C2B2: Return of an Ice Odyssey

It's been a long time.  A lot has happened and at the same time it feels like not very much has happened.  We apologize for the gap in posts.  We hope to be back on here to share our experiences with all of you on a regular basis again this year, so long as you have forgiven our neglecting it for so long :(

I'll give a brief rundown on what we have been up to for the past few months:

We left the ice on February 24 aboard an air force C-17 cargo plane.  If I could fly everywhere in one of those I would.  Best way to fly (except maybe on an Emirate's Air flight, holy cow they know luxury and comfort).  We stayed in New Zealand hiking and driving around the South island for about a month.  (Shout out to BigFoot Jim and Dona, friends from the PCT, who were in Christchurch when we were!) We had planned to hike the Te Araroa Trail however things did not pan out.  We realized this trail would take us a bit longer to hike than we had anticipated and we would not have the time to finish the entire length of it before planned events in the States.  We adjusted our plans and began a sight seeing road trip around the South island.  Glaciers, mountains, farms, cities, birds, glow worms....New Zealand is a country bathed in beauty.  I'm lucky to have spent time there and I am looking forward to being able to spend more time there one day.

After a month there we took a marathon of flights back to the good ole' US of A.  Our destination was Atlanta, Georgia.  Two friends of ours, Short Trip and Breathless (Bill and Margaret), picked us up at the airport and treated us to some of the best hospitality we could hope for.  They are amongst the kindest souls I have been fortunate enough to meet on my travels.  They made us feel at home and comfortable in their home, giving us a much needed chance to rest and unwind after a long journey around the world.  

After spending a couple of days with them we began our trek of the Appalachian Trail.  This deserves it's own post (several, actually) and I'll have to get on that at some point.  We traveled about 1400 miles (Georgia to New York) of this trail before the six legged, blood sucking devils of the woods (ticks) introduced the two of us to their best friend Lyme Disease.  We struggled to realize we were sick because both of us were hit at the same time.  After a couple weeks of struggling and seeing our daily mileage plummet we came to the conclusion that something was wrong and we got off trail to find out and rest.  The recovery took much longer than expected (I was still feeling effects after a couple of months) and so we will return to the AT eventually and finish what we started.  A shoutout to our friends that visited us along the AT and their awesome trail magic: Rattler, Jason Hedrick, Nicole and Nathaniel, and Flashy Pants!

Through out the summer we had the great pleasure of spending time with Carolyn's friends and family celebrating a number of weddings.  Her older sister, Allison was married to Dave with a beautiful ceremony at the end of July.  Carolyn's friends Kate and Scott were married in September and Nicole and Mike were married in October.  It was a summer filled with wedding festivities!

Time was spent with my family as well.  We were able to celebrate Jason's (my older brother) graduation from college with his elementary education degree and a start on a new career path.  My friend TJ began a new and exciting part of life becoming a home owner for the first time and our friends Dan and Sheri celebrated the first birthday of their beautiful baby, Annalise.  I was able to spend a lot of time with the other lady in my life, Cascade!  Walks, running in fields, and chasing around Bradley the cat together helped revitalize the both of us.

Both of our families gave us support and love throughout the summer that we are both beyond grateful for.  Thank you to all!  

Currently we are back at McMurdo Station, Antarctica!!!  It wasn't a straight forward trip here but we're back and thankful to have our jobs.  We had been offered these jobs early in the summer and were excited for the opportunity to return to the ice.  After our bout with Lyme Disease we became nervous about passing the physical exam process to get here.  We both passed then proceeded to find out we had lost our jobs due to the government shutdown!  We were lucky in that we were informed before we began our travels to Christchurch, New Zealand.  A number of our friends had traveled to New Zealand before finding out and were stuck abroad with no jobs for a period of time.  Some people even traveled to New Zealand, went back home then got the jobs back after the shutdown ended and traveled back to New Zealand!  Anyway, the shutdown ended and the NSF began funding the Antarctic program again.  We got calls and flew out of the country in about 48 hours time.  

Things here at McMurdo are great!  The beauty of this place never fails to inspire and the community is even greater than we remembered.  We have a wonderful crew this year and are beyond excited to spend an entire year on ice!  

We hope everyone has had an incredible summer/autumn and we look forward to sharing our second season on ice with you all!!!

PS - Jason Hedrick.  That's all.

Coming Soon...

Tomorrow we leave McMurdo Station for 3 months in New Zealand.  We are thru hiking the Te Araroa trail.  Starting in Bluff, the Southern tip of the South Island, to Cape Reinga, the Northern tip of the North Island, we will hike a total of 1,800 miles (3,000 km).  A short jaunt by our standards.  We hope to keep the blog going.  Check it out over the next few months!

Te Araroa Trail website (CLICK ME)

My baby, Cascade.  I'LL BE HOME SOON!!

Antarctica's Most Wanted: BOATS

Breaking ice, breaking laws...these boats have been spotted in McMurdo Sound wreaking havoc on innocent seals trying to sunbath on icebergs with gangs of whales following close behind to cash in on the damage.  If you see any of these boats please write your local congressman immediately.

ICEBREAKER: Breaking ice with hulls of steel, this icebreaker vessel paved the way for his band of cronies to follow close behind.  He may look like a little tug boat but his hulls quickly worked apart the cracks in the sea ice (the same ice that we landed our planes on at the beginning of the season) and sent it out to sea.  Within hours of heavy winds, the entire sea was clear of ice and in came the Minke Whales, the titans of destruction.  Only ice still standing was a 2 mile wide iceberg threatening to block the access to McMurdo.

2 mile wide iceberg

NATHANIAL B. PALMER RESEARCH VESSEL: This undercover ship claims to be here on behalf of science.  Good science or the sort run by the likes of Dr. Evil?  Suspicions were confirmed after this ship was forced to return, after leaving, to drop off one victim claiming "medical evacuation for the good of the person was mandatory".

FUEL TANKER: Pumping liquid gold into the tanks of McMurdo seems like a good cause but this crew has a rough past.  While sailing through the Indian Ocean, they repeatedly met pirates since their load rode so low.  When pirates approached, the crew had a special synchronized gun dance where they flashed their weapons and the pirates quickly left.  (Actual true story). The pirates quickly tucked tail and ran, but how many were taken captive for hidden treasures?  You'll have to ask Captain Black Gold to find out...

CRUISE SHIP: The high times of the rich and famous rolled into the McMurdo Sound.  People actually PAYING (minimum of $25,000) to see McMurdo played paparazzi to the likes of locals.   People departing this boat were seen wearing heavy parkas and claiming it was cold.  Bunch of new jacks.

Some of the high paying customers from the cruises.  Tourists or victims?

Don't let your wheels freeze, old head.

The second cruise ship to show up.  I'm guessing this "economy version" didn't serve pate.

THE VESSEL OF DOOM: Judgement day arrived at McMurdo, the busiest week of the season.  You live by vessel and you die... maybe not die...they just close all the bars for the week.  Upon arrival, the Giant of the Sea crashed into our delicate ice pier shifting it 10 feet causing divers to have to check out the damage at the crash site. The contents of this behemoth were emptied supplying the community with years worth of food, supplies, etc in exchange for all our waste.  A true trash to treasure love story.

Only in Antarctica: Part 3

And for our final installment of "Only in Antarctica", here are some fun, weird, and interesting facts about life in Antarctica:

Sundial: Only in Antarctica can you have a sundial that can tell time all day and night.

Midnight

1 AM

2:45 AM

3:30 AM

The Troll Under the Bridge: 

Cadaver Table: In Antarctica, you need to be ready for any situation, even the grim.  That is why in the kitchen out at the Pegasus Ice Runway they have a Cadaver table for autopsies ...  that is also advertised as an "emergency" shower...hmmm

 Pets:  What happens when the ladies who work in the salad room find a slug on some fresh veggies flown in from Christchurch?  GALLEY PET! After 5 months, it is nice to have something that is living that won't complain about the food!

Freshies:  Last week we received our first shipment of fresh fruit, vegetables, and eggs since before Christmas! You've never seen so many happy faces until you watch a bunch of people biting into a banana after months without.  What also made this so special was that it was the first unexpired food we've had in awhile.  For some reason expiration dates are not recognized on this continent.  Most of our food expired years ago, but I guess since it was buried in some millvan under snow for the past five, it negates all those years in between.  Rip Van Winkle pork chops.  Needless to say, fresh bananas made everyone bonkers!

Typos: Not all passport stamps are created equal.  

The "C" is not as silent as it appears in the first stamp.

Sometimes I get bored:

...and so the sun set...

On February 20th, we had our first sunset in 4 months.  After continuous sunshine for the entire summer it was nice to reach a beautiful dusk around midnight.  

Ladies Weekend at Black Island

Like Chris, I was also fortunate enough to have a boondoggle (morale trip) to Black Island for a weekend. Except, I'd have to say mine was 10 billion times better because it ultimately turned into an all girls weekend! Yay! After spending the past 5 months with mostly middle aged men (there are about 23% women at McMurdo) I had a great time with Morgan, Christine, and Gina at Black Island.  And yes, we did paint our toenails and read Vogue. Chris already told you a bit about Black Island in his post "An Antarctic Retreat" so I'm just going to post some pictures of beautiful Black Island.

View of Pegasus Airfield from the helicopter

Breaking the ice to fetch water

Black Island field camp

Pictures from our hike around

Mummified Seal

Whole mummified seal

Singing the glories of Black Island

Flying shot gun in a helicopter

A Weekend Retreat, Antarctica style

McMurdo Station is built too close to a volcano.  More accurately, McMurdo Station is built too close to a large mountain.  Mt. Erebus is a large and tall volcanic mountain.  McMurdo Station lies to the South of this mountain, however is close enough to it that the mountain blocks all satellite connections.  This is a problem when all communication with the rest of the world is done through satellites.  In order to work around this issue a small communications camp was built just across the sea, called Black Island.  All communications coming to/from McMurdo are sent to Black Island where they are relayed to McMurdo or up to satellites.

Black Island is a small camp.  It consists of one building and a bunkhouse.  Two people run the facility during the Austral summer season and it is operated remotely, from McMurdo, during the winter season.  I was given the incredible chance to spend a weekend at Black Island.

I was scheduled to fly to the island on a Saturday morning.  I was excited and pumped up, until I found out the trip was delayed a week.  A storm had rolled into the area and most of the available helicopters on station were being put on standby to assist in a search and rescue operation taking place on the continent.  A week went by and this time the weather held.  I gathered up a few things to take with me and dressed up in my ECW (extreme cold weather) gear, which is mandatory to wear for almost all air travel.  The helo pad is a short 10 minute walk from my dorm so I carried my things there.  After arriving I checked in with helo operations and when the group was together we went through a short briefing on helo safety.  We then walked out to the helicopter for our ride over to Black Island.  Riding in a helicopter is WAY more fun than flying in a plane!  It was a brief flight, 15 minutes, over the Ross Sea.  We flew over the Pegasus Ice runway and saw the old Pegasus crash site.  In 1970 a plane crashed in bad weather right near the current Pegasus Ice Runway.  No one was hurt in that crash and parts of the plane are still visible, sticking out of the snow.

We approached Black Island and did a quick loop around it before landing at the camp.  After hopping out of the helicopter we met our host for the weekend, Tony.  He began coming down to Antarctica in 1987 and has been the camp manager at Black Island since the 90's.  He was quite a character and had no trouble filling the weekend with stories of his time in Antarctica.  I took a few pictures and videos of the  place....enjoy!!!!

Videos = Click these lines:

Flight of the Navigator (just a short clip during my helo flight)

Black Island Tour: Part 1

Black Island Tour: Part B

Black Island Tour: Part 3

Gary and Amy, in the helicopter

Black Island facility, from the air

Chillaxin'

Alicia, Justin and Gary

After getting back to McMurdo I saw these two skua dive bomb that guy for his food then fight each other for it.....IT. WAS. AWESOME.  But sucks about the food, man.