Gearing Up for Christmas

Merry Christmas. It's Christmas day here on the Ice and we are getting ready for our time in the borehole tonight. We have an all-night seismic shoot all ready to go. It has taken two weeks to survey the line, drill and load shot holes, lay the seismic spread and get all the equipment ready and it is time to shoot.

Christmas Eve was our big dinner (45 in Camp). No turkey but we did have ham and a nice prime rib with all the fixings. No freshies but lots of nice deserts. And some wine, maybe a bottle or four of Glen'. I played Santa (again). Two years ago I swore I would never do it again but it was a really nice evening and everyone behaved themselves. We have a White Elephant gift exchange and it is always a good time. The complex make-up of Camp changes from year to year depending on who is here. It would be quite the social dynamics study

So I slept in till 11, had lunch, and it is time to gear up. There is something energizing, almost cathartic in the process of getting ready to spend time outside here in Antarctica. If I am going to spent time on the snowmobile, like tonight, it involves getting hot drinks ready in a thermos (for me it's two packs of cocoa into coffee, others prefer tea), making sure you have a radio with a charged battery plus a spare, GPS, extra gloves, dry socks and neck gators (they get wet and frozen from your breath and need to be swapped out). I also have the tools I need to shoot the explosives off, a copy of the shooting plan and my yellow notebook.

Then the dressing begins. Dry socks (trying hard to keep the sock you just took off separate from the sock you are about to put on; sounds simple, but…); wind pants over two layers; then dry boots (I keep two pair and rotate); four layers on top plus Big Red (the Canada Goose issue jacket); neck gator or two; two hats and a light hood; and goggles (I can't drive with sunglasses. They don't offer enough protection from the wind.)

Should be a good night. The winds are up a bit for shooting seismic (10 knots) but the sun is shining so I will be able to see the bumps in the snow when I drive. It should be about zero F or below. I think we are ready.

Men wanted, long hours, low pay

We finally made it to WAIS Divide to start the field season. The first task was to set up the hot-water drill we use to produce shot holes for our seismic experiment. I "designed" and built the drill some years ago and, while it is hardly a technological wonder, it does the job. We can drill to 20 meters in about 20 minutes.

The down side is that the drill was shipped to McMurdo a year ago in anticipation of last field season then left for a year in the cargo yard. Not good for any equipment.

We have had a litany of BD* items and it has taken two-13 hour days to get it running. Somehow, after dinner last night everything fell into place and we were in drill mode. Today is Sunday so we started the day late; 8AM instead of 8AM. Wait, what? Should be a short day; finish at 9 or 10 tonight. Nice day off, eh.

Sometime after lunch I thought of the add Shackleton placed in the paper; loosely paraphrased "Men wanted for Antarctic venture; long hours, low pay, chances of success slight." He had a line down the street the next morning.

*BD; Bravo Delta, not working, broken. Slightly better than TU.

Another season, another buck and a half.

The start of season 18 was less than auspicious. A snow squall in State College caused our flight to be diverted to Harrisburg. We were landing in Dulles as our LA flight was leaving (on time of course) so Nick and I spent Thanksgiving evening at an airport hotel. The burger was mediocre at best.

We arrived at LAX with 12 hours to spare, 4 hours before we could even get a boarding pass and go into the terminal. It was uphill from there; we got into the Qantas lounge (thanks Joni) and the Sydney flight was empty.

Arrived in Christchurch at 5 PM and reported for our clothing issue at 5 AM; the third time in a row with 12 hours or less in Christchurch. By 6 I was ready to check in for the flight and get breakfast (and coffee), but no; we had a flight brief at 6:25 and boarded straight away. No breakfast, no coffee. Kiya was looking worried. She and Nick would be locked on an airplane with me for 8.5 hours and I had consumed no coffee.

The flight was one-of-a-kind. My first trip on SAFAIR; the only commercial C-130 in the world. It lived down to our expectations.

Not the most uncomfortable trip I have ever had though (that would have been on an old C-141) and I only had a splitting headache for two hours. See, I'm even smiling. We landed at Pegasus airfield and an hour later were sitting in the NSF's Chalet being moved to tears by "the Marshall" (Don't listen to the rumor mill).

The weather and food have been good though, and we have jump through all the hoops, dotted all the tees. We are ready for a Tuesday put in flight to WAIS Divided, "Jewel of the West Antarctic".