I realize there is no reason to edit my last post, I'll just start a new one. We have had a weather delay, so we have a little time. Here are some scenes from around McMurdo. In order from top to bottom and right to left: the McMurdo Electronics building where I the Comms office is for picking up radios; our office at the Crary Lab; the BFC where our cage is; the Crary lab and NSF dorms; the NSF Chalet with Observation Hill in the background.

Now I need to do some work, so more later.

Jon and Emily and a couple of other people finished up the quinzhee. It had been somewhat abandoned, but some of us wanted to see it completed. We had been digging out the inside and Jon was making an opening. We kept trying to meet up in the middle and stuck the pickaxe through from the outside, but could not see it from the inside for a long time. When we finally stuck through, we decided to make dinner. The group before us had made a kitchen out of their quarry, so we took it over and set up the stoves in there. Our dinner was Alpineaire brand "just add water" meals. They are actually pretty tasty. Jon went right back to digging the quinzhee after dinner. In fact, he closed off the hole we made to get the sleep kits out while he was inside the quinzhee (so he had no way out!) Emily saw him do this and was frantically trying to clear out the other opening to make sure Jon had a way out. This went on for a long time, but Jon did a great job on the inside and, together, we all made an excellent entryway.


Later on that evening, Emily and Jon made a beautiful archway over the entry. My camera was frozen the next day when I tried to take a photo, so I do not have one (yet). Other people became quite creative after dinner. One fellow made several letters out of snow blocks, all about 2 feet high. He spelled various words and took pictures of himself with them and with Castle Rock in the background. Dan (from ITASE) made a symbol used in quantum mechanics (in the photo). Another group of people made a zen garden - a spiral of snow blocks that I was unable to get a photo of due to the frozen camera.

I slept in a quinzhee built two classes before ours. The entry was very difficult to use and reminded me of sliding through narrow openings in the caves in Santa Cruz. Though, instead of mud going up your shirt or jacket, it is cold cold snow. I would probably choose to sleep in the Scott tent or a mountan tent next time, but I thought since the weather was so nice, and I didn't know when I would get this chance again, so why not? It was not as nice as the one Jon cleaned out. If I had known no one was going to sleep in it, I certainly would have. However, Emily and Jon were still working on the arch when I decided to go to sleep. Before that, I took a brief walk that led me close to an icefall. The lighting was incredible. It always is here because of the low angle of the sun at all times of the day.



It took me a long time to get into my sleeping bag. The ceiling of the quinzhee was so low, I kept hitting it with my head. There is not a lot of room to move around in and the sleeping bag was enormous. I was so glad to finally fall asleep. I woke up several times, but slept quite a bit and stayed warm. We had to break down camp in the morning and put everything away before the instructors showed up at 9 AM. We all worked together and just barely made it. The instructors picked up our sleep kits and bags and we walked back to the fish hut. We had more instruction there from Matt and Susan. We learned how to use the VHF and HF radios and then went out and practiced setting up the HF and calling South Pole to ask how the weather is. It worked really well!

I will have to amend this post later, so check it again next time. I'll probably edit it next time I have access. The second day of Snowcraft school was overcast and provided a very interesting picture of Mount Erebus in the clouds.

More on Snowcraft I today. Today is Sunday and the meal schedule is different. We have brunch at 10 AM, so I will leave soon to have brunch and then hopefully complete part III of Snowcraft I (because it was so fun!) and get everything updated to the present. I leave for the Dry Valleys tomorrow morning.

We finished setting up the Scott tents and securing them really well by making "dead man" or buried stakes. First, you dig with a mountaineering pickaxe a very narrow trench perpendicular to the line between two opposing corners of the tent. Using the pick, you slightly undercut the trench on the tent side. Then, you dig out a line perpendicular to that one, making a "T" that points toward the tent (this new line is for the rope attached to the tent to come up out of the snow.) You place the rope attached to the edge of the pyramid of the tent (it is about 1/2 of the way up) into the trench and then place a tent stake over the rope in the first part of the trench that was dug out. Pack some snow in on top, place your foot over it strongly and pull up on the rope. It should now be wrapped around the tent stake (we actually used a short piece of bamboo as a stake) and you can pull it really tight and then tie it off with a trucker's hitch or some other knot. We did this for all 8 ropes attached to the tent (each side and each edge of the tent had one.)

After we had our primary shelter set up, we started working on a quinzhee snow hut. One of our teachers, Matt, a guide from Anchorage, Alaska, explained how the Quinzhee is built by Alaskan Indians. The snow isn't really good for building igloos, so they build these dome-shaped shelters instead. We took a bit of a shortcut by putting our sleep kits into a pile and covering them with the floors of the Scott tents. Matt is explaining in this photo how we will cover the pile with lots of snow.

For about an hour, we used shovels to dig up snow in a circle around and about 3 feet away from the pile. After we had put about a foot of snow on the top of the pile (and more is at the bottom), we packed it down with our shovels. We repeated the process several times because we needed about 3 feet of packed snow on the top of the pile. Matt would go around checking the thickness of the snow and give us some estimation of how much more we needed to throw on.

We were all getting pretty tired, but everyone really worked hard. Some people would break up the snow with the squared-end shovels and others would scoop it up and toss it on with the larger snow shovels and rounded-end shovels. Matt did the final test. We were finished with the piling of snow, so we left it to settle and solidify a bit.

Everyone walked around and looked at quinzhees and other structures from previous classes. The last class had a really nice entry-way to their quinzhee and a snow penguin on top. They also had a really nice snow wall, so we all knew we had some competition. The weather was still wonderful, so we were all enjoying ourselves. We saw sleeping trenches, snow sculptures and snow walls.

While we were walking around, Susan, our other instructor and a guide for Exum Guides in the tetons, was busy getting a start on the snow block quarry we would use to build our wall. She explained the process of cutting the snow in a regular grid with saws, first in one direction along a line and back in the opposite direction to get a really clean cut. To loosen a block, put a shovel at the bottom near where the cuts end in the deeper snow and stick it in then pry it up. The snow was perfect for blocks. So we got to work and built our snow wall perpendicular to the direction the major wind storms come from and close to our Scott tents. The really bad storms, also knows as Herbies, come from the South between Black and White Islands. Black Island got its name from having really dark volcanic soil and little snow cover. The snow is constantly being blown off the island. White Island is snow covered, as you might have guessed.

After we had a good start at the wall, several people began putting up the mountaineering tents. Those of us who have assembled many a different kind of mountain tent kept working on the wall. Before we finished everything, we went back to the quinzhee and someone dug a hole at the bottom and straight in so we could retrieve the sleep kits. Once we had all the kits out (and yes, the quinzhee stayed right where it was), we all sat in a circle on the sleep kits and discussed what would happen next. The instructors were going to leave and go back to their jamesway and leave us with some radios. We needed to finish putting up tents and building the wall, and then we could do what we wanted. There were a couple of trails to hike on the ice shelf and, of course, a lot of snow if anyone was feeling creative.

Jon and I had to attend a course on how to camp outside in Antarctica. It is called Snowcraft I, but it is more popularly known as Happy Camper School. We met at the Field and Safety Training Program or FSTP (pronounced "F-stop") building for a brief class on keeping warm, eating, basic needs, etc. We loaded our sleep kits and duffel bags into a vehicle called a PistenBully. Then, we loaded up in the back of the Delta and drove to the Galley to get our lunches and fill our water bottles. Then we loaded up again, 20 people in all. The FSTP Delta is no longer allowed to travel on the ice, so we were dropped off and some of our gear and food was loaded onto a sled pulled by a snowmobile, while the PistenBully kept going out to the Snowcraft site with our bags.

We walked out on the ice shelf to a place where they hold the classes. It was a beautiful day, lots of sunshine and no wind. Nobody seemed to mind the walk. When we got to a small rectangular building called the Fish Hut, we had a quick class on how to use the Whisperlite stoves. A few people in the class had not evein all, and drove out to the edge of the ice shelf. They do not drive ther camped outside before, so it was good to go over everything. It had been a while since I set up one of those stoves since Dan usually takes on that task while I do other tasks, so I definitely needed a refresher.

We took the stoves outside and split up into 5 groups and everyone was able to try one out. We were going to use these stoves later on when we got out to our camp site for the evening.

We also had to put together our sleep kits and load them up in the sled. A sleep kit has a sleeping bag, fleece liner, and thermarest or other insulated pad. The sleep kits we take in the field with us also contain a pillow and a "P" (pee) bottle. The last thing you want to do in a howling storm is go outside just to pee.

We then walked back to the campsite. Here, the first thing we did was to set up the Scott tents. We were told to always set them up first so that if a storm came up quickly, we would have some shelter. They go up fast and are very solid in the wind. We used a rope to belay the tent up while people pushed from the other side. Then we stretched the poles out to make it taught and staked the corners down with snow stakes. A Scott tent is a pyramidal tent made of canvas with the poles incorporated into the tent. It does not have a floor built into it, but it does have a skirt around the bottom that we throw snow onto to keep air from getting into it.

Ivan the Terra Bus dropped us off at the NSF (National Science Foundation) Chalet for a brief meeting to welcome us to McMurdo, get us set up in our dorm rooms, and let us know what sort of meetings we needed to get to in the next few days. There are several dorms in McMurdo. Three dorms have 3 floors and each building has a sauna! I haven't been to a sauna yet. Those dorms also have suites - two rooms connected to each other by a bathroom and each room has two beds. I am in the dorms that share the building with the galley. It is convenient to wake up and not have to throw on "Big Red" - our big red jackets - or some other coat to go to breakfast. We have three bunk beds in our room. It is a little like going to camp. It has worked out pretty well though. My main concern was being put in a room with other women who wanted to stay up late or make a lot of noise. Three of my roommates had come from the South Pole. All of them got varying degrees of pulmonary edema. They were told to rest and get as much sleep as possible, so for the first few days, they were always sleeping. Other than having to move about in the dark (we had the window covered), it was nice and peaceful. Two of them have been able to return to the South Pole and the third will probaby go as soon as the weather clears up (it has been snowing).


Jon is the other graduate student in our group. He and I went to a briefing where they overwhelmed us with papers and information. It was great to meet the various people who make things happen in McMurdo. Then we had to go to some environmental meetings where we learned more about how to deal with waste in Antarctica, how about 60-75% of all waste is recycled, so it is important to separate your waste into various bins. We also learned that the Dry Valleys are a specially managed area and we must be extra careful to impact the environment as little as possible. Then, Jon and I went to the outdoor safety lecture so that if we had time, we could go on one of the various hikes or ski trails around McMurdo. All of these meetings were in the upstairs lounge at the Crary Lab. There is an excellent view from the window of this lounge.



All the science groups going into the field have a staging area in a building known as the Berg Field Center (BFC). The equipment we requested is stored in a "cage" that is shared with 2 or 3 other field groups. Jon and I went over to the BFC with the list of the equipment we were issued. We wanted to unlock the door and go through everything to make sure what was listed was actually there. It took about an hour and then we decided to enjoy ourselves a little and go for a hike.

We went up to Observation Hill where a cross was put in 1913 in memory of Scott's party. The view up there is incredible. It was a sunny day, but it was also very windy and so quite cold whenever we were on the windy side. Even so, I was wearing Big Red so I was sweating (you are not supposed to let yourself get that warm around here because you will cool off much more rapidly if you are sweating). The wind nearly knocked me over a couple of times and both of my cameras froze up. The digital camera just needed its battery warmed, so I started keeping it in my inside pocket next to my chest. The shutter of my Nikon 35mm froze open, so I would have to deal with that back in a warm environment. Two of the photos, one of Jon and one of me standing in the same spot, show Mount Erebus in the background. Another two photos of Jon show the town of McMurdo in the background. The other is a picture of Willy Field, the ice runway.

I will end this post with two pictures of the view from Ob Hill.

Okay, it is 10:12 PM here. You may say, "what does it matter when you have 24 hours of sunlight?" You have to put yourself on some kind of schedule! I wanted to stay up a little longer to get you to McMurdo. I know everyone is more excited about Antarctica than the C-17, so I'll get you there.

After a long, low, slow descent (I was paying close attention to what the plane was doing, it was really interesting) and some slight turns, there was a loud push from the jet engines as the wheels touched down and then a reverse thrust for a quick stop.

We were on the ice! In Antarctica!! White all around, mountains everywhere, and at the airstrip, lots of other planes. I had to take some photos of our plane. It was so incredible. I would have liked to see the cargo coming off! Ivan the Terra Bus was waiting to take us to McMurdo, to town.

I sure have a lot of catching up to do! Where was I? Oh yeah, the bus to the plane in Christchurch. Everyone was pretty excited when we finally saw the C-17. What an incredible plane. Huge.

Everyone was snapping photos from the shuttle, but then we had to wait outside the plane for several minutes, so I took some photos of the Globemaster and various people. I took a photo of myself, and I think I am grimacing because of the sun, or maybe I felt silly because I knew there was little chance of getting the C-17 in the background. I did ask someone to take a photo of me, but it must not have taken because I can't find it. This airplane really is huge, and I knew we did not have very many passengers for it, so I figured we must be carrying some big cargo. When I came to Antarctica before, it was on a LC-130 that was carrying quite a bit of cargo in the rear of the plane. I guess that is what I expected to see. I have seen many photos on Antarctic blogs and websites of the plush seats in the center of the C-17.

We certainly did have cargo on our flight - HUGE cargo right in the middle where the plush seats might have been. We had so few passengers that there were still some empty webbing seats on either side.

I found out later that the cargo contained pieces of a very large telescope that had been build and disassembled in Texas and was being flown to McMurdo piece by piece - about 30 flights so far. Wow. There are so many amazing projects in Antarctica, such as the three different neutrino detectors (see the link to the Antarctic Sun on the right) or the ANDRILL project.

It seemed like we taxied forever to get to the runway. Maybe we were just moving really slowly or maybe the plane is kept fairly far away from the runway. Take off was smooth and it felt as though the plane were at a fairly steep angle. As we were ascending, various crew members came to check on the huge chains holding down the cargo in various places. I think this might have made Emily a little nervous. By the way, the C-17 crew is from McCord Air Force Base.

We were all kind of wedged in with each other with our orange carry-on bags pushed in under our seats along with our lunch bags containing two meat sandwiches, two bags of potato chips, an orange, a muffin, a cookie, a granola bar, chocolate, water and fruit juice (maybe there is something I am forgetting). I tried sleeping, but I wasn't very tired or maybe just too excited. Fortunately, I wasn't nervous at all about the flight and enjoyed listening to the engine (though I had ear plugs in) and feeling the changes in the movement of the plane. I wrote in my journal, knitted a bit on my hat, listened to my iPod (Thank you Tony and Erica!!!) and just wandered around a bit. There were some small round windows here and there, one on each door and high above the seats on either side of the plane. I took photos out the front window. The first time I looked through, I mostly saw water with ice chunks floating (they were probably small icebergs) and clouds.

I took some photos of the interior of the plane for Dan. Everything is exposed inside. It gives me an appreciation of the workings of a jet plane - and for what the crew has to check out everytime they fly. I also went up into the cockpit or control room. This area is upstairs from the main passenger/cargo area. I asked first if it was okay to go up there and got the thumbs up from the crew member seated next to the foot of the stairs. He was on a radio, so I was a little worried about bothering him. He said he would let them know I was on my way. I got up there and just stood there looking out the windows, probably with my mouth hanging open. Incredible! I felt like I was out there, in the clouds with nothing around me, just me flying through the sky. Finally, one of the pilots turned and looked at me and I said, "Oh, Hello". They were eating lunch, letting the computer fly the plane. Autopilot in a big way (well, everything seems big on a C-17, except the passengers). I asked if I could take their photo, but I wish I had also taken a photo of the view. It was magnificent.

Even though the flight is only about 4 hours, it is hard to sit still, especially with very few windows. When the pilot announced we were 30 minutes out and that it would be a good time to use the bathroom, nearly everyone got up and moved about and started putting on their ECW gear. I got up and looked out the window once again. For a while, all you could see were clouds. This time, it was all white and really really bright, so it took a moment to realize I was looking at sea ice with lots of snow on it! I was really excited. I tried to take a photo, but without the full resolution, it is very difficult to see the pressure ridges that indicate the surface. Eventually, I will have the full resolution images online for download somewhere.

An aside, as I was typing this, someone popped into the office where I am working and said hello. Joe Souney was a graduate student at UNH when I was first there. He and I were in all the same classes and had the same graduate advisor, Paul Mayewski. He went on the first US ITASE (International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition) the same year that I first went to the Dry Valleys. It seems like such a coincidence to me! Neither of us has been here in 7 years and here we are! He is working at UNH and is part of the WAIS coring project. Very cool.