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!

 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)

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)

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!

 First off, this last weekend we celebrated Halloween with a huge party in the gymnasium. It was a blast! I was IceBeard the Pirate accompanied by an owl, a penguin, a tiger, the bearded lady, and multiple other unique costumes. there seems to always be something going on every Saturday night, since the majority of us have Sunday off.

So this past week was chocked full of training. On Monday, a group of us headed out for sea ice training. This consists of digging the snow out of cracks in the annual and multi-year sea ice, then drilling each different part of the crack to see how thick the ice is. We do this to decide whether or not we can drive certain vehicles across the crack without the risk of falling through. They do these measurements twice a week and store the data to track trends and to warn the other drivers. In the picture above we are trying out the old manual drill, but we later used a 2-stroke drill.

During this excursion I saw my first penguin! It was probably an adelaide penguin, but it was too far away to tell for sure. We also stopped by the ice cave on the way back to the station. This particular cave is a crack in the toe of the Erebus glacier tongue with sea ice as the floor. When these glaciers (fresh water) meet the sea water they float and can extend out away from the land for quite a ways. They don't necessarily calve off icebergs right as they meet the water. Anyway, the ice cave was kind of little because the sea ice is at its maximum right now. The snow crystals had the walls pretty closed in. 

The next day, I was sent off to happy camper school (Snowcraft I training). We boarded the big Delta transport in town and headed out past Scott Base (the New Zealand base) and on to the Ross Ice Shelf. We gathered in the Instructor's Hut and got lined out for the next 24 hours. We then all headed out to Mound City (remnants of old happy camper camps) and set to work. First we set up the two Scott tents then began building wind walls out of snow blocks.

We also began building a Quincy. We began by piling our gear and shovelling a bunch of snow on top of it, packing it down between layers. After we had about 1.5 feet of snow on it, we let it sit for about 3 hours so the snow could refreeze into its new shape. We then started tunneling in from underneath to access our gear. We pulled all the gear out and widened the snow cave that was left behind. After a bit of work, we had a very suitable shelter for a night in the Antarctic. Two others and I slept in the Quincy and I actually got a little too warm. I suppose I only needed two hot water bottles in my sleeping bag instead of three. The next morning we ran through some scenarios such as what if your vehicle broke down on the ice and you had to use the survival bag, and what to do to try to find someone in a white out. We learned how to operate an HF radio. I tried to hail South Pole but no one picked up, so I contacted McMurdo instead. The whole happy camper training was a blast and made us all feel like little kids making snow forts and such. Very fun.

Spent the next few days working on inventoring RAC tents (modular tents for field camps) and setting up a Weatherport tent, another type for field camps. On Friday, I headed out to Pegasus runway with a surveyor to set some more control points for the new ski-way out there. The big C-17 and some other aircraft have wheels that need a runway, but the Hercs (LC-130s) are ski-equipped so they need a snow runway or ski-way.

Saturday morning, I caught my flight to the South Pole! All other flights got cancelled because of the weather in their destinations, but the Pole was clear so we got out of McMurdo. There were only 10 of us on the flight and a lot of cargo. As to be expected the Pole is cold, but not too bad. Its been around -45 and a windchill of -73. The sun is shining and you can see for eternity out on the horizon. Flat white in all directions with the exception of the drifted snow forming sastruga. I finally have my own room compared to the 25 bunk room in McMurdo. I gained 10000 feet since leaving McMurdo, and I am still acclimating to the change. Was a bit light headed when I first came in, but now I am feeling better and my pulse is still down (which is a good thing). I walked out to the geographic South Pole and reached it at 19:19 on Nov 7th. That's all I have for now. Sorry about the long blog, I had to get caught up! Stay warm!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sum6qsiI0DE

I’ve been at the South Pole for about a week now. As far as work goes, 8 other GA’s and I have been moving a lot of snow. We shoveled off the fire escapes and walk ways, we dug out a bunch of cables needed for the Ice Cube Project (a huge study of neutrinos in the Antarctic), we cleaned out the LO arch of drift snow, etc. We also went out to Ice Cube drill camp one morning and helped the sparkies (electricians) string out huge cables for the 3 generators out there. Wrestling the HUGE black cables was not easy and took about 6-8 people to roll them out. We were in Condition 2 for weather, the wind moving over 20 knots, and blowing snow reducing visibility. The temp was actually pretty warm that morning, about -18. Later that day we set a new temperature record high of -12.6F for 11/12/09; blew the old record out of the water by 5 degrees.

I haven’t heard much on my trip out to AGAP field camp. My supervisor, Shaggy, is stuck in McMurdo because the weather got really bad there. Apparently they are having 50 knot winds in town, and condition 1 (whiteout) all over the place. So, no flights for a while out of there. But when those planes do come in, they will be carrying almost the entire AGAP camp staff, and our 10^th and final GA. So when they come in, I’m sure I’ll know a lot more and things will get rolling.

Yesterday, I was on fire-watch for the pipefitter/welder. Besides helping out string the welding lead and ground through the arches, my job was to stand there and make sure that the station didn’t burn down. The worst part about it was the getting cold from just standing there.

To get to the arches you have to descend 71 steps down the “beer can” which is a big metal tower that reaches from the top floor of the station to quite a ways under the snow. It connects to some under-snow tunnels that lead down to the power plant, carpentry shop, and heavy machinery shop. The temperature in the arches is usually colder than outside. It was only -35 or so the few days we were down there, but it can easily reach -60. The nice thing is the lack of wind.

The LO arch is a huge Quonset style structure that is connected to the tunnel. It’s still under construction, but will be used for storage. Yesterday in the afternoon, we were assembling the shelving that goes in there. Trying to assemble small nuts and bolts at -35 is pretty hard. I had to have just my glove liners on with hand warmers in them. My palms were sweating but my fingertips were getting numb. It wasn’t too bad though.

There is also the Ice Tunnels, which run from the main station clear out to summer camp, some 2500 feet. Back in there the temp is always around -65. The tunnels are used to get piping out to summer camp and back. There are a few odd monuments back in the tunnels. I haven’t been back there, but I’ve heard stories of a full size frozen sturgeon that was a gift from the Russians back in the 70’s in exchange for blue jeans and other needed items. I think the Russians intended on the South Pole people to eat it, but they made it a mascot instead. There is also a frozen pig head monument back in there that is all decorated with various items. And of course the rumors of aliens living somewhere back those tunnels.

One more cool thing about working in the arches is the potential for sweet ice beards. With the lack of wind, the moisture from your breath just hangs around you and adheres to all of your hair. I’m constantly working on better and better ice beards.

P.S. I changed the blog so people can make comments now. So please do! Just click on the little comments link below a certain blog and then go to the bottom of the page.

Have a good weekend!

So, my flight got changed (as it always seems to do) and I’m flying out to AGAP today.  Because that’s happening, I’m jotting down a rushed blog to fill everyone in on the last week’s doings.

The weather has been hanging around the mid -30’s with the exception of yesterday when it reached down into the -40’s. The wind has been light, and the sun has been bright.

On Monday this week, I headed out to IceCube again with a few others to uncrate some big rolls of cable and to assemble some sunshade frames for the “Ice Top” tanks. These tanks are used to make ice blocks that are frozen slowly to make for very clear ice. I’m not exactly sure what their purpose is yet, but it has something to do with the Nuetrino Telescope.

The rest of the week consisted of shoveling out on the berms, and helping out with the food pull.

The Food Pull is a big push to move all the South Pole’s warehouse of food (currently housed in the Old Station – the geodesic dome) into the LO Arch and onto the shelves we helped construct last week. There is a ton of food and its all frozen solid. Working inside the old dome has been awesome, it’s a shame that it has to come down. So yeah, the old station (dome) is being deconstructed this season. A few of the GA’s will switch over to “night” shift to help out.

I, however, am flying to AGAP this afternoon and won’t be back until sometime around Christmas. So, an early Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas to everyone, just in case I miss the holiday. I don’t think I’ll have any internet access out at the field camp, so my next blog will be at the end of December. Have a good end of the year, everyone!

I’m back early from AGAP. We got all the work done that we needed out there.

The Twin Otter flight from Pole to AGAP was pretty cool. There were five of us on the plane, and our gear was just piled up in the cabin in front of us. The original plan was to dig out the drift snow from around camp, break down the tents and rebuild the camp up on the surface of the snow. But when we got out there, the camp manager decided that we didn’t have to move the camp. We just had to dig it out.

Life at AGAP was a unique experience. I only got about 4 hours of sleep a night due to the high altitude, shoveled snow for 9 hours a day, ate very well, and had great people to hang out with. Read mountain man stories every night before bed so I could dream of mountains and wild places. Then wake up to blinding sunlight and the flat white of what could be the most desolate place on the planet. The temperature in the Jamesway fluctuated a lot with the coming and going of the wind. Those little diesel stoves can only do so much. The temp outside held pretty steady at -35 and the wind was fairly light. We had two movie nights where we projected onto a bed sheet. Besides that, our entertainment consisted of music and board games. Not much to do outside at all besides move snow.

We shoveled out all the tents and waited for the Piston Bully that was to arrive on Thanksgiving. Because we relied so heavily on this little machine we began to call it baby Jesus. It was going to save us a lot of shoveling. It arrived and moved tons of snow. It only broke down once. It was cold enough that the 0W-30 oil had almost solidified in it. But our handy mechanics got it going again.

We also had another tractor-like machine called the Tucker. Its main job was to pull the groomer down the 3 mile long runway. It was made in the 80’s and lived its whole life in Antarctica….so it broke down a lot. Of the ten days I was there, I think it wasn’t broken for a day and a half. When it came to time to leave AGAP, the runway hadn’t been groomed for 4 days because of a break down. The LC-130 that came in had a pretty rough landing on the ungroomed runway and broke a hydraulic line in the front ski. We weren’t sure if we were going to be stuck at AGAP or not. But after three hours of poking around in the nose of the plane, we were good to go. The plane off-loaded a bunch of fuel for the AGAP fuel bladders; we boarded, and headed out.

We flew over the flat white for quite a while, but we eventually reached the Trans-Antarctic Mountains. A very welcome sight for my eyes. I was glued to the plane window as rock, snow and ice slowly passed by. Amazing. We landed in McMurdo, and stayed out at the runway for about an hour. The weather was amazing!!! It was about +30 degrees and higher than 10% humidity…tropical paradise! It was nice to see the mountains, a few familiar faces from earlier in the season, and even a skua…some type of life other than human! But the vacation was short lived. We were soon on the next Herc headed back to Pole. The plane was pretty much empty, maybe 2 cargo palettes and us five passengers. It must have been hauling fuel. I slept most of the flight and arrived back at Pole at about 1 o’clock AM the next morning.

So now I’m back at Pole and getting settled back into the industrial scene here. The temps are up into the negative teens or warmer, and the wind has dropped off a bit. Getting into the peak of summer here soon. As all you Montanan’s enjoy your -15 cold spell, I’ll be enjoying my -10 heat wave. Have a good week everyone!

The weather has been getting warmer, which leads to "fog". And fog leads to hoarfrost, even inside unheated buildings. Its been running about -10 to -15 and the wind has been little to none. I can actually feel the radiant heat from the sun. It's summer time! And I wish I could capture this weird -15 "warm" feeling and send it home to share! I'm not being sarcastic; it's really something else!

Well, I've pretty much lived the last two weeks in the LO arch. Ever since I got back from AGAP I've been helping out the electricians (sparkies) pull wire for the new fire alarm system in there. I've also been helping out with some electrical conduit lays. It's been good work and has taken me from the top of the LO to under its floors.

 Went out and helped the antennae riggers disassemble old communication towers for two days. That was a nice change of pace that led us away from all of the clutter of the station and out onto the flat white.

 Last weekend we had an open mic night and BBQ. Definitely the latest I've stayed up the whole time I've been down here. There were about 8 or more different acts that ranged from bluegrass to indy-rock to poetry. I didn't hit the stage until a quarter past midnight and played 4 or 5 songs. They were all well received. Man, that was a fun night!

 So the Dome (the old station) is on its way out. They popped the top off a few nights ago and have been progressively dismantling the triangular aluminum panels around the base. You'll be able to see the top of the dome in the Smithsonian Museum sometime in the future.They have also completely deconstructed SkyLab, an old research facility.

We had to dig a trench to get power over to the dome so they can plug in the crane and lift between shifts. That ice between the LO and the Dome is very hard, so we busted out the chainsaw and dug a trench that way. It was a lot of fun, but it was only an electric chainsaw.

What else... We had the C-17 from Christchurch do a few air drops to get some supplies in. They did two drops then buzzed the station a few times. It was pretty sweet.  The South Pole Traverse also came in. The came overland pulling sleds of fuel and other necessary supplies all the way from McMurdo. It is actually more efficient to get supplies to Pole with the traverse than with the LC-130s.

Here's a video of the AIR DROP.

One more video for you...HERE

 Well I think thats all I got for this week. I hope everyone has a good week leading up to Christmas!

Where did I leave off?? Oh yeah...

So work, in general, over the last few weeks has been pretty much the same. Working with the electricians and not venturing too far from the the dark underbelly of the station...the LO Arch.

Anyway, Christmas weekend was pretty relaxing, we had TWO days off instead of just one like usual. Even so, it didn't really feel like Christmas. Probably because I'm a long ways from home, and its light all the time. I guess I usually associate Christmas with having a lot of hours of darkness in the day. Anyway, we had a big lobster dinner in the Galley complete with an artificial campfire on the overhead TV screen. It was a good time.

Then we had The Race Around the World, which is a 2.4 mile marathon that circles the geographic South Pole. There were the serious runners that were in it for the prizes, then there were the rest of us who just dressed up in goofy costumes and interesting modes of transportation and "raced" for fun. There were roman chariots (that ran on diesel fuel), smoke breathing dragons, and even a mobile hot tub. I decide to bike around the world, but went for the non-conventional route. We secured a stationary bike to a snowmobile sled. I actually pedaled 6 miles in the 15 minutes that the snowmobile took to go the 2.4 miles. It was awesome and a lot of fun.

Another week of work went by, then it was New Years! Since our days off didn't fall on the right days, we celebrated on the 2nd. There was a huge party in the gym. I played in a bluegrass band called Gone Again with eight other musicians. We played somewhere around 15 songs. Other bands played that night as well, followed up by big dance party. Definitely a memorable night.

On January 1st we had the pole marking ceremony. During this event we moved the geographic pole to its new location to correct for the 10 meters of ice drift that occurs each year. The new pole marker was unveiled (designed by the last year's winter over crew) and we passed it around a huge semi-circle until it arrived at its new location. This was so we could all have a part in moving the pole. The BBC was there to film the ceremony and other  things around the station for their new Frozen Planet series that will come out soon.

Oh, I guess I did make it down into the ice tunnels. They are utility tunnels that run under the surface, just carved into the ice. There are various "shrines" down there to different winter over crews including a frozen pig head with sunglasses on it and the Russian Sturgeon. The temp holds a steady -60 down in those tunnels, so you really had to bundle up to go down there!

Also, the Dome is on its way out. The Heavy Carps have been working on it during the night shift, so ever morning we get to see their progress. The dome should be gone this week. 

Well, besides these events, life at pole has been pretty standard (as standard as being at the South Pole can be). Wake up, check the email and maybe make a phone call, eat breakfast, go stretch, start work, eat lunch, finish work, eat dinner, work on hobby projects and play music, then go to bed. All while being in one of the harshest places on the planet. But, ya know, by this point, you have to really focus to realize that you are in the middle of nowhere. If it weren't for the marker with the sign by it, you might even forget your at the bottom of the world. But, maybe that's because the weather has been so nice. One of my friends said she saw the temperature hit the zero mark one night. But the warm weather is short lived. We are back down to -20 and most likely we'll only get colder from here on out. I got a few weeks left here and then I'll be off to New Zealand!

 Here's a short video of an epic sundog show we had the other night. All due to ice crystals blowing through the air. VIDEO

I hope the new year is treating everyone well!