New Year's Eve

It's New Year's Eve. It's sorta cool being at the fore front of the world being the first to ring the New Year. Today, thankfully, is my normal day off. I spent the day doing laundry, some errunds online, a little studying of Spanish and French. The evening brought about a pretty decent meal and an annual tradition around this time of year of Icestock. Icestock is sorta what it sounds like: a Woodstock here on the ice. Several of the "local" bands get together and play various length sets while the crowd gets drunk, battles the cold, and lets loose.

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

It was, in fact, pretty damn cold (now before you ridicule me for stating the painful obviousness of the cold here in Antarctica, relatively, for the month of December that is, it had been pretty warm [20-30 F] up until the last couple days leading to and including today). When I'm remotely chilled it becomes very hard for me to play my guitar without screwing up royally. My hat goes off to everyone that played 20 to 40 minute sets up there in the cold and wind. Last year, Icestock was done on the 1st. This year was pretty enjoyable because of the fact that Icestock brought a majority of the town together and lasted well after the "ball drop". It's pretty cool to usher in the new year with several hundred people around you....

Christmas

It's Christmas here in Antarctica and my emotions are mix of deep depression and inner calm. Today, I learned of another death in my family, my Uncle Mac, that occurred on 17 Dec, my mother's birthday, about 10 minutes after I called her to wish her so. It really didn't hit me as how far away from home I was till I read in my email from my mother the she, a woman that rarely travels to far from the Mid-Atlantic flew to Alabama for his funeral and back on the 19th and I didn't find out till shortly after midnight on Christmas. If anything, I'm too blame for not staying in touch as much as I should. My thoughts of my father and my Uncle James have been floating in my head since shortly before Thanksgiving. I floated in and out of moments of social hyperactivity to moments of solidarity and extreme loneliness. On the other hand, my faith has been pulling me through. In this sometimes seemingly dark world, the Christmas story renews my faith every year. Every year, no matter how bad and how gloomy it was, the 25th always lifts me up. Listening to gospel, the spoken and written word that our lord and savior was born to die for our sins on this day, always seems to lift my spirits high...at least for a little while. For now I just have to deal with the ebb and flow of my emotions and live life one day at a time. I've learned not to fight my bouts of depression but just ride through them to the better times ahead. I look forward to the things that make me happy. I'm looking forward to spend some time in the bouldering cave tomorrow when I get off from work. I don't have many friends I call true friends down here...I mean friends I can trust with my inner-most daemons and emotions; my personal thoughts and ramblings...so I wait to see them again when I get home. I'm looking forward to climbing! To get on the side of a mountain and experience God's glory and everything he made in ways that you wouldn't be able to otherwise. For now, it's Christmas. It's a time to remember family both far away and gone from this world. To remember the good things about life. It's a time to thank God for allowing me to spend time in this place that I hold so dear in my heart to the point that I sacrifice so much back home. It's a time to relax and reflect. Happy Birthday Jesus...

Catching up...

It's been a while, I know. The medevac portion of our year is in full swing. Last week we had two back to back possibly life-threatening medevacs head north. One on our shift (B Shift), another one the next day. We haven't been as busy as we were in the beginning of the season but we're still keeping our plates full every day. Miraculously, Tanker 3, which we all thought was out of service for the rest of the season (if not indefinitely) will be back in service and in station 1 by the end of this week. Our annual MCI drill (which was supposed to be held last week but was canceled because of a serious accident (which led to one of the medevacs). Now, the element of surprise is gone and station management has resorted to just emailing us and letting us know when the drill will be held (Friday at 1330 with me being the station officer). My stress induced by the daily operations (and sometimes management) of the Antarctic Fire Department has been cured by incessant bitching and moaning to other firefighters and officers who are going through the same troubles. Now, during this time of celebration (It's [near] Christmas you know...) I'm at ease and I'm happy...somewhat....

...somewhat meaning that I'm missing my dad terribly. We (the fire department) had our Christmas party on Saturday night. A time that was suppose to be fun was spent, by me, smiling politely and waiting to leave to go back to the station (we were on duty at the time). I have a hard time partying and having a good time during holidays or days that bring back a lot of memories for me. I'm missing my family pretty terribly as well.

My plans have remained, so far, extremely dynamic. Because of my plans to go back to school and having to start the fall semester in late August, I've been looking at National Park Service positions in Alaska to take advantage of the shorter fire season. So in order for me to save enough gas to drive from home to Boise to visit my daughter and Boise to Alaska, I have to put my travel plans to Africa on hold and may be tramp around New Zealand or Australia. Haha, bummer, I know. All in the name of education though....

A 3 Day Weekend

Back in the states, I always looked forward to Mondays. Yeah, I'm that person. Monday, to me, meant a new week and new surprises. Monday also meant the start of the business day during which I could get what ever errunds in my life done with. Down here, however, Monday means a business day here at McMrudo but Sunday back home (remember, we're 18 hours ahead of the east coast). So whatever I have to take care of back home always has to wait to Tuesday. Today has been pretty fun so far. For one, I got word that 2 vehicles that were assumed to be out of service for the entire season as of last week may be coming back to us tomorrow! I suddenly feel like an ass for the rumors I've spread about those vehicles! We started the morning off with a small hazmat call in front of Building 155:

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

We were called out to 155 for an "Unknown Type Spill". When we got there, the janitor who made the call showed us the "container" that was leaking which turned out to be a bottle of blue hair coloring. Any where else in the United States this would have been blown off by any respectable fire department upon identification of the product (in fact, I don't think anyone in the country would call a hazmat on an obvious bottle of hair coloring leaking on the ground). Because of the Antarctic Treaty we were actually mandated by federal law to clean it up....so that's exactly what we did:

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

Not exactly the way I wanted to spend my morning cleaning up hair care products and what not but that's part of the job. Since we did worry about run-off and turning a tedious and petty task into a major pain-in-ass task, we actually took the time and effort to build a damn and dike out of dirt and ice around the product. Our second call of the day was for a fire alarm at the same building which ended up to be an activation because of work being done on the sprinkler system. Our third "call" (more of a scheduled transport) was a transport of 2 patients out to Pegasus Air Field to be medevaced back to Christchurch. Not bad for a Monday.

Another thing I'm really excited for is the return of Red 3 from the South Pole. With Red 3 back on base it will illeviate a lot of the problems we've been having with equipment issues and staffing for our air field. About 3 weeks ago, I got to drive Red 3 into the back of an LC-130 so it could be transported the 600 some nautical miles to the south pole:

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

At first, it would fit in backwards due to the fact that the fire package on the back of the rig would hit the ceiling of the plane before it leveled out off of the loading ramp. After we realized that I was told to drive out and turn it around to nose it into the aircraft:

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

Now I can't begin to tell you how tight of a fit it was. I had to fold in both my mirrors in order to make in the aircraft. At that point I was relying solely on one person in front of me to make sure I didn't hit anything:

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

I almost had to crawl out of the windows because I could get my door open all of the way. When I got out to look at how good or bad of a job I did, I noticed that I had about 3 or 4 inches on either side of the tracks of the vehicle from the walls of the aircraft...

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

The end result. I had a blast trying to drive that thing on that C-130. All in all it took me about 30 or 45 minutes to drive it on there just right. Of course after all of that work, it's coming back here for the rest of the season.



Yesterday was spent skiing. I took a 30 minute nap after getting back from work after which I strapped on my skins and skiied all the way (About 2.5 miles) to the top of the Castle Rock hill here on Ross Island. It felt really good to get out by myself and ski for a few hours. Not bad for a "3 day" weekend...

Life At Station 2

Station 2 is the Antarctic Fire Department fire station located at Williams Ski-field. Several vehicles are stationed here:

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2007-2008

Red 1 is a Canadian Foremost Chieftan with a 1200 gallon foam/water fire package in the back. One of my favorite vehicles to drive and operator in our fleet, it's a 7-speed forward and 4-speed reverse manual transmission. Red 1 tops out at a wopping 7 mph (I've actually walked faster than Red 1 one day while it was "topped out"). Irregardless it holds a special place in my heart. Red 1 is out of service for probably the remainder of our season down here to to a catastrophic failure of the drive train at its articulating joint. Hopefully it will be back up and running soon!

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2007-2008

Red 2 is another newer Chieftan. Almost the same as Red 1 with its differences being Red 2 has a 2 person cab versus a 4 person cab and Red 2 has an automatic transmission. Red 2 can drive a few mph faster than Red 1 but nothing to brag or write home about.

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2007-2008

Nodwell 3 (Nod 3 for short and it's radio designation) is another Canadian Foremost product. Nodwell 3 carries over half a ton of Purple K fire extinguishing agent (much like the dry powder found in fire extinguishers...in short the Nodwells are nothing more than big-ass fire extinguishers you can drive).

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2007-2008

Nodwell 4 is almost the same as Nodwell 3 with the major difference being that Nod 4 carries 200 gallons of a foam/water mixture on top of 1250 lbs of Purple K extinguishing agent.

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2007-2008

Red 4 is a Ford F-550 with a Grip-Trac conversion. The fire package is a combination Compressed Air Foam System (CAFS) and Purple K dry-chemical extinguishing system powered by compressed Nitrogen. Red 4 has a twin sister, Red 3, who's currently located at the South Pole Station.

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2007-2008

Reds 5 and 6 are the same vehicles as Reds 3 and 4 with the difference being they utilize the smaller (yet slower) Matt-Tracks in place of tires.

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2007-2008

Ambulance 2 I believe is an old Ford F-350. If it looks like a piece of shit thats because it is a piece of shit. For a vehicle that doesn't get as much wear and tear as the others it sure likes to break down when ever it wants. I will give it credit, however, that its managed to hold on this long. Asides from medical emergencies on this side of the McMurdo Permanent Ice Shelf (that includes Williams Ski Field, Pegasus Airfield, the road system between the airfields and New Zealand's Scott Base heading for Mcmurdo, the rugby field, and the field training sites), Ambulance 2 is used for medevacs off the continent. If the patient can tolerate or risk the 30+ minute drive from McMurdo out to Williams Field or Pegasus which is even further, Ambulance 2 will be driven into to town to pick up the patient from the clinic and then drive them out to which ever airfield they'll be leaving from. Sometimes more critical patients are flown via helicopter from McMurdo to an airfield in which case Ambulance 2 will provide "shelter" and a viable workplace for us and the flight nurses to work.



The Town

The ice town that makes up Williams Skifield is made up of various modular trailers located on skis to facilitate movement as the ice shelf moves into Ross Island (also to tow buildings to various places for maintenance.

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2007-2008

This is one of a couple of Air Traffic Control Towers located on the airfield. Notice the skis and the tow bar on the bottom of the building. They're actually pretty cool buildings to be in. I'll post pictures of the inside when I get some.

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

This what the town looks like in a nutshell. The powerplant is a large diesel generator housed in a shipping container placed on skis. Powerlines are routed from the generator via telephone poles and the buildings themselves to all of the buildings out at the airfield. The first orange building on the right is our galley.

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

This little gem is the airfield bathroom. Somehow, in the midst of the Antarctic Treaty, the "chief export" of the airfield bathroom (as my friend words it) gets plumbed down through almost 300 feet of snow and ice into the Ross Sea below. The smell emmited from the pipe down to the sea below is horrendous...even in the cold or the worst of storms.

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

This is the ramp where the aircraft park with the Royal Society Mountain Range in the background. With the aircraft that are stationed at Williams Field for the season, at most you can see 7 LC-130 Hercules operated by the New York Air National Guard, 2 de Havilland Canada DHC=6 Twin Otters, and 2 Douglas DC-3 "Basslers".

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

That mountain you see is Observation Hill which is located on the back edge of town (McMurdo Station). The main part of the station is located approximately 7 miles from Williams Ski field.



For some odd reason I don't have many photos of Station 2 life in Station 2. You're not missing much though. A couch or two, a computer, a small kitchen and even smaller bunk rooms...one of which also houses the Lieutenant's office:

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

If you like peace and quiet for a shift or two, Station 2 is a blessing. A little home away from home (McMurdo that is).

December!

It's finally December, my favorite time of year. This time of year always brings a smile to my face no matter what my mood. The past two Decembers/Christmases since my dad died have always brightened my mood. As a Christian, I look at this time as one to reflect on what Jesus means to me. In 18 days we celebrate his 2043rd birthday. I see this time of year as a peaceful one. As one where I try extra hard to be good unto others and help whomever I can whenever I can.

Here in McMurdo the town is a buzz over holiday festivities. I haven't been paying much attention to the REC board so I really have no idea what's happening party or even wise but emails are already circulating calling on volunteers for events to come. Summer is officially here. The speckled-brown snowy landscape has melted away to a brown backdrop painted so by the volcanic rock Ross Island is primarily made of. With the exception of the McMurdo Ice Shelf (on which I currently sit here out at Williams Ski Field), all of the ice in town on the roads and walkways have melted away. While we don't have to deal with dirty snow all over the floors in the building, we now have to deal with an absurd amount of dust which is created by the brittle volcanic rock on which the base sits. The temperatures are amazing! Who would have thought -10 C would be short-sleeve t-shirt weather!

I sit here on this lovely Saturday evening/Sunday morning enjoying my 27 hour shift out at Station 2. I've spent the shift taking care of loose ends back home as far as bills and things, continuing education for EMS, hazmat, and confined space, doing a little internet surfing on climbing, fire/rescue training, jobs, etc, and writing emails. The ebb and flow of my emotions have seemed to stabilize and I'm sincerely happy right now.

I do, however, miss my family...mostly my mother. One of the downfalls of traveling and living so far away from home is you can never anticipate how much you will miss the ones you love until you're so disconnected from them. Just reading emails from family and friends seems to help. I can't wait to travel more but at the same time I can't wait to get home either....