Antarctic Sunset

The beauty of this place (I'm talking Antarctica...not necessarily McMurdo) never ceases to amaze me. And just when I think I've seen everything this side of the continent has to offer me, I get pleasantly surprised by the majesty of God's creation.

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

I took these around 0200 this morning. The official sunset (the first sunset of the season that is) for this season is on the 23rd. For now, we're blessed with a show of alpen glow mountains and awe-inspiring light shows from the midnight sun. Considering I have less than 5 days left here, it makes me miss the place already...

7 days left...

A week from now, I'll be leaving McMurdo. The only difference this year being that I know I won't be coming back next season (at least for the next year or two). I'm sorta bummed about that. The Antarctic Fire Department hired on a new chief this year after our last one quit. He seems like a great guy and an amazing leader and I really want to be a part of the department next year to see where he takes it. Alas, school (for the first time in a few years) comes first. Anyways, the South Pole is due to close in a couple days for the winter which means Williams Field will be closing soon as well. Usually, at this time of year, every department is scrambling to get ready for the winter before their staff is whittled to nothing. The fire department is no different. We have an entire station's worth of stuff to bring in from Williams Field once it closes. We have several vehicles that need to be driven into town, winterized, and parked (somewhere) outside of station 1. We have our own personal matters to deal with as well. Having our baggage palletized for transport as cargo by the military (also known down here as "Bag Drag"). We have room inspections, town "debts" to take care of (library books, DVDs, gear rentals, etc). With a week to do it in, everyone is busy. Another thing that this time of year is notorious for is the partying that happens. Usually there are a couple dumb-asses out of the population that end up doing something so grotesquely stupid in the name of end-of-season partying that they end up getting reprimanded (or even fired) and the rest of us have to listen to our supervisors or station management belittle us on how we should be more "morally responsible". It's already happened and I'm sure that's not the last time.

The closer and closer we get to our redeployment dates, the more I think about my daughter, my family, and my friends. I'm ready for the spring and summer. I'm ready to see the people I've been missing for 5 months. I'm ready to move on for the time being...r

Relaxing by the Ross Sea

Immediately after shift change this morning, I went to my room to pack the rest of the stuff I needed to ship northwards (to Christchurch). The last day for packaged mail from McMurdo to head north was Jan 31st. Luckily, with the help of my good Kiwi friend, Shaz, I was able to take advantage of Scott Base's 16 Feb deadline to "Guard Mail" a couple boxes north. Now that everything I needed shipped out of here has in fact been shipped, I can breath a lot easier.

After lunch, I decided to join a bunch of people from my shift on a walk out to Hut Point to look for seals that have been seen playing in the area. While hanging out on the point it self, we realized that the annual ice had melted enough to the point where there was an actual "beach" making up a shoreline on the Ross Sea! We decided to walk down to the shore and wait for our flippered friend to show his face. Soon after we made it down to the shore, we completely forgot about the seal and just took in the scenery.

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

A lot of thoughts and feelings started going through my head while standing there on the shore. For one, a feeling of calmness flowed over me. I forgot about all of the trivial things in my life and at work and just stared at the mountains across the sea. Nothing that screamed "Raytheon" or "USAP", just nature at it's finest. After a little bit, it really soaked into me that I was in Antarctica and I was actually standing at the edge of the Ross Sea! Weird, I know, considering this is 4 months into my second season at McMurdo and something like this had to tell me I'm actually in Antarctica. Another thing that really made me smile was the salty smell of the sea once I got closer to the shore. For months, I've been devoid of smells outside when I'm trying to take in the environment. It was really refreshing to smell that smell as the wind blew it towards us. On top of all that, we did, in fact, get to see the one seal we kept coming to visit. I wish I had photos of him but I was with people who did. He would hang out by one of the ice drifts for a little bit then dive back under the water for 20 minutes or so and play. We also saw sea spiders, starfish, sea urchins, and small jelly-fish (keep in mind in near freezing water) all in the water and tidal pools by the shore. It's hard for me to explain unless you all were there next to me seeing and experiencing what I was at the time. Just simply being there killed days if not weeks of stress out of my body. Today was probably one of my favorite days of the season, if not the year...

End of Season Rant

It's Sunday 08 Feb and I have 11 days left in Antarctica. I'm ready to get back to civilization for a little while. A lot of the things we take for granted I'm ready to experience again: colors, smells, humidity, grass, plants, mammals with legs, stars, night! It's been too long without them. I've also been ready to get away from the clutches in which Raytheon as me (as well as everyone else) ensnared. For 5 months I've stared at mountains across the Ross Sea (as well as on Ross Island itself), I've read climbing, skiing, and snorkeling magazines, I've talked to friends that are enjoying their lives throughout the world doing the things that they (and I) love, and I've surfed the internet into the far reaches of third-world countries websites just to get a taste of adventure somewhere else. My friend, Heather is traveling around SE asia doing nothing but climbing, yoga on the beach, and living the good life. I, at one point, was seriously thinking about rendezvousing somewhere to climb for a week or so with her but now with my financial situation I won't be able to. My friend Sitka whom I'm visiting in Australia in a few weeks is dying for me to take her out climbing. My friend Dan is already climbing in Zion which has me aching to hit up some of the big walls there. While flying over the Transantarctic Mountains, I was looking at every ridge, peak, and glacier for anything that resembled a line that could be climbed or skied. My mind is crazy right now with things I'd like to do but there only so much time I can do it in this year and I'm still under two weeks away from getting out of this place.

The season is definitely winding down. It's getting colder and colder every day. The sun is dancing towards the horizon practicing for it's winter retreat. Today, I think the sun actually made it behind the Royal Society range. The first sunset of the year is only a couple weeks away. I'm ready for a break from traveling. I'm ready to start (and finish) school. At the same time, I can't wait to be able to come back down here again. Antarctica is definitely on the business end of a love/hate relationship. I was excited at the beginning of the season and (no surprise) I'm now ready to get the hell out of here. Oh well, 11 days to go...

South Pole!

While on shift the other day, I got the word that I was being offered a trip to the South Pole for an hour or so (better known down here as a "Sleigh Ride") in the morning (Saturday 07 Feb). Despite the sudden warning and not much time to prepare I was pretty stoked! I had said for a while that I had no desire to do any type of discernible tour down there but going down for a day or so would be pretty neat. So in the later part of the evening, I drove our ambulance over to my room to pick up some extra cold weather gear in preparation for the next day.

In the morning, I left shift early for the MCC (Movement Control Center) to board our shuttle heading out to Williams Field. For the first time since I've been down here (both this year and last), I went to Williams Field as a passenger and not an employee working out there. We went straight from our shuttle van to board the plane (an LC-130). Within 30 minutes of grabbing our seats, we where in the air heading south. Now for the past two years, I could always see the mainland of Antarctica from a far (the Royal Society Range for instance) but I had never flown over it let a lone set foot on it. Our flight path took us straight over the Transantarctic Mountains (TAM) which took my breath away. My seat in the bell of the 130 was right in front of one of the emergency exits that had a view port in the door it self so I didn't have to move much to get a good view:

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

Eventually our small group got to go up on the flight deck one at a time to get an even better view of the TAM:

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

Our flight from McMurdo was just shy of 3 hours. When we started our decent we were told to be prepared for the temperature outside (-40s) and not to overly exert ourselves considering the pole sits at an altitude of about 10,000 feet (note: because of the density of the atmosphere at the pole in comparison to equitorial atmospheres, the pole's "10,000" feet of elevation actually "feels" like 13 or 14,000 feet elevation). Anyways, when we touched down on the ground we were rushed pretty quickly considering we only had about 30 to 45 minutes to spare on the ground. One of my friends and a firefighter at the pole grabbed me from the rest of the group and [literallly] ran me from the flight line to the poles, and from the poles throughout the rest of the base.

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

The cerimonial South Pole is the big ball surrounded by all of the flags of the 16? original nations that signed the Antarctic Treaty. About 100 feet away was the actually Geographical South Pole. That's right, 90 degrees S Latitude. I wish I had more time than what was alloted for that trip because I really wanted to soak in the fact that I was literally standing at the bottom of the world. I sorta wish it were night so I could see the entire sky spin around me. I went straight from the pole(s) into the elevated station:

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

The dome that at one point housed the old station and it's buildings is still used to day for storage and the occasional party or two (so I hear). I really had wanted to take a peak inside that thing but I didn't have the time to do so:

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

The inside of the station was very impressive. I wish I had more photos but the batteries in my camera died. Myself and my friend rushed through the first and second floors of the station, the ice tunnels that carry water and sewage away from the station (into what I haven't the slightest damned idea), and to the post office so I could get my passport stamped. While nearing the end of my impromptu tour, I got the word that my chariot awaited to fly me back to McMurdo.

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

Hoping that I'd get another chance to visit the pole in the future, I passed opportunities for photos to get back on the plane to get home in time for dinner. Our flight back with a much hoped for tail wind took only 2 hours. I landed on the ground and realize that I had just been to the South Pole but I hadn't really taken it in yet. Hopefully next time, I'll be able to spend more than 30 minutes there.

Ship Off-Load Operations

Vessel off-load is a pain in the ass for everyone. Work centers are juggling their normal day to day operations as well as having to provide staffing for specific tasks that they excel at. A lot of the town is "fenced" off to keep pedestrian traffic out for safety reasons. Anywhere that you can fit a 20 or 40 foot cargo container has been commandeered for just that reason. The town is busy and, at times, chaotic. Luckily this only goes on for no more than 10 days or so.

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

Let me explain Vessel Off/on-load operations down here a little bit more. Most everything down here (food, heavy equipment, vehicles, machines, etc) arrives down here by a boat. A container ship to be exact. So far for the past several years, it's been the American Tern that has provided this critical support to the United States Antarctic Program. Because this is such a serious matter (supply 80% to 90% of cargo and equipment down here), the base goes through a lot of temporary changes for close to two weeks. One, the area right behind building 155 and in front of most of the dorms on base, the same area that is used as the primary shuttle pick-up and drop-off site, gets blocked off to the public entirely so it can be used as a container staging area. Two, the United States Naval Cargo Handling and Port Group (NAVCHAPS) provides over 70 personnel to help off-load cargo from the ship. Three, the Kiwi Army provides close to 30 personnel to assist with cargo off-load by driving the tractor-trailers that transport the containers from the pier, to their staging point, and, eventually, to their final "resting place" till they get loaded back on in later seasons. The later two changes are pretty major in the fact that all those personnel arriving at McMurdo are a huge impact on the base. Tensions usually get high as there are run-ins between towns folk, Kiwi Army, and the US Navy. Anyways, three, the bars get shut down and all liquor sales on base cease. This includes beer and wine in the store. Now this doesn't preclude anyone from drinking, they just can't buy liquor while ship off load is going on. All in all, it's a pretty tense and chaotic week or so while the ship is in town. Last year, it took 10 days to off-load about 600 containers and on-load 400 or so. Hopefully it will take about the same time, if not less.

A Happy Birthday

Today is my birthday. Before you wish me happy birthday let me make it known that I really don't like to celebrate my birthday. Reasons being are for a time when I feel like disclosing them. The point is, I really despise celebrating my birthday. I went out of my way to ensure that no one found out when my birthday was. A friend of mine [my ex-girlfriend] down here knows my birthday pretty well because it was the day we first met last season. She swore up and down that she would not let me go my birthday without everyone knowing and she was pretty right. I had done a good job until she told one person within the fire department. Consequently, the entire department found out from that person and, to my surprise, I didn't find this out till about 2 days before hand. At first, I was pretty upset with my friend. Really upset to be honest. I seriously felt like I had been betrayed. Near the end of the day, I traded those feelings in for those of honor because of the friends I made within the department.

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

I walked into our training room to find my name sprawled across the whiteout board. At first I was slightly annoyed but this soon gave way when I was told they were cooking me a cake in the evening. I really didn't want them too but my friends Justin and Kelly made me an upside down pineapple cake with strawberries and whip cream on top. What was even more spectacular than the cake was the nachos with cheese and salsa made from fresh vegetables from our greenhouse! Although this may not sound that spectacular to those of you who have never lived or worked in Antarctica this is a pretty big deal considering we get fresh food once ever few months. Salsa, one of my favorites, is something you don't see among those "freshies" we Antarcticans have come to call such food. The day felt really good in the end when I realized how great of friends these people were. The next day brought more birthday cheer because we were now celebrating my birthday back in the states (because of our time difference (18 hours ahead of EST) it was 1 Feb in McMurdo and 31 Jan back home. This time since we were off-duty, we actually went to the bar to have a few drinks. I've said it before, one of the primary reasons I work down here is the friendships you forge irregardless of how far you live from the people you work with. The friends I've made over the past 5 months are the best presents I can ever receive.

My Birthday Eve and Navchaps

It's Friday, 30 January. Tomorrow I turn 24 years old. As my friend, Justin puts it, sometime tomorrow I'll be making my 24th revolution around the sun. Kinda interesting when you think about it that way. To be honest, I'm not looking forward to my birthday. I don't really want to talk about it but I just don't like celebrating my birthday. Today is also the arrival day for the US Navy Cargo Handling and Port [NAVCHAP] Battalion #1 out of Williamsburg, VA. The Navchaps are a feared group of sailors whose sole job every summer down here is to unload the container vessel that comes down and provides the town 80% of it's resources and to load the vessel back up with crap that is to be thrown away, sold or "retroed", or just "dissapeared". Horror stories have been floating around for years about Navchaps breaking into rooms and stealing things from poor, unsuspecting McMurdoans weeks before they redeploy back into the real world. Rumors go around that these men and women are the fuck-ups of the Navy: cast outs on their last leg before court-martial or dishonorable discharge. A lot of them are harden human beings. Several have gang tattoos. Having a healthy distrust in rumors and social stereotyping, as well as being severely drunk, I decided to buddy up and talk to several of them. Not a single one of them came off as seasoned Antarctic veterans had described in their wanton stories of horror and despair. A lot of them were interested in where I was from and what I did down here. One of the officers' father had worked down here as a firefighter back in the 70's! Some how, probably from one of the other firefighters I was with, they found out that my birthday was 24 hours in the coming and decided to take me back to the part of building 155 they'd be occupying throughout the duration of vessel offload. I continued to drink and party with them till midrats [midnight rations] time. After meeting several new and interesting people as well as filling my stomach, I stumbled the 500 yds back to my room to sleep and get ready for work...

Royal Society Range and Vessel Operations

The one thing I love about McMurdo Station it the look out to the west over the Royal Society Range in the evening.

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

Because of our proximity to the [South] pole the sun down here does more of a traverse of the sky versus a more conventional rising and setting as seen closer to equatorial regions of the Earth. Hence, our 24 hour sunlight and our picture show out to the west. I'll attempt to put up some better pictures. Every day shortly before I go to bed, I take a look out to the west. No matter how many times I look through the season the Royal Society never looks the same. The glaciers trickling down their mountains, the snow-covered peaks thrusting through the clouds, the alpen glow that lasts for more than 7 hours, it's like a page out of some auto-biographical Reinhold Messner story. No matter how stressful my day is though, there isn't a place in McMurdo or Williams Field where I can't get away from my world and look 70 miles across the Ross Sea to those beautiful mountains over yonder. In me they invoke intrigue and inner tranquility. They invoke an urge to climb to see McMurdo from their view point. With their glaciers shining bright, basking in the midnight sun, it's as if God himself is shining down upon the Royal Societies beckoning those who gaze upon his creations of beauty and ruggedness. Well, that calling is definitely strong...

The refueling tanker is gone and for a week or so there is a little peace. The Oden left to break up the channel more in preparation for the American Tern inbound with several hundred cargo containers full of stuff to let us survive life down here till next February and container vessel. After vessel off load, it's smooth sailing till I redeploy.

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

Note the Royal Society Range in the background!

The Refueling Vessel Arrives!

The USNS Lawrence H. Gianella has arrived at McMurdo to supply us with a year's worth of fuel. To be honest it's quite impressive how fuel down here works. Everything down here runs off of two types of fuel: JP-8 and MOGAS aka Motor Gasoline. JP-8 is one of the standard jet fuels used to day by aircraft worldwide. JP-8, like in the US military, down here is used in anything that has a diesel engine which, for McMurdo, is about 85% of the vehicles. MOGAS is used in a few vehicles such as light pick up trucks or 4-stroke small engines and the such. JP-8 is also used as the fuel for all of aircraft down here. McMurdo Station has the ability to store millions of gallons of JP-8 and MOGAS as you can see here on the left hand side of the picture (look for the grey and silver fuel tanks along the road that goes through the pass):

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

All of that fuel comes in from a fuel tanker once a year. Hence, the purpose of the Gianella being in town:

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2008 - 2009

Amazingly, the tanker offload only takes 40 hours of continuous operation (40 hours to offload several million gallons of fuel!). The Oden hangs around the entire time waiting to break ice as it needs to. More pics to come!

Reality and Hose Testing

Regardless of how "relative" one can characterize the temperature down here, every once in a while, mother nature reminds you of the stark, bitter reality that you are, in fact, in Antarctica. It's obvious that the temps are on the decline as we move into fall and, eventually, winter. Today my legs got pretty cold for being outside only for a few hours. Insignificant to you, yes. To me, I know it's pretty damn cold out when my legs are getting cold. As of right now, the temps are probably in the high teens (nothing compared to the states right now) yet after a few weeks of summer and "warm" temps, the teens feel like that initial slap fall gives you to remind you of the inevitable cold of winter.

Today we worked on the annual chore and pain-in-the-ass that is hose testing. Every fire department that adheres to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)is required to pressure test all of the hose they posses in their department. Luckily, we only have a couple miles of hose here to test. Ashburn, on the other hand, has several miles of hose to test which usually takes a month or so to complete. I can tell you all now that there is no bigger bane to a firefighter's existence than testing hose. Thank God this shit is almost over.

I now work towards packing up some stuff to send back home and to send to Christchurch to await for my arrival. I recently booked a flight from Christchurch to Sydney, Australia for less than $130 which I'm pretty stoked about. I've never been to Australia. Even though I'm only looking to spend a week there, it still should be a lot of fun....

Inaguration Day

I'm pretty upset that I won't be able to make the inauguration next week. I can't even imagine how packed the city is going to be. The chaos of traffic, parking, hotels, millions of people, etc, and I want to be there for it! All of the fire departments in the metropolitan area are preparing, too, should something bad happen on a mass casualty scale. I know it's morbid but it's something in this day and age that we all need to think about. Loudoun County is going as far as to have all of the companies announce their staffing for each shifts, put extra Mass Casualty Incident equipment on their units, and a few other tasks to prepare. Again, being in my nature as a firefighter, I wish I were there for that. More importantly, I want to be there for that moment when Barack addresses not only our country but our world (which is a concept foreign to our country that what we do impacts a majority of the human population on this planet...but that's for another post all together). I want to be able to tell my daughter that I was there for that moment. I want to be able to say I was a part of that particular moment in history. Oh well, at least I get to watch it.

One month...

I have something like 30 days left before I redeploy from McMurdo Station. At this point, I'm definitely counting down the days till I can get out of here. Last year was the same way at this time of year. I was ready to get the hell out of Antarctica but at the same time I couldn't wait to apply for next season which I was able to do while still down here last year. Unfortunately, I won't be able to come back down next season because of school. I definitely plan on returning in the future though. It's hard to explain unless you've spent an [enjoyable] season down here. It attaches to you. No matter how far away you get. I'll be 9,000 miles away from this place when I get back home and I'll still feel it beckoning me.

In order to salvage my "vacation", a word very foreign to me, I've decided to try to make it to one of the Pacific Islands, maybe the Cook Islands even. It's pretty far fetched but I'm definitely going to look into it when I get into Christchurch. Whether I do it or not, I'll just be glad to get away from McMurdo for a while. I really can't wait to get back home to see my family either. Oh well, one month...

The Future and Working in Antarctica

This time of the Austral Summer season everyone is thinking about the future. Despite our benefits we are, in fact, temporary seasonal employees (well, most of us). I've had to drastically change my travel plans in order to save money for work out west. As of now, I have my heart set on Zion, again, Grand Canyon doing Search and Rescue, or Alaska. I'm looking at the first two a lot more because it allows me to travel and visit friends and, more importantly, my daughter. I haven't heard anything yet as far as job offers in those areas (I've received one from the United States Forest Service as an Engine Operator in Wyoming) so I haven't made any concrete plans yet.

I'm constantly thinking about school in the Fall. For some reason, I've been second guessing my decisions a lot. I know this is something I want to do but will I really have the time in life to balance this and all the other things I want to do in life. I dunno. I'm going to go through it but I'm afraid I may my Nursing license lapse in favor for other jobs. We'll see.

For my shift at least, tension within the fire department is a little high. The Antarctic Fire Department is unique in the fact that it is managed by a coporate entity (Raytheon) versus a governmental entity (i.e. a County Board of Directors or a City Mayor's Office). For all of us, this is hard to adjust to. Corporate Goals versus Government goals are quite different. Without going into detail, a lot of things we try to get done in the way(s) we only know how are met with resistance with the upper echelon of the department and Raytheon. Because of that, the stress felt where the upper management meets the lower management is felt all the way down the chain to the lowest firefighter. On the positive side of all of that, that stress felt by all as brought us closer together....a lot closer than I/we were with anyone last year. I can say that I have yet to spend an evening alone this season because of what a tight knit group we have become as a fire department and not just separate A and B shifts.

I tell a lot of people I come down here for the people I meet more than the job I work. The fire department is fun but in the end it sometimes turns out to be another job with job-like hassles. This year and last, I've made some really good friends...hopefully friends for life. I've made friends from all over the country as well as other countries. In the end, we can say that we all share a common bond of surviving working in Antarctica which a vast majority of the world cannot.

New Year's Day

Being able to say I celebrated New Year's in Antarctica is pretty damn cool. I spent the night (and morning) with hundreds of drunk scientist and support workers (me being one of them) on the coldest, windiest, driest continent in the world. There is a building here on base known as hut 10 (each building here on base along with a name(s) has a designated number which is used quited often to identify it...hut 10, for some reason unknown to me, does not have a name so it's just referred by it's number) that is used as a party place which you can rent out no more than 1 day/night a month if you wanted to.







The firehouse managed to snag Hut 10, a 1-story rambler...the only residential looking building on base, for both Christmas and New Year's eve. After going to midrats (midnight rations...the night shift "lunch") I headed over there to finish partying up the night with all of the off-duty firefighters and as well as almost the entire 109th New York Air National Guard Airwing. I left at about 3 knowing we had shift change at 1100 the next day. A very fun night indeed.

With the holidays behind me, I'm in a better mood. It's the time of year where everyone's talking about inbound vessels, redeployment back into civilization, and summer jobs (Borealis Summer). Today is spent recuperating from the night before. The entire shift is in one state or another of being hungover. It's probably even safe to say that the entire town is feeling the same way too. As a matter of fact, the town, before I left to head out to Williams Field was dead...almost deserted. Everyone, I assume, was probably recuperating as well. Oh well. Happy New Year's.

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...