McMurdo population swells with flight delays, busy season 

The iconic drawing showed men — grizzled and cramped — hanging their socks in a tent, stacked like human cordwood on an arduous turn-of-the-century expedition.

While today’s McMurdoites hardly contend with the discomforts common in the “Heroic Era of Polar Exploration,” grizzled and cramped were apt descriptors of McMurdo Station  this month given the population and the status of its facial hair.

McMurdo swelled to 1,121 people on Nov.17, as frequent weather delays cancelled field camp and South Pole flights while incoming airplanes from Christchurch kept crowding in.

“In general, it felt chaotic and crazy, just the fact that you knew that we were at capacity maybe added to the claustrophobia a bit,” said janitor Nikki Beard. “But we also knew it was just temporary.”

It was the opposite for westward field camps, as sparse put-in crews plowed through the weather delays.

The WAIS (West Antarctic Ice Shelf) Divide field camp opened Nov.10 and waited more than a week on severe storms for carpenters to arrive. More weather delays at Byrd Surface Camp prompted nimble shifts and team efforts from the crew at WAIS, Siple Dome, the New York Air National Guard , and CReSIS science team to open the camp Nov. 18 and get Byrd up to speed.

For the first time in many years, Siple Dome camp will house 15 people and a science project to help the POLENET grantees get started on their work this season, said field camp manager Cara Ferrier in an e-mail, adding that, “Everything has a way of changing.”

But new faces didn’t translate into new interest in McMurdo’s annual beard growing competition. Though this month’s Mustache and Turtleneck Party did blip on the facial hair radar, the bearded consensus shied away from the contest’s mandatory shave down. Few wanted to part with their Antarctic grizzle, which looked remarkably like the Antarctic grizzle of Shackleton’s time.

This era was the focus of professor Julian Dowdeswell’s riveting talk on the “Heroic Age of Polar Exploration,” featuring favorites like Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton. Historical photos, drawings — like the one of hanging socks — spiced up the presentation, including one drawing of three ships in McMurdo’s bay. This was the heroic era equivalent to McMurdo at mainbody in early October, Dowdeswell said.

Frequent Adélie and emperor penguin sightings near McMurdo filled up snap-happy folders on McMurdo’s shared network, as dedicated volunteers spent weeks getting people out on field trips to ice caves and Cape Evans. Pictures also piled up of the Scott Base pressure ridges, and a recent group saw a seal mother and pup in the ice sculptures. Sea ice trips are winding down as the roads soften and open water inches closer to McMurdo.

The Thanksgiving holiday started with a calorie-burning event — a steep 5K Turkey Trot to Scott Base — but quickly devolved into caloric gobbling as the dining hall whipped up an extraordinary feast. By the numbers: McMurdo ate 1,110 pounds of turkey, 1,500 dinner rolls, 2,200 truffles and 400 chocolate mousse skuas.

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Aussies make guest appearance at McMurdo Station

Mainbody is fully on at McMurdo Station . On Oct. 30, the Housing office reported 1,032 folks on station — 756 men and 276 women — and at least one skua has already arrived on Ross Island. The population was boosted by transients headed to the South Pole, WAIS field camp and Casey, one of the Australian Antarctic Division’s main bases.

Fifty Australians arrived on Monday, Oct. 26, from Hobart, landing on the Sea Ice Runway in an Airbus jet. The newly reopened Southern Exposure club hosted a reception for them to meet their American counterparts on the night of their arrival. Poor weather kept them in town a couple of extra days, but none of them seemed to mind.

Also newly reopened is the craft room, which lost its home in Building 63 last year. A former smokers’ lounge in building 155 now houses craft supplies and sewing machines.

The sewing machines were dusted off just in time to be used for Halloween costumes. The Halloween party actually fell on Halloween this year, capping off a week of activities including scary movies, a pumpkin decorating contest, Zombie Walk and a talk by station physician Dr. Ken Iserson, based on his book, “Death to Dust: What Happens to Dead Bodies.”

Dr. Iserson is currently preparing for the stationwide mass casualty incident (MCI) drill, currently scheduled for the afternoon of Nov. 12. The drill and the team rely on non-medical station personnel with specialized training or a willingness to help to serve as recorders, stretcher bearers or auxiliary medical care providers.

Volunteers are preparing to lead trips out on the sea ice to the ice caves and the historic hut at Cape Evans. Visitors to the hut will be able to get a firsthand glimpse at the restoration work being performed this summer by teams from the United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust and New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust .

McMurdo Station is currently supporting 17 different science groups in town and in the field. October’s Sunday science lectures provided a look at Antarctic microbes, and discussions about what Antarctica can teach us about potential life on Mars. The final lecture of the month focused on the South Pole Traverse, whose participants drive more than 1,000 miles to deliver fuel and other supplies to the South Pole, and return carrying waste products. [See related article: Traverse on track.]

However, the highlight of the lecture circuit was again the ongoing BBC/Discovery film project based out of McMurdo. The film team showed footage taken this year and last from around the continent. [See related article: Frozen Planet.]

Dave Desautels, a foreman in the Vehicle Maintenance Facility, was named employee of the month at the October All-Hands meeting. He’s credited with helping support Fleet Ops during construction of the sea ice runway.

Flying in this month, among arriving personnel, science cargo and freshies: much-missed food items such as tater tots and jalapeños, and treats for the upcoming holidays including lobster tails and crab legs.

Anyone sending mail in October faced some difficult choices at the mailroom counter: first-class stamps with images of Hawaiian surfers or postcard stamps with polar bears.

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Summer field season under way at McMurdo Station

The summer field season is finally under way at McMurdo Station  after the first flight landed on Oct. 3 (local time), following several days of delays due to weather and mechanical problems with the Air Force C-17.

Winfly, the short period between winter and summer, is essentially over for the 472 folks at McMurdo. The local Channel 7 Transportation Network is listing bag drag times and flight information, meaning soon-to-depart winter-overs are busy packing up their rooms and daydreaming of coming vacations in tropical places.

Actually, McMurdo Station’s isolation was already briefly interrupted on Sept. 21, when a New Zealand Air Force Hercules C-130 arrived on a medevac mission to transport a station services worker experiencing heart problems to Christchurch. The story earned a few headlines in New Zealand and the United States. The mission was a success, and the person is receiving treatment in New Zealand.

Speaking of flights, Fleet Ops had been hard at work preparing the annual sea ice runway not far from town. Community members have been watching the seemingly endless, circling parade of heavy equipment spouting clouds of snow into the air to prepare a landing strip.

Multiple departments have been bustling in order to find incoming folks places to live. And despite duties in both occupied and unoccupied buildings, the housing department still managed to field the winning team — Team Diesel — in the Winfly Dodgeball Tournament.

Crews have also been working to end the run of short power outages in town, and while the generators are being worked on, station management is also soliciting ideas for reducing energy consumption in work centers and dormitories.

One person whose batteries never run down is Kai Scott, a winter-over recognized as McMurdo’s employee of the month for September, “who provided exceptional physical therapy and patient assessments for McMurdo and Scott Base.”

And many Mactown folks have “strained” their necks this past month, gazing at stars, planets, the moon, auroras and nacreous clouds.

Nacreous clouds were the topic at one of September’s Sunday science lectures, where it’s always nice to learn how the community’s efforts translate into cutting-edge science. Other lectures exposed us to the concept of Snowball Earth, Weddell seals fitted with cameras during their quests for fish, and the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to gather weather data.

One of the four UAVs brought down this season was lost in a crash on pack ice, and — ironically — carried the name of Robert F. Scott, who himself perished a century ago in a quest to be the first to reach the south Pole.

However, the other three planes brought down by scientist John Cassano  — Mawson, Shackleton, and Bancroft, all named after Antarctic explorers — completed 16 flights, eight of which were “science” flights to the Terra Nova Bay polynya the science team was studying. They logged more than 130 flight hours and flew a total of almost 7,000 miles. [See previous article on Cassano: Pulse on polynyas.]

One new event taking root here is the weekly Zumba class — possibly the first appearance of Latin dance aerobics in Antarctica, though we haven’t checked with the Chileans, Argentines or Brazilians on the other side of the continent.

And another new thing that’s a source of endless debate is the dining hall’s menu schedule. While Wednesday is still cookie day, McMurdites are no longer guaranteed a preceding meal with a Mexican theme. Monday dinner is no longer necessarily Asian-themed (apologies to Jennifer 8. Lee, the New York Times reporter who gave McMurdo a shout-out in her book “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles”) and Saturday nights may soon explore cuisines beyond the Italian peninsula.

Also facing light-hearted criticism is the new film “Whiteout,” recently released in the U.S. and slated to hit New Zealand theaters on Oct. 29. Discussion among those at McMurdo who saw them film indicate the movie might not present the most realistic portrayal of life on the Ice.

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Winfly on full tilt at McMurdo Station

Winfly at McMurdo Station  — a short six-week season when additional support staff arrive to help prepare the research station for summer — had a couple of false starts this year as stormy weather delayed the first flight by two days.

Originally scheduled for Aug. 20, the first aircraft to land at McMurdo in more than six months had to wait for high winds to decrease and visibility to improve before touching down on Aug. 22.

While a small contingent of outgoing passengers anxiously awaited the flight, the remainder of the winter-over crew was relieved to have a few extra days to prepare the station, and themselves, for the onslaught of new people. Of course, that also meant delaying the delivery of the much-anticipated “freshies” — the fresh fruit and vegetables that winter-overs look forward to so much at this time of year.

The U.S. Air Force squadron at McChord Air Force Base out of Bellingham, Wash. flew five successful flights between Aug. 22 and Aug. 30. Four of these flights carried incoming passengers who nearly tripled the winter population, bringing the total station population to 427 people, up from a winter population of 157.

The fifth and final flight on Aug. 29 carried only cargo because it took place at night. Using night vision goggles, the pilots landed at Pegasus White Ice Runway  as part of a training mission to practice skills needed in the case of an emergency rescue operation during the winter. [See previous article: Night vision.]

Winfly is the only time of year the Air Force can practice this type of mission because it is the only time that there are regularly scheduled flight operations that coincide with periods of darkness at McMurdo Station. The first sunrise of summer occurred on Aug. 19, and the summer sun will soon shine 24 hours a day until winter returns next year.

After several weather delays of its own, the night flight went off without a hitch and delivered tons of cargo, including thousands of pounds of mail for eager winter-overs, who got their first packages and letters in more than six months.

As soon as the last Winfly flight departed, work began on moving all aspects of flight operations from the Pegasus Ice Runway, located about 15 miles from town, to the much-closer Sea Ice Runway, which is set up on the seasonally frozen sea ice just a few hundred meters from McMurdo Station.

The Sea Ice Runway will be up and running for the first flights of the main summer field season and will stay in place until late December, when warm temperatures necessitate a move back to Pegasus for the remainder of the season. The two-month temporary move to an airfield closer to town saves countless man-hours in both commute times as well as maintenance and repair time on vehicles.

Recreational activities have ramped with the influx of new people. The Coffee House has officially opened for summer, offering residents another venue for social gathering, movie nights and open mic presentations. Southern Exposure, formerly a smoking facility, is currently receiving a total remodel and will join the Coffee House and Gallagher’s as a social gathering place in early October.

Other recreational activities under way for Winfly include sports tournaments, instructional clinics for the climbing wall, science lectures, rugby practice, and an arts and crafts fair to highlight the many talents on station.

The main summer season will begin Sept. 29. At that time, winter-over personnel will begin their trips north and say their goodbyes, heading to adventures beyond the confines of Ross Island, this writer included.

And though goodbyes can be sad, the promise of green grass, singing birds and fresh food keep our spirits high. Having given our best efforts over the winter, we can proudly hand over the reigns to a more energetic crew with no regrets. Have a great summer!

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McMurdo prepares to receive five August flights

Things are ramping up at McMurdo Station , as we prepare for the Winfly season, which will bring about 350 fresh people here to help prepare the station for the 2009-10 summer field season. In fact, sunrise is just around the corner on Aug. 19, and more and more light can be seen on the horizon each day, bringing renewed energy and sense of anticipation to winter-overs.

In an inter-departmental push, the Pegasus White Ice Runway is being dug out from the record winter snowfalls, and buildings and runway lights are being set in place for the first flight, which is scheduled for Aug. 20. Five flights are scheduled for Winfly, including one night flight flown as a training mission for the Air Force and four passenger flights. This will essentially triple the current population.

In order to accommodate the influx of new people on station, McMurdo winter-overs are working hard to re-open buildings and expand workspaces. Dormitories left “cold” during the winter are being warmed up, and the current residents are shuffling their accommodations to make room for roommates.

This year all but two dormitories will be needed to house the larger-than-normal Winfly population. The extra people will include more firefighters who are coming in to complete department training on the Ice, more scientists, and personnel for the South Pole Traverse who need to get a jumpstart on their season. Those extra people also necessitate the arrival of additional kitchen and janitorial staff to support the population.

While we winter-overs do not relish the expanding population, we eagerly await the arrival of fresh fruits and vegetables (“freshies”) and mail from home.

The approaching summer also means our thoughts turn to plans off the Ice. Tuesday nights have been scheduled for travelogues in the dining hall, as people share photos and stories of past travel adventures, and inspire new ones.

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McMurdo residents enjoy a little Midwinter revelry

A season of celebration has begun at McMurdo Station . The festivities started with the Midwinter Dinner and will continue through the month of July as station residents find a multitude of things to celebrate.

The Midwinter Dinner, marking the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year in the southern hemisphere, took place this year on Saturday, June 20. A unique and historic holiday for Antarctic winter-overs, it marks the beginning of the sun’s return to the horizon and the halfway point for the winter season.

We celebrated in fine fashion this year, with a lavish dinner of beef tenderloin, duck and seafood-stuffed fish filets. Working with ingredients made up of mostly frozen and canned items, the cooks put together a remarkable meal, showcasing the talents of each member of the team. Fresh lettuce and cucumbers from the greenhouse were the pièce de résistance of this fine event.

This year’s theme of the evening was “Remembering Antarctica of the Past,” and volunteers pitched in to transform the dining hall into a high-class venue resembling a museum, decorated with sepia-toned photos of expeditions past and historical items from polar exploration. The evening ended with speeches and greetings from station management, along with a dance highlighting music from all the nations currently living and working around Antarctica.

Midwinter excitement continued the following weekend with the traditional midwinter run. This foot race, beginning in the center of town, follows a route out along the island’s peninsula and around Scott’s Hut before finishing outside the aerobics gym, where snacks and warm beverages awaited. This year’s race attracted about 75 runners, walkers and sprinters — nearly half of the station’s population.

The revelry will continue on the Fourth of July weekend with the annual Independence Day carnival. Held in the large garage, the vehicle maintenance facility (VMF), the party will include games of skill and chance, a dunk tank, a barbeque and live music presented by the many talented musicians on station. The following day, the VMF folks will host the last indoor horseshoe competition of the winter season.

All of this entertainment comes before the final push toward the Winfly season. This short preparatory period will begin with the first plane arriving at station on Aug. 20. The Winfly season is a time of flurried preparations to ready the station for the busy summer science season, which starts in early October. This year’s Winfly will expand the station population from the current 157 people to more 500, so the winter residents have a lot to do once the celebration ends to get ready for this onslaught of activity and new arrivals.

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Special projects keep McMurdo crew busy

Stormy weather obscured the final sunset on April 23 and since then McMurdo Station has settled into the total darkness of winter. A faint noontime glow silhouetting the surrounding hills is the only reminder that the sun is still there and will return in a few months time.

With the onset of total darkness, the residents of Ross Island have settled into a comfortable routine, both at work and at play. Daily tasking is being completed, along with some special projects, and a regular schedule of recreational activities keeps people entertained during non-working hours.

After the excitement of some harsh, early winter storms, a bout of unseasonably warm weather and calm conditions has made working outdoors a much more pleasant experience. This has been a welcome change for several groups on station working on special projects that requires them to be outdoors a majority of the time.

One of this winter’s special projects is the power plant upgrade project that will renovate and upgrade the old power plant building to house new generation equipment to power McMurdo. Currently, the station runs on generators that will serve as the backup power plant once the upgrade is complete. Even with the disruption from last month’s storms, the upgrade project is ahead of schedule and the new generators should be in place before the summer season.

Another project nearing completion is the mapping of the entire heat trace system on station. Heat trace is an electrical heating component that runs alongside the water pipes throughout station to keep the water supply from freezing. Mapping and cataloguing the system for replacement and upgrade required weeks of leg work and arm work for the small group responsible for the project, as each section had to be physically traced and every joint dug out and visually inspected. This was no small task given the amount of snow and ice that surrounded much of the system.

Other special projects include the fortification of the sea ice transition, the creation of an ice runway near station, and cleanup of the treatment trains at the wastewater treatment plant.

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A-Frame lost

Residents of McMurdo Station bowed their heads alongside those at New Zealand’s Scott Base to mourn the loss of the historic A-Frame Hut after a fire burnt down the timber and bitumen structure on May 24.

The fire occurred during a routine inspection by Scott Base personnel, who were completing a changeover of diesel fuel tanks, which heated the hut, according to a press release from Antarctica New Zealand . Upon re-ignition of the heater, the priming fuel flashed over and set fire to the hut. Attempts to fight the fire proved futile as the hut burnt quickly in the dry conditions while outside air temperatures were as low as minus 35 degrees Celsius.

The A-Frame was originally used on the ice wharf at McMurdo Station. However, when the U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP) discarded it as trash in 1971, the Kiwis at Scott Base towed it to the Ross Ice Shelf and used it as a base for field training and as a recreational retreat. The hut gained fame as a favorite haunt of Sir Edmund Hillary,who spent his last night in Antarctica there in 2007.

During the winter, the Kiwis generously shared time and resources with McMurdo residents, allowing groups of people to retreat to the hut for overnight visits once a month. It will be missed as both a winter retreat and a historic icon of Antarctica’s past.

The A-Frame was not the only way in which residents of McMurdo Station and Scott Base cooperate. Relations are close physically, with the research stations separated by only three miles, as well as emotionally, with residents sharing pastime activities and weekly meals together.

Wednesday evenings are “American Night” at Scott Base, when USAP participants join their Kiwi counterparts for dinner and drinks in their galley and lounge. The Kiwis join in McMurdo recreational activities such as bingo and trivia nights. And social events such as the Famous Dead People’s Ball and Mid-winter Dinner celebration become all-island events as residents of both stations join together in the camaraderie of the shared winter.

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Storm packs big punch at McMurdo

As the final sunset approaches, winter has settled definitively on McMurdo Station  with the first severe winter storm. Residents awoke on Easter Sunday to a circulating storm that brought high winds and snowy conditions. Over the next 2½ days, the storm buffeted the station with strong winds and record snowfalls, temporarily halting regular operations.

The storm, appearing on weather radar to be a circular pattern similar to a hurricane, was typical for the changing seasons at this time of year. The storm was caused by a deep area of low pressure circulating in the Southern Ocean moving in a southerly direction toward the Ross Ice Shelf, according to Ed Saul, a weather observer working at McMurdo for the winter.

When this warmer northern air meets the cold air moving up from the south, an unstable low-pressure system forms and storms occur. This most often takes place during the months between summer and winter — in the spring and in the fall.

This most recent storm was certainly more severe than anything recorded in recent times. A total of 17.5 inches fell over the course of the storm, with a record 14 inches coming during one 24-hour period, breaking the long-standing record of 10 inches set in April 1968.  

This heavy snowfall, combined with winds peaking at 78 knots, or approximately 90 miles per hour, caused long periods of almost zero visibility and immense snowdrifts throughout McMurdo.

Saul explained that even with the high winds blowing snow in every direction, the measurement of total accumulation is quite accurate due to a specially designed collection system with a bell-shaped cover to separate out blowing snow from the true fallen snow. Collected snow is then melted and measured as liquid with a special conversion chart.

After hunkering down to weather the storm over an unexpected two-day weekend, the station residents came out in force to dig out and resume normal daily life around town. The digging-out process was an event in itself, as doorways, vehicles and even the interiors of several buildings needed to be cleared of snow, often piled 6 to 8 feet high. An initial damage assessment showed there to be minimal serious damage, although flying debris did break several windows and vehicle windshields.

The stormy conditions added an extra level of excitement to an already eventful Easter weekend. Residents awoke on Sunday morning to discover that the Easter Bunny had left baskets of goodies — including dyed eggs, candy, and Easter bunny-shaped cookies for every person on station.

A day of feasting to match the holiday followed. The dining hall staff outdid itself with a brunch including homemade filled doughnuts, platters of smoked salmon, cheese plates, and miniature quiches, along with eggs made to order and a buffet of other scrumptious breakfast items.

Dinner included the traditional spiral ham, a delicious seafood stew and was topped off with homemade truffles decorated in Easter colors by the station’s talented bakery chef. It was an excellent way to celebrate the holiday far from friends and family.

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McMurdo Station enters winter with 153 people

The last flight of the summer season left McMurdo Station on Feb. 22, leaving behind a winter population of 153 people to act as stewards of the Ross Island station for the next seven months.

The signs of winter are already creeping over the station, bringing shorter days and a layer of snow that is a welcome change from the dusty, dry days of summer. The open water, cleared by a mild summer and the arrival of the shipping vessel in February, began freezing over shortly after the Australian Airbus carrying the last summer employees disappeared over Mount Erebus, but not before two tourist cruise ships paid a visit.

The Marina Svetaeva, a Russian cruise ship sailing out of Hobart, Australia, shuttled passengers ashore on Feb. 16 on its helicopter. Strong winds and choppy seas kept the passengers from the Spirit of Enderby, out of New Zealand, from making it to McMurdo on Feb. 25. But we had some late season visitors in the shape of emperor and Adélie penguins, skuas and a bevy of Weddell seals.

The winter-over residents at McMurdo have been busy planning the many activities that will keep them busy during the winter. Unfortunately, one of the station’s recreation buildings, constructed in 1958, was closed over the summer due to structural issues, leaving residents with a few less options, but the creative crew is making due and coming up with new ways to pass the time.

Participation in activities at the Big Gym is up, with a strong showing from the residents of New Zealand’s Scott Base . An early winter climbing certification class for the climbing wall in the gym showed that residents were eager to make the most of the facility.

Some of the other off-duty activities include movie nights, featuring weekly science movies focused on Antarctic history and research; musicians putting bands together for the winter music scene; and a photo club for budding and experienced photographers to share their knowledge on how to capture the beauty of the dark Antarctic night.

The first two-day weekend of the winter season featured a burger bar at Gallagher’s Pub, with volunteer cooks offering free burgers and fries to patrons. The women of McMurdo Station and Scott Base also joined forces for the first women’s social to meet and greet the other females of the Deep South.

The gathering, attended by most of McMurdo’s 37 women and Scott Base’s seven females, was an opportunity for all who attended to learn more about one another and share stories. In the mix were women ranging in age from 25 to 59, with newcomers experiencing their first season on the Ice and others who have spent more than 21 years supporting McMurdo Station.

The Employee Safety Committee recently met for its first winter meeting to elect officers and pave the way for a safe season. The committee works throughout the year to help ensure employee safety both on and off the job, and have already begun planning events to promote a safer and healthier winter.

March 16-20 was designated as “Clean Your Work Center for Winter Week” to encourage employees to maintain safe work areas, and a program is in place to acknowledge and reward those employees who go above and beyond to help ensure a safe season.

Winter-over employees have to be especially diligent about safety issues, as working conditions deteriorate with winter weather and the onset of darkness — not to mention the limited medical facilities and the risks of a mid-winter medical evacuation. Employees don’t have long to wait for the dark night, as just around the corner is the final sunset on April 23.

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