Recently, Prime Minister John Key of New Zealand came to McMurdo for a visit. Check out why...
Shackleton's Long Lost Scotch
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Castle Rock
Another day, another trail! This time we took to one of the longer trails here; the Castle Rock Loop.
Castle Rock is a large rock crag that stands between McMurdo Station and Mt Erebus. It stands about 1,300 ft tall and is the center piece of the Castle Rock Loop Trail. The entire loop is about 10 miles long. You reach the rock about 3 miles into the loop. It's an easy, gently rising 3 mile hike to the base of the rock. Along the way you pass two "apples", red circular emergency shelters which are stocked with emergency survival equipment (sleeping bags, stove, fuel, food, an adult magazine, etc.).
Castle Rock is a large rock crag that stands between McMurdo Station and Mt Erebus. It stands about 1,300 ft tall and is the center piece of the Castle Rock Loop Trail. The entire loop is about 10 miles long. You reach the rock about 3 miles into the loop. It's an easy, gently rising 3 mile hike to the base of the rock. Along the way you pass two "apples", red circular emergency shelters which are stocked with emergency survival equipment (sleeping bags, stove, fuel, food, an adult magazine, etc.).
Once you reach Castle Rock you can scramble to the top of it. It's a sketchy climb up using ropes bolted into the rock. At a few points you need to hold onto the rope or face a serious fall. This was probably our favorite hike of the season.
We had a beautiful day with clear skies above. The sea ice was covered with fog but we were above it for the hike to Castle Rock, which made for incredible views of the area. As we started the hike we paused and noticed something we had not seen for 2 months....the moon!! It hung in the sky in front of us for the hike to Castle Rock and every time I looked at it I had to smile.
We reached the rock and found the trail going to the top. After we scrambled to the top we spent a little bit of time taking in the views before scrambling back down. As usual, the scramble down was much more nerve wracking than the scramble up......
Once down safely we continued on the loop trail which quickly descends to the sea where you then walk on the ice shelf for the last few miles. We descended into the fog and found ourselves hiking in a white abyss. It's a strange feeling. You're in a wide open space yet you can't see more than 30 feet away, it feels like the world has closed in on you and you're boxed up. We kept hiking on until we reached the point the trail turns onto the ice road. The sky began to clear up and as we hiked to Scott Base and then the road from there to McMurdo Station we were back in clear skies.
Keep in mind, we did this hike in the middle of the "night". All of the pictures were taken from about 3am to 8am.
We had a beautiful day with clear skies above. The sea ice was covered with fog but we were above it for the hike to Castle Rock, which made for incredible views of the area. As we started the hike we paused and noticed something we had not seen for 2 months....the moon!! It hung in the sky in front of us for the hike to Castle Rock and every time I looked at it I had to smile.
We reached the rock and found the trail going to the top. After we scrambled to the top we spent a little bit of time taking in the views before scrambling back down. As usual, the scramble down was much more nerve wracking than the scramble up......
Once down safely we continued on the loop trail which quickly descends to the sea where you then walk on the ice shelf for the last few miles. We descended into the fog and found ourselves hiking in a white abyss. It's a strange feeling. You're in a wide open space yet you can't see more than 30 feet away, it feels like the world has closed in on you and you're boxed up. We kept hiking on until we reached the point the trail turns onto the ice road. The sky began to clear up and as we hiked to Scott Base and then the road from there to McMurdo Station we were back in clear skies.
Keep in mind, we did this hike in the middle of the "night". All of the pictures were taken from about 3am to 8am.
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| APPLE!! |
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| Castle Rock |
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| Mt Erebus, in the background, is about 23 miles away |
Monday, January 28, 2013
Adelies at Play (more videos)
About two weeks ago I sat down on our windowsill and began my daily "window report". I scanned the outside world from left to right, making sure all was normal in the great Antarctic.
"Ob Hill looks good today......a lot of ice has melted over there, a big hole in the sea ice is growing......Mt. Discovery is beautiful.....the Royal Society Range looks bigger every day......someone is walking down the road toward the chapel......there's a skua, he looks suspicious, better keep an eye on him.......ice pier is comin' along nicely.....there is so much open water around Hut Point....."
Carolyn was taking care of some things around the room. "Uh huh....that's cool....glad to hear Antarctica is still out there.....yeah......"
Me: "There aren't as many seals today.....wait....there's something swimming in the water around Hut Point.....I think it's.....IT'S PENGUINS!!!"
Finally, after searching every single day, the "window report" pays off! We ran out to Hut Point and watched a group of 10-15 Adelie penguins playing. They swam around the water, leaping out like dolphins, then up onto the ice, then back into the water. We watched them for more than one hour. Here are a few of the pics we got, enjoy!!
Sunday, January 27, 2013
The Emperors
I was just able to upload a video I took of the emperor penguins I saw back in October, enjoy!!!
Emperor Penguins (VIDEO!!)
I don't know how to embed videos I have uploaded to Google drive into this blog. If anyone knows how, I'd love to know!! For now I'll just have to post links to them.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Hut Ridge Loop Trail
The other week we went for a short 2.5 mile hike on the Hut Ridge Loop Trail. Here are a few photos!
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| A baby skua we saw from a distance |
Icestock!
Icestock, the event we had all been waiting for! I remember hearing about Icestock in 2009 when I was working at Onuku Farm Hostel in New Zealand. It was a popular hostel option for the McMurdo-ites fresh off the ice and yearning for the smell of grass and the starry sky. They had told me about this live outdoor concert, the infamous Icestock. It lived up to all the fame. One Stage, 9 hours of live music, under the neverending sunlight...amazing! It is incredible how much talent you can find among the 1000 residents of McMurdo. Plus a chili cookoff... the day couldn't be beat! We surprised everyone with a FLASHMOB during the song "Starships" by Nicki Minaj covered by Kate Fey's band TigerDragon! Here are some photos and a video from the event! |
| FLASHMOB! |
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| Kellie, Me, and Joanie |
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| Our Head chef performing |
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| Travis and I |
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