute favorite sayings down here. In fact, I think most of the other jargon is pretty stupid and is just intended to show how smart and experienced some people think they are. Anyway, the saying is usually in a joking context:

"The vanilla side of the icecream machine is broken."
"Well, what do you expect? It's a harsh continent."

"The picture quality of this Bears game is pretty crappy. Why couldn't somebody have sent down a better tape?"
"Shutup. It's a harsh continent."

It's a joke, but it's also a deadly truth. I've been thinking a lot lately about just how harsh it is down here (and, conversely, how easy it is to forget that fact). There's absolutely nowhere else on earth where man's very survival is so dependent on science and technology. Plain and simple, without technology, we'd all be dead down here. First off, we'd freeze to death before long. Well, I guess people have had thick-ass wool and fur coats for a long time, so maybe that's not technology. But take food, for instance. Nothing grows here to forage. There are no animals to kill to eat. All the steak and eggs and whatnot that I eat everyday have to be shipped or flown from New Zealand and then flown to the Pole (incidentally, I just ate breakfast for the third time "today". Man I need to get back to a regular schedule.) Something like 70 percent of all the cargo flights (and there are like 6 a day) carry nothing but fuel for the lights and the heating. It's a little bit like what living on the

A few years ago, the a big ice shelf broke off near McMurdo. The icebreakers that usually clear a path for the resupply cargo vessel didn't think that they were going to make it through, and they were talking about having to abandon McMurdo and the Pole for the winter. Apparently they thought that it was going to take something like five years to recover for a setback like that (over the winter, basically everything would get buried by snow.)

On a side note, I discovered why it's not a good idea to go for a walk at the South Pole wearing Birkenstocks. I almost broke my leg five or six times. I can't wear Birkenstocks?! It's a harsh continent.

Stuck In A Time Warp

2007-01-22T11:30:00.000-08:00

So I realize it's been awhile since I've posted anything. I think part of the problem is that I've completely, utterly lost all sense of time. I actually found myself arguing with someone today about whether it was Tuesday or Wednesday. When I first got here I couldn't understand why there were big clocks everywhere with the day of the week and the date on them. It's because it's always bright sunshine and people are working crazy, shifting hours (I've worked two 24 hour shifts this week). I actually fell asleep in the dining hall the other day. Most days, I go to sleep in the morning and wake up in the evening. So I go to sleep and wake up, but the date hasn't changed. It all adds up to some serious confusion. I'm starting to understand why people drink so much down here (Don't worry Mom, I'm not going to become an alcoholic...)

Anyway, these last few days have been the first that I've found myself longing for the normal world again. Can't wait to be sitting on the beach in Australia. There are people who've been here since October, and I can't even imagine how they must feel.

So I deployed the instrument that I built and came down here to install. So far, it's been a mixed bag. Some things worked, others didn't. I have some really cool video that it took as it was being lowered into the hole. I'll try to put that up for tomorrow. As for now, it's 9:30 AM. That means it's bedtime...

95 Years Ago Today...

2007-01-17T02:41:00.000-08:00

...Robert Falcon Scott reached the South Pole after months of hiking, having hauled all of his food and gear on a sled. Unfortunately, when he got here, he found a tent and a flag already set up at the Pole: Roald Amundsen had beat him by a month coming on skis and with dogsleds. I can't even imagine how shattered he must have felt. They sent an email around the station today with this photo and qoute from Scott:

“The Pole….Great God! This is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward of priority….Now for the run home and a desperate struggle. I wonder if we can do it.”

Of course, they didn't. They got caught in a terrible month-long storm, ran out of food, and eventually froze to death one-by-one. It's hard to imagine how far we've come in 95 years, when a lazy-ass like myself can sit drinking tea in a nice, warm room within view of the geographical Pole, typing away on my laptop and reading emails. I think Scott would roll over in his grave.

My First Shower in 11 Days

2007-01-16T12:01:00.000-08:00

It was all I hoped it would be and more. Thanks for the advice Ann. I took my week's worth all in one go. A lovely 4 minutes. Of course, putting the same clothes on again afterwards sort of negates it all, but I'm going to look on the positive side. I'm in the process of switching over to the day shift for a couple of days, so I only got three hours of sleep last night. I'm hoping that shower will get me through...

My First Really Real Antarctic Day

2007-01-15T11:55:00.000-08:00

So for the last couple of days, the weather took a turn for the worse. One of the worst summer storms in years hit the Pole. When it gets stormy here, it doesn't snow, it just gets windy. Really, really windy. And the wind picks up snow and ice and blows it all over the place. The other night we were out working, and when we came out, you could only see about 10 feet in front of you. They were telling people not to walk outside because of the possibility of getting lost. I wish I could capture the feeling of standing on a sled, being pulled behind a snowmobile, and just driving into a wall of white. Pretty insane. The roads were all drifted over, and we had to navigate by flags they stuck in the snow. One by one. I tried to take some video of what it was like that night.

Anyway, they of course couldn't fly any planes in or out in that weather. And for some other reason the satellite connection was down. So for the first time down here, I really started to feel claustrophobic. I realized I was trapped and completely isolated from all civilization, at the least 8 hours from New Zealand (which is, arguably, civilization...) Best not to think about these things...

I took another video of me snowmobiling down here. Also, here are a couple more photos. The the view down one of the holes we drill in the ice, and me at the actual South Pole...

My First Real Antarctic Day

2007-01-12T05:44:00.000-08:00

I feel like my real Antarctic experience began today. I knew today was different the minute I walked out of my tent. The sky was pretty overcast, and there was a crazy wind whipping in my face. For the past few days, I'd been able to see out to the horizon in all directions. Today, the wind was blowing up so much snow and ice that you couldn't see very far at all. I mentioned before that the weather felt a lot like a nasty Chicago winter day. Well, I was wrong about that. Today was actually much worse. At times, it felt like the wind was just blowing straight through my clothes (now I understand why they gave us so many layers. I'll have to add a few more tomorrow...)

And of course today was the first day that I got stuck doing manual labor outside all day. First I spent six hours taping two 200 foot stainless steel hoses together, methodically going inch by inch as my fingers were freezing solid. Then Justin and I had to haul a bunch of boxes. Twelve hours outside. Lovin' it. When do I get to sit on the beach in Australia again? :) I posted a video of what it was like to work outside today here .

There are a few nice features of all this wind though. It kicks up snow crystals pretty high into the sky. In addition to making really cool sparkles, a lot of times rainbow haloes will form around the sun. A normal rainbow is formed from small raindrops in the sky. These haloes are formed from small snow crystals instead. I tried to get a good photo, but this one was the best I could get. It doesn't really do it justice.

As promised, here's a photo of home, sweet home , and another of me in all my gear .

Finally, I thought I'd say a quick bit more about what we're actually doing down here in the first place. You can see it in this photo . Basically, we have a team of drillers that works for us drilling holes 2500 meters (or 1.5 miles) down into the ice sheet. The way they do it is conceptually really simple-they just shoot a jet of boiling water into the snow. Anyway, once they finish drilling this hole, we lower our instruments down on a big cable. In the photo, the hole is being protected by that stainless steel lip so that nobody falls into it (that's the one thing nobody down here talks about. It's pretty insane to look down, and nobody likes to think what would happen if someone went down. I'll try to get a photo of the hole tomorrow...). You can see the two people in the photo lowering one of our instruments down.

Okay, that's it for now. I'm so nice and warm, and I can hear the wind howling outside. Time to get my coat back on and head back out to the tent...

Oh, did I forget to mention that I haven't showered in a week? Water is tightly rationed down here, and you only get two two-minute showers a week. Plus I have to go outside to the shower. Maybe tomorrow. Nobody can smell me under all those clothes anyway. :)

Fun Facts On the Pole

2007-01-11T02:21:00.000-08:00

So I thought I'd share some fun facts I've come across down here.

Fun Fact #1
I mentioned before that we're at a pretty high altitude where the oxygen and air pressure are much, much lower. This has some pretty funny effects. I brought some medications in sealed packages down from Chicago. When I got them out of my bag, they had blown up like those silver balloons you give people when they're in the hospital. My favorite though has to do with contact solution. We were deploying some of our instruments, and one of the guys on our team took a break to wet his contacts. All of the sudden we hear screaming--the bottle of solution had basically exploded and squirted high pressure saline solution right into his face. Pretty hilarious.

Fun Fact #2
There's no dirt at the South Pole. Well, there is, technically, but it's 9,000 feet down under the ice, so you don't see it. For someone who grew up in Chicago or Boston or some other place where it snows, you're used to a beautiful, fresh snowfall which then gets nasty and black and slushy in a day or two. But since there's no dirt down here, the snow is like a brand new snowfall everyday. I think it's the whitest substance I've ever seen, and it glistens like it's got diamonds in it when you're walking along, your boots crunching with each step you take.

Fun Fact #3
The South Pole is a lot like Wisconsin. It seems like half the people I meet down here are from Wisconsin, and they're right at home. A lot of drinking, a lot of snow, and a lot of snowmobiling. I learned how to drive a snowmobile today. Flying over the snow on a snowmobile at the South Pole. Pretty unbelievable. Of course, I almost flipped it my first time. I went the wrong way and ended up driving over a trench. To get out, I had to get off and guide it from the side. It was at a pretty steep angle, but it made it without flipping. (Don't worry Mom, I won't make that mistake again).

Fun Fact #4
The South Pole is technically a desert. It's basically the driest place on Earth. It snows a tiny, tiny bit each winter, but not much at all. It's only because it's been snowing for 40,000 years, and since it never gets warm enough for it to melt, that it builds up into this 9,000 foot tall ice sheet.

Okay, enough of the fun facts. Time to get some sleep... Oh, one of my co-workers put up some more photos and videos of the penguins we saw here . His camera had a crazy zoom lens, so some of them are amazing.

A Real Post From the Pole

2007-01-10T03:23:00.000-08:00

Well, I've gotten a few complaints about not posting more regularly. Now that I'm better rested and coming back from a nice midnight lunch, I figured I'd fill in some details about the last week or so. I've been working the night shift, which sorta sucks, but it's not terrible, considering that it's always daytime outside...

My flight for Antarctica left New Zealand five or so days ago. I actually started a post while I was on the flight, so I'll just copy it here:

As I write this, I'm 30,000 or so feet above the Southern Ocean chilling in the cargo bay of a C-17 (of course, I won't be able to post this until we land, so if you're reading this, that means things must have gone alright. I'm either in McMurdo or boomeranged back to Christchurch...) Here's a photo of me literally shaking in my boots before we boarded the plane. We reported to our flight at 9:30 this morning. First we got dressed in our cold weather gear and repacked all our check-in and carry-on bags. Again, I have no idea what a real military experience is like. But sitting in a large warehouse with a bunch of other dudes getting suited up in gear made me think about going out on a mission. Given how freaked out I already was, I can't even imagine what it must be like heading off to a war zone.

After checking in and getting our boarding passes, we were free to mill around for awhile before our flight briefing. Justin and I had a quick orange juice, and I had some time to collect my thoughts and try to psych myself up for the flight. As I'm sure most of you know, I haven't been a huge fan of flying lately. The thought of flying on a military plane that's going to land on sea ice was making me even more uncomfortable. Getting geared up made me feel a little better and more excited, but in general I just tried to take some deep breaths and tell myself that many, many people have made this exact same trip that I'm about to make. I just thought, "What would Will Bain do right now?" :)

And then this Kiwi military woman in fatigues gets up there and tells us that our flight has been delayed due to bad weather at McMurdo. But the good news is that they're forecasting an open window if we take off later that afternoon, at 5 instead of noon. (Nobody was quite sure what to make of their weather forecasting after they had just shown us a video emphasizing how unpredictable and fast-changing the Antarctic weather can be...) I'd be lying if I said that it wasn't a huge relief to know the flight had been delayed. In fact, I was sort of hoping it would be cancelled altogether. As much as I try to prepare, the hours before a flight are always the most miserable, and I'll do almost anything to get out of it.

Anyway, we headed back into the city for some Thai food for lunch. I had a good few hours to sit in the sun in a cafe and try to relax myself. Instead, I started doing a lot of thinking about this flying business. There's the surge of relief when I find out the flight is cancelled or delayed, but in reality it just prolongs the anxiety. I get all worked up and then relieved, over and over. That can't be very healthy. So I made up my mind that just getting it over with was the best thing to do. When we got back to the airport, we got the okay to take off. Riding out to the plane and then boarding was pretty damn insane. I couldn't believe that I was actually getting on that plane.

The plane is actually pretty comfortable. There's a ton of cargo on pallets secured with cargo netting in the back. In the middle, they roll in standard airline seating, just like the middle row of a 747. There are seats that fold down along the side aisle, and Justin and I got a pair of those. There's a great amount of legroom, and I was able to doze for awhile. It's deafeningly loud. The give you earplugs, but you still have to shout to hear the person next to you. Ironically enough, military flights are pretty chill. They let you mill around almost right after takeoff, and they let us all up into the cockpit to take photos (there are only a couple of windows elsewhere on the plane).

As we got closer and closer to Antarctica, looking out one of the emergency exits we saw more and more sea ice and icebergs. It also got a lot colder on the plane, so I had to put on some of my cold weather gear. I think that's when it really settled in where I was heading. At some point, the pilot announced we were going to land (which in some sense was a relief, since at least we weren't going to boomerang). It was pretty turbulent coming down, and even weirder since there were no windows to look out of to tell how low we were. But then we just landed, out of the blue, and everything was fine. It took awhile to slow down, of course, since we were on a runway of ice. (You can see McMurdo down on the lower right corner of the Ross Ice Shelf on this map .)

I'm not sure how best to describe getting off of that plane. Justin described it last year as one of the best moments of his life. I wouldn't go quite that far, but it was pretty amazing. They open the door of the plane, and you get hit with this blast of cold air. They keep the engines running (I think so that they don't freeze up) as you get off, so it's still loud as hell. I walked down the stairs, and there were people, ice, blowing snow, an overcast sky, and huge mountains on three sides. The runway on the ice is a few kilometers out on the ice from the station, so you can't see any buildings or structures. It's like you've been let off in the middle of nowhere. It's both exhilirating and terrifying at the same time. Here's a photo which doesn't really do it justice...

After a 30 minute shuttle bus ride to the station, we got some food and got oriented. There are about a thousand people at McMurdo during the summer, and the station is really nice. It's like a nice college dorm, basically. The whole area is volcanic, so the dirt is black volcanic rock, forming sheer cliffs down to the white sea ice. There are huge mountains and volcanoes on three sides and the the sea ice to the other.

We heard rumors that there were penguins in town, so even though it was 2 AM, we headed out to see if we could find them. Lo and behold, we found a group of 10 or so. There were pretty tired and just sort of sitting there sunning themselves. We took some photos and hung out and were just generally stoked that we had gotten to see them. Little did we know...

The next morning, I went to mass (yes, there's a church in Antarctica...) and then wandered around town for a bit. Later in the afternoon, we walked out to Hut Point where Scott set up this tiny wooden hut, the first structure in Antarctica. I have no idea how those guys spent an entire winter there. Anyway, when we got there, there were all sorts of people taking photos. It turns out that there were several different penguin colonies that had come in from the sea. Hundreds and hundreds of Adelie penguins. I guess the sea ice has melted more than usual this year, so there has been an unprecedented number of penguins coming into McMurdo (as a side note, everyone on our experiment hates us now, since, literally, nobody else has gotten to see penguins down here). I've got a lot of great photos, but I had to pick just a couple to send over the satellite. Here's one of a line of penguins heading out single file towards a Swedish icebreaker which was cutting a path in the ice for a resupply ship to come in. They made it all the way out there, and then got scared when the icebreaker got too close, so they all ran frantically back to shore.

I always knew penguins were hilarious on TV and in movies, but I always thought that was rare and possibly even staged. But they actually are just as hilarious in person. They're constantly running in all directions, tripping and falling and sliding around. At one point, we saw the lead penguin in a pack slip and fall into a huge crack in the ice. The next three or four walked up carefully and stood at the edge peering over to look for him. And then, all of a sudden, the ledge they were on cracked off and they all plunged into the crack too. Everyone was dying laughing (don't worry, they all made it back out eventually...)

It's also amazing how curious and unafraid they are. A penguin will just walk up to within a foot or two of you and just stand there starting at you. It's like they're just as interesed in checking you out as you are them. I was taking some video, and this penguin ran up to me, to the point where I had to take a few steps back (it's a crime punishable by expulsion from Antarctica to touch a penguin, or any other animal life, for that matter). Here's the video I took, though I haven't had time to edit it, so I think it's still sideways...

We headed for the South Pole the next morning. The plane was much smaller, a military C-130 prop plane with skis. This one had no seats, just cargo netting on the side. I think it's designed to make you want to jump out of it. Anyway, it was three hours to the Pole from McMurdo (it's surprising, but Antarctica is actually bigger than the U.S.). We crossed over the Transantarctic Mountains and some pretty big peaks, and then onto the Polar Plateu: just white in all directions, as far as the eye can see. You're basically standing on 9,000 feet of ice. It's high, and it's extremely dry, which is why a lot of people come down here to do astrophysics experiments.

Anyway, we landed and got off the plane. They warned us we'd notice the altitude immediately (the Pole is at about 10,300 feet, but it fluctuates because of the pressure. The daily weather report has the altitude for the day). Right away, my left ear felt like it needed to pop but just couldn't. So I walked around for the rest of the day feeling a little woozy and like I had an earmuff on my left ear. I decided to take the diamox pills they encouraged us to take at McMurdo (I guess they've had to medevac 7 people from the Pole this year for altitude sickness). I think the pills helped. I didn't have headaches or nosebleeds or trouble sleeping, but it's amazing how winded I got doing even the most basic things. It's still a bit of a struggle to walk up a flight of stairs, though things are getting better.

Home sweet home down here is a Korean War-era tent about 10 minutes from the brand-spanking new South Pole station. I feel a little ripped off, as the new station is like a really nice hotel. People have single rooms with desks and phones and internet. A lot of people walk around all day in shorts and sandals and never even go outside. You could go weeks without even realizing where you are. I, on the other hand, have a little bed cordoned off with some blankets from the rest of the tent. At least it's warm though.

As for the weather, it's not all that bad. It's -25 or so, -30 or -35 with the windchill. It's like a nasty, nasty Chicago winter day, except that you're dressed for it. I've got these amazing boots and boot liners and wool socks, so my feet are never cold. On top, there's long undewear and overalls and fleeces and then the huge red parka on top of it all. So you can walk around outside, and the only thing that gets cold is the tip of your nose. It's blindingly bright with the sun and the reflections off the snow, so I have these ski goggles which I wear whenever I'm outside.

I've got photos of my tent and the Pole and the experiment and whatnot, but they're all on my camera in the tent 10 minutes away, so I'll upload some when I get a chance. I guess this monster post will have to do for now. Hope you're all doing well...

Shocked and Awed

2007-01-09T11:48:00.000-08:00

Well, I arrived at the South Pole about 48 hours ago. The plane ride was one of the smoothest I've ever been on. I didn't even notice when we took off from the ice sheet, and when we landed on the ski's, I wasn't even sure we had touched down.

I'm really, really sorry that I'm not writing more. I'm complete, utterly exhausted. I've been up for over 24 hours. We deployed the first string of instruments for my experiment last night, and I got stuck on the night shift. But since I was up already, I just had to stay up through the night. So I'm going to go and get some sleep before I pass out.

I'll write some more detailed posts about what's been happening when I get a chance tomorrow. In the meantime, you can look here for some photos and videos that I've taken. While the satellite is up (we only have internet for several hours a day while some satellite is visible from the station), I'll try to upload them so you can take a look. Uploading them to the blog is a little bit slow.

Hope you're all doing well...

Absolutely Amazing

2007-01-06T22:50:00.000-08:00

So I arrived safely in Antarctica!! I can't write too much, but let me just say that it's absolutely fucking amazing (sorry for using the f-work mom, but there's no better way to put it). I'll write more when I get to the South Pole tomorrow and have a little more time.

For now, one tidbit: I saw hundreds of penguins. Hundreds and hundreds of hilarious penguins. Got some great photos and movies. Nobody on my experiment has ever seen penguins in Antarctica before. For the first time, they showed up at McMurdo the day we arrived. Somebody's looking favorably on me, I guess.

One more military flight to go and this trip is halfway there. Keep your fingers crossed I don't get altitude sickness and pulminary adema. Hopefully the pills I'm taking with stave that off...

CHC to MCM

2007-01-05T03:03:00.000-08:00

Well, it looks like we're actually going tomorrow morning. We're supposed to report at 9:30 (which is apparently quite late. Usually you have to get there at 4 AM). I'd be lying if I said I wasn't pretty damn scared at this point. Everytime we've had a delay, a little part of me has rejoiced at another worry-free day. We had dinner with a few colleagues who had just come back up here, and they told us some pretty unpleasant stories about medevacs, accidents, toxic spills, power outages, emergency evacuations, etc. I think this is the closest thing to a real military experience that I'll ever have. I'm constantly encountering people who've been down there a few times before, and I feel like that scared young soldier in all those Vietnam movies who's on his first tour.

There's always the possibility that our flight will "boomerang." There's a point of no return beyond which you don't have enough fuel to get back to New Zealand, and at that point, the pilots check to see if the weather forecast is good enough to land at McMurdo. If it's not, they turn around and fly all the way back to Christchurch. Anyway, if all goes well, I'll be in McMurdo at this time tomorrow night. McMurdo is sort of like one of those old Wild West mining towns, so it should be interesting. There are no flights on Sunday, so we should have a day or two to go on some nice hikes across the sea ice. I think there's even a Catholic church at McMurdo. We may also be able to visit the Kiwi base. Who knows. For now, hail and farewell...

Another Sunny Day in Christchurch

2007-01-04T17:58:00.000-08:00

It seems like every other person you encounter in the hotels and on the street in Christchurch is heading to or from "the ice" (that's how the all cool kids refer to Antarctica...) It's actually a pretty fascinating logistical system down here. Everyone is spread out in bed and breakfast's and hotels throughout the city (your tax dollars are hard at work subsidizing the New Zealand tourist industry). Each hotel has a list of the people heading to the ice, and they're in constant contact with the USAP office about flight schedules and delays. They post notices or slip faxes under your door or come knock in the middle of the night. It's sort of comforting to have all these people looking out for us when we're so far away from home.

Christchurch has been a bit jarring at times. We went from the shortest days of the year in Chicago to the longest ones down here. It's not getting dark until around 9:45 or so, and the weather is absolutely perfect. Maybe it's a nice middle ground before we head out to eternal sunshine at the Pole.

Our co-worker Andres just came back from Antarctica at 4 AM last night. There was a medevac from McMurdo to Christchurch for some unknown reason, and he was able to hop on. It was good to see him and get a debriefing about what's been going on down there. He looks a bit like an ewok after not shaving or getting a haircut for a few months. And because all the hotels are filled up, he got an amazing sweet in this really nice hotel right on the central square. Must be nice. He headed straight out to get a haircut. You can see the results for yourself:

On a side note, I went out today and purchased some "supplies" for this hilarious staged photo I'm planning to take at the ceremonial Pole. Stay tuned for that one. It's sort of a tradition. Andres showed us his photo where he's wearing a nice gray business suit. Quite a juxtaposition.

Word is that we're supposed to be flying to McMurdo tomorrow morning, but we won't know for sure until later tonight. I think I'll go for a run in the meantime. Probably the last time I'll be able to do that, since running at the 12,000 foot altitude of the Pole is apparently not advisable.

I'll post some more thoughts later tonight if we do indeed head out tomorrow morning...

Here We Go...

2007-01-03T02:35:00.000-08:00

I have to admit. I never thought I'd be writing a blog. But after seeing Mike Lee's inspired entry into the blogosphere with Brasil Dreams, I decided to follow suit. (Though since I was the one that gave him the idea in the first place, I don't feel like too much of a follower...).

So here I am stuck in lovely Christchurch, New Zealand (more on that later...), writing my first ever post. I'll try to cram in all of the stuff that's happened since I left Chicago a few days ago.

December 30, 2006 to January 1, 2006
It was a miserable morning of packing, but I had finally done it-shoved a few months of clothing and books into my backpack along with some military issue (hopefully clean) long underwear that Will Bain was kind enough to let me borrow. I attached the handy U.S. Antarctic Program baggage tag with that cute little penguin on it and headed to O'Hare. There I met my co-worker Justin, and after a little re-packing to skirt our gear under the Qantas weight limit, we were off to LAX. As you can see below, Justin was particularly concerned about packing for the long, cold Antarctic nights (the TSA woman who hand-searched our gear at O'Hare didn't even bat an eyelash.) [Note: Justin made me self-censor this photo out of the blog...]

The twelve-and-a-half hour flight from Aukland to LA was pretty uneventful. Since we were travelling over New Year's, the flight was empty. I had a whole row to myself, and managed to sleep for most of the flight (thank God...) Qantas has amazing in-flight entertainment though. They have twenty or thirty movies and a bunch of TV shows that you can start, stop, pause, rewind, all on demand. Plus video games.

Before our flight from Auckland to Christchurch, we spent quite awhile having one of those ridiculous arguments that only physicists have: given the flight time and the time zones, did we actually experience New Year's eve at all? After some arguing, some pencil and paper, and some help from passers-by, we concluded that we experienced an hour or so of December 31st ( from midnight to 1:15 AM). At that point, we crossed the international dateline and vaulted ahead a day to 1:15 AM on January 1st. So we never got our midnight toast or kiss with the stewardess. In fact, I think I slept through the whole thing. If we had taken off a little earlier though, we would have been some of the first people in the world to experience 2007. Oh well.

Anyway, most of New Year's Day was spent in Christchurch relaxing, eating, and having some beers. We were to report on January 3rd to the CDC (the Clothing Distribution Center) to get issued our ECW (Extreme Cold Weather) gear. Why the hell does the military use so many acronyms anyway? Will? Departure for McMurdo Station on Antarctica was scheduled for the 4th, and for the South Pole on the 5th.

January 3

Getting the ECW is a pretty interesting experience. You're shoved in a warehouse with 50 other people. You're each issued two bright orange duffel bags with your clothing in them. You try everything on, because, as they repeatedly remind you, your very survival depends on all your clothes fitting properly. As you can see, I had a few problems with my carhart coveralls. Ten pairs later, I found out that it is indeed still possible to dance wearing long underwear pants and shirt, fleece jumpsuit (think the footy-pajamas you wore as a kid...), another fleece jacket, and coveralls.

And on top of it all, the distinctive, bright red USAP parka. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the photo where I'm wearing the face mask and goggles. I'm sure you'll be seeing plenty of those when I get down there.

After getting our gear, we found out we wouldn't be flying down to Antarctica on schedule. We fly down on military C-17 's (and to the Pole on smaller LC-130's). Apparently the one we were supposed to go down on has been having some mechanical problems (which, everyone assures me, is quite common.) So we were told that we would be flying on Friday. Now that latest word is Sunday, but nobody really knows. I guess they're waiting for a spare part or something. So stay tuned.

What is there to do in lovely Christchurch while you're waiting, you might be wondering? Well, there's really only one answer:

I think that's about enough for my very first post. More soon, I promise...