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Antarctica » Antarctica » McMurdo Station
November 20th 2007

Published: November 19th 2007

This was my first week of work in my new hometown for the next 3 months. I definitely had the “first day” jitters (complicated by a noticeable lack of caffeine due to the fact that I forgot to bring a full coffee mug that morning) but they were quickly abated when I met my future coworkers. Everyone in town works 6 days/week, 9 hours/day so I'll be spending a lot of time doing carpentry with these people whether I like it or not. After our morning safety meeting and group stretch, I was treated to an in-depth tour of both sides of the Carp Shop (Town Carpentry and Science-Support Carpentry) and an extensive training about each and every machine. After lots more mandated safety and protocol stuff (blah blah blah), I was asked to build a stand for a heater they needed to work on and was set loose in the shop. Along the way I got lots of suggestions from coworkers and asked many more “where is this?” and “how do you do this?” questions but overall succeeded and passed test #1. By the end of the day I felt totally comfortable hanging with the group at break and joking as we walked back down the Goat Path (a staircase of ice carved down the hill) to dinner. Of the 36 carpenters in McMurdo Station this season, I am one of FOUR females but hold a slight level of authority as I was hired as a Carpenter Helper, one step above the General Assistants (GAs) who have no experience at all. This means although they expect me to be handy and proficient at all the tools (saws, drills, nail guns, routers, etc), so far no one has seemed ticked off when I ask for further instruction on using a particular task, especially considering the focus on safety all over McMurdo. Although we’re in a massive, harsh environment that poses a multiplicity of dangers just to stay alive (frostbite, hypothermia, sunburn, eye-burn, falling in a snow crevasse or sea ice crack, etc), I have been told and have observed that most injuries are not on the macro level but instead at the micro, including a torn ACL playing basketball, an unconscious medivac to Christchurch, NZ from falling off a bunk-bed ladder, a cut hand in the galley kitchen, large splinters from working with very dry wood, etc but these can be life-threatening due to our remote location, minimal supplies, and the difficulty of transporting us out of here in bad weather.
Anyway, on to more positive stuff… if it hasn’t become clear yet, McMurdo Station is the largest US research station in Antarctica (the others being the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station and Palmer Station on the peninsula near Chile) and the hub of most American field camp work on this continent. It is located on Ross Island (currently connected to the land via the McMurdo Ice Shelf and Ross Ice Shelf, both of which will begin to melt soon) which is one of the most beautiful parts of the continent with large barren stretches of shelf ice and majestic mountain ranges rising in several directions. McMurdo was built as part of Operation Deep Freeze back in the 1950’s by the Navy and was run by the Navy until recently when the National Science Foundation (NSF) took over. Now McMurdo’s main purpose is as a base for many different science projects including glaciology, biology, climatology, geology… etc etc etc. Although it is unspoken about, the entire year-round American presence on the continent also serves as a “holding place” so we can stake a claim to any “natural resources” that might be discovered in the future and use them for our own American good. Capish? As of now, this is impossible thanks to the Antarctic Treaty that has been signed by 46 nations which ensures "in the interests of all mankind that Antarctica shall continue forever to be used exclusively for peaceful purposes and shall not become the scene or object of international discord." As such it prohibits military activity (except in peaceful support of science), prohibits nuclear explosions and the disposal of nuclear waste, promotes scientific research and the exchange of data, protects all natural aquatic and terrestrial animal life, promotes environmental protection, and holds all territorial claims in abeyance. This means that we need to sort (into 26 different recycling bins!) and ship out all of our garbage, many extra-special locations are off-limits except to permit-permitted researchers, and there is a general sentiment of environmental protection that acknowledges that our very human presence is degrading the natural pristine environment and we must do everything in our power to limit our impact. I’m sure I’ll write many more forthcoming blog entries about this topic so get ready for the lectures…
Also, Mac Town, as some here call it, is the main hub for logistical support for many deep field science camps and for the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, which was named after Roald Amundsen (the first to reach the pole on December 14, 1911) and Robert F. Scott (who reached the pole just over a month after Amundsen on January 17, 1912 but died on the return journey). The austral summer population spikes to around 1200 people (many of whom are scientists “just stopping by” as they leave to and return from field camps) but when the station closes in late February there will only be around 200 to Winter-Over (6+ months of complete darkness and no flights in/out at all). The town is a haven for some of the most interesting people you could ever meet. Many of the people are seasonal contract workers who spend their off time traveling around the world, spending their money and generally having a good time. I’ve met so many people who have routinely come down here for 3, 5, 10, or even 40 summers (and some winters) that it seems normal to have all of your possessions (minus the 75lbs we were allowed to carry down) in a storage facility “somewhere,” many actually leave stuff here planning to return, and most have open-ended plans to travel to exotic places upon redeployment in February. Also, about 90%!o(MISSING)f the people I have met here are either from Colorado or Alaska, the former because it is where Raytheon (the contract company that I technically work for) has their headquarters and the latter because of the similar climate and desire to skip out on darkness entirely (right now northern Alaska is in winter-mode which consists of 20 hours of darkness and 4 hours of light each day) by jumping from “summer” to “summer.” When I tell people I am from New York City they look at me with a glossed-over gaze of amazement, very similar to the TV commercial for salsa where the cowboy says “this recipe came straight from New York City” and everybody looks at him like he has 3 heads. Most tell me that I don’t “sound like” I’m from there (I tell them they should talk on the phone to some of my relatives!) and wonder how a girl like me heard about and got myself into a job “like this.” I have found (and quickly bonded with) the five or so others from the urban northeast cities (NYC, Boston, Phillie, Baltimore) and now I know I can go to them for a good round of cursing and “cab talk” whenever all the kindness and nice words around here get old.
This place is very much like cross between a community college and a small mining camp - the streets are dirty, the buildings are mostly weather beaten and very rundown looking on the outside and rugged hills of volcanic rock and Ice surround the place. Inside, Beakers (as the scientists are called) conduct state-of-the-art research, people lounge on couches to watch static TV stations and old movies, and the dining hall is abuzz 24/7 to accommodate the range of work schedules (including MidRats, the Midnight Rations for the night work shift and drunkards when the 2 station bars close). As I look out beyond “town,” it is amazing to take in the extreme, harsh beauty and the remoteness of this place in a world that is getting smaller and smaller - this is a true wilderness and you can’t buy a plane ticket to visit! Sharing Ross Island with us is Scott Base, which is New Zealand’s very compact, color-coded research station of around 100 (I walked over there for the weekly “American Night” on Thursday and got to check out their network of tunnels connecting all the buildings and photos of the 9-12 people who have Wintered-Over for the last 45 years), and Mt. Erebus, the world’s Southern most active volcano. Many days the 13,000ft peak of Mt. Erebus is shrouded in clouds and couldn’t be seen, but often it has been very visible and puts on a big show with a large plume of smoke or steam coming out of the caldera on top- it’s spectacular and I hope to be able to visit the field camps near it at some point during the season.

Random Antarctic Facts: Who works for the United States Antarctic Program?
--About 3,000 people worked at U.S. Antarctic stations in 2005-2006.
--Approximately 80%!w(MISSING)ent during the summer season, while only 20%!w(MISSING)intered in Antarctica.
--About 34%!o(MISSING)f participants were female
--The average age was 38.

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