As the sun pulls away from the shore, and our boat sinks slowly in the west.

I retired from Penn State in October 2017. Not a hard decision really; 30 years at PSU and our research funding was in the tank (as is everyone's). It is time to be home a bit more and maybe travel to see the kids in Germany, Ireland and Lancaster. Maybe do a wee bit more cycling and hiking.

I will miss it thought, “it” being the big trips; Antarctica and Greenland. Working with great people day after day on fun and challenging projects. I’ve had several interviews since retiring (WITF, WPSU) and each time they ask me what I will miss about working in the field. It’s quite intangible and even harder to explain. 

One of my goals in retirement is to write about some of the photos I have taken over the years. Maybe one a week. As good old Rod Stewart (man I hate his music) says, “Every picture tells a story…”. Meanwhile maybe there is a chance I will deploy again, one can never tell about these things. So I’ll keep in PQ shape and see what happens.

Pulling Out

One of the truths of field work in Antarctica is that sooner or later, everyone leaves. I said goodbye to my adopted science project (not sure who adopted who) and temporary teammates Kiya, Nick and Atsu as they headed back to McMurdo yesterday. There is still a chance I will catch up with them in McMurdo; their northbound is not for a week. I have some loose ends to tie up here, and a few cats left to heard, but Science is wrapping up at WAIS Divide and it's time to go home.

The hardest "goodbye" was to my long-time friend Gary Clow. We have spent some good times in the field and been through the wars together. I don't get to see him very often, but when I do it is a pleasure.

Safe flying everyone!

A Drift

We have been riding out a WAIS Divide Special for the past few days. The winds have increased from the teens to the twenties and on into the thirty knot range. Not conducive to anything but staying inside. Unfortunately, that is not always possible down here. Gary and I took advantage in some breaks in the overcast to run out and check the damage at Arch-land. We have three structures out there (about 1/4 mile from camp), the Arch itself, now buried after nine years of accumulated snow, the Jamesway in this photo and The Polarhaven tent where the winch lives. This is one day without shoveling out the back entrance to the J-way. I this structure we prepare equipment for the various borehole logging experiments and as a warming hut. There is a Preway fuel oil burning inside for heat. The entrances to the Arch were an adventure, but not too bad. Waist deep drifts that an hour with the loader will take of care of…if the wind stops soon.

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".

Coming out of the field

It has been a roller-coaster of a day starting at 5:45 when we started getting ready for a flight transportation we knew would never happen. We are still flying LC-130s out of McMurdo because of the condition of the ice-runway, and only 40 at a time are going north. With a whole station to move as well as other bases that rely on our flights, it is a mess getting north.

We had bag drag last night but were told we would likely not fly because the Italians from Tera Nova Bay were going north. The only way we would fly is if they had weather bad enough to cancel their flight to McMurdo. Beautiful weather this morning. The blessing was that when I got back to the dorm the sun was shining on the Royal Society Range across the bay, and the icebreaker was working the sound. It was a beautiful sight and photos don't do it justice.

When I got to my room and set up shop (I gave up my office) I had another surprise. The NSF press release on WAIS Divide came out and there is a photo of me (taken by my good friend Giff Wong) with the release, and it made the banner on the NSF front page. The link is here;
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=126761&org=NSF&from=news
but it can also be found on the NSF.gov home page. A great honor. Second only to the honor of cutting the drilling cable this season at the end of a great, and highly successful project.

Lots to talk about from the season. It was one of my best seasons (17 now; I need to figure out how to edit my own blog page). First, I am looking forward to getting home. Too long in the field...