Hotlinks

This all starts from my airport of departure (AOD), Charlotte NC. One of the packets I filled out during the mountain of paperwork was a travel document, and that included information regarding where my initial departure would be from. It's based off of the physical mailing address I was using when going back and forth with the USAP.

A few weeks before my flight date, I was emailed an itinerary which detailed all of my stops (it was actually mailed the day before my supposed flight date but due to a kerfuffle I was bumped back two weeks). I was to fly from Charlotte (KCLT) to Chicago (KORD) to San Francisco (KSFO), then leave the U.S. and go to Auckland (AKL) and then Christchurch (CHC). In total, it was 24ish hours of flight time and almost exactly 36 hours from Charlotte to Cheech.

My last sunset in the U.S. for another six months!

The longest flight was from San Francisco to Auckland, a nonstop flight totalling 14ish hours overnight. I lost the entirety of October 12th crossing the international date line, but knew I'd make that day back coming back to the states. This flight was also my first in-flight meal! It didn't disappoint.

36 hours later - Cheech! After a quick check in with some USAP folks, I was at my hotel and that was it! I had some meetings and check ins each morning, as well as a time to pickup all of my cold weather gear, but that was it and I was all of a sudden alone in a new city, some 8500 miles as the crow flies away from NC. Crazy.

I spent a total of five days in Christchurch – three were planned but there were two days of delays, as we were waiting for a group to fly ahead of us. Each day was spent poking around the area and eating good food – the Riverside Market was a favourite haunt of mine and there were days where I ate every meal there. I missed it and thought of it regularly while on the ice and miss it now that I'm back in Nevada.

I didn't photograph everything but all of the food was good. Little did I know at this point how much I would miss it! I have a very fond memory of several USAP folks and I headed to a bakery early in the morning and devouring fresh bread.

I also made sure to introduce some USAP folks to the wonders of a Tim Tam Slam.

Another Kiwi staple I came to love (especially while on the ice) was Whittaker chocolate. Even now, stateside, I'm tempted to pay the horrible shipping costs to mail one to me.

But I'm getting ahead of myself, and this isn't a food blog (I promise)! The first thing I did after checking into my hotel was walking a few short minutes to the botanical gardens and greenspace just a bit west of Cheech's downtown. I wanted to see what flora they had growing locally!

We start with London plane tree (Platanus X acerifolia, Platanaceae), which were among the largest and most common ornamentals found in the park.

Some kind of ornamental pine (Pinus sp., Pinaceae), likely old world. I couldn't narrow it down but this was more of a quick walk to stretch my legs rather than an ID walk.

Here was a familiar one: dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Cupressaceae)! This was among the first I knew and it was so funny to see down here.

This one made me laugh: boxelder (Acer negundo, Sapindaceae)! A weed in some parts of NC, planted for show 8500 miles away in Cheech. Hello, old friend.

A classic deodar cedar (Cedrus deodara, Pinaceae)! Not native to NC but planted commonly enough in people's yards. I guess taste is ubiquitous.

Some kind of gum tree (Eucalyptus sp., Myrtaceae)? I didn't stop for too long but I appreciated its form and it's novelty to my southeastern flora brain.

But novelty isn't as fun as seeing sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua, Altingiaceae) in a planted setting! Depending on who you ask, it's as weedy as a plant can get in NC! You can hardly throw a rock and miss it, and here people were planting the fruitless cultivar intentionally! I guess it's nice to have some familiarity when you're all the way across the globe.

There were other plants from across the globe that I immediately suspected to be old world in origin, such as:

Alder (Alnus sp., Betulaceae).

English oak (Quercus robur, Fagaceae).

Elm (Ulmus sp., Ulmaceae), and more.

But I don't think it's fun to go to New Zealand for the first time and discuss plants native to Europe. With a few more days in and around Cheech, I spent some time looking at some of the flora one could find on this island nation. More to come on that note.

I did take some photographs of the local fauna, but I am not a birder so to me these are all birds (with the exception of the eels, of course). If you have an inkling of specific ID for these folks, let me know!

In all, Cheech is a wonderful city and the Riverside Market is dangerous for those on a diet.

Fit Check – Cold Weather Gear Issue at the International Antarctic Center

2023.10.12

The first morning in Christchurch included a couple of hours at the Clothing Distribution Center (CDC), which is a part of the International Antarctic Center, right across from Christchuch International Aiport (IATA code CHC - Cheech!). This center is a well-oiled machine that has done this too many times to keep count of.

The bulk of the time was spent receiving all issued gear (our Extreme Cold Weather gear - ECW), trying it on, swapping out things that didn't fit properly, and then packing it all up when we were happy with what we had. They say that there's no such thing as poor weather, just poor clothing, so it was important to make sure everything fit and was functional. Some of these clothing items are decades old, so it's vital to check that velcro, zippers, pockets, etc. are all functional, and to make sure there are no holes or mobility issues. It's easier to swap things out there in Cheech than it would be while down onthe ice.

This wall details all of the ECW you receive when headed to the ice.

Here's the changing room where you receive and try on all of your ECW.

After confirming with checkout all of the ECW you're going to take down to the ice, you pack it back in the bright orange bags and put your travel tags on them. All ECW bags are stacked up in the hallway of the CDC, ready to be taken down south.

Here is my issued big red. I came to find it quite quickly on coatracks as it was always the most faded one.

As a first year worker, you're required to take all issued ECW with you to the ice. In subsequent years, you are allowed a little more freedom to pick and choose, though you must take all items that must be worn on flights (shown below) or have your own equivalent piece of clothing.

After the gear checkout, we had a COVID-19 test and a brief orientation, and that was it for the day aside from an afternoon Zoom check-in. That left us free to roam Cheech in our off time. As you move around Cheech, you find things here and there that have to do with Antarctica. It was kind of funny to see these plaques and statues knowing that I was headed there soon.

"CHRISTCHURCH AND ANTARCTICA
Christchurch is one of the main gateways to Antarctica. From the early 1900s, British expeditions used the Port of Lyttelton on their way to Antarctica. In 1955, Christchurch became the base for the United States Antarctic Programme known as Operation Deep Freeze. Today Christchurch continues to be used as a base for the Antarctic Programme of several nations."

"In recognition of all the men and women who have assisted New Zealand's
Antarctic Programme during the 50 years 1957 - 2007."

Here's a display detailing Captain Robert F. Scott, I recommend zooming in to read.

The accompanying statue.

"When there is white only, when everything is coloured white, the land, the sky, the ice, and the horizon, the heroes as they walk away you'd say were climbing a white wall to heaven" –Bernadette Hall, The Ponies

And of course it wouldn't be a post without a postcard shot. I picked up a few to send north through the New Zealand post.

The Christchuch Botanic Gardens

2023.10.13

The Christchurch Botanic Gardens were just a short walk away from my hotel and I was able to visit them each day I was in town. It was just coming into spring when I was in Cheech, so lots of things were already blooming as the southern hemisphere was warming up.

This was a good place to see a fun mix of northern (both old and new world) and southern hemisphere plants. And luckily, most of the plants I had no knowledge on were labeled!

Brown Barrel (Eucalyptus fastigata, Myrtaceae).

Alpine ash (Eucalyptus delegatensis, Myrtaceae).

Rewarewa (Knightia excelsa, Proteaceae [A new family for me!]).

Karaka (Corynocarpus laevigatus, Corynocarpaceae).

A bit of a tangent here - Corynocarpaceae was also a new family and while looking into the meaning behind the family name I found that the etymology is a little foggy. The best lead I found was that coryno- is likely derived from the Greek word korynē, which meant "club" or "mace", according to the Online Etymology Dictionary.

L. Jensen, University of Auckland.

While I couldn't find any explicit writing on this in my brief search, the name Corynocarpaceae, named for the type genus Corynocarpus suggests a club (coryno-) shaped carpel (carpus-), or "section" of the ovary. Whether this shape is described in the floral or fruiting stage is unclear, but here's a flower of Corynocarpus laevigatus from the University of Auckland. My hunch is outlined in yellow, as you can see a club-ish shape in the pistil.

Rengarenga (Arthropodium cirratum, Asparagaceae).

From across the pond, Wheki (Dicksonia squarrosa, Dicksoniaceae), a type of tree fern! So excited to see these, as my only interaction with them until this point was looking at fossil specimens.

And another: rough tree fern (Cyathea australis, Polypodiophyta), this one native to Australia.

As I said, there was a mix of northern and southern hemisphere plants, including some North American familiars such as baldcypress (Taxodium distichum, Cupressaceae).

And giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum, Cupressaceae)!

This was only a fraction of the plants on display at the botanic gardens. It was a wonderful spot to visit and I knew I would miss it dearly and think of it often when I jumped to the ice. I came here a few times during my time in Cheech, but still not as frequently as the Riverside market.

Lyttelton Hike, Up and Down

2023.10.13

Everyone going through Cheech is scheduled three days there, for orientation, gear issue, and some touch-up meetings before heading to the ice. However, some gnarly weather at McMurdo had delayed flights for nearly 10 days by the time I arrived in New Zealand, and there was a group ahead of us still waiting to go. After the first three days, we were told to sit tight and look out for daily updates on whether or not we would fly the following day. On one of these delays, some folks and I went to Lyttelton, a small town just outside of Cheech.

We took a bus to a cable car service that would take you up the mountain with the intention to hike down the other side into Lyttelton. Signs on the grassy bald warned you about high fire danger.

From the top, you could see Lyttelton port, historic gateway to the Antarctic.

Here is a type of broom (Cytisus sp., Fabaceae) found at the top of the mountain, a display of austral spring in yellow.

Some kind of stonecrop (Sedum spp., Crassulaceae), very small along the walk.

This bushy fellow, which dominated much of the southern top of the mountain, was either New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax, Asphodelaceae) or mountain flax (Phormium colensoi, Asphodelaceae).

Either way, the inflorescence is a ringer for Asperagales.

This appears to be cotton fireweed (Senecio quadridentatus, Asteraceae). While native to New Zealand, it is reported to be a weedy species that is toxic to livestock.

The above photo of me looking at the cotton fireweed falls into a category of photos I have titled:
"Mac hunched over a tiny little plant ignoring the scenic vista behind".

This one, with brilliant burgundy blossoms, is field sorrel (Rumex acetosella, Polygonaceae). It is not native to New Zealand and is considered weedy on disturbed sites particularly with acidic soils.

The last plant for this post is English broom (Cytisus scoparius, Fabaceae), a plant native to western Europe that is a destructive invasive in other parts of the world, including New Zealand.

And that brings you to Lyttelton! A small town just a busride away from Cheech. We spent the afternoon taking in the wharf, seeing the town, and enjoying a fresh pizza that spewed out steam into the overcast day much like the one in Home Alone.

Ice Bound!

2023.10.16

Finally, I detail the flight from Cheech to McMurdo! Only eight months later...

First, we say goodbye to Scott and all things green on our last night in civilization.

As I said, there are three days scheduled in Christchurch - one is for arrival, one is for gear issue and a touch-base meeting, and one is for your flight. As my group came into Christchurch, another group had already been there for over a week due to weather delays. As such, we knew that we wouldn't be flying until after they had left and didn't have to prep every morning for a potential flight.

We received updates like this under our hotel room doors, indicating what flight delays (if any) were anticipated. A notice of a 24-hour delay was typical, but you can see that on Friday's memo, we were delayed "until further notice". This is because of the aforementioned group ahead of us, and the uncertainty on whether that group would make an attempt to fly on Sunday (flights on Sunday are unusual for ice missions).

On Sunday, we received the above notice, telling us where to be at what time for our attempted flight to the ice.

An early start has us shuttled to the Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) once again, this time to ensure all of our baggage was under weight limits and ready to be palletized and loaded onto the plane. Baggage I'll save for another post.

We're then lined up to head through the Passenger Terminal. There, we had a brief video orientation on what to expect on the ice before lining up and checking our luggage. Much like at a regular airport, it's weighed and you put your carry-on items through an X-ray to be screened, only this was done by the U.S. Air Force. It was also at this time that you were checked to have all of the necessary Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear before boarding.

There were a few bouts of time where we were waiting on the crew to finish their checklists, and it was during one of these breaks where I walked to a nearby grocery store to grab my last food from New Zealand - a golden kiwi. I didn't know it at the time, but I thought of that kiwi incredibly often in times between freshies.

And just like that, it's time to board! We took a shuttle to the tarmac, picked up our flight lunches (there is a vegetarian option), and then boarded the absolutely massive C17.

There were over 100 of us on the southbound flight, as well as some additional cargo.

It was a pretty uneventful flight all told. I was seated towards the rear of the plane, near one of the emergency exits. This meant I had a window seat all the way to the ice. Granted, the window was 6" across and 6 feet away.

The flight is about five hours long on a C17, compared to around 8 on an LC-130. Some highlights from the flight do include a gift shop run out of a plastic storage container and asking nicely to climb up and see the cockpit.

Approximately 30 minutes before landing, they announced for us to put on all of our ECW, and before we knew it we were on the ground! It was a few minutes before we got off of the plane, as the crew had to ensure everything was secure and the cargo team began taking the goods out of the rear of the plane.

We walked off of the skiway towards shuttle vehicles, which would take us to McMurdo station. The large passenger vehicle I hopped on was the Kress, and it was ~1hr30 from Phoenix airfield to McMurdo.

Once on station, we sat through another orientation video, had time for some questions, then met our supervisors to discuss our first day of work the next day. After that, we received our room assignments, linen bags, and picked up our luggage, all just in time for dinner.

My first McMurdo meal.

And that's it! I made it all the way to McMurdo, ready for work and excited for who knows what would come my way. I had a stack of postcards ready to rip and a new continent to experience.

Thanks for reading, if you've made it this far! I know I have been delayed in posting but being on the ice proved to be much, much, much busier than I ever anticipated. I do intend to catch up on many fun things from the ice, so stay tuned!

Preface to Antarctica

Written July 2024

I've spent a long time thinking about how I'd like to write about the ice. I knew outright that I didn't want to write about the people there, the community, the social life – things that were my favourite part of Antarctica. There are a lot of cool people there, but it's not my story to share and it would feel "wrong" to do an exposé on life down on the ice. These people are my friends, and I'm not here to gab about them.

I also hope not to write too much about myself – I've noticed that I've slipped myself onto this site more often as of late, and while some topics (like traveling through New Zealand) are fun, it's not the purpose of this blog. Of course, I'm pretty far removed from plants while at the buck-end of the planet. While this isn't a personal blog, it's a blog written through my lens and my experience, so understand that when reading about the ice. I had a very different experience from someone working in the deep field, in management, in the science labs, etc.

Instead, I knew I wanted to write about some of the interesting, less personal things down there – the food, the weather, some logistics, odd quirks, neat happenings – it's kind of all over the place. It's also not as easy to tell this story chronologically. Some things were specific events, such as the first time seeing aurora. Some were "chapters", lasting anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, such as seeing the icebreaker ship approaching and eventually dock. Some things are best written about as they evolved over the entirety of the season, such as how the view from the top of Observation hill changed over a six-month period. And lastly, some things felt more static such as the library.

As such, I intend to catch up on my six months of ice time by writing roughly chronologically – with certain "marker posts" that occur in order as they happened, spaced throughout with things that are a little harder to put on a timeline.

A couple of things to note: I do not write with the intention of representing the National Science Foundation (NSF), the United States Antarctic Program (USAP), or McMurdo station management as a whole. These writings are of my own experiences and observations as I worked at McMurdo station from October 2023 to April 2024. If anything seems incorrect or unclear, feel free to reach out to me.

Also, brr.fyi is another excellent Antarctic blog, with more things detailing life at the South Pole over winter, though there are some posts about McMurdo. I highly recommend this blog, and while I hope to not have too much overlap with their posts, it's likely to happen here and there. In any case, I hope to add something new to the conversation when a similar topic is discussed, and I am in no way trying to copy subject matter from that wonderful blog.

With all of that out of the way, I have a fair few number of things to write about – some short, some long – so stay tuned, and thanks for reading!

Observation Hill

October through April

I'm starting the Antarctic barrage with Observation Hill – a short hike within town that has solid elevation gain and is a great way to stretch your legs. I choose to start with Ob Hill for a few reasons: one, it was something I did my second day on the ice with a few other new folks; two, it is looking to be one of the longer posts from my time on the ice; and three, it was an excellent way to observe changes on station over the course of the season.

Before we go up, I'd like to talk about Ob Hill from town. You can see it from most anywhere in town, all the way from Hut Point (saved for a later post), and while not necessarily imposing it is definitely ever-present. It's a nice marker as you walk around town and a reminder of "home base" when you're out on the ice shelf. Throughout the season, you can see it go from being covered in ice to bare rock and back to snowy.

As seen from a few spots around town.

As seen from Hut Point.

As seen from the ice shelf near Long Duration Balloon (LDB) site.

Standing at 754 feet tall, it's a sharp increase in elevation and is not a hike to sneeze at as it's less than half a mile long. When it was icy, we had to put traction soles on our boots so as not to slip on our way up or down. In the summertime, it was bare rock and you could do it comfortably in running shoes. The difference in weather was always something to prepare for - when I first ascended it was -40F with wind chill, and gusts up to 30 miles and hour blowing snow and reducing visibility drastically. On the warmest days of 30F to 35F, you could do it in pants and a light sweater.

Onto the hike itself. I'll be doing side-by-side photos of the first time I ascended as well as what it looked like on a clear day. You start in town, and you needn't worry about filling out an eFoot plan in the summer (saved for a later post), so you could do Ob Hill at any time you wanted. Starting at the Berg Field Center (the blue building in the below photo), you hang a right to start your ascent.

Going past the fuel storage tanks, you first go past this fuel pipeline (either over or under) and then it's a steep climb with some switchbacks until you reach an access road.

Here you can see the difference between spring and summer.

At the start of the season, this was at shin-height and you could easily step over. By the end, you ducked underneath.

A looming start.

As you approach this road, you start to see some field equipment on the ridge. This equipment includes (but is likely not limited to) a weather station and a live webcam of town, which you can view here. This access road will take you back to the main road, or continue onto a flattened area that was once the site of a nuclear reactor.

The reactor has long since been decomissioned and removed, and in its place you can find a plaque detailing its history on the continent. It reads:

PM-3A NUCLEAR POWER PLANT
AUTHORIZED AND FUNDED BY THE U.S. CONGRESS AUGUST 1960

DESIGNED AND FABRICATED BY MARTIN COMPANY UNDER
CONTRACT TO THE ATOMIC ENERGY COMISSION

ERECTED BY NAVY SEABEES JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1962

FIRST CRITICALITY 4 MARCH 1962

OPERATED AND MAINTAINED BY OFFICERS, SEABEES AND
HOSPITAL CORPSMEN OF THE NAVAL NUCLEAR POWER UNIT
FORT BELVOIR, VIRGINIA

CREWS WERE AUGMENTED WITH ARMY AND AIR FORCE
PERSONNEL

THE PLANT WAS SHUT DOWN IN SEPTEMBER 1972

IN MAY 1979, PM-3A DECOMMISSIONING WAS COMPLETE, AND THE
SITE RELEASED FOR UNRESTRICTED USE

POWER OUTPUT: 1800 KW (ELECTRIC)
EXPORT STEAM FOR DESALINATION PLANT
72% AVAILABILITY: RECORD POWER RUN 4400 HOURS 1971
ONLY NUCLEAR POWER PLANT TO HAVE OPERATED IN ANTARCTICA
ERECTED IN 2020 BY THE NAVAL NUCLEAR POWER UNIT GROUP

The nuclear reactor at McMurdo has an interesting history, of which a very thorough writeup can be found here on Stanford university's website. While on paper nuclear power on the ice is a great solution to a big problem (transporting fuel, heating, desalinization), this test didn't work. To this day, "science runs on diesel".

These platforms are all that remain of the nuclear site.
The remnants of the reactor is roughly one-third of the way up Ob Hill, so let's keep hiking! More switchbacks takes you up, and you begin to see more of town all at once. Eventually, you make your way to a small spot with a little shelf (I evidently don't have a photograph). I'm not sure when this was put here, but it's a good place to stop and is roughly two-thirds of the way up the mountain. When I hiked Ob Hill, I always grabbed a rock from the base of the mountain to take to the top. On my way back down, I'd drop it in this little receptacle.

Continuing up, your steps remain large as it feels the mountain only gets steeper. More careful footfalls are required here, especially when the trail is covered in a sheet of snow and ice. As you start to crest the mountain, you begin to see Scott Base and before you know it, you've reached the top!

Scott Base (the green buildings), two ways.

At the top sits a memorial cross as well as another plaque in four languages - English, French, Spanish, and Russian. In the wintertime, the cross is boxed up to prevent damage from the harsh environment. The plaque, in English, reads:

CROSS, OBSERVATION HILL
THIS CROSS IN AN HISTORIC MONUMENT
AND PRESERVED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE
PROVISIONS OF THE ANTARCTIC TREATY.
IT WAS ERECTED IN JANUARY 1913 TO
COMMEMORATE CAPTAIN SCOTT AND HIS
PARTY WHO LOST THEIR LIVES ON THE
RETURN JOURNEY FROM THE SOUTH POLE
IN MARCH 1912.

From up here, you get a great view of McMurdo station proper, the continental mountain ranges, Phoenix airfield, Williams airfield, LDB site, Scott Base, Mount Terror, and Mount Erebus. It's truly a great place to observe (ha!) everything in the vicinity.

A panorama from near the top looking north-northeast.

A panorama from the summit looking south-southwest.

Mount Erebus, steaming, absolutely dwarfs Castle Rock (the larger peak below the mouth of the volcano).

Zoom in! A C17 Globemaster parked at Phoenix Airfield, which serviced wheeled aircraft.

This photograph looks east-northeast on the ice shelf. See those smudges? That's Long Duration Balloon (LDB), which launches long-term weather balloons holding telescopes, and Williams Airfield, which services ski-aircraft.
Each of these sites are about 7 miles off of Ross Island.

I only had a clearer photo of LDB, but you can see those two taller buildings - that's where the telescopes were assembled.

Looking west, we see White Island. My favourite of the other islands, it always reminded me of Hoth.

The prevailing winds typically came from east-northeast, and at the summit there was a south-west facing nook that blocked nearly all of the incoming wind where you could sit comfortably. Some of my favourite memories on the ice are at the summit of Ob hill, and they include but are not limited to falling asleep for a good 20 minutes, eating an orange in solitude or in good company, seeing the icebreaker come in, drawing the mountain ranges, or watching the sunset.

On our first ascent, with numerous people all bundled up for their first Antarctic excursion, it took us maybe an hour or more to reach the top. Each party member wore so many layers, goggles, gloves, carried hand warmers, water, snacks, the whole enchilada. My waterbottle and pizza snack both froze by the time we summited. By midsummer, when trail conditions were much less icy and things warmed up a bit, I was able to reach the top in about 18 minutes. As I said before, Observation hill is a good all-encompassing story for my season on the ice, as I did it 43 times between mid-October and mid-April.

It was still delicious.

Going up and down so many times really gave me an appreciation for how much things changed over the course of 6 months. The first few times I descended, there were sections where you could sit down and slide for a ways. In the summer, it was all rocky. I saw Ob Hill transform from an icy monolith to a rocky hike, back to a snowy and slightly-icy peak in my time on ice. Below are a number of side-by-side comparisons of Ob Hill, taken at various points throughout the season.

Things also changed drastically when looking around from the top. These changes were especially noticeable as the peak of summer came and the sea ice was broken up the icebreaker. Over time, you could see the initial push, the widening of the ice canal, and the eventual breakup of the thin sea ice as the wind carried it out of the Ross bay. From here you could see how light hitting town changed as the sun first spiraled up into the sky, and then spiraled back down. By the time I left the ice, the sun was behind the mountains around station for all but 45 minutes a day, where you could see it set over the ocean.

Below is a short video of 20 images, aligned to the best of my ability, of McMurdo station changing over the course of six months.

If you were lucky in your timing, you could see planes take off and land at either of the two aforementioned airfields. Before the flight gap at Phoenix airfield, C17 Globemasters would rip through the sky on their way to and from New Zealand. Throughout the year, you could see the New York Air National Guard's LC-130H or Kenn Borek Air's Twin Otters and Baslers come and go from Williams airfield.

A C17 shortly after taking off, as it passes over Discovery Peak.

A closer, blurrier look at a C17 taking off.

A team drilling into the ice shelf (possibly the survey team).

Search and Rescue (SAR) performing a practice scenario, early in the summer.

A helicopter flying by on its way to Scott Base.

Dozers prepping a prefab building to be used as a diving hut.

A team on skidoos coming in from the ice shelf (possibly the Seal Team).

I hope you can understand why Ob Hill seemed to be a good lens with which to view change around the station - it was a way to literally step out of town to get a view of everything for a moment.

One last little fun bit about Observation Hill - there was a challenge to climb it 39 times over the course of the season. With an elevation gain of 754 feet, going up 39 times was enough to sum an equivalent elevation gain of 29,406 feet which is greater than that of the height of Mount Everest (29,031 feet). In town, there was a leaderboard to track your ascents, and I completed the challenge on February 14th. The first one to complete the challenge in the 23-24 summer was my good friend Max, who had been doing Ob Hill daily for some time since his arrival in August for Winfly.

The rewards for completing the challenge were bragging rights and a sticker.

And so starts the Antarctic barrage of posts that I've been very late on catching up on for the past several months. There is quite a lot more to write about, but I'm glad I was able to share Observation hill, a special part of my time on the ice, with you all. Thanks for reading, and I'll catch you on the flip flop!

McMurdo Geodetic Survey Marker

October 18, 2023

This will be a very brief writeup on a neat little spot towards the center of McMurdo proper - its first Geological Survey marker. I went with my roommate and it was fun to see something I've seen in a few dozen different forms in such a remote place. It's labeled "Camp Area" and was put into place during a survey from 1961–1962, and a plaque above it details some history of surveys on the ice:

Ross Sea Region
HISTORICAL SITE
Geodetic Station
CAMP AREA
1961-62

Latitude: South 77° 50' 47"
Longitude: East 166° 40' 37"
Elevation: 51 meters

Situated in the "camp area" of early McMurdo Station, this geodetic
mark was established by United States Geological Survey and is the
origin for the Camp Area Datum. The Camp Area Datum is the survey
system on which the early mapping of the Ross Sea Region by United
States Geological Survey, and Land Information New Zealand and its
predecessors is based.

It was the point of beginning for numerous surveys including two
pioneering traverses during the 1961-62 austral summer. Reaching
south through the Transantarctic Mountains to the Beardmore Glacier,
then north to Cape Adare, these expeditions produced detailed
topographic maps of the Transantarctic Mountain, Dry Valley, and Ross
Sea regions that are still in use today.

Originally positioned by astronomic observations, station CAMP AREA
continues to serve as a good location for tracking geodetic satellites.

United States Geological Survey and Lan Information New Zealand
February 2008

It's readily apparent how important surveying on the continent was and still is today – when expedition teams were exploring the continent for the first time, it was crucial to create maps of the novel terrain. Today, there's a survey crew whose workload, among other things, includes surveying the ice shelf to ensure proper and safe layout of the various skiways and runways (including the temporary buildings found there), airfield ramps, all roads, and the proper flagging of all of these (more on that soon).

Putting it briefly, when working on an ice shelf, it's good to know that your area of operation is safe – crevasses and weak spots are of a concern, especially where the sea ice meets the ice shelf meets the land.

There are a few more geodetic markers scattered around town, but this was the first one I saw and it reminded me of some of the other places I've seen them, or markers similar. These markers are always a good way to ground you and to remind you of where you currently are.

Want to find survey markers? The National Geodetic Survey (NGS) page details how to do so.

Stay present and be mindful of where you are!

Ice Radio – 104.5 FM

October 25, 2023

Within a week of arriving, I completed training to be a host on McMurdo's radio station - Ice Radio 104.5 FM. The station runs for 24 hours a day (running through an automated playlist when not live) and services not only McMurdo station and the surrounding area but also the South Pole.

While all broadcasting infrastructure was supported by the American Forces Network (AFN - more below) and the broadcasting was overseen by the station broadcast engineer (who also handled the informative and recreational television networks as well as the informative talks), all radio hosting was done by volunteers. Each show was put on by someone sharing their free time with the rest of the community over the airwaves.

For a more personal view of the DJs on Ice Radio from 2022, SPIN has a good writeup on some of the folks there at the time.

The station has quite the music library in three forms - digital files, compact discs (CDs), and vinyl records. For the bulk of the 2023 summer season, digital files were handled with VLC media player to create playlists. However, shortly after mainbody a switch was made to a different program to handle it all natively.

The entire station was supported by and under the jurisdiction of the American Forces Netowrk, which you may know as the Armed Forces Radio Service or the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS). It's essentially a service provded by the U.S. Military to provide media in a number of overseas locations, including Antarctica. The entire music library (digital and physical) is curated by and subject to review by the AFN, with requests being processed each year when a representative visits the station.

The vinyl library is of interest for a few reasons. It is considered to be one of the most complete AFN vinyl collections on the planet, registering at over 20,000 discs, and that alone is its own neat piece of history. This specific collection also is built up of records that were played by former AFRS disc jockey Adrian Cronauer, who was the real life counterpart of Robin Williams' character in the film Good Morning Vietnam. Lastly, the room had a turntable inside to test records, which means it's a very nice spot to sit and listen to music with good company.

Photo by Peter Rejcek.

The vinyl library is at a bit of a crossroads, however. While its had a presence on-continent for several decades, there is question of as to whether it remains worthwhile to keep the collection at McMurdo. While everyone I met said it was great that the records were there and available for use, there is debate whether or not they're used enough to justify the cost and space to keep them there. As such, a logbook of room use has been kept for several years to show that it does, in fact, get used regularly. I personally think the collection should stay on the ice (and can't imagine the transport cost of getting all of those records off-continent).

I heard several ideas of where the records would go if they weren't to remain, and the only official one that the broadcast engineer told us was that the Smithsonian Museum was interested in the collection. I'm not sure if this post is a call-to-action for people to contact their local representatives, but I can say from firsthand experience that the record room is frequently used.

No disrespect to the Smithsonian.

My personal show, which I titled "The Bargain Bin", was very freeform and was mostly built upon songs that were stuck in my head throughout the week or that I had been wanting to listen to that particular day. Oftentimes I'd get listeners call in to make a request, which was always fun to do. There were a number of other shows, including but certainly not limited to genre-specific shows (metal, country, electronic, etc.), late-night talk shows, punk music interjected by amateur poetry, call-in dream interpretation, conspiracy theory discussion, and a particularly unhinged show based on finding the most off-the-wall music in the library.

My first playlist.

If you had a taste for it, I'm sure you could find it, and most shows were once or twice a week (mine was Mondays and Wednesdays from 400 to 530 PM). If no one was broadcasting at a particular time, an randomized playlist was cycled through instead to ensure 24-hour broadcasting.

While my show was all over the place in terms of artist or genre, I always made sure to close it out with Tears for Fears' Everybody Wants to Rule the World. To me, it's the perfect closer to the town-hour workday, and I was told more than once that folks would hang back for a few more minutes to listen through.

Working on the Ice Shelf – Williams Airfield Galley

October 30 – November 3, 2023

For the first two weeks of my time at McMurdo, I was on the AM shift in the main galley in Building 155. Towards the end of October I was pulled aside and asked if I would like to take the reigns and be the sous chef for Williams Airfield Galley, more commonly referred to as Willy Galley.

Willy Galley! Buildings 17A, B, and C.

I wrote a bit about the ice shelf when talking about Ob Hill, but here's some more detail. Williams Airfield is one of two airfields found at McMurdo Station. Its main priority is to serve as strips for any plane that comes and goes on skis, the regulars of which are DHC–6 Twin Otters, Basler BT–67s, and LC-130Hs. Phoenix Airfield is used for flights coming and going from Cheech and its main regulars are the Boeing C–17 Globemaster III, the Boeing 757, and the Airbus A340–300 – all of which are wheeled aircraft and largely operate at the start and end of the season, with a "flight gap" in the middle when temperatures appraoch 35F and the runway becomes too soft. I have lots of fun photos of planes, but that's for another post.

For some information from the National Science Foundation on the ice runways near McMurdo, see this page.

Main Street, Willy Field.

Willy Airfield, however, is operational throughout the season and does the heavy lifting for intracontinental flights to the South Pole and to Deep Field research sites such as the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) divide. As Willy airfield is more consistently busy throughout the season, an ad hoc galley is put into operation for the entire duration of mainbody, lasting from the start of November to the middle of February.

I've planned a whole post to detail food on the ice, but here's a taste. The airfield galley follows the main/Building 155 galley menu cycle and operates for 24 hours a day during the mainbody season. Similar to the main galley, there were three shifts of cooks: an AM chef to handle breakfast and lunch, a PM chef to handle dinner, and a midnight ration ("Midrat") chef to do the overnight lunch and to prep breakfast. The service consisted of a cold line with anywhere from 4 to 8 items, a hot line with 4 items (a meat, a vegetarian option, a vegetable, and a starch), as well as a bread and dessert. In addition to the full service line, which was only put out at set meal periods, there was a part of the galley set aside for things like sandwiches, cereals, oatmeal, waffles, and beverages for those coming in to snack between meal periods.

Mealtime headcounts varied depending on time of day, time of season, menu items, and flight schedules, but as rough averages go:

Mealtime	Served
Breakfast	15
Lunch	70
Dinner	40
Midrat	25

As I said, those are average headcounts. There were some breakfasts where we saw twice as many come in. Some days for lunch saw us feeding well over 100, and some rare days saw us feeding fewer than 5. It was very important to be able to pivot at a moment's notice and to consider preparing backups on days with popular menu items (chicken tenders always went fast).

We served over 110 during this mealtime.

Anyone who worked on the airfield was part of the expected crowd for mealtimes, and the largest clientele were the New York Air National Guard (NYANG), followed by the Firefighters, then cargo workers, fleet ops, and fuelies. NYANG usually came all at once and tended to eat quickly, leading us to call their rush the "green wave", as within twenty minutes the galley would go from empty to filled with olive green jackets to empty again.

As I said, flights to and from the Pole and Deep Field sites were the priority of Willy, and it was often that passengers would come into the galley to wait for their pickup and grab a snack. While they were more than welcome to help themselves to the "snackables" area, they were meant to pack flight lunches in town and as such weren't included in the planned headcount for mealtimes.

If you're a future Willy galley chef reading this, those are the basics. I'm sure I'll detail on it more when discussing food specifically, but this post is meant to talk about de-winterizing the Willy Galley and getting it ready for the upcoming season. First, the buildings had to be put into place. All of the runway buildings are set upon skis so they can be shifted around for winterization. Before mainbody, the survey team goes out to properly mark and configure the runway buildings. By the time I arrived at the runway, all of the buildings were in place.

All of the kitchen equipment is kept in the galley over the winter, packed as snugly as it can be to prevent things going everywhere when the buildings are moved. Below are photos showing what it was like when the Willy-crew-to-be arrived on scene to de-winterize:

We had a few days before service was to start where we made sure everything was in order: that equipment was functioning properly, the kitchen layout was efficient, and that the dining area was properly set up. It was during this time that plumbers, electricians, HVAC, insulators, IT, etc. It was all hands on deck to get the galley up and moving, not to mention the numerous other buildings found at Willy.

For santiary food service, hot water is needed on-demand (out of a tap), which wasn't hooked up right out of the gate. While we were waiting the first week or so for all of the plumbing to be sorted out, we offered grabbable snacks and frozen microwave meals for those working to get the airfield ready for the arrival of NYANG.

But that's the quick rundown on opening up Willy Field. Another thing to note is that Willy field doesn't have the only galley on the ice shelf. I briefly mentioned the Long Duration Balloon (LDB) site, which is another field location located out on the ice shelf.

Mount Erebus (left) and Mount Terror (right) from Willy galley.

This site is mostly staffed by NASA scientists who are part of a series of balloon projects that carry heavy payloads (namely telescopes), the most recent of which was the Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory (GUSTO). This is the very short version of it based on what I've seen in science talks and from talking with some of the researchers there. For a light introduction to these projects, here are some links detailing the balloons themselves as well as GUSTO's launch and its record-setting flight.

Most of my time at LDB (only a few visits) was spent at the galley, doing deliveries and pickups from the galley there as we went to and from Willy field for the day. The galley is situated in this long, caterpillar-like building and houses one of two gas ranges that I know of on or near McMurdo station. They also had a propane grill out back, though I never saw that used. I should note that this is due to the fact that being in such a dry environment, already on a knife's edge of habitable, fire is of great concern and a lot is done to minimize risk of ignition. Everything I cooked with on ice was electric. They say the food at LDB was the best on station, and this I don't doubt - the cooks there kicked ass and really made the most of the remote cooking environment.

Grab 'n' go!

While I never got a chance to see inside, it was very cool to see what are recognized to be the tallest buildings on the continent, standing at over three stories tall. These are the buildings where the payloads for LDB projects are put together, mounted, and rigged for flight.

Human for scale.

You can actually see these buildings from the rear dock of Willy Galley.

And that's the not-so-short of the ice shelf galleys, particularly Willy Galley where I spent most of my time on ice! Thanks for reading this long deluge, and know that I'll definitely write more about the food on ice since it's such an interesting topic.