September 2023

Table of Contents

• 09/10 – Wheeler Peak
• 09/14 – Winterizing Ella Mountain – Retrospective
• 09/15 – Prometheus
• 09/16 – Petrified Forest National Park
• 09/21 – Mt. Mitchell, Base to Peak
• 09/30 - How to Get a Job in Antarctica – An Onboarding Timeline

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Wheeler Peak

2023.09.10

I finally had a chance to do the Wheeler Peak hike, just a couple of weeks before the end of my stint in Nevada. I've wanted to do it since I first drove by on the way to Ely for orientation back in May.



Wheeler Peak is the second highest peak in Nevada, standing at 13,065 feet, behind Boundary Peak at 13,147 feet. However, Boundary Peak is a shoulder summit of Montgomery Peak in California whereas Wheeler Peak is the tallest standalone peak in the state, so take that as you will. Wheeler peak is a prominence of over 7000 feet from the surrounding basin, but the hike starts at an elevation just under 10,000 feet, saving us some legwork.






The hike starts in a lovely grove of aspens (Populus sp., Salicace), and takes you steadily uphill through the grove before breaking into a few sections of grassy meadow. The entire time, Wheeler peak looms sturdily overhead as you make your way up the trail.







The meadow eventually gives way to steeper, rougher, and rockier hillside at a near 45-degree grade. It is here where grass gives way to blooms, and you can find such lovely plants as the following:


Mountain monardella (Monardella odoratissima, Lamiaceae), also known as coyote mint.


What I believe to be smoothleaf penstemon (Pensetemon leiophyllus, Plantaginaceae).


Between the violet blooms popped some kind of rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus sp., Asteraceae) with brilliant yellow.


Some kind of blackberry (Rubus sp., Rosaceae).

Such blooms continue throughout the thinning tree cover until you come up to the end of mile three on the trial, where the trees get shorter and more spaced until the treeline ends abruptly at around 11,500 feet - a phenomena I loved to experience.



What looks to be some kind of cinquefoil (Potentilla sp., Rosaceae). These grew past the other blossoms, right to the treeline.





The last tree! This marked the first occasion on which I walked past the treeline on my own two feet and it was pretty fun to say goodbye to trees for a while. Past the treeline, it's about another mile up to the peak, but the last mile took about as long as the first three. It's like a switch flipped and the elevation starts to affect your stamina, so it's important to take breaks, drink water, and know your limits so as not to put yourself in danger.






A fun plant to see here, way above the treeline, was Parry's primrose (Primula parryi, Primulaceae). This plant can be found along the streams feeding into Lake Teresa and other lakes in the park.

Eventually you reach the top and have a 360-degree view of the surrounding landscape, a truly beautiful spread of the Nevada landscape. Below you, the glacier rests above a grove of Bristlecone pines.




I suggest opening this in another tab and zooming in on this near-360-degree view from Wheeler peak.


Looking North. From left to right: Stella Lake, Teresa Lake, and Blue Lake.







The peak serves as one of the best lunch spots in the state, and it was there that I "enjoyed" a crummy MRE Pizza. Review coming soon.



Wheeler Peak was a challenging and rewarding hike. The challenge is twofold and really picks up in the latter half of your hike, as you have your steepest parts of the trail above the treeline, where you feel the greatest effect of high elevation.





Following this hike, I went back to the grove of bristlecones and romped around, looking for the stump of Prometheus (more on that later). Despite the search being unsuccessful, it was a wonderful day at Great Basin, and of course there were postcards that went out as well.

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Winterizing Ella Mountain - Retrospective

2023.09.14

Just as quickly as it started, the time has come to winterize Ella Mountain. Four months to the day that I first came to Nevada, I prep to leave and of course there is a mix of emotions. This post doesn't detail anything but is more a personal writeup of my summer on the peak.






My last weekend spent on Ella was one in a pocket of fog – a low cloud system settled on that Thursday-Friday and didn't lift until Monday afternoon, so I was truly alone up there in my own little world.

To winterize, it was simply a matter of draining the water cistern, removing the pump, disconnecting all electronics, shuttering the windows, taking out linens – little bits of housekeeping here and there to leave it better for the next lookout (me). It was a quick process and bittersweet to shutter up the windows.





I feel so grateful to have been able to spend four months up on Ella, as being a fire lookout is a job that has interested me since I was about 12 years old and is one of the jobs that actually got me interested in natural resources as a career path. To finally have been able to spend a summer up in a tower is a dream come true, and it was a nice change of pace from working out deep in the swamps of Alligator river. I had a lot of chances to observe some very cool meteorological, atmospheric, and astronomical phenomenon, as well as many opportunities to sit and think, and sometimes just sit.




One thing I realized only after the summer had ended was that I never once felt bored, antsy, or ready to leave the tower. I felt quite content with my own company and in fact felt like my days off and trips to town were interruptions rather than reliefs. I found a lot of joy in the stretches of solitude and it really felt I like I was in my own pocket of the world.



That's not to say that I was grumpy when visitors would arrive (it was always fun to meet and greet them with fresh-baked cookies, as I kept dough prepared and could see them coming from miles away), as I also had fun getting to know people who came to visit the tower. Most all were offroaders or caravaners, and there was a good mix of people who local to town or southeast Nevada as well as people who came from Utah, California, Washington, the east coast, and as far as Australia. Some were solitary, and some came in groups larger than twenty, but either way it was always a pleasure to have people.

*At the time of writing, March 11 2024, I know that I'm going to be returning to the fire tower to help settle affairs as I return from Antarctica – it'll be a nice breather before figuring out what's next, and I'm already excited to be back at the lookout. This time, I'm bringing a telescope.



While the majority of the summer focused on a lot of things that aren't plants, I appreciate it if you've enjoyed reading this blog that started simply as a way to share photographs with people I know. I do intend to keep posting plants but also just neat things that may or may not be related to plants or the natural world. I don't really want this to be a tourist page but for the first time in my life I am doing a fair bit of traveling and that makes me a tourist. Luckily, there are plants all over, save for the one continent I'm going to next.

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Prometheus

2023.09.15

The stump of what was once the oldest tree on earth has been on my mind long before I actually came to Nevada, and being so close to Great Basin Park has only increased my interest in finding it. I had done a search for the stump every time I visited, going off of incorrect information from the internet, hopeful searches by satellite, asking park rangers (without answer), and off-trail hiking. None of these methods gave any answer, but as my end date in Nevada drew nearer I began to reach out to different people who may have some authority to disclose the location of the stump of Prometheus.



Pestering or persistence, whichever you decide to call it, it finally paid off! I was bounced from person to person on the phone over the course of a week (all of whom will remain unnamed) before a lengthy conversation about my intentions, background, expectations, etc. with someone who ended up emailing me the coordinates. The reason for secrecy surrounding the stump's location is the fact that visitors tend to want to take or otherwise vandalize the stump, and the long discussion I had with that last person was mostly for them to gauge whether or not I'd be someone who can be trusted with the location of the stump.



I have already given the short version of the story of why this is a stump and not a living tree – for a refresher, you can look here or here. It's a sad one, but I don't personally hold Currey accountable given the fact that a grad student is likely not the one to make a call on whether an ancient tree is cut down.

I will not disclose the location of Prometheus, nor will I give hints to its location – that information is not mine to share. If you'd like to see it, go do some digging and start making some phone calls.



My journey to Prometheus started in Caliente – I decided to add six hours driving (and several hours hiking) to my trip out of Nevada following the end of my season on Ella. I am not too keen on driving but this was worth the extra mileage. If you look closely and with a keen eye, you can see the Ella mountain lookout and radio repeaters on the ridgeline – this was my last view of Ella, taken just before going out of view as I drove north.



I was told about previous vandalism and removal of parts of the stump in the past, but as soon as I was near the tree I didn't even feel like it was okay to touch it. It's a tree stump, something so mundane and commonplace that it shouldn't be worth it to make a detour for, but the presence that surrounded the stump of Prometheus was palpable. I was surprised to find that the bulk of the tree was still there on the ground where it was felled over 60 years ago – doing some reading later I found that the largest pieces taken were slabs, one of which is in the Great Basin National Park Visitor Center, one is in the Bristlecone Pine Visitor's Center in Ely, NV (where my orientation was held in May), and one is in the possession of the University of Arizona, Tuscon, for study.


Here, I've attempted to map the location of the largest parts of what remains of Prometheus (not to scale/not done with formal measurements).

Looking around parts of the tree, you can find marks left from when the tree was cut. The large, flat faces of the cuts are the most stark, but there are also wedges cut from different sections, places where the chainsaw entered but didn't make a complete cut, and even the borehole from the increment borers Currey was using on the tree. The fact that the face of the cut goes directly into a borehole gives some salt to the theory that he got at least one of his increment borers stuck while trying to age it.










I spent about an hour or so by Prometheus, and I think it was just about the perfect send off to the boreal summer. I left Nevada just before the sun started to set, both on the landscape and on this chapter.

Next stop, the bottom of the world.

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Petrified Forest National Park

2023.09.16

But not yet! There are a few more stops between Nevada and Antarctica, the first of which is Petrified Forest National Park. This park is right off of interstate 40 in Arizona, directly on my route back east after Nevada. I didn't stop for too long but had a chance to take a quick walk with a ranger into one of the canyons.



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There are currently at least nine species of fossilised tree that have been described within the park, the most abundant being Araucarioxylon arizonicum (Araucariaceae), a Jurassic conifer that lived ~220 million years ago. This petrified wood is an example of petrification, a process where minerals replace the original organic material while filling in cavities and remove the ability to study internal structure of the plant. However, a fraction of the fossils within the park are permineralized, a process where internal casts are formed through deposition of mineral material carried by water. Permineralized fossilization retains internal structure down to the cellular level and allow for study of past plant internal anatomy.



Above is an illustration of a full recreation of Araucarioxylon arizonicum (Falconaumanni, Wikimedia Commons). An extinct conifer, it was likely a bottomland-dwelling species whose fossilized specimens were likely preserved underwater or in riverbeds while fossilization occurred. Living during the Triassic period, it is estimated this tree grew up to 200 feet tall and 2 feet in diameter.



As these logs fossilize, they are buried by sediments over millions of years before being exposed again due to erosion and uplift events. The fossils are able to be exposed due to the fact that they are harder than the surrounding sediments, and they often fracture into shorter segments during such exposure. As the ranger put it: "if you put a peppermint stick between two pillows and sit on it, the pillows squish but the candy cane doesn't, and it breaks into chunks." It is the lack of compressibility that causes the fossilized logs to break as they do.



Above is an illustration (NPS) detailing the layers of rock within the park and where certain layers are exposed at different areas. A majority of the park and petrified wood comes from the Chinle formation, dating to the Jurassic period.




The above log had several interesting bits of history that could be deduced from its physical properties and its location. Most apparent is the presence of numerous little holes on the log – these are insect bore holes, 220 million years old and preserved during the petrification process!

Also present (but not as clearly seen) on the left side of the above image is evidence of fire scarring, a unique part of the history of this log but also an interesting one, given that these trees are thought to have grown in bottomlands where fire would be much less common. It is observed in living trees that some insect species will attack trees that are stressed, and it's possible that this was the case with this particular tree; the fire stressed the tree and made it susceptible to insect infestation.

A more recent addition to this log's story is the fact that evidence suggests it is upside-down! This was likely caused by humans, who would have moved the log to make way for a roadway, back in the early 1900s when this particular part of the park was open to vehicles driving down into the canyon. Thankfully that doesn't happen anymore.




The above log fragments also have an interesting feature. Most of the logs found within the park are all xylem tissue (inddards) - no phloem (bark tissue/outards). While not all of the cobbly texture is bark, there is bark tissue contained within that conglomeration! Not necessarily the most impossible find in the park but definitely a small fraction of petrified specimens.


All throughout these valleys are found shards of petrified logs and rocks with fragments broken off – these are all indicators of the people who lived in the area that Petrified Forest park now exists upon. Evidence suggests people living in the area as much as 13,000 years ago with several distinct periods of habitation over these millenia. These rock fragments and shards of petrified logs are evidence of toolmaking, and a valley littered with fragments suggests millenia of such practice.

However, the story of the Lithic peoples and Puebo indigenous peoples is not mine to tell. I felt the park did a good job of sharing not only the geologic phenomena of petrified wood but also the history of the people who lived there long before the park was established. The NPS website has a page detailing the different periods of habitation as well as a photo gallery of their legacy, but I suggest further reading if you are interested.

I wish I had had more time to spend in this park to really soak it in, but I was in a rush to get back east before the big hop south. Once again, postcards and a cancellation to wrap up this park.

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Mt. Mitchell, Base to Peak

2023.09.21

Back in North Carolina! I wanted to squeeze in my favourite hike before I said goodbye to greenery for a while, and I went with my good friend Leigha for a botanizing hike. I had intended to do it before Nevada before my car bit the dust in May, so I'm glad to have gotten the chance to do it before Antarctica.

There are more photos of the plants I had been missing all summer than scenic views, so if you're here for plants I hope you enjoy. The trail starts at the base of Mt. Mitchell at the Black Mountain and makes its way up to the top of Mount Mitchell, the tallest North American peak east of the Mississippi. From bottom to top and back down again it takes 6 or 7 hours, and it's my favourite hike as you can see transisition in forest type from mixed hardwood to heath-oak to spruce-fir to fir.

In no particular order of appearance, here are some of the plants seen along the walk! I neglected to note community type or elevation of incidence for any of these. Forgive and notify me of any misidentifications, as it has been a while since I took these.



Beetleweed (Galax urceolata, Diapensiaceae) with developing fruit towards the start of the trail.



Among the beetlweed grew ground cedar (Diphasiastrum digitatum, Lycopodiaceae), many with strobili!


Running clubmoss (Lycopodium clavatum, Lycopodiaceae) grew among the above as well, though in lesser quantity.



Here is pink turtlehead (Chelone lyonii, Plantaginaceae) in abundance along a small stream that crosses the trail.



Across from the pink turtlehead grew New York fern (Amauropelta noveboracensis, Thelypteridaceae).




American chestnut (Castanea dentata, Fagaceae) peeks out here and there!


We begin to see rock tripe (Umbilicaria sp., Umbrilicariaceae) as rock outcrops become more common in higher elevations.



What I believe* to be deerberry (Vaccinium stamineum var. stamineum, Ericaceae). Fruit was fairly abundant as we hiked.
*This identification is six months after the observation, using limited photos, while in Antarctica.



The larger outcrops didn't stop trees from growing around them, and some went to the absolute extreme growing on top. You may have heard the term "nurse logs", these seem to be cases of "nurse rocks".


This lichen is lungwort (Lobaria pulmonaria, Peltigeraceae, Kingdom Fungi) and it has the fun property of rehydrating to a vibrant green! When we stumbled upon it, it was a dull green-grey, but pouring water upon it yielded a very quick transition to bright green as it rehydrated. I don't have a before/after, but you can see the change in the upper and lower parts of the photograph.





Time makes the heart grow fonder but it does not making IDing unknown bryophytes easier.


Eventually, you reach the highest parts of the trail as you transition from red spruce (Picea rubens, Pinaceae, the tall trees in the right of the photograph above) to spruce-fir and eventually Fraser fir (Abies fraseri, Pinaceae, photographed below).



It's in these higher elevation areas where you can find such species as:


Mountain woodsorrel (Oxalis montana, Oxalidaceae – NOT a clover!)


Kidneyleaf grass-of-parnassus (Parnassia asarifolia, Parnassiaceae).


Yellow birch (Betula allegheniensis, Betulaceae), foliage not accessible.



American raspberry (Rubus strigosus, Rosaceae) in abundance, though only some bearing fruit.


And eventually, the top!



This hike is my favourite hike, period. The photographs here are only a snapshot of the diversity present along the trail as you make over 3000 feet of elevation gain before turning around and seeing it in reverse. I hope one day to do a more in-depth look at the flora and communities present and how they bleed together.

This is it for North American plants for a while! From here, it's the big leap south!

Thank you for reading (if you made it this far)!

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How to Get a Job in Antarctica
a.k.a.
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Paperwork:

An Onboarding Timeline

June – October 2024

This post is based upon/lifted from this post on brr.fyi, a lovely blog with lots to read about regarding working in Antarctica. While theirs is very comprehensive, I felt it would be worthwhile to share what onboarding looked like for myself with GSC, a company different from the one they worked for. While this post encompasses nearly five months of effort, it felt right to put it here in September due to its timing between the fire tower and the ice.

Of course, your mileage can (and will) vary. However, there were many times where I was worried things were taking too long and it helped to have other people's anecdotes. Hopefully this guide helps someone as they work through their own hiring process. It is incredibly lengthy and mostly takes time to get through the Physical Qualification (PQ) packet, with lots of other little bits of paperwork to get through.

The PQ process is an intensive and extensive readout on your health and health history to determine whether it's safe for you to deploy to the ice, where medical care isn't as accessible and you are remote from full-fledged medical centers back in New Zealand. Here is a document detailing what could medically disqualify you (NPQ - Not Physically Qualified) from working in Antarctica.

Upon telling people I was headed to Antarctica, a lot of them asked "how do you even get a job down there?". The short answer: apply and go through the mountain of paperwork required to qualify.

The long answer:

June

June 1

I applied to only three jobs: Postal Clerk (McMurdo), Production Cook (McMurdo), Production Cook (South Pole) through Gana-A'Yoo's website.

June 13

Automatic email response, minimum requirements met for Production Cook (McMurdo), requesting confirmation of interest.

June 15

Automatic email response, minimum requirements met for Production Cook (South Pole), requesting confirmation of interest. I responded in the affirmative to both

June 20

Notified by email that my resume was now visible to hiring manager and was under review.

June 21 - 21 days after first application

Received an email from the HR Representative, and I scheduled a Zoom meeting with them for the next day.

June 22

Zoom meeting with the HR representative. It took ~30 minutes and set expectations for the job. Following the meeting, I was invited to schedule a Zoom meeting with the Head Chef.

June 30

Zoom meeting with the Head Chef.

July

July 8 - 38 days after first application

I received an email with an Alternate Contract offer – I was not first in line to go but had the potential for a Primary Contract should others drop out or should I show good progress on the PQ packet.

Received emails with a Background Questionnaire as well as requests for information regarding my employment history. I completed and submitted these the same day.

July 9

I received my PQ packet by email and scheduled my bloodwork visit.

The PQ packet is a daunting and extensive process that makes sure one is healthy enough to travel to Antarctica. Given the limited resources available and the remoteness of the continent, it's important to know the physical health of everyone down there.

July 11

I completed my laboratory blood test, made a visit to an optometrist and updated my glasses prescription, and made a visit to a doctor's office for a complete physical and EKG reading.

July 12

I made a visit to a dentist for X-Rays, a panoramic imaging of my teeth, and a small filling. I scheduled a cleaning for two weeks later. The dentist recommended I have my wisdom teeth removed before travel to the ice, and to ignore this suggestion would disqualify me. I scheduled my wisdom teeth for August 7.

Completed my urine drug test.

July 26 - 18 days after initial receipt of PQ packet

Completed my dental cleaning.

After discussion with people in Denver and UTMB, I submitted my PQ packet despite knowing I had not yet had my wisdom teeth removed. This is done to let UTMB get a head start on review to see if there is anything else outstanding that would be needed. They were aware that my wisdom teeth were still scheduled to be removed and said to send that documentation when the procedure was completed.

July 28 - 2 days after first submission of PQ packet

Received information that my dental and medical information was well-received and in review.

Received a request for additional documentation - in this case it was the formatting of one of the signatures my physician made on one of the several pages they were accountable for.

August

August 2

Received feedback regarding the clarity of one of the documents I sent in from my physician. I requested a correction from my physician the same day.

Received an email detailing that I would need an updated influenza vaccine in order to deploy. I scheduled it the same day.

August 4

Received the corrected documentation from my physician and resubmitted for review.

Received feedback regarding the clarity (in a different way) on the same document.

August 4

Received a second correction from my physician and resubmitted for review. Document well received by UTMB.

August 5 - 65 days before I leave my Airport of Departure

Travel forms became available to me. These forms detailed things like what airport I would be leaving from (Airport of Departure – AOD), my identity and passport information, meal preferences, etc. It also requested information for my clothing sizes for Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear and what lodging accomodations I would prefer (including asking "Are you a snorer?")

August 6

I submitted my Travel Packet for review.

August 7

I received confirmation that my Travel Packet was well-received.

Today was supposed to be the date of my wisdom teeth removal, but for personal reasons the oral surgeon had to reschedule for August 21.

August 8 - 14 days after first submission of PQ packet

As expected due to a head full of teeth, I was found Not Physically Qualified (NPQ). This email included reasons for the NPQ and what actions (if any) to take to help remedy the situation.

August 9

I resubmitted my medical information review detailing why my wisdom teeth were not yet removed.

August 14

I received my influenza vaccine and submitted documentation to UTMB the same day.

August 15

I received an email requesting another correction on the same document as before. I received a correction and resubmitted the same day.

August 16

I received confirmation that the third correction was well-received.

August 21

I had my wisdom teeth removed.

August 25 - 85 days after first application, 52 days before arrival on-ice.

Received Primary Contract offer (pending successful PQ) following removal of wisdom teeth, before subnmission of official documentation.

August 29

I received an onboarding email from the National Science Foundation (NSF). This directed me to request a form called Optional Form 306 (OF306) and a printed card on which to get my fingerprints taken. I responded the same day requesting these items.

August 30

I received a link to document OF306. I filled it out and returned it the same day

August 31

I received documentation regarding my wisdom teeth removal from my dentist and sent it to UTMB. The same day, I received word that my Dental Information was well-received and once again in review.

September

September 3

I received an email requesting I fill out and sign the USAP Polar Code of Conduct and COVID-19 Safety Pledge documents. I signed and submitted them the same day.

September 8 - 62 days after initial receipt of PQ packet

I received an email stating that I was officially Physically Qualified (PQ'd) upon receipt of the dental information surrounding my wisdom teeth removal.

September 12 - 15 days after outreach from NSF point of contact

I received my NSF Fingerprint Card in the mail and schedule my appointment at a local sheriff's office.

I receive an email from an HR representative regarding the Elevated Background Investigation (EBI), questioning whether or not I had received word from my point of contact at the NSF. I replied that I had not, and at the time of writing (2024.03.24, currently still at McMurdo) I have not yet received the email to start my EBI process.

September 15

I had my fingerprints taken at the local sheriff's office and mailed the card with expedited shipping to the NSF office in Virginia.

September 18

I receieved confirmation that my fingerprints were well-received in Viringia.

September 23

I received an email requesting information for the USAP deployment screening.

September 27 - 10 days before I leave my AOD

I received my Travel Itinerary detailing my flight schedule from my AOD to Christchurch. I now had a cemented countdown on when I was supposed to be in Antarctica (two weeks later than expected – my original on-ice date was October 1 but for reasons still unknown to me it was pushed back two weeks).

October

October 3

I received my Travel Documents for arrival in New Zealand. These included a letter to airport agents, both domestic and Kiwi, the process I was going through and what allowances were given for things like baggage weight and visa times.

October 4

I received documents detailing what my arrival in Christchurch would look like. These included items such as who to look for at the aiport or scheduling for trainings and gear receipt.

October 7

I receieved an email regarding the New Zealand traveler declaration form - a sort of pre-customs form asking what goods and materials I may or may not have in my luggage.

October 8 - 9 days before my arrival in Antarctica

I depart from my AOD to New Zealand, with several stops along the way.

October 11

I arrive in Christchurch, 36 hours after departure and with a full day missing from my calendar due to the fact that I jumped from UTC–05:00 to UTC+12:00. I arrived in the mid-afternoon and after some time getting oriented, I had the rest of the day to myself in Christchurch.

October 11

I spent my morning doing self-paced online courses and trainings through Bridge. Following this, I was taken to the Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) to receive my ECW and a COVID-19 test.

October 12

The bulk of the monring was spent in online zoom meetings with others who were on the same ice flight as me.

October 13

The first three days are all that are scheduled for you in Christchurch, and any delays are your time to use. There was another cohort that was set to fly out 10 days before we arrived but they had been stuck due to weather delays. On days they were delayed, my cohort knew we wouldn't be flying because they were next in line. Today was my first delay day in Christchurch, which I'll document in another post.

October 14

Second day of delay in Christchurch. The group ahead of us made it onto the plane but had to deboard due to weather conditions between Christchurch and New Zealand.

October 15

Third day of delay in Christchurch. The group ahead of us successfully flew to the ice.

October 16 - 137 days after initial application

I am finally scheduled to fly. We woke up early to weigh all of our bags and persons before a brief video orientation and discussion. At roughly 9 AM, we board the plane and I deploy to the ice.


And that's it! Over four and a half months of paperwork from start to finish. However, receiving a rapid response from HR and the hiring manager is unusual, I'm told. I know some people who have applied for years and only just got down for their first season. It all depends on the position, the company you work for, your qualifications, and chance. I'm not a cook in the real world, but it was my opportunity to head down to the ice and I'm grateful to have had this opportunity.

Applying for only three positions and landing one is highly unusual, and if you're really geared to get down here I recommend applying to as many jobs as you can, even if you're not fully qualified for all of them. Recognize that you need demonstrable skill in whatever work you're applying for, but let the hiring manager tell you "no" before you do it yourself. You never know what may happen.

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