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...

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....

Catching up...

It's been a while since I've written an entry, I know. Today, back in the states, is Thanksgiving. It's been a semi-depressing time but good friends here and at home have gotten me through this. It's getting progressively warmer here in town. I've been wearing my down jacket less and less and doing a lot of work outside in nothing but a T-Shirt (well, pants to). The temperature has yet to go above 25 degrees but it still feels pretty warm. In a couple of days, most federal departments will start hiring firefighters for the 2009 fire season which I can't wait for. I'm actually really looking forward to getting back to Cedar City (primarily so I can climb Moonlight Buttress) but I've been applying to other places as well. I really have my heart set on doing at the very least one season of fire in Alaska. So far, I've applied for Smokejumper and Helitack/Helirappel crews in California, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Montanna, Idaho, Utah and as of today for Engine Operator positions in Alaska, Wyoming, and Colorado. Needless to say, just the thought of the hiring process for future positions to open up have really got me excited.

This time of year, I'm missing my family terribly. I'm constantly thinking of my dad and my uncle as well as the family I have that are still alive back home. I have new friends that I'm growing real close to and at the same time I still have friends back home that I remain close to. The holidays don't seem as bad as they did last year for me but I'm still feeling a little down.

Life down here, on the other hand, gets better and better as time goes on. The mountains surrounding the base never look the same no matter how many times you look at them. I fall in love with this place more and more with each passing day. It's going to be hard to take a couple years off from here...

Anxiety, the Future, and the Now

I listen to a lot of Coldplay when I'm down or in in one of my regular funks. I really didn't notice it until recently. Sometimes (like now) I don't realize I'm in a funk until I listen to We Never Change or spies over and over again. Today is no different. The week, on the other hand, was pretty good. SAR tryouts are behind me. I still have no idea as to whether or not I made the team. I've spent a lot of my time on my computer planning around my education goals for next semester as well as the next couple of years. Nursing School is a definite...one way or the other. I'm still trying to ascertain from the National Registry of EMTs(NREMT) if I can use my Registered Nurse (RN) certification and "challenge" to test out for a NREMT-Paramedic certifications in lieu of having to take a RN to NREMT-P bridge or, heaven forbid, a complete Paramedic course. I've also toyed with the idea of doing something crazy like working towards my A.A.S. in Fire Science at the same time. Granted, loading my semester like that is going to be a bitch and a half but I think it will be worth it spending as little time "sitting still" as possible. I've been dreading the thought of sitting in a classroom having to interact with a bunch of other students for the past month or so that I have been thinking about school. I really don't know why. I think it's just the way I think and the way I live my life and not wanting to be around scores of people who revolve around the notion that life is all about getting a job you'll spend the next quarter-century at, creating a family, and settling down. I think that, then I get mad at myself for judging a whole group of people I don't know...yet I still have the anxiety of possibly having to "settle down" even if it's only for a couple years. What's worse is thinking about settling down for another couple of years after that to work on my residency or gain experience. I've been slowly teaching myself to relax and not jump to conclusions about my life in the future back home for school. So far (so far being a week or so) it has been working. I'm pretty excited to go back to school.

The weather has been pretty warm here (relatively speaking of course). It has yet to crest 20 but it has been in the high teens. I've been doing a lot of work outside in nothing more than my uniform pants, normal boxers, and a short-sleeve t-shirt. The skuas and seals are out in full force. Thursday night while waiting for a shuttle to head over to the New Zealand base, we watched a Skua attack from start to finish. We saw the 'victim' walk out of Building 155 with food in his hand. We saw the two skuas on the roof eying his food and their future meal. Realizing the ensuing hilarity none of the 7 of us said a word. Within several seconds, the skua had dive bombed the victims food, a piece of cheesecake, grab the cake in one fell swoop, and flew several yards away where it and it's amigo chowed down on their score. The entire thing was quite possibly the funniest damn thing I've seen all season. Of course now, I'm paranoid whenever I walk outside. Yes, life here is good. Despite my funks or bouts of depression, I'm having a great time and enjoying myself

Fire, The Weekend, School, Work

Today is day 3 of 5 spent away from the trials and tribulations experienced during the peak hours of the Antarctic Fire Department. On top of my normal Saturday Kelly Day I have tryouts again for the Joint Antarctic Search and Rescue Team tomorrow. Considering I didn't make it last year, I'm hoping this year will be different. The weekend has been fun for me. Friday night we had a fire and major hazardous materials incident in one of our science research facilities. I can't go into any more detail than that because the official report has yet to be released but all I can say is it was a major incident for us. Yesterday I spent my afternoon in Snow Craft and Sea Ice refresher classes. Asides from the fire on Friday the weekend has been pretty slow. I've spent a lot of it thinking about school, work, and home for after the 2009 fire season. With everything I've done in the past couple years, I'm hoping my resume proves exotic enough for the employers I'm looking at. Oh well...

The Good Life in McMurdo

Life here in McMurdo is great. The few calls we get and the circus games of vehicular issues we play keep life at the fire department exciting and fresh. Election day (which was Wednesday our time) was really exciting to follow. Because of the close quarters of our base (in comparison to any other town in the Washington Metropolitan Area) the energy in the air here was amazing. I gave up on any of the American news outlets in favor for the BBC considering that they had a constant live feed of the action back in the states rather than a website that updated every few minutes or so. I had said to a few people down here that I thought it was pretty cool to get to say that, "I was in Antarctica" when I found out that Barack Obama became our nation's first black president. At first I didn't believe it (partly because of my natural skepticism for anything sans irrefutable proof). I mean, I found out from a girl standing on a chair in our galley shouting it out. Yeah, I'm sure that seems a legitimate reason to believe but had still remained skeptical. Either way, it was pretty amazing to hear the amount of people cheering at Dinner.

The days are passing by quite pleasantly...a step up from the beginning of last season. I've been thinking about climbing a lot and what my travels when I redeploy before coming back home. I've been able to relax my mind (when I'm not at work) a lot more down here. My thoughts have ranged from skiing hills and slopes I see as I drive around Ross Island to school next fall to performing yoga while stuck on a portaledge 800 feet off the ground. I've been working out, I've been eating healthy...I've been happy....and I have McMurdo to thank for that.

Antarctic Fire Department Vehicles

There are days when I love my job, then there are days I resent the silly shit that manages to happen on a daily basis. Today, my bitches, gripes, and complaints belong with the vehicles of the Antarctic Fire Department. Somehow, when ever we get something back from the Vehicle Maintenance Facility (VMF), two vehicles go out of service in return. Today I've been dealing with, primarily, one of our tracked Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting (ARFF) vehicles, Red 2:

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2007-2008

We brought it in for brake, oil pressure, and other issues regarding the foam delivery system (primarily the turret) from Williams Field. To give you a brief rundown of the vehicle, it's over 20 years old. It weighs in excess of 80,000 lbs and it tops out at about 8 mph. It's over an hour ride out to Williams Skiway in Red 2 and damn near an hour and a half to two hours out to Pegasus. Today, I almost caught it on fire when I was driving it back from the VMF to the firehouse and the parking brake engaged on its own (unbeknown to me). I didn't find out till I smelled the brakes burning and I saw the plume of smoke bellowing from underneath the vehicle. Within 30 minutes of it leaving the VMF, it got picked up and brought straight back. So now, being the only person in station qualified to drive it and the only person that's familiar with the parking break problem (this is the 3rd time in the past couple weeks this has happened, I am privileged to drive this 40 ton piece of shit back out to Pegasus...at 2300 hrs. I can't even begin to imagine what else can happen to the vehicles tonight. On top of that we have 2 engines without a working pump, 1 engine with a tank that has more holes than a spaghetti strainer, a nodwell that's leaking foam, a van that just likes to die whenever it feels like, an Renegade with a broken radio, and 2 ambulances that are running on their last legs (or wheels I guess). The best part is the season has only begun...

Election Day

It's near mid afternoon Wednesday here in McMurdo which means it's Tuesday evening back home. That means election day! Even this far away (9,186 miles to be exact courtesy of Google Earth) people are ecstatic over the results to come. As I talk to a good friend of mine, I can't help but think how relieved I am to not be anyone close to the Washington DC Metropolitan area at the moment, yet at the same time, I feel I'm missing out on a possible momentous occasion to celebrate not only as a town or region but as a country in general within the borders of the US...if that makes any sense. It does feel good to be down here though. For one, it feels good to say that I put forth the effort to cast an absentee ballot so that my vote can count whilst I reside on the 7th continent. It also feels good to be able to say I was in Antarctica during the most historical election in our history. Today, being my day off, will be spent keeping a close eye on the polls, celebrating the end of 8 years of embarrassment, celebrating a historic election however the outcome, and celebrating democracy in general. I'll try not to get too drunk though...I have to work tomorrow.

Station 2 - Tour 2

Today is the 2nd out of 3 possible consecutive shifts for myself out here at Station 2. Considering we're doing a full 24 hour shift out here versus opening the station at 1600 in the afternoon, I spent most of the day getting my crew and one of our new Lieutenants oriented to operations here at the ski field. Fire and Rescue and Crash/Rescue operations out here can prove to be pretty complex between the military's requirements of us, our staffing, our equipment (or lack there off), and what we're responsible for. To elaborate, the United States Air Force and the Air National Guard with the aircraft they have residing here at the airfield require 6 people minimum and a certain amount of foam available for use within 2 minutes which means there are 6 people at station 2 24/7 throughout the duration of the military's presence. With the tracked vehicles we have, the agent (Compressed Air Foam and thousands of pounds of Purple K dry powder), we can take care of most aircraft emergencies. As far as structural fires are concerned here out at the airfield, we have to use equipment designed for cold-weather aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) to the best of our (and the equipment's) ability. We're also responsible for emergency medical services (EMS) out here on the airfield and most of the snow and ice roads that lead out to here, Williams Ski Field, from McMurdo Station. Both responsibilities drop our staffing if not completely take it away from our primary reason for being out here which is ARFF. Luckily, our call volume out here rarely crests 20 for the entire Austral Summer season. Anyways, today was spent familiarizing the crew with our various vehicles, the runway and ramp layout, emergency hard stand locations, airfield operations and procedures, and the "ice town" layout. Now, being 2000 hrs, we sit back watch movies and enjoy each other. Stay safe out there...

From Antarctica - Austral Summer 2007-2008

SPOT Satellite Messenger

I've said in the past that like any good blogger who's spends their fair share of time outdoors I would throw up a post on pieces of gear I own that impress me so I figured I'd start with the SPOT Satellite Messenger.





I dropped the $170 for this device because 1) it was a lot cheaper than most other Personal Locating Beacons (PLB) 2) It offered check-in, tracking, and help features on top of standard 911/rescue features (unlike any other PLB on the market) and 3) I spend so much time out in the wilds by myself that I figured it was good insurance for myself and that of the minds of my friends and parents. It proved fairly accurate (which I had hoped for the price I paid) but the most impressive thing I found about it was when I tried the Check In/I'm Ok feature of the device it actually captured a satellite down here which I believe to be out of it's coverage area.:



View Larger Map

So for $170 (plus $99 for the annual subscription and $7 for worldwide rescue insurance) I thought it was well worth the money for a little piece of mind that will cover your ass most of the world over...

Life Now and Post-Winter

Last year, the Antarctic Fire Department reached some amount of normalcy when we opened Station Two out at Williams Field. Honored to do so (I can't even tell if that's sarcasm or not) I led the first shift through the inaugural opening of Station 2 for the season. Last night saw the arrival of the first 4 LC-130 Hercules for the season with more to come in the following month. As typical of station 2, it was a quiet night. Today I spend most of it preparing my resume and sending emails.

To elaborate on my process of applying for wildland jobs, there are several things I'm looking to do for next year. For the most part, I loved working for Zion Helitack. Despite a few minor differences in the beginning, in the end, I felt a lot closer to my crewmmates and leaders to the point where I miss them now. I would be more than honored to go back next summer. I figured, however, it wouldn't hurt to apply to a few places that I figure I'd enjoy. A fellow McMurdo resident who also works as a wildland firefighter during the summer gave me the advice to apply to place I would want to work in the future and not necessarily next year so that if my name kept showing up on the "cert" of people that apply, I'd be more recognizable. Like I said in my post before, I was aiming pretty high as far as positions, crews, and my qualifications are concerned. So far, I've applied to:

Boise BLM Smokejumpers

Alaska BLM Smokejumpers

Arroyo Grande Helishots

Bridgeport Interagency Helitack

McCall Smokejumperes

Missoula Smokejumpers

Region 5 Smokejumpers

Redmond Smokejumpers

West Yellowstone Smokejumpers

North Cascade Smokejumpers

Grangeville Smokejumpers

Wenatchee Valley Rapellers

Gallatin Rappel Crew


As well as Rappel/Helitack Crews in...


Mountain View, WY

Challis, ID

Hailey, ID


I haven't really thought about or planned what I'd do if I actually get a job offer with these crews but I'll play that by ear if that ever happens. For now, I'm still planning on returning to Zion. I guess for now my tentative plan for the fall is to return to DC for Nursing and/or Paramedic school for a couple years. Will see if that happens too...

Skiing!

I've been here for almost a month and I finally got out to ski today! It felt great to get out of town for a few hours. I was hoping to get some downhill in after skinning for a couple miles but by the time I had made it to the bottom of the hill we were skiing to my feet were done (keep in mind I had just bought the boots I was wearing in August). I took off with a friend and co-worker Kelly Goodick and for the entire day we enjoyed a rare windless day. The temperature was definitely cold (sub-zero out on the ice shelf) but with no wind it and constant movement, it was easily bearable. Anyways, skiing today allowed me to release a lot of stress that had been built up since almost the first day since I had been back in a controlled way. Now if I can only find a hill...