Antarctica

Well, here I am less than 24 hours from starting the big adventure. My baggage is coming in far under the allotted amount that I can bring, which is good. The less I have to carry around the airport the better. Tomorrow I fly down to Denver for a few days of safety training. Then, I connect through L.A. to Sydney, AU over to Christchurch, NZ where I will stay for a day or two. In Christchurch, I will get all of my issue cold weather gear and try to shake off some jet lag. Then, if the weather is good, I'll arrive in McMurdo, Antarctica on the 23rd of October. Once there, I'll go through a survival school and work for a few weeks until the weather warms up at the pole. Around November 7th, if the temp has warmed up to around -50, I will fly to the South Pole (Amundsen-Scott Research Station) and begin work for the season.

 Feel free to email me from my main website: www.ayrek.com. I'll try to get in touch with everyone as much as I can. I'll only get internet when the satellite window is open.

I hope everyone has a good year! Here we GO!

 P.S. :   Check out the weather at the South Pole by clicking this link!

Posted by Eric at 02:06 PM | Permalink

Well, I boarded the flight out of Missoula with the UM Volleyball team. Switched over in Salt Lake and headed to Denver on the 16th. Started OSHA training the next day, wandered around after work getting the last bits of outdoor gear I thought I needed. All the people I've met so far are AWESOME. Three other people are hauling instruments down to the ice so we decided to busk (paly music for spare change) in Denver Int'l and LAX. We made a total of $4 playing random bluegrass and folk songs. PROGRESS! Anyway, the flight down to Sydney from L.A. was kinda long but tolerable. 14.5 hour flight followed by 20 minutes on the ground in Sydney, AU, then 3 more hours in a flight from Sydney to Christchurch. About 18 hours of flying in the last 24 hours.

 Rolled into Christchurch at about 1400 local time. Worked on avoiding horrible jet lag by setting my clock before I got to L.A.   It worked well. The hotel I'm in at Christchurch is a post-modern eclectic place with mood lighting in the shower, and an artificial sunrise to go along with the alarm clock. Mirrors everywhere and just an overall feel of spacyness.

Got all my Extreme Cold Weather gear this morning, cpmprising of  a huge parka, multiple carhart jackets and bibs, tons of gloves, big ol' socks, and multiple other very warm items. I'm feeling comfortable about being able to stay warm at -60.

Anyway, the Staybridge Suities (a.k.a. the Antarctica Ramblers made of my and the three others with instruments) are going busking in Cathedral Square in downtown Christchurch right now. Maybe make a little spare change. Should be good. I hope all is well back home!

Eric (Hotel So in Christchurch, NZ 10/22/09 11:36 local time)

Posted by Eric at 03:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Welp, I finally made it. Four and a half years of anticipation has finally brought me to the frozen south. On the 23rd at about 1400, the C-17 touched down on the ice runway out in McMurdo sound. stepped out onto 8.5 feet of sea ice and hopped on "Ivan the Terri-bus" (a massively lifted bus with HUGE wheels). The weather upon landing was 18C and about 15 knots of wind, the sun shining brightly. Sat through some safety breifings. I found that since I'm a Polie (headed to South Pole) I am labeled a transient and found my spot over in "man camp". No worries though, just means that I'm a temporary worker at McMurdo until I catch my flight south. Oh, and man camp is a bunkroom tightly packed with about 35 bunkbeds for all the male polies before we all fly south. So that was yesterday.

Today, I met up with my supervisor Brandon "Shaggy", and started work with some stretching and then got right to it, shoveling snow. Sure beats shoveling the heavy wet stuff in Montana. We shoveled for about 4 hours and never really got tired. The snow is so light, really wind packed, but light weight. Digging through frozen Pumice gravel is a different story. Anyway, we dug out around some pipes for a huge fuel project here at McMurdo. Good stuff. Anyway, the food is great, and the people are awesome. I'll be here at McMurdo for a few weeks. Have a good one!

Eric (18:31 10-24-09 NZ time)

Posted by Eric at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So I've been in Antarctica for about a week now. We had one day where the wind kicked up to 60mph and visibility was reduced to less than a quarter mile. The temp has been hanging around 10F but has been warming up the last two days to around 15F. From what I hear, this is pretty typical in McMurdo. The summer temps here can get up above 40F. The South Pole will be a different story.

Work has been pretty good. Two other South Pole GA's (General Assistants) and I shovelled a lot of snow this week. My body is getting used to the work. The biggest thing that is helping make the snow removal easy for me is how the snow breaks. All the snow is drifted, so it mostly breaks along the lines of the layers that got laid down. But some layers are really thick and don't want to moved. Having been introduced to flint knapping, I realized that the compacted snow has conchoidal fracture, breaking just like flint and obsidian. So, knowing where to swing the adze or shovel makes all the difference. Its really satisfying when you can break off big chunks with one hit.

I went for a two hikes over the last week. One out to Hut Point and one up to Observation Hill or OB Hill. Hut Point was brutally windy and cold on the day we went. Its amazing how straying only 300 yards from the station can lend itself to Antarctic adventure. Ob Hill was a nice climb of about 700 feet. the best time to go hiking around here is right at bed time (around 10:00) because the wind dies down and the sun comes out. The veiw was awesome and so was the company. I met up with 4 Australians who are laid over in McMurdo until the weather allows them to fly to their Casey station on the other side of the continent. The view of Mt. Erebus from OB Hill was pretty sweet.

Mt. Erebus is the southern most active volcano and one of only 4 or 5 in the world that have an open lave pool in the crater. Because its open, there is no pressure build up under ground, no earthquakes, and no massive eruptions. It will throw lava bombs about 6 times a day, but they don't stray from the slopes of the mountain. There are a lot of other interesting things about Mt. Erebus, so it would be worth looking up some info on it.

I probably still have a week or so before I fly to the pole (weather permitting). A lot of flights have been canceled this past week due to weather, so there are a lot of Polies itching to get out of town. but our time will come eventually. I hope all is well and wish everyone a happy Halloween!

Posted by Eric at 05:06 PM | Permalink