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Published: June 11th 2005
Home Sweet Home
This is a picture of the typical dorm room at McMurdo Station - Just Kidding! It is our newly constructed igloo - If you look closely you can see Castle Rock in the background.Greetings from Antarctica!
The last few weeks have been action-packed and very enjoyable. We have had a few strong storms and the temperatures have been getting colder - It was -31°F with a -78°F Wind Chill last Sunday. I was offered the opportunity to go on a boondoggle road trip across the Ross Ice Shelf toward Black Island and I participated in a construction project of a different sort on the Castle Rock trail. In town there have been a few very enjoyable parties, an evening of jazz music and socializing and finally, after several attempts, I have won BINGO.
I was asked a few weeks ago if I would be interested in participating in a boondoggle trip along the Black Island road to flag the route between McMurdo Station and KOA at the halfway point to the Black Island Station. Black Island is an important communication link between McMurdo and the outside world. During the summer it is a manned station, but, due to its remoteness, it is unmanned in the winter. A few times during the winter it is necessary to traverse across the Ice to Black Island to refuel the station and do any necessary maintenance
The Ice Drum
This strange ice formation was on the Black Island road and had a nice tone when you struck it like a drum. on the communication systems. This traverse is done via the Black Island Road, which is a flagged route across the Ross Ice Shelf, through a gap between White Island and Black Island and around the backside (southern side) of Black Island to the station on the island itself. KOA, as it has been lovingly dubbed, is an emergency shelter located at the halfway point to Black Island Station and is roughly thirty miles, by ice road, from McMurdo Station in the gap between the two islands. I was picked to go on the Thursday flagging trip, but I had to cancel due to obligations at work. I was put on as an alternate for the Friday trip, but one of the piston bullies was broken and the trip was postponed until Tuesday. Tuesday came and the weather was too bad to go, so it was rescheduled for Wednesday. I had been debating whether or not I should go, since I am quite a bit behind at work. Knowing that it is the nature of my job to not be caught up until the day I get on the plane to go home, I decided to go ahead and go. I
On the Black Island Road
This is the piston bully that I was riding in on the flagging trip. The lights of town were way behind us as we headed into the unknown. knew that I needed the adventure and that I would not likely get another chance to get out there, since the Black Island traverses are multi-day trips and my job is currently too demanding to allow me to get away for that long. We all met after breakfast, loaded up into the piston bullies and started our journey across the ice. After about fifteen minutes of slowly crawling over the rough, bumpy road, we were passed Scott Base and on the smoother ice road. We passed the area where I attended Happy Camper School when I first got here and then Willey Field, sitting dormant waiting for the return of the sun, and finally turned onto the Black Island Road and unknown territory for most of us on that strange road-trip. As we flew down the flagged road at a staggering speed of ten to fifteen miles an hour, we watched the scenery fly by as it passed in and out of our narrow field of vision consisting of a small area of light in front of us, bound on all sides by darkness. A light snow was falling and the sky was shrouded in clouds, blotting out the stars
Inside of KOA
This is a view of the inside of the KOA emergency shelter at the half way point to Black Island Station - This was our turn around point. and any hope of seeing auroras. The lights of McMurdo got smaller and smaller as the miles went by, taking us further and further away from the security of town, towards the heart of the continent. After about an hour and a half of driving, the scenery started changing from mostly featureless, flat snow to chaotically formed ice features, sculpted by the sun and wind and giving the impression of driving through a large bolder field on a distant, frozen, dark planet - That is what I imagined anyway. These strange features were actually caused by snow melt during the summer - Strong winds from the South blow dust off of Black Island, coating the snow with dark particles which absorb sunlight and melt the snow around them. This causes pools of water to form, which quickly evaporate leaving the strange ice formation behind to be further sculpted by the wind. At the beginning of the winter this area of the road caused a lot of concern since it was worse than it had been in years and the formations virtually blocked access to the station on Black Island. A few weeks of work were put into rebuilding the road
Black Island!
This was a very long exposure of Black Island - You could barely see the island in the actual lighting. The island is about a half mile away at this point. in this area and the flagging trip I was on was one of the final stages in finishing the road repairs. We decided to stop in this area to stretch our legs and explore some of the features close to the road. We found an interesting one, shaped like a big wave, that actually had a nice tone when it was struck - An ice drum concert was quickly under way sending a strange tune into the Antarctic night. The music abruptly ceased when the drum broke and it was time to go again, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted. From that point on, the condition of the road and the lack of suspension in the piston bully turned the journey into a bumpy rollercoaster ride that would have made any off-road enthusiast proud. At lunchtime we arrived at KOA and stopped for a while to try and get pictures of Black Island, which was now well within walking distance at only a half-mile away. We were thirty miles by road from McMurdo Station and the lights of town were only a spec on the horizon. There was a faint glow of sunlight that allowed us
Manning the Ice Drill
Here are a few of my friends drilling a hole in the ice for a flag. We had to do this several times along the road. to see the island and with some camera magic we got some pictures, though very bad ones. We quickly looked inside the KOA shelter, which was furnished but covered in snow - It would be a very uncomfortable night if you actually had to use the shelter, but I suppose it would be better than staying outside. On the return trip back to McMurdo, we stopped wherever there was a large gap in the flags, which are used as aids to help keep the drivers on the road during bad storms, or where the flags were broken and we would install a new flag there. It was a fun trip back - We took turns manning the ice drill and installing the flags each time we stopped. We pulled back into McMurdo at about 3:30 pm after an enjoyable, but exhausting day out of town. I find it strange that so many people in this town, many who have jobs that require long field trips, don’t seem to enjoy getting away from the comforts of town, so I am glad that they occasionally offer these trips to those of us who’s jobs don’t allow us to get into the field.
The Road Ahead.
This is the view out of the windshield of the piston bully. The following Saturday several of us loaded up in the piston bullies and drove out toward Castle Rock to the second emergency shelter - Our mission was to build an igloo. The SAR team had flagged an area for us to use off of the main flagged route, so we went to work. After we selected the location for the igloo, we etched the diameter into the snow and started the quarry for the ice blocks we would need. We cut large blocks out of the quarry, using saws and shovels, and began setting them in place. The blocks were installed as one continuous row starting at the base and spiraling upwards, each block being individually fitted in place and properly tapered so that it would lock together with the other blocks. As the igloo started taking shape, I began working on the tunnel entrance, which was similar to the one I did at Happy Camper School. The snow was firm, but easy to dig and in a few hours I had a deep trench with a shoulder width tunnel about three feet in length. A few other people wanted to help with the entrance, so I relinquished my
What Planet is This?
This is what the construction site for the igloo looked like - Yes it is very cold! spot in the relatively warm tunnel and started shoveling the tailings out - I was soaked from being in the hole, so when I got out into the wind I literally froze (my clothes anyway) and I had to retreat to the warmth of the piston bully’s heated driver’s seat, after an hour out of the tunnel, to warm up. It became apparent that we would not be able to finish the igloo in time to get back to town for dinner, so we found a good stopping point and we finished the tunnel - This was a very important step, because the people on the inside of the igloo were trapped and the only way out was the incomplete tunnel. We cleaned up, took several pictures and went back to town frozen and exhausted - For the time being, we had and igloo with a skylight! Plans were quickly put together for an after work trip to finish the igloo and on Friday, a few of us loaded into a piston bully and went back out. It had been nearly a week since we had started the igloo and we anticipated having to dig a lot of snow out
Building the Entryway
We look like a bunch of red penguins as we put the final touches on the igloo. of the tunnel, but it was in great condition. We quickly got to work cutting blocks and finishing the top of the structure and the entryway. The silence of the night was suddenly broken and when we looked to see what was making all of the noise we saw a large wheel of snow, nearly three feet in diameter, being rolled toward us - it was the capstone and possibly the most important part of the igloo. The final stage of construction was to hoist and fit the capstone (or ice block) into place, locking all of the blocks together with the help of gravity and making the igloo strong - We were finished! We all climbed inside and started taking pictures of our accomplishment - A first for most of us. The igloo is about six feet tall and eight feet in diameter and, with a little clean up, could probably sleep six people comfortably. Several of us are now working on getting permission to spend the night out there before the end of winter - that would be great!
Other happenings here have included a time-travelers party, which was along the same lines of a party that
The Construction Crew
Here are some of the igloo builders posing in front of our creation - I am the blur to the right of the entrance. was done at Harvard or MIT (I can’t remember which one) where several adds for the party were placed in publications, that would be around for a long time, that invited future time travelers to the party. Everyone at the party was supposed to dress up as someone from history or the future - I dressed up as Indiana Jones, but I couldn’t come up with a hat, whip, leather coat or gun, which of course meant I went as myself (I know, boring). I don’t think any time travelers showed up, but it was still a fun party. Also, one evening one of the clubs was transformed into a jazz club complete with nice seating areas and cool lighting. We all sat around for a few hours listening to the jazz band, which was great, and talking with friends - It was an enjoyable evening. One final thing - I am now a BINGO winner! I won two bars of tropical fruit scented soap, mango and papaya, and a scrubbing pad. Well, I will continue to search for some interesting things to write about - Next week is the Mid-Winter party and then the mid winter Polar Plunge, so
The Capstone
This is a picture of the roof of the igloo from the inside. The large roundish block in the center is the capstone. fun is on the horizon!
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