Payot

Winter Over

2011-09-13T05:01:00.001-07:00

With the Laurence M. Gould departing shortly from Punta Arenas, Chile with the bulk of the summer crew, it's time for the obligatory winterover photo. We have had one of our winter crew mates head out already, and several new people arrived on a boat in August. About half of the winter crew, including me, will remain on station after the next port call for varying amounts of time. The other half departs at the end of next week. As with every winter at every Antarctic station, there are highlights and some moments that make you shake your head all scattered among long dry spells of nothing in particular happening. Like all winters in Antarctica, this one will stand out in my memory, apart from anything else I've ever done. When my mind wanders to the winter of 2011, whether because I hear an old joke or a familiar laugh, these are the faces that I'll see.

Winter 2011 Crew

A Few Questions

2011-08-26T13:28:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of questions that I answered for a group of 7th graders recently:

Questions to ask Palmer Station Staff
Name: Neal

Where you live: Colorado

What you did before coming to the ice: I worked as an engineer in a place that resembled a Dilbert cartoon, but they laid me off.

1) What made you decide to come to Antarctica in the first place?

Since I was unemployed, it seemed like a good idea to go someplace far from my friends and family, who were at work all day anyway.

2) Where is the coldest place in Antarctica that you have been to?

I spent two winters at the south pole. I believe the coldest temperature was about -101F, but I experienced a wind chill of -150F or so.

3) What is the most exciting (legal) thing that you have done here?

It’s a toss up among being in a military aircraft that was landing in heavy cross winds at McMurdo Station, being tossed around in my bunk during a crossing of the Drake Passage on the research vessel Laurence M. Gould, running around the south pole marker at -100F after hanging out in the sauna which was cranked up to +200F (we call that “The 300 Club”), or jumping into the frigid waters at Palmer Station.

4) What is the most dangerous situation you have been in down here?

Walking on icy footpaths.

5) Does your heart get gloomy after days and days without sunlight?

I’ve never checked my heart here, but I tend to enjoy the food more on the sunny days.

6) How do you vote in a US Presidential Election while on the ice?

I abstain.

7) How many seasons have you spent on the ice?

I have spent one summer and two winters at the South Pole Station, and four winters at Palmer Station.

8) What is your favorite part of the day here?

I enjoy the eating and sleeping parts of the day.

9) Many people are led to believe that you must survive months on end by eating only penguin meat; is this true?

Yes, it’s true that many people believe that you have to eat penguin meat. As it turns out, I’ve only ever seen penguins eaten by leopard seals.

10) What do you miss most about home?

I miss getting to snowboard everyday.

11) If you’ve been to multiple USAP sites could you briefly describe what you like and don’t like about them?

McMurdo Station is like a small town more than a research station and there is a lot to see. It’s always very busy and windy when I have been there, though. The South Pole Station is like a shopping mall on stilts. It has just about everything you need on two floors and long corridors. In the winter, it’s one of the best places to watch aurora. I like Palmer Station the best because it is the prettiest and smallest. The bad news is that we go a long time without freshies (fresh vegetables) around here.

12) What is your role on station?

I work in the store as a store clerk. I’m a fireman and I’m on our search and rescue teams. I handle the station finances. I clean toilets and sweep the floors in the kitchen. I am a longshoreman, helping tie up the supply ship when it arrives. I shovel snow, organize recreational activities, and lend a hand wherever needed. I am an EMT, helping with medical procedures and transporting injured people to our medical facility. I think I was hired to maintain geophysical scientific research equipment, when I have a chance.

13) Have you developed any interesting skills while on the ice?

I can type when my fingers are too numb to feel anything.

14) If you could bring one famous person to Antarctica who would it be?

I would bring President Obama, because I don’t think any president has been to the ice before.

15) Do you believe Antarctica is the safest place to be during zombie apocalypse? If so, why?

Further, is the promise of survival one of your main reasons for working here? I do think that parts of Antarctica would be good refuges during the coming zombie apocalypse, mostly because the zombies would likely freeze before reaching someplace like the south pole. Being on the coast and above the Antarctic circle, as I am now, would not be ideal, as the zombies could merely walk across the ocean floor to reach us. They would not be any colder than the temperature of the water, and therefore would not freeze until they got out of the water. Depending on the air temperature, the freezing process could take awhile, so they might have time to turn us all into fellow zombies. Also, I don’t come here to avoid the zombie apocalypse. There’s no escaping it, so I won’t even try.

16) What’s next for you?

I suppose another winter is in store.

Palmer 2011 Winter Crew

2011-06-13T13:32:00.001-07:00

The start of any season is always the busiest time. There's the normal turnover with the previous crew, the adjustment time to each other, and crazy amounts of work to keep the science going down here. The boat left a few days ago and things have calmed down, to say the least. It's been a time to catch our breaths just as it's being taken away by the sunrisets (my term for the sun rise that morphs into a sun set, which is what happens here because the sun never quite gets above the glacier this time of year). It's always sad to see so many friends leave on the ship at the end of summer/autumn, but it's always great to get the winter started with the tiny winter population.

There is an unexpected and eclectic mix of personalities down here for the winter. Every season is different from all others and this, my sixth on the ice and fourth here at Palmer, will prove to be different from all of the others, I'm sure of that. Our ragtag crew is just enough, I think, to prop each other up, push each other forward, and drag each other along for the fun.

We were just milling about earlier, conducting Antarctic business as usual when this photo was accidentally taken by a camera left on a tripod.

Us.

Fire Brigade Training

2011-02-28T19:18:00.000-08:00

Here's most of the winter fire crew for Palmer, performing a hero shot at our training in Denver. L -->R: Mindy, Rob, Graham, Steve, Clair, Perri, and I'm on the end.

A-musing About Snow

2011-01-09T12:25:00.000-08:00

I live in a ski town. Well, many think of it as a mountain biking town, but I haven't been here for that yet. I've missed out on festivals for wildflowers, wine, art and bluegrass. I don't hunt or ride a dirt bike. No hiking or farmers markets for me. For the time being I'm only here in winter, which means skiing in all of its forms, snowboarding, snowmobiling, ice skating, tubing and snowshoeing. And...and...and. Needless to say, there is plenty of outdoor activity here regardless of the time of year. Snowboarding is my only sport. I don't trail run anymore or play basketball due to bad ankles and nothing else ever sucked me in. I'm a snowboarder, I guess, as much as that is a descriptor of a person.

I've been snowboarding for a dozen years or so. Probably the first two or three years don't count, because I was so bad at it and the last five don't count because I did so little of it. Maybe in all I've rode about 50 days at resorts outside of Crested Butte. This season I have ridden every day Crested Butte has been open, all 47 of them. If I count the three days I rode in early 2010, I have ridden here as much as everywhere else combined. This doesn't count the number of times I've ridden in Antarctica, but it's safe to say that by the end of the season, I will eclipse that mark too.

By riding every day, I'm not trying to hold it up as a bragging point. In fact, I will miss the last month of the season to go back to work. I don't even ride every day as a challenge. Many days I only ride for an hour or two then I'm kaput. If I was pushing myself, I would catch first and last chair everyday. The reason I go everyday is that I never know what I'm going to find on the mountain. The conditions vary so much and my response to each of them is so unique that I want to see what's up each day.

I can be tired and have the mountain wake me up. I can be full of energy and ride until I'm completely spent. It can be a place of deep reflection, of socializing, of learning, warmth and healing. It can also be frustrating, painful, frigid, and scary as all get out. I've watched heavy powder falling and marveled at each individual flake as if it were a little miracle from above. Contrastingly, I've had snow cake onto my beard and cursed the cold as it kills my skin cells. I've crested unknown hills and ended up sliding backwards, headfirst with my board in the air after monumental wipe outs. Other times, I pull a full body clench, bounce over a few kickers, and come out the other side looking like I know what I'm doing. For every double-cartwheel, snow up my back, neck-crunching, epic fail, I add a few more moments of carving my tiny brand of zen over the surface of the snow. I go to have fun and to pass the time, but I grow a little each time up the lift and get a little better at snowboarding each time down the hill.

One of these days I need to stick around for a summer to see how much fun that can be too. Until then, I'm enjoying the heck out of what's before me.

2010 in Review

2010-12-15T12:10:00.000-08:00

In several ways, I hate to do any sort of year in review post. The year still has a couple of weeks left. I haven't written a syllable on here for ages. I don't have my photos lined up in a fashion that makes for a good summary post. Mostly it doesn't make sense because I covered the first two thirds of the year fairly closely on here, then my writing just fell off a cliff. I could do a "Weeks 30 - 50" type update, but it wouldn't be thorough enough with my Swiss cheese memory of all events for the past several months. I could point people to my social networking page and have them piece together what has happened to me based on weeks and weeks of my one-liners. It really comes down to how I feel like framing things right now, and a year end roundup seems to fit the bill.

Generally my year is broken up into four parts (not seasons, because that implies that I see foliage appear, grow, and die. For the past five years, it's always been winter for me...also, on the ice, the term 'season' is used to account for number of times one has been to the ice, i.e. "I've spent five seasons on the ice".). The first quarter of the year is usually spent around friends and family prior to deployment to the ice. The next quarter is getting to the ice, getting settled in, and working with the various science groups that we have early on. After that everyone leaves save for the winterovers, so most of the third part is spent scheming about what to do during the last part of the year. The last part is welcoming the new folks to station, leaving, and travel until it's time to go see friends and family again. This year was a slight deviation from the just-mentioned norm.

I spent the first month of the year in a wilderness EMT class. It was an educational environment that I haven't experienced since probably my first year of college at a then all-boys school. It was class all day, five days a week, followed by hours of 'homework', which amounted to skills practice. The weekend were spent reading the ginormous textbook, riding around in an ambulance, or hanging out at the Fresno ER. Despite most of the information that they crammed into me having leaked out my ear into my pillow every night, I somehow I still managed to pass. I even feel confident that I could manage my way through an emergency now.

After January spent learning emergency response in the California wilderness, I decided to go buy a cabin in the woods in Colorado. At least, that was my initial plan. Here's where finding a good Realtor makes a difference. I used to think that I could go find what I wanted online and a real estate agent was going to charge me a 3% commission to let me in the front door to look around. That may be true of some, but I decided to go with a friend of mine (shameless plug here) and learned through the process of looking at what I thought I wanted that I really wanted something else at this point in my life. I wanted something easy to maintain while I was away half the year, affordable, and close to skiing: a condo. Having owned essentially a detached condo in Colorado for 5 years, I never would have thought I would come back around to the world of association fees, neighbors you know way too much about, and no yard. Turns out, the pros outweighed the cons. To keep from rambling too long, I found a quaint little place in the cozy ski town of Crested Butte, CO.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to enjoy my place before going to the ice (that's part two from above). I had to close while I was getting prepared to deploy and wouldn't actually set foot in the place as the owner until well after I was done with my winter in the south (part three). It gave me plenty of time to come up with my ridiculously simple plan of skipping travel and just coming out to Colorado for most of the duration of my time off-ice to snowboard.

Ah, but I just got ahead of myself. The season on the ice, as a whole, was probably my best yet. At a point where I might expect to start waning in my enthusiasm for spending half my year in a place with maybe about half a square mile of walkable land, I instead encountered the realization that I enjoy being there more and more each year. I have a job that I enjoy (really now, how many people can say that?). I think I'm safer down there than in the real world. The food is better than the real world. Oh, and I enjoy the time off. What sets each season apart is the people. The people that are attracted to the program tend to more interesting than just about anyone I run across in the real world, but we had an above average interesting factor going on it seemed. The crew this season faced a lot of problems but handled them all as true professionals. We all seemed to get along (I always ponder the idea that everyone might actually hate having me around and I just don't know it, but I have no evidence to that effect so I assume everyone likes me at least as much as I like them) and even kept one another entertained pretty well. A couple of live music shows, the movie we made, some interesting game nights (I'll never have as much fun playing Jenga), sushi night, karaoke night, mid winter, my birthday party, the construction in my work center, working in the store and my beard-growing contest with Drew, the Tuesday night GASH crew, and just seeing everyone pitch in when it was needed really makes this season stand out in my mind.

Most of my time there this season I documented fairly well in prior posts on this blog. The last few weeks I was busy. By busy, what I actually mean is that I was faced with the renewed energy level of the summer folks arriving and I was given tasking that was outside of my normal range of duties. It was a good switch from the rest of the winter and even from my usual turnover time. I spent the majority of those last few weeks digging up science equipment needed by the summer crew. I learned a lot about organization and planning, both mine and others'.

Leaving was a little bit strange. I am normally part of the last of the winterover to leave, so it was strange to stand on the back deck of the departing LMG and see winterovers waving goodbye from the pier (and eventually heaving themselves into the drink). In crossing the Drake Passage, I have taken anti-sea sick medications in all of the forms available to us and not taken the meds, and I never got sick. The problem with the word "never" is that eventually it comes up and bites you on the hiney. Yes, I got sick this time heading north. Saying I got sick is really understating the matter. Without going into details which most people can readily imagine, I will simply say that I ate the first meal available on Saturday and the last meal available on the boat Wednesday as we pulled into port in Punta Arenas. In interim, I believe my body was devoid of moisture or any sort of sustenance. Sea sickness is funny though, unlike the flu or any other illness that I can conjure up, you bounce back in the blink of an eye. I think that I ate 4lbs of kebabs at that last meal on the boat.

Enhancing the strangeness of my departure was the lack of travel plans. For the first time since I began coming to the ice in 2005, I went straight home. The decision to not travel hinged on timing to see family, lack of spending power that comes with home ownership, and the simple fact that I have seen much of South America over the past two years that interests me. Coming home allowed me to see autumn in the northern hemisphere for the first time in half a decade. I got to see my sister, participate in my friend's haunted house, and take some time to prepare for my move to Colorado.

I'll bandy about the term "home" quite a bit. Typically I mean it to be wherever I happen to be hanging my hat at the end of the day. It sometimes means where I grew up. Occasionally it can be used loosely enough to encompass the entire planet earth. When I say I went straight home, it was to Indiana. My new home, my condo, is in Colorado. I had to get from my family and friends to my condo, carrying as much of my stuff as my car would carry. Along the way I needed to stop by my friends' house with whom I have stored many of my worldly possessions for the duration of my involvement in Antarctica. My friends live in Colorado Springs, a mere four and a half hour drive to Crested Butte. That's nothing compared to the 18 hours it takes to drive from Indiana to Colorado, but I had more stuff at their house than I had room in my car, especially since I showed up with a full car. Long story short, it took four trips, two of which I had to borrow my friends' truck, to get my nonsense out of their way. Better friends you will not find than those that let you take up their precious garage space for years on end.

During my stay on the front range, I did manage to get a hike in. I'll include this one photo of my trip up Quandary Peak in November:

Yeah, yeah, it's small. Go hike it yourself to get the full effect.

Getting moved in took a lot of effort and help from friends, both old and new. I actually know a couple of people who already live in the same area that I'm moving to, which is handy to have some seeds in the ground for new socializing. My neighbors, condo-space mates, are good, eager and friendly and have awesome human companions to take care of their canine needs. I even got invited up for a chill Thanksgiving. Probably the biggest social network here, aside probably from the bars, is the chair lift. It's a random array of students, seasonal workers, tourists from the southeast, lifelong residents, and local business owners that I continuously find myself seated next to for a 7 minute conversation on my way to hurtling down the slopes.

Once I was moved and settled in to my new place, my life suddenly felt very Palmer-like in my daily routine. I started spending a fair amount of time on my own, eating the same simple things, and playing around in the snow during the day. Basically, my life has become a series of perpetual Sundays on the ice. If the weather was good on the ice, I'd get out in a boat or on the glacier. If it wasn't so good, I would stay in and read, watch a movie, play a game and heat up a meal or two. Here in Crested Butte, I go snowboarding daily then come home and keep myself entertained. I cook my own meals and I've driven my car once since I got here and only because I needed groceries. I walk over to the library when it's time for a new book. It's all very similar to my day off on the ice. The big difference, of course, is that I have the freedom to do whatever I choose. I can drive my car, go to a bar, walk around town, see a new movie, converse with strangers, go hop on a plane...you name it. I choose not to. Maybe that's what makes my stays in Antarctica so bearable. I end up doing about the same thing no matter where I am.

The Last Few Weeks...

2010-09-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

...were pretty good. Good = no news to report. Lots of sea ice came and went around station. Pretty sunsets and sunrises gave way to more daylight hours. The mood around station seemed to match the weather, calm. A lot of the last month was spent slowly switching gears from our quiet winter season to prepare for the upcoming summer.

The only reason that I am adding a post, now that the boat is heading south with the summer crew, is because we just hoisted a new signpost on station. Maybe it's pure kitsch, but it seems like we should have a signpost. Thanks to the efforts of a few good carpenters & artists on station, we now have one here at Palmer Station. The idea is that each year more will get added to it. We'll see if that comes true or if the first strong windstorm blows it into oblivion.

Some of the signs are a little hard to read in the dim light. From top to bottom it's Palmer Station, McMurdo Station & Scott Base, (facing away) Denver, South Pole, Punta Arenas, a winterover 2010 plaque, and Stonington CT. The locations were chosen mostly for their connection to the station: the three US Antarctic Program year round stations, the home office for our employer is in Denver, we depart out of Punta Arenas, and Stonington was the birthplace of our namesake (Nathaniel Brown Palmer).

Not all arrows point north.

Week 30

2010-08-07T17:39:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late in posting this on my blog, but here is the Palmer Station submission for the annual Antarctic Winter International 48-hour Film Festival. The grainy quality doesn't do it justice, but it's what I got. The rules this year were to have the following elements in the film: an angry mechanic, a mop, the line "Has anybody seen my chicken", and the sound of a siren. All of the filming and editing took place in a 48 hour period a couple of weekends ago. You can read more about it in our newspaper.

Weeks 28-29

2010-07-29T10:55:00.000-07:00

If I post an update early enough, it can count for the last two weeks' update. What has happened recently? ...hmmm....

There are the nacreous clouds:

Nacreous clouds after a snowstorm. They are sometimes called 'mother of pearl clouds'.

Nacreous clouds.

There's the beautiful sunrises:

Starting off right.

...and sunsets:

The end of a fine day.

Drifting snow that blurs our perception:

Keith, our cook, navigating through drifting snow.

Oh, yeah, and work. There is construction ongoing in the building that I work in to add another room:

Putting up drywall.

Fresh coat of paint on the new room.

Now for a doorway in on the other side.

There is plenty of season left, but with the sun returning a little more each day, it feels like we have cleared a hurdle here. The snowiest time of year is coming though, so it will feel a lot more like winter before we leave here.

Weeks 26-27

2010-07-05T09:02:00.000-07:00

I should title this post "Weak 26-27", as I haven't really had much to update. The exciting work & community stuff is happening in other departments (holiday grilling, sushi night, a visitor & new sanitizer, yah!). In TerraLab land, it's all about the weather, which turned fantastic today. Below is the forecast compared to what we are actually seeing.

The forecast was spot-on.

Week 25

2010-06-22T11:47:00.000-07:00

Is it lame to use somebody else's writing for my blog post? Well, I'm doing it anyway. Here is the latest from the Antarctic Sun. It gives a quick rundown of most of the big things that have happened around station since I arrived, more or less. :)

Week 24

2010-06-18T10:09:00.000-07:00

Here is the midwinter greeting going out to all of the Antarctic stations. The photo was taken yesterday, the first time we've had decent conditions outside for weeks.

That's me on the right, in the red.

Week 23

2010-06-06T10:09:00.000-07:00

The boat is gone, let the winter begin.

Week 22

2010-05-31T15:42:00.000-07:00

Cool pic, says me.

So this past week has been several different flavors of crazy. Station-wide there has been a lot of drama with our generators, fuel, and boat bumpers...all of which is compounded or even caused by the windy conditions we have had for nearly two straight weeks. I won't go into it all on the blog, other than to say that it heightens the awareness of everyone here that we are on a tiny island in the Antarctic, far from help. Don't worry though, we're all fine.

The picture above was one of the few moments where it wasn't howling outside, but you can see the front moving over us. I've been trying to help with a science project that requires going into the backyard and up on the glacier quite a bit, but the high winds make it an unsavory prospect. As is frequently spoken down here, there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. I found that if I dressed properly, I wasn't too affected by the 40-knot winds.

We are starting the last week before the winter shut down. Many folks on station seem ready for the winter to commence, but I have to admit I enjoy the variety that we have here on station. Still, it will be nice when the quiet begins.

Week 21

2010-05-23T05:01:00.000-07:00

Simply because the most exciting thing about this week was the windy weather, I'm going to post a few photos of me that have somehow managed to not get posted yet. Thanks to Robin for jumping photos and Lisa for the rest of the pictures.

We were as high as 60 knots, now we're down to just about no wind.

When the first boat left with most of the summer folk, I tried my best Greg Louganis impression.

Turns out I ended up sliding down on my bum instead. It's still not my all-time best dive.

One of the age-old questions that continues to go unanswered, like how many licks it takes to get to the center of the Tootsie Pop, is how many people we can fit in the hot tub.

This is me... knitting... in a hockey jersey.

We had an octopus piñata on Cinco de Mayo. Alan had the honor of bashing it's brains out while I stood by, ready to pounce.

I was able to grab the goods, but Dave was there to make sure I didn't get very far. Don't worry, no chairs were damaged in the tackling of this dummy.

In an effort to stay slim at Palmer, with all of the free all-you-can-eat buffets, I have challenged the station manager to keep track of weight in a semi-public way. We weighed ourselves when we arrived, which we coined our "Princess Weight", then we track how far below or (more likely) above that weight we are at any given time. This photo is of me adding a pound or two by cleaning out the cookie dough from the mixing bowl while simultaneously trying to convince the station manager that I'll need help to finish it all.

Weeks 19 & 20

2010-05-16T05:41:00.000-07:00

It's always the same ol' story: there is either lots of time to write but nothing to write about, or lots of things going on but no time to put finger to keyboard. The last couple of weeks have been busy. Mostly it is due to the return of the LMG. This cruise is here for more fishing around the Palmer area, but also it brought a researcher for one the the projects that I work on. Additionally, there are several people down from the Denver headquarters performing various tasks, from safety observations to fire inspections to facilities improvements.

The arrival of the boat with new cargo and people, then it's subsequent departure to go fishing, meant that we had a screwy work schedule. Normally the station works Monday through Saturday, with Saturday afternoons used for station cleanup. Sundays usually has one person on station watch, meaning they go around checking to make sure everything is functioning properly to keep us well lit and heated, as well as listening to the radio as everyone else goes out around station for recreation. The boat arrived on a Friday and left on a Monday for fishing last week, with Saturday and Sunday needed for cargo offload (bad weather caused it to take longer than normal). So, aside from line handling, we mostly had off on Monday this past week.

Speaking of line handling, it is one jobs around station that fits in the "other duties as required" section of everyone's contract down here. Basically, we are longshoremen for about half an hour when the boat arrives and departs. As the boat pulls up alongside the pier, they cast over thin lines that we grab hold of and carry over to cement posts (bollards) on the shore. Tied to the other end of the lines are much larger, bulkier lines with hoops on the end that are used to secure the boat while it is in port. We haul the thick lines across the water and attach them to the bollards. It's mostly a lot of standing around in the cold wind waiting for the lines to arrive, then a little bit of strenuous pulling. When the boat leaves it's the same process in reverse and with a lot less pulling on our part.

During a particularly pretty day mid-week, many of us took advantage over our lunch break to go out in a boat and see a few quick sites. I was manning the tiller, so I didn't take any photographs. I'm taking the liberty to share a few photographs that one of the grantees took though...thanks George!

A cormorant flew by as we were heading out.

The main reason we went out was to take a look at an iceberg that has been in the area for a few weeks. We've called it castleberg, among other things, depending on which way it is facing.

Yes, we did get to see a penguin or two. I think this one was an Adelie.

"I think if we just boat up over that hill, we can see elephant seals."

Awww, they're so cute...and smelly.

Week 18

2010-05-02T19:18:00.000-07:00

The boat went north earlier this week, taking most of the summer crew to start the next big thing. The summer crew was a great bunch of people that got a tremendous amount accomplished during their season, but the elbow room that was freed up by their departure is appreciated. We aren't down to our winter population yet, as a few summer stragglers are still on station as well as two full science groups. Still, it's been a more "normal" week, which was a pleasant change of pace after the first several days on station.

With a normal week comes fewer things worth noting. The weather is always noteworthy here, either for being extremely turbulent or extremely beautiful. This week was mostly the former, with gusting winds stopping boating operations for a couple of days. Once the weather cleared, the OSAR (ocean search and rescue) team took advantage and made a trip out to replace an emergency cache on one of the islands surrounding the station. It was great to go someplace that I haven't seen since my first time down to Palmer.

I got to drive on the way out, pretty early in the morning.

Once there, I cheesed it up with a view of Anvers Island in the background.

Weeks 14-17ish

2010-04-25T02:41:00.000-07:00

It's been the usual craziness transitioning from the real world down to the ice. Flying from Indiana to Denver for days of orientation, then heading to Punta Arenas, Chile via Santiago and Dallas is all pretty standard when coming to Palmer. The boat ride south was a little unique as there was fishing once we reached Antarctic waters. Instead of the normal 4-day transit, it took seven. The crossing was pretty calm, though once we started fishing the seas acted up quite a bit.

Once here at Palmer, the textbook hectic week of turnover commenced. There were schedules chalked full of activities ranging from learning to line handle to meetings on learning our way around to emergency drills to moving in and out of assigned rooms. Plans went out the window, as they always do, when we are handing the station responsibilities over from one season to the next. It all got done though, right on schedule.
Maybe the biggest event of this past week was a little power outage yesterday morning. Power here comes from one of two large Caterpillar generators, with a backup emergency generator just in case. These generators are old and cranky and prone to poor behavior, which makes power outages here not uncommon. What happened uncommonly this week was that all three generators had failures in rapid succession. So the station was without power for about an hour and a half. We even got to dress out in fire gear because of a bit of smoke coming out of one of the generators. It's all good now, as I'm able to type this post.

The odd luck of yesterday seemed to come and go with the weather. Strong winds and falling frozen goo were the feature of the morning, but by lunchtime it had calmed down to a gentle snowfall. In the afternoon we were treated to a typical, predictable, postcard sunset. The seas were rippled from the slight push of a breeze and the distant islands surrounding us were spotlighted through the clouds with silver sunbeams. In the evening we even got to see stars and the milky way. It's a rare night that stars shine here, but it was the third time this week that I was able to view them.

Lookit, you can see my house from here!

As much as I try not to do it, it's nearly impossible not to compare seasons on the ice. I'm here a little later than in the past. The supporting cast of characters is different from my past two winters here. My stay will be slightly briefer than normal. There will be a longer than usual gap between boats later in the season. Everything else here seems just about the same as when I left: like home.

Week 13

2010-04-01T06:16:00.000-07:00

I've been hemorrhaging money this week. First a condo, now a car. Taxes, insurance and fees on everything. For somebody who is used to saving rather than spending, this is a big change.

I understand why I see so many television advertisements for insurance companies. I see how taxes become a hot topic for politicians. I'm getting some insight into the housing and banking fiasco of the last year. These are all of the ways that people are forced to spend money just to exist. I've managed to live in a bubble away from all of this for the past half decade. Suddenly I'm back into the all-American mode of spend, spend, spend.

The ice turned me frugal, but at some point I had to do something with money I'd saved. I've bought some things this week that I have wanted and planned for since, well, for a long time. It's hard though to switch gears so drastically in such a short period of time. I've drained my savings and took on debt for the first time in years.

Good thing I'm heading back to the ice soon so I'll stop spending so much. The real world is expensive. That is a nice transition to the fact that I am leaving. After a hectic week of buying, packing, accounting, sorting, preparing, and enjoying the real world one last time, today is the last day of R&R. I'm heading to the airport in just a bit to start deployment for my 5th straight Antarctic winter, 3rd in a row at Palmer Station. There's a Rita Mae Brown quote, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results", that seems to indicate the folly of my actions or my supreme optimism that this will be a unique season on the ice. Eh, it could be both.

Weeks 11 and 12

2010-03-29T06:28:00.000-07:00

I'm a little slow to get this updated. As I mentioned before, I spent the past two weeks in emergency/rescue training out west. This training serves a few different purposes. In addition to preparing a volunteer team to be able to react during an emergency, it also gets several of the station members in the mindset to be on the ice, away from the support of 911. Also, it helps build teamwork among many of the people who will be spending a half year together on a remote island.

The first week was spent in Golden, CO for fire team training. We then drove through Utah to get to Page, AZ for ocean search and rescue training. Having been through the courses a couple of times, most of the benefit for me is on the team building side of things. I didn't bother to take my camera out once during the training, so hopefully everyone else got some good pictures (actually I know they did, which is why I didn't even try). It was a good two weeks and I think we once again have a good group of people ready for the ice.

There were a couple of differences in the training this year. Mostly the groups putting on the training (Red Rock Fire Academy and AMSEA) did a good job of customizing the courses to the unique Palmer setting. The guys at the fire academy have even learned that Palmer and the South Pole are not the same place :) The personal touch really makes a difference when it comes to making the material feel pertinent. We also got a little trauma training at the end of our search and rescue, which gave me sudden flashbacks to my WEMT course. The other change was that we stayed in Grand Junction, CO rather than Moab, UT on the way there. I'll take Moab any day, but at least there was good sushi in GJ.

News on another front, I'm closing today on the property that I picked out in Crested Butte, Colorado. I'm deploying next week and don't have a chance to get out there again for awhile. That means that I get to make at least six payments on it before I get to set foot inside as the owner. Nothing like building a little anticipation.

Week 10

2010-03-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

My week focused around a singular boring event. I made the leap earlier than I thought I would and drove across the country, from Colorado to Indiana. I left CO on Tuesday and just went for it. It rained nearly the entire way, but that is usually pretty relaxing. It took me two days to recover from the 18-hour drive, so I'm glad I did give myself the extra time. Now, it's time to get on a plane and head straight back to Colorado.

This was my last full week of vacation. I'm officially back on the clock this coming week. Two weeks of pre-deployment training are on tap: fire and search & rescue. Twice before I've been through these courses (well, only once for fire), so not much new coming my way. About the only curve ball will be that I'm picking up the rental van. I've rented enough cars in my time that I think I can handle that.

I'm planning on not blogging for a couple of weeks. We'll see if I follow through with that or not.

Week 9

2010-03-06T06:40:00.000-08:00

Outside of a little paper shuffling for work and property buying, this has been a week of R&R. By R&R I mean riding & restauranting.

The weather was perfect for getting out on the motorcycle that I keep stored at my buddy's house. It was sunny and cool all week, with a little wind coming in later in the week. I had re-registered and re-insured my bike a couple of weeks earlier, so getting going was only a matter of getting the documents with the bike and connecting the battery. With places like Manitou Springs and Garden of the Gods handy, as well as being close enough to the mountains to be able to get good views of the whole city, I didn't even really need to leave town. It's amazing how just a couple of good days of riding each year makes keeping the bike around seem worthwhile.

Also, I saw fit to hit up some of my favorite places to eat from back in the day when I lived in Colorado Springs. Culturally, this city is good for eating out, if nothing else. I hit up my favorite Indian restaurant, Mirch Masala. The lunch buffet was as yummy as ever. I also stopped by my favorite hot dog stand for my annual Chicago style hot dog. Hot dogs used to be one of my favorite foods, but I gave them up save for my once-a-year indulgence. Later I had a heaping pile of hot wings, which is also a once (or twice) a year event for me, which is probably a good thing since they might actually be more unhealthy than hot dogs. I haven't had as much good Mexican food as I would like, but I still have time before I get out of here.

Week 8

2010-02-27T07:06:00.000-08:00

Two words sum up my week: Crested Butte. What a wonderful place. I went there with my friend and Realtor, Michael, to look at some property. I've been thinking about buying some property for awhile now and a mountain town seems like the best fit for me. The home-buying process is too tedious to go into, but suffice it to say that I found it so worthwhile to work with a Realtor, that I ended up with two. Time will tell if anything comes of the trip besides a sunburned nose.

Crested Butte really is two little towns split in half. There is the town of Crested Butte, where most of the businesses and locals reside, then Mount Crested Butte which is where the ski resort and most of the tourist-friendly condos are. There is a free shuttle service that connects the two with a five minute bus ride. Located in Gunnison County, Colorado, it's one of the more remote ski towns. This means that if you ever do find yourself there on a non-holiday weekday, it feels like you have the whole place to yourself.

Michael and I rented a condo for the week up on Mount Crested Butte. We had great views of the mountain range and ski resort. We were able to snowboard for two of the days that we were there. The slope conditions were fun, the townsfolk were cordial, and the restaurants served good food. I had a good vibe from the whole experience.

As I was about to leave Crested Butte, I got a call informing me of my travel itinerary for my training prior to deploying to the ice again. That has brought the reality home to me that my vacation time, lengthy as it may be, is finally coming to an end.

Week 7

2010-02-21T05:30:00.000-08:00

I am officially PQed! I found out my departure dates for training and the ice. I have about a month before I'm back on the clock. It seems like the winter season is starting later than normal, but the boat schedule is a fickle thing. It will be getting dark at the south pole before I even arrive at Palmer.

For the second week in a row I was mistaken for a gay man. I was out having dinner with my friend and his kid. Somehow the couple at the table next to us assumed that we were a same-sex pair who had adopted a child. My buddy's wife, who was waiting tables, broke the spell when she informed the couple that we were "just friends" and that she was his mate. We sort of laughed it off, but it was an odd assumption to make. If two guys go have a meal by themselves, then they are probably straight, but if they bring along a kid then they must be gay? I'm also considering the idea that maybe I need to change the way I dress. Apparently, wearing Antarctica fleece shirts is sending the wrong signal.

I spent the second half of the week snowboarding at Copper Mountain in Summit County. Copper is one of my favorite ski resorts. I know it's partly luck, but I've never seen bad ski conditions there and I've always had a good time. I spent two days and a night, though it's within driving distance to drive back and forth in one day from Colorado Springs. I also was trying out gear that I had bought a couple of years ago, but never took it to the slopes. I was really enjoying having a new 172cm deck, bindings, and boots. I'll have to tinker with them a little to get everything to where it suits me perfectly, but I rode well with the setup I had. Taller than many people, my deck turns like a yacht, so it will take awhile to get used to it.

I never thought I would blog about watching television, but I've spent most of the rest of my time watching the Olympics. I've gotten into curling a bit more this time around than most years, probably because it seems to be on at all hours of the day. I've figured out the rules well enough, though the strategy still eludes me. Men's hockey is a favorite of mine as well, with a lot of countries sporting players that have retired from play in the NHL so it's fun to see a few blasts from the past. In normal professional play, teams are arranged by some arbitrary grouping. In international play though, it's great to see everyone playing for their country. Everyone tries a little harder and the game seems more pure, but you do get some stacked teams and lopsided results. The Olympics are fun, it makes the masses care about some obscure sport that nobody plays for money and just a few people even participate in.

Looks like I'll be spending most of this coming week in Crested Butte, CO. I've never been, but I've never heard anything but excellent reviews of the town, mountain, and people. I'm looking forward to the trip, even if I am starting to get pretty content in Colorado Springs again. I know better than to get too comfy in any one place.

Week 6

2010-02-13T17:10:00.000-08:00

The way this week started, it's hard to believe how good I feel at the end of it. My favorite football team made it to the Super Bowl, only to lose (granted, to probably the one team that I could bear seeing them lose to, but I'm starting to despise teams who wear gold and black after my favorite hockey club also lost in the finals last year). The next morning I undertook a cross country road trip from Indiana to Colorado. I just so happened to pass through the tail end of the gigantic snow storm that walloped the east coast. Granted, it was mostly slush and flurries by the time I was driving through Missouri and sunshine all through Kansas, but it was still less than ideal conditions.

After a day to recuperate from the drive, I started to go about the business of getting PQed (physically qualified) to return to the ice in a couple of months. This being my fifth time to go through the process, along with the fact that this was taking place in Denver near the home office, everything went pretty smoothly. It's easier to PQ in Denver with the program doctors, which is one reason that I waited this long to do it. My only regret is that I couldn't schedule everything on one day, so I drove up from my friend's house in Colorado Springs where I'm staying to Centennial, CO for three days in a row. The bright side to that was that I got to catch up with some old friends.

I did learn a lesson during one of the breaks between a medical test and dinner with a friend. I had brought along a book to read, so I decided to go to a city park in Lakewood of all places to sit in the sun and read. It was just chilly enough outside that I didn't want to leave my car, so I sat in my car while reading and sunning myself. At first I didn't think too much of the other cars with guys in sunglasses just hanging out. Soon I realized though that they weren't going anywhere and were in fact just staring right at me. I would glance over at the guy in the car next to me and it was a laser-focused, sunglassed and mustached stare looking right back at me. After about, oh, maybe an hour of this, I thought I could be interrupting some sort of seedy business transaction by being there in the middle of the day. Not wanting to stop the flow of crystal meth into the lovely community of Lakewood, I made a show of looking at my watch, starting up my car, and pulling away. As soon as I left, creepy mustache dude in the car next to me started his car and followed me out. That was it, I figured, I had seen too much and now I was going to be rubbed out. I started to make random turns through neighborhoods, weaved through traffic, and erratically changed lanes. This guy tailed me like in a bad movie. Finally I pulled into a grocery store parking lot and started to pull into a space. As mustache guy pulled in to a spot a few slots down, I backed up and sped from the parking lot, leaving random turns and erratic lane changes in my wake. I lost him, finally. After running this story by a few friends, I was informed that I likely had gained the fancy of said mustache aficionado, as city parks were a popular place for lonely men to meet up. I think I preferred thinking it was the mafia. Lesson learned: don't dress so nicely in city parks when reading a novel in the middle of the day, it leads people on.

The week ended with a first (that last paragraph was all a first as well): I got to shoot some guns. I've never shot a gun before, mostly for lack of opportunity but partially for lack of interest and somewhat for lack of a gun or bullets. My buddy took me out to plink around at some targets. I only shot small caliber rifles, none with too much kick but I will probably have a sore shoulder tomorrow from the shotgun. I'm not anticipating that this will become a hobby, but at least now I have a vague feel for guns. It was funner than I expected and I learned a lot. One assessment of my accuracy: "You'd better learn how to use a knife". Practice makes perfect, so maybe I'll try it again sometime.

Week 5

2010-02-06T15:45:00.000-08:00

I've spent this whole week in Indiana, sleeping daylight hours away it would seem. It's funny how my sleep schedule can get so screwy after four weeks in a time zone three off from this one. I come home from due south at Palmer and South America totally synced up. Even though the time zones are the same it would seem like a day on planes would matter a little too. Granted, after my initial day started with my 1am arrival at the airport followed by a two hour drive home, my internal clock was bound to be a little off kilter. Still, I didn't do much to enforce a rigid bedtime. Why would I? I'm on vacation again.

The topic of my vacation came up as I was talking to my mother. As I lamented that the past couple of months away from the ice didn't feel like much of a vacation, she pointed out that I had vacation at the beginning of my off-ice time. This is true, but helping with a large cross-country move then attending a class from dawn 'til dark everyday for a month, not to mention spending my free time in between in Indiana's version of winter just doesn't feel like a vacation. Plus, my time in Argentina amounted to two weeks, comparable to what the average schmo gets working in an office (I should know, I was that average schmo for half a decade). I've become accustomed (spoiled) to the idea of having weeks on end traveling around exotic locations doing not much of anything at all of consequence. Now I wake up to expectations of being helpful, useful, or learning something new. That's too much like my job!

To rectify this situation, I'm going west again. An semi-open-ended trip to Colorado awaits. This trip won't be all pleasure, I have the business of home-hunting, re-registering my motorcycle, PQing, and sharpening my snowboarding skills. I will get some off time to catch up with old friends and find out how big my new friends that some of my old friends keep making are getting. Oh, they have good beer on tap out there in Colorado. It's been awhile since my last fresh Mass Transit, Beehive, Laughing Lab, Red Rocket, Railyard or even Fat Tire.

Week 4

2010-01-31T07:47:00.000-08:00

It was a rough, stressful week. Everyone seemed to be a little squirrely and on edge. We had gotten to know each other for the past three weeks, but were now faced with the prospect of leaving each other to go back to our various ideas of normal. Oh, also, it was finals week. There was a test/exam/quiz of some sort each day of the week, every one of them somehow being termed "final". We had a final wilderness first responder test, a final EMT test, a final practical exam, and a final certification test. I managed to take each test in a different location and apparently passed them all. Yes folk, I can now be an EMT. Scary.

After the final, final test on Friday, I said my farewells to most of my classmates and carpooled down to Fresno with an instructor and one of my roommates. We had flights home at various times over the next 24 hours so we wandered aimlessly looking for ways to idle the time. We eventually found a field to play Frisbee in, wandered around a bookstore for awhile, and found a bottomless sushi joint. I tried salmon roe for the first time, possibly the last. It was a little too fish-eggy for my taste.

Yesterday was another epic day of sitting in airports. I'm not even sure if I can call long days in airports epic anymore, as it just seems to be the standard for me when I travel. Luckily I had picked up a good read at the bookstore earlier, so time went by pretty quickly.

It's been a crazy start to the year so far. Even by my cooped-up-at-the-bottom-of-the-planet standards, spending a month at a Christian camp with 9+ hour days spent studying new material and concepts, all the while surrounded by new folk, partaking in marginal food, enduring pendulum swings in the weather, and having my free time taken up with taking the pulses of sick people was all a bit much. My instructor Daniel said, "Stress is what changes us". I believe I'm already a little bit different than I was a few weeks ago.

Week 3.5

2010-01-26T20:34:00.000-08:00

I have been unexpectedly separated from the internet due to a four day power outage here. The rain raging last week did eventually turn to snow as predicted, and lots of it. That led to huge accumulations of the frosty stuff on the trees, which in turn caused many limbs and entire trees to snap. Power lines in the way were downed, which resulted in no power at the retreat for an extended period. At first the power outage was a sort of fun novelty. We all ate with our coats on in the cafeteria, enjoying candlelit meals made by propane heat. Eventually though, doing homework by headlamp, watching our breath float across the frigid dining hall, foregoing showers, freezing bottoms on icy toilet seats, sleeping curled up in a ball under every layer we could find, and going without internet was just too much to bear. Many people headed into town to rent a hotel room with hot tub and laundry. We did finally get a portable generator going with enough juice to keep one room warm until the power company could fix the downed lines.

Aside from the weather, we did have our last major scenario late last week. It was a lot of fun. We recruited much of the staff here to participate in a mock snowcat accident. I ended up the lead caregiver for an unresponsive patient. Turns out he was just a little low on sugar. Some of the other patients had dismemberment, dimembowlment, and broken bones. The whole thing was only a couple of hours, but took place late at night, in pretty deep snow and a bit of a hike off the main road. I learned a lot and built up some confidence.

I was able to get away this weekend and go to my ambulance clinical in Fresno on Sunday. It was pretty exhausting. We didn't have time to stop until about 8 or 9 hours into the shift. There were nine calls during my 12 hour shift. Mostly they were simple transports to/from the hospital. I worked with a great crew and they let me get pretty hands on. Seeing so many people in such bad shape made me really want to adopt better living habits. I'm not so sure that I could do that on a daily basis. I didn't really see any bad calls even, but some of it really started to get into my head. Luckily, I'm not training to go directly into an ambulance and hopefully I won't see anything too serious when I get back to the ice.

Today we had a fun exercise where we pulled one another out of cars, simulating a collision. The lesson learned is that a gangly guy like me in a compact car equals a tricky extraction. The sun has removed most of the snow from the trees now and made much of the ground slushy. It was T-shirt weather for this exercise, a welcome relief from being couped up inside so much recently.

This is the final week of the class. Mostly we are finishing up our skills practices and getting ready for test after test. The repetition is helping me feel ready for the hands-on final day after tomorrow. We had our written final tonight. I'm not sure how I did on that. I think some of the information is leaking out of my ears.

Week 2

2010-01-18T21:04:00.000-08:00

The second week of classes here at Calvin Crest have come and gone. We've upped our knowledge base considerably, to the point that I think just about everyone in class would be able to react appropriately to an emergency situation. Can we cure any diseases or heal every wound? No, but that's not really the scope of what we're learning here. We can hopefully keep someone alive until the calvary arrives (or we get the patient back to the fort). Our confidence is growing and as our instructors like to remind us, we are now polishing a gem from here on out.

We had our first real night scenario, which included multiple simulated injuries. I got to play the uninjured driver of an overturned ATV. Despite not having anything more than scrapes and cuts in the role I was playing, I had very real shivers from standing around in my jeans and T-shirt. I was still better off than the people with broken legs and punctured lungs lying about on the ground. The scenario was about as smooth as one could expect, smoother even. I'm looking forward to having another one where I'm more than a distraction in the action.

Over the weekend I had my first clinical rotation. We each have to spend twenty hours of clinical time in a real emergency setting: 12 hours in an ambulance and 8 hours in the emergency room. The scheduling for this sort of thing involves jumping through flaming logistical hoops, but suffice it to say I was happy with the shifts that I ended up with. On Saturday night I got to drive down to Fresno with one of my classmates and spend an overnight shift working in the ER. It was busy at the beginning and end, with a large lull in the middle of the night after the rush associated with bars closing. My classmate and I were there to observe as much as we could and help a little when needed (and when it fit into the scope of our training). I saw enough to say that it's nothing like television. The sights aren't prettied up, the sounds aren't in surround sound, there are scents and smells that TV can't convey, and everything doesn't fit into a nice hour-long segment with commercial breaks. Not every issue makes a good story with a happy ending, or even an ending at all. I'm not sure if I would have the fortitude to do that sort of work for a living yet, I was physically drained and mentally exhausted by the end of my shift. I have to say, armed with this weekend's experiences, I'm looking forward to next weekend's ambulance ride though.

Back on the home front (aka Calvin Crest), the place resets back to what are probably normal operations on the weekends. More specifically, this is a Christian retreat so various groups and families come here as a weekend getaway. It's a little reminicant of my time in Antarctica when we transition from having a small winter crew that knows one another well to the arrival of summer replacements who seem to take over the place. The visitors usually outnumber us and have a totally different energy level. They are here for a different purpose and for a much shorter length of time. As scary of an inconvenience as it seems to be, ultimately they are all friendly and for the most part courteous.

The big thing to start the new week here is the news of weather. The early reports were that we would have yards (meters for those who need the translation) of snow by this coming Friday. All we had by midday today was lots and lots of rain, but the temperature finally dropped enough to get some crazy snow (with lightning!) by later in the day. We only have a few inches so far and the one road to our camp is clear for now. We'll see what the rest of the week brings.

Week One

2010-01-09T05:42:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! The year started by spending time with old friends and new acquaintances. I found myself waking up in the basement of an unfamiliar place on New Year's Day, but was immediately involved in warm conversation and plenty of dog scratching. I drove from Cincinnati back to my parent's place in Indiana to prepare for my forthcoming wilderness emergency medical technician (WEMT) course. The classes are held near Oakhurst, CA at a little retreat in the forest called Calvin Crest.

My trip to California started ominously enough: My dad and I woke up around 4am to make the 2 hour drive to the Indianapolis airport to catch an 8am flight, only for me to get on the plane and sit for a couple of hours due to a mechanical issue. They eventually let us off the plane and some people rebooked flights. I toughed it out to make a later connection through Phoenix on my way to Fresno. From Fresno, I took a rental car northwest toward Oakhurst. There was light traffic on a Sunday afternoon and it was dark when I passed through Oakhurst. I found my turn-off pointing me toward Yosemite, then headed up a curvy road taking me to Calvin Crest.

The poor lighting made it hard to figure out where to park and where to go once I arrived. I walked around outside under a star filled canopy until I found someone to suggest that I try the large, dimly-lit lodge as a place to find my room. I was assigned a bunkroom with three other names on a list in the vestibule. I was the first to arrive in the room, so I got the pick of beds. I moved in, then headed up the hill toward the lure of food.

The dining area is large, open, and empty when I walk in. I figure out that I'm about a half hour early for meal time. At this point I have laid eyes on two or three individuals and spoken to nobody, save for my brief directions earlier. I loitered around for a bit as people slowly began to file in. I immediately started to try to learn a little about everyone since we would be crammed into a small classroom together for a month. The course is going to involve a lot of memorization and my first task was getting everyone's name down. We sat and ate together, with a brief announcement telling us that class would start at 8am the next day. My roommates filed well after dinner time, we settled in, and crashed after each of use had our unique story of arrival.

I woke early the next day and took a walk down the one road into Calvin Crest. The stars were still out, and have proven to give consistently good shows each night I have been here so far. Breakfast, then the start of class. We have three instructors with an occaisional fourth, each with unique backgrounds and personalities. We hit the ground running and haven't stopped since. The course structure consists of the instructors pouring information into our head at a fast rate and heavy volume until it's leaking out our ears, then going outside or spreading around the classroom to practice skills. We've learned and practiced legal issues, scene safety, patient assessment, neck and limb immobilization, patient extraction, anatomy, opening and ventilating airways, and teamwork.

From the point of view of a casual observer, it might appear that we are basically coming up to our classmates, who are usually lying around in some sort of sleep-like appearance, and feeling them up (or when I'm the patient, getting felt up). Really though, everyone seems focused and professional, without being overly serious. The group dynamics have been great so far. We have varied backgrounds, but we are all young (I think I'm the oldest person in the class), fit, healthy, smart, and easy going. Everyone has a lot of energy when it comes to classes and down time. There are no lack of volunteers for demonstrations. Everyone seems eager to participate and try each of our skills. If one person in a group has a question or is doing something wrong, the others in the group help them or the instructor will come along and correct the technique. With thirty people in the class, we get a good variety of teammates and patients for two and three person scenerios. Best of all, with the small increments of free time that we have there is always somebody around who is interested in doing the same thing, whether it's hiking, frisbee, chess, practicing skills from class, sparing, basketball, studying, running, yoga, you name it.

The situation here compares and contrasts well with my time in Antarctica*. We have long days and short weekends. Three meals a day are prepared for us and we have a place to sleep within walking distance. There isn't much to do here that we don't create for ourselves, which is OK since we don't have much time to do it. All of that is familiar to me from my time in the south, but there are enough differences to make it not at all the same experience. For one, we can hop in our cars at any time and drive out of here. There are trees, grass, trails, and fair weather (so far). Everyone is here doing the same thing, not like a small town all working on their own specialities. Maybe the biggest difference is the time. To most everyone here, a month probably seems like an eternity to be stuck in once place, even with the option to leave. I think I have a better idea of what eternity feels like.

*I have a habit of comparing all of my new experiences with anything that remotely resembles it from my past experiences, I can't help it.

As Familiar As Home

2009-12-18T16:45:00.000-08:00

Since my goodbye to the ice, I've partaken in the long strange trip home. Sitting inside floating metal containers for a majority of my trip back to the States, it's hard to have a concept of the distance my body has moved. I might as well have taken an elevator to another floor for all of the effort it cost me. Yeah, I spent some time in South America walking around in sunshine and waterfall mist. I looked out the window of the buses and saw landscapes change, peered at cities as they morphed from a tiny dot to thousands of tiny dots then finally a huge runway, and even interacted with the controls of an automobile halfway across the eastern side of a continent. All of it feels like some sort of virtual reality machine I was plugged into. Having a huge helping of travel on the tail end of six months on a tiny island in Antarctica really is such a contrast that each makes the other seem surreal.

Now I'm back at what passes for my home, which is of course just the same as when I left. Oh sure, one of the shops downtown has changed ownership and therefore names and the children of my friends & family are about a foot taller than when I saw them last. It's the part of change that you expect so much that it isn't even change. Abound are the normal complaints about the performance of the local sports teams, the price of gas, the weather...

Having done multiple winters in Antarctica and looking at returning for another, the path forward to next season and the path looking back at the past few winters seem similar as well. All along the way is the suddenly familiar blur of people and places that I've never seen before followed by the unfamiliarity of being in someplace so stereotypical, so normal. Top it all off with a healthy dose of the holidays and I don't think I've felt more like a rat in one of those rolling spheres.

Nah, I take that back. The south pole was like being a rat in a cage. This is more like being that old, moldy potato you pull out of the back of your cupboard with all of the arms growing out of it.

I suppose I simply need to be washed, peeled, sliced, fried, and I'll be back to normal again.

Drawing Near

2009-10-18T18:25:00.000-07:00

It was beyond picture perfect today. We had a layer of snow last night on top of the sea ice that had moved in a couple of days prior. No wind, no clouds, abundant sunshine today. Everything looked pristine. It was so bright that I still had to squint through sunglasses.

This time of my deployment each season it's easy to start thinking about "lasts". I had my last housemouse and station meeting. This was my last Sunday hike up the glacier. This week will be full of them: last line handling, last GASH, last trip to Terra Lab, last view of the station as we slip away on the ship. I know the routine. People coming and going is routine around here. We all have temporary stays, nobody owns the place....not even crusty leftover winterovers who seem to act like they do.

The boat should be here tomorrow or maybe the day after that. A few people will arrive on this port call as a few others depart. I'll be heading north along with four other winterovers and a couple of home office types. I'll have familiar faces with me on the crossing of the Drake and when I arrive in Punta Arenas. We'll help each other out getting to our hotels, we'll meet for a last hurrah dinner and probably go to bed early. Airport the next day, we're mostly going to be heading the same way as far as Santiago. From there we splinter off to our chosen lives.

I don't get giddy with excitement for what is coming, not because I'm sad to leave or because it's somewhat predictable. It happens to be part of the life I choose. At the end of a long shift at work, it's my commute. It is different though, different from punching out a time card at a factory on a Friday afternoon. Nothing that routine. The fact that I'm leaving such a special place isn't lost on me. I spend so much of my time in this program saying goodbye to fantastic friends, the type of people you seem to only run across in Antarctica. My departure isn't different from anyone else's and I'm affected by this place like everyone else.

I'll leave here neither happy nor sad, but grateful that I had this experience.

Mudslide

2009-10-12T18:42:00.000-07:00

My replacement and I went for a walk in the backyard today, one of the finest days I can remember down here. The sun was out walking his dog. There was an amazing stillness to the air, a stillness amplified by how crazy windy it has been here since the boat left a couple of weeks ago. We barely had a chance to walk outside without being slammed by powerful gusts, then we suddenly get treated to a day like today.

The heavy snows from the last month are melting so quickly that the runoff is creating tiny mudslides in the backyard. We came across what appeared to be a fresh spring, brown water still bubbling down across the quickly fading snow. It's hard to picture mud in Antarctica, something tells the mind that this place must be frozen and beneath the ice it must be solid rock. Each footstep along a ridge revealed the oozy truth. As we walked on the fragile soil, we were creating new mudslides that bled down the hill.

I could have sat and watched this all day.

After that rare treat, we continued our walk toward the back of Arthur Harbor. A seal stopped by to say hello before heading along in search of freshies. We headed up the glacier to inspect the cables leading to one of the experiments that we tend to. We started getting warm enough that we took our jackets off. Living under the ozone hole, I was glad I smeared on a little sunscreen ahead of time. There were plenty of chances to catch amazing panoramas. Ultimately, clouds started to impinge on the day, with coolness returning as we reached the top. We snapped our photos and headed down, content with having such a day thrown into the un-routine of life in Antarctica.

A view of the back of Arthur Harbor.

Brian taking in a sundog.

You can almost touch it.

When Spring Feels Like Autumn

2009-10-06T03:52:00.000-07:00

Winds have swirled the same snow around like leaves being raked into drifts that you can jump in. It has gotten colder. Gloomy clouds seem close enough to hike to. Winter ended a couple of weeks ago with the solstice, but we have barely seen the sun for a month. Many of my friend have gone away, as if starting a new semester of school. Will I see them again next season?

It's the early beginnings of summer along the Antarctic peninsula. Birds are flying overhead more often. The sea ice is breaking up allowing waves to charge around the inlet like ponies. Soon the seals and penguins will return in hordes to start their breeding. It's light outside before I wake up, and I wake up hours before work starts. There are new people who look at me with (fear? pity? amusement?) knowing understanding. For them the summer may be getting underway, but for me the winter is over.

There are a few others around, I'm not the only winterover left here for the month. In some ways it's good to have the familiar personalities here still. We see all of the memories in one another. In some ways it is merely prolonging the transition, pulling the bandage off over a period of weeks. Not that there are any wounds, this was a great winter, my best in Antarctica. It was such a small group that we couldn't help but be tight-knit. We leaned on one another, created smiles, kept each other sane (-ish). No conflicts, few dramas. Good times don't make good stories, which is why I didn't write too much this winter. There's the rub. When a good thing ends, it always feels more like autumn than spring.

The 2009 Winter Crew

2009-09-23T11:03:00.000-07:00

The boat is set to arrive tomorrow sometime. The season is almost over. When the boat arrives it will be a crazy week over turnover to the summer folk, then most of the winter overs will leave. We had a great crew working at Palmer this winter, I'll miss them when they're gone.

There we all are: Jack, Hansen, Harry, Webster, Me, Jeff, Marin, Bru, Marsha, Nate, Casey, Tom, Sean, Ken, Coop, Kris.

Sunset

2009-08-31T14:27:00.000-07:00

It was another beautiful day here, just thought I would share the view. It's the end of the month, nearing the end of another winter season. Daylight is getting longer, I even have an illuminated path on my walk home from work now. Speaking of the walk home, I should get on that now....

As seen just minutes ago.

Rough Draft

2009-08-29T06:09:00.000-07:00

Time is drawing near that I may find myself looking for employment after my time here on the ice. I understand that it's a tough economy right now and a lot has changed during my four years of coming to Antarctica. I thought I would update my resume with the skills, experiences, and education that I have acquired while deployed here. I'm posting a rough draft below for now. I'll bump out the dents before posting it to an official job search site.

Neal Scheibe
Palmer Station
Anvers Island
Antarctica
hoosierhippie@yahoo.com

EXPERIENCE
Raytheon Polar Services Company
Research Associate September 2005 - Present
Responsible for maintaining experiments at South Pole and Palmer Station, Antarctica.
o When the experiments are working fine all by themselves, I bask in the intermittent glow of their reassuring blinks. In the event of an experiment malfunction, I do not rest until the problem is fixed, leaving no possible course of action unexplored. I have even been known to read the instruction manual or, in the most extreme instances, ask for help.
o I have endured frost-nipped extremities for the sake of performing routine maintenance. I have also handled performing manual tasking without being able to see what I’m doing. I also work well at heights and in enclosed spaces.
o My daily commute consists of a walk through cold, dark, usually windy conditions to seek refuge in a building seldom visited by most other station members, mainly due to the lack of running water.
o Performed outreach endeavors ranging from a remote satellite interview a with television celebrity to a personal on-location talk to a small group of children.
o Worked long shifts: November – November, February – November, and March - October.
o Performed other duties as required, including but not limited to: Cleaning toilets, cleaning the kitchen, cleaning halls, cleaning my workspace, cleaning other people’s workspace, cleaning the recreation areas, cleaning my room before leaving, dragging heavy things around on a sled, carrying heavy things, pushing/pulling heavy things, tearing things down, putting them back up again, digging a hole then moving it somewhere else, growing copious amounts of hair, not showering for days, counting things, finding lost things, organizing things, reorganizing things, filling out forms and making copies right away to file, learning operating systems known by only a handful of other people, snow removal, and mandatory down time.

SKILLS
o Have learned to look up when walking outside in the dark. Can’t see where I’m going usually anyway and the sky might do something cool.
o Can keep a Zodiac inflatable boat pinned to a rock face in large sea swells while gear is unloaded to the shore.
o Breathes a whole tank of air faster than just about anyone else on the fire team.
o Demonstrated on several occasions to be able to tie any knot, except the specific one needed at any particular moment.
o Long legs are handy for post-holing through deep snow.
o Can receive electrical shocked from lettuce and other food items.
o Vacuuming in tight quarters.
o Knows how to dress properly for a warm day of standing around outside or a cold day of hard work and everything in between.
o Works well with a drooling nose, beard frozen to neck gaiter with own breath, and iced over goggles.

EDUCATION
Fire School, Denver CO March 2009
Ocean Search and Rescue Training, Page AZ March 2008 & 09
Orientation Class, Centennial CO Each Time I Deploy
Watched “Shake Hands With Danger” At Least Once Per Winter

BENEFITS EXPECTATIONS
o Short commutes: no more than 5 minutes by foot.
o Unlimited free food provided at least twice a day by a top quality chef.
o Three months off per year, gradually increasing to six months off.
o Housing must be provided by company.
o All expense travel to exotic locations.
o Admission to science discussions by experts in the field.
o Free medical care.
o Free magazine subscriptions, books, movies, music, gym membership, and internet.
o Prefer to work with some of the coolest people on the planet.

Learn My Secret Identity

2009-08-08T10:41:00.000-07:00

Wha?!?! Two posts in one day??? Ubetcha.

I got interviewed again a couple of weeks ago, this time by the local paper for the USAP, The Antarctic Sun. You can read the interview here.

The first time Peter interviewed me, I felt like an idiot because I had been on the ice for about 5 days and didn't know what I was talking about. This time I couldn't use the same excuse for feeling like an idiot, but he seemed to smooth over the bumps pretty well. In both pictures of me, I'm crouching so my gangliness doesn't show so much.

48-hr Film Festival

2009-08-08T05:01:00.000-07:00

For the past couple of winter seasons, there has been a 48-hr Film Festival held for all Antarctic stations. The rules are that the whole thing has to be filmed over one weekend, contain certain props, and a line of dialog. The specifics were:

Props: A roll of toilet paper and “A comedy head piece” (for example ornamental hat, clown wig)
Line of dialogue: “Do you want to buy a dog?”

You can see the Palmer film here, on Will's site. The idea for our film was decided on before we knew the full requirements for the festival, so we made it work. I was a big fan of the films from Troll (Norway), Bellingshausen Station (Russia), and Showa (Japan) stations. There was an open, short film category as well, where I think those Aussies at Macquarie Station did a splendid job. They were all great in their own way. This continent has so many multitalented people, which is one of the things that makes it such a great place to work.

GeeeeSAR

2009-08-06T14:36:00.000-07:00

We had a GSAR exercise again last weekend. Seems like I only take pictures when I'm on search and rescue training and I only have blog posts when I have pictures to write captions for. That's how it goes when your mind turns to mush in the middle of winter.

We went out for a full day of training. This time we practiced making dead men/T-slot anchor points near Terra Lab before heading up on snowmobiles to practice walking tied together while searching for crevasses buried in the snow, then descending the glacier using a snow bollard anchor point and being picked up by members of the OSAR team. It was overcast, but calm and relatively warm. We all had fun. Our station manager did a great job of explaining things to us. I think a good day was had by all.

The team (minus me) ready to head out.

Heading down the hill all roped up.

A snow bollard. Even though it's just made of snow, it did a great job of supporting our weight as we were lowered down the glacier.

The view of shortcut island and some penguins.

The pretty glacier.

Cool, pitted, blue bergy bit near a larger iceberg.

Boating Practice

2009-07-26T17:42:00.001-07:00

The ocean search and rescue team (OSAR) got to go out a few days ago and practice some of our boating skills. The seas were a little swelly, so one of the first things we got to do was practice our landings in less-than-idea conditions. Near the end of the day, some thick sea ice moved around Palmer Station and we had a difficult time navigating through it. We even had some ice snag an oar that we were using to keep large chucks of brash away from the boat. Luckily we retrieved the oar later, but unfortunately we were too busy getting through the ice to snap any photos.

The boat I was on, with Eric driving and Will preparing to hop on shore.

Will made it ashore as I look on.

Eric keeps it steady, no easy task as the ocean was swelling from our starboard side. I'm waiting for the bow line to get tied up by Will.

Will approaches the pin that we will tie into.

Getting down off of the rock's edge was tricky. With the waves crashing in, it was easy to misjudge one's footing and end up wet.

Luckily, we had a cormorant keeping an eye on us.

After we each took a turn at landing the boat, we had lunch on Christine Island. I spent most of it digging through my boat bag trying to figure out where I left my food. It felt good to get some fuel and we were all ready to get out for some more boating.

It started getting dark before we could complete all of our tasking for the day, but we did manage to tie up on another island (Jacobs) for a quick land-based search and rescue.

Not all landing sites have pins to tie into, so we have to improvise with whatever features are available to us.

We did eventually make it back to station. It was hard getting through the ice and we haven't been able to get away from station since then due to the packed sea ice all around us. It's looking like it will freeze solid soon unless the conditions change. We've also had plenty of snow during the past couple of weeks. It is really feeling like winter at last, with just 16 of us here until the next boat arrives in September.

Day On The Water

2009-07-01T11:51:00.000-07:00

A group of us went out a couple of weeks ago for some boating. Sean took all of these pictures, which means he's not in any of them. On our day off we hopped in the Zodiac and headed over to Loudwater Cove, which is an odd name for such a peaceful place. No sooner did we arrive than the boating hours were over and a front was moving in anyway. It was fun and we were able to nap a chunk of bar ice.

Me. It looks like I'm wearing makeup, but I'm just cold after reducing my facial hair.

Bru was there too.

Jeff caught a big one.

Heading home.

Sledding

2009-06-12T08:14:00.000-07:00

Last week I got to do a little sledding on the glacier. I still haven't made it up to snowboard. Riding down the hill on a thin piece of plastic was still fun though, especially because I was always going backwards and was completely out of control. Luckily, there are rocks at the bottom that keep me from going into the water.

Pretending to not be sitting still.

Famous Again

2009-06-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

I was interviewed last week by my hometown newspaper. It's pretty cool, I don't think I've been in the paper since I graduated high school and they had everyone's senior picture displayed. The interview appeared in an article yesterday. I wish I could share the article with you, but you'll either have to pay for the online version found here or just drive to Lawrence County, IN and grab a print copy for yourself.

The Teaser.

Suffice it to say, I think the article was well written and I don't think I came off as a complete dork. Krystal, the journalist writing the article, picked a favorable picture of me. Compared to what else she could find on this blog, I'm glad that's the one that made the cut.

GSAR Exercise

2009-06-08T07:46:00.000-07:00

At Palmer, the members of station fill many roles outside of their normal job description (actually, everyone's job description has "other duties as required" listed, so it is covered). In addition to my "normal" job as a research associate, I am on several emergency response teams. One such team is the glacier search and rescue team (GSAR). If somebody finds themselves in a bad situation on the glacier, in the backyard, or out on a bumpy spot on one of the islands, they call GSAR to save the day. That's a scary thought considering the combined experience level of those of us on the team this winter. Unfortunately, it's just not possible to put together a super ninja outdoor rescue squad when there are less than twenty people to chose from. We have four dedicated souls on the team and each of us have our strengths that we can add to the cause: Jeff is an experienced skier and has ice climbed before, Kris can also ski well and can drive anything, Webster is also an excellent driver and is great with knots, and I'm tall. Maybe not the ideal group for search and rescue, but we train for the worst case and hope for the best.

With Ryan, our leader, heading out on the next boat, it was important for us to get a full day out in the field to practice some basic skills. We had a break in the weather and made a go of it last weekend.

GSAR is pretty gear intensive. We spend a lot of time getting everything gathered up, put on, checked, and double checked.

One of the first things we ran across in the backyard was our overturned cache. The winds had been pretty wild and knocked over our supply shed that we keep near the glacier's edge.

We warmed up the snowmobiles to practice riding them for a quicker response.

We didn't have enough room for everyone to ride, so I got to walk up the glacier.

Ryan shows Kris and I the finer points of ice ax handling while a group of seals relax in the background. Also notice that you can see my work center, TerraLab, across Hero Inlet.

Hero Inlet facing the glacier.

Me setting up ice screws to prepared for being lowered over the edge of the glacier.

As I was being lowered over the edge, a couple of penguins showed up nearby. They're very hard to see, which is probably the intent of their black and white coloring.

A closer view. If you look right at the edge of the rocky outcropping, you can see them. They were probably about 10 feet (3 meters) from where I set down at the base of the glacier. Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera with me at the bottom, so I relied on Webster's pix (for all of these shots atually).

Freaky

2009-06-01T05:27:00.000-07:00

It's just never this calm here. There is no wind whatsoever. Strange. First it doesn't snow, then it's not windy. Heck, it's not even that cold outside. I'm not sure that I'm actually in Antarctica anymore. Of course, it does this on the days where I need plenty of windy for air sampling. Apparently, I did something to irk mother nature.

A Calm Winter's Day.

Snowperson

2009-05-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

I have checked one thing off of my list from the last post....

It's a snowperson in a dress.

I still haven't made the angel or gone snowboarding or eaten a snowcone or anything else. It didn't continue snow long after my last post either, so we don't quite have the epic blanket of powder that I had hoped for. Tomorrow is a day of search and rescue training on the glacier, so I will get a good idea of how conditions are up there.

Heaps

2009-05-26T16:42:00.000-07:00

It has been a snowless chunk of Antarctica here for several weeks. The only 'snow' around has been the compacted remnants of a dusting we got early in the month. The well-worn paths around station have either been devoid of snow from being in the sunny areas or been compressed into icy sheets by constant foot traffic. For weeks we have had fairly low winds, abundant sunshine, and hardly any precipitation at all. That's fine for some, but this is supposed to be (and as it turns out, it really is) Antarctica. It's supposed to be howling winds, crazy sideways snow that burrows into your skin through your parka, and eternal, gloomy night for the whole winter. Finally today we took care of at least part of our un-stereotype.

I woke this morning to see snowflakes out my window. Not just a couple of wayward lost ice crystals with a hopeless meandering downward drift, but actual sleigh bells and toboggan snow. It's the kind of snow that when I see it in the real world, I start getting my fake cough ready so that I can call in sick to work and head for the mountains for some snowboarding. I leaned up enough to see that we did indeed have a little accumulation already at a pretty early hour.

One of my tasks here at Palmer is to measure snow. This is done in two ways. First, there is a meter stick in the ground that I used to determine the total amount of accumulation we have on the ground at any one time. The measured amount goes up and down as snow falls, drifts and melts. We also have a bit of railing set aside used to measure the overnight accumulation, before being wiped clear, giving a snapshot of the current snow precipitation. That rail reading was 3cm this morning and I measured it again later to find it was over 7cm and still falling. We'll see what the final tally is tomorrow, but it's likely to get close to matching the total for the time I have been here so far.

Until then I will start laying out my plans for snowballs, snow angels, snowmen, and snowboarding.

Almost Famous

2009-05-24T06:46:00.000-07:00

An American television show recently featured Palmer Station, among other locations around the planet. Dr. Bruce Sidell and I had the honor of representing the station. We hope the effort raised awareness of some of the scientific studies taking place on the Antarctic peninsula. Here are a couple of photos from the set up for the show.

Bruce and I practicing using the "camera".

Bede helping get set up.

Filming.

Our whole production unit.

Again.

Me on the web.

Bruce on the web.

6'5" = 195cm

2009-05-20T05:31:00.000-07:00

Bede sent me this link. It's not the first time that I have seen reports of tall people earning more money. I have read this before, though I don't see it affecting me much in my career (the subject line indicates my height). Maybe it's because of the fact that heavier people also make more money. If I use the logic from the article, then I earn 3% more for being tall, but 5% less for being skinny. I wonder a little if the data might be skewed by tall professional basketball players and excessively large professional sumo wrestlers and football players. Still, it all makes sense now why I'm not making more money. Anyone who has spent a winter with me in Antarctica knows how voraciously that I eat. Gaining weight isn't going to be an option....I guess I'll just have to grow taller.

Whales (wales?) WHALES!

2009-05-14T05:59:00.000-07:00

Whale researchers are staying on station right now, taking a break from the boat while the fish group goes out to round up more hemoglobin-free fish. I finally got to give a brief tour of TerraLab to a couple of the scientists, who shared with me their blog about what they're doing when out to sea. It's good reading and maybe they allow guest writers from the boat and Palmer Station. Have a look-see.

Whiteboard

2009-05-13T05:41:00.001-07:00

We use the whiteboard in the galley to keep everyone up on current events around station. If you want to teach a class, make an announcement, watch a movie or find out whose turn it is to clean up, all of that is done on the whiteboard. The whiteboard helps you plan out your day. It is bright and colorful. The whole community has read/write privileges. It is not just for administrative purposes, but also as an artistic outlet. Nothing is more official than what is on the whiteboard, despite the ability to erase the whole thing with a few flicks of the wrist. It is one of the few things around that changes daily, besides maybe the weather.

I thought I would try to drum up some visitors up in the triangular building where I work. Soon some movie-like reviews appeared, which were quickly followed by the de-evolution of thought.

None of the new people on station visited, so I'll have to try a different approach....

Fresh Perspective

2009-05-07T13:41:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the best way to describe life down here is with fresh eyes. Nothing beats your first visit, so having been here once before it becomes difficult to really notice the details. That's when it is handy to have a fresh perspective on this place. Megan O'Neill is visiting Palmer Station this month as part of a project that connects teachers with scientists in the field. It's always fun having somebody here that is truly interested in the science happening and it is refreshing to hear an actual southern accent. Despite being so far south, nobody else here seems to come from the south. Check out Megan's stories here.

Group Shot

2009-05-04T12:10:00.000-07:00

Nothing like getting back into blogging with a nice station group photo...

Everyone on station that showed up for the photo.

Lack of Reason

2009-03-11T07:16:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted much for several weeks. I have been traveling quite a bit, first in South America then in the USA. I can use the excuse that I didn't have internet access everywhere that I was staying. Some of the places that I stayed I would have been happy with room temperature, rather than cold, shower water. Internet was out of the question.

I could point out that I have been living out of my little red backpack for the past 5 months which makes it really inconvenient to get thoughts organized for composing a blog post. Also, without my laptop, it's hard to write and edit my thoughts electronically in advance of posting. Sometimes my experiences are just lost to my shaky recollection.

Often I had to pay for slow & insecure internet, which just made it too frustrating to compose on the go. Between bus travels, plane flights, horseback adventures, long hikes, motorcycle rides, and car road trips it's hard to justify sitting at an internet kiosk with what little free time I have to write about it all on my blog.

It's worth mentioning that I have been catching up with friends and family, so there's not so much of a need to write when the people I care about can hear my stories firsthand. Of course, there's that rascally social networking site where I can keep tabs on all my friends and they can voyeuristically see what I'm up to, like in a peep show, in tiny increments. No need for long-winded explanations on what is going on when people can just read my FB blurbs.

I can say that when I'm away from the ice, I am too busy enjoying my life to write about it. Why go over the old stuff alone when I can experience new things with friends and family?

I can give plenty of excuses, but no reason.

This is my last week in the USA. Next week I will go to orientation, board that familiar plane that will take me south again and again and again. I will get all of the supplies I need for another winter while in Punta Arenas, eat out with a lot of new faces that will be old friends in six months, smell green life one last time, then board a boat scheduled for over a week at sea. Sometime near the end of the month I will arrive at the closest thing I have to a familiar home anymore: Palmer Station, Antarctica.

All of that is coming in a predictably unpredictable way. I will glide through the bits that are the same as before and note the oddities that have strayed from my expectiations. I will get there and do it and it will be wonderful, as always.

I'm going to quit screwing around with the internet. My reasons? I'm among my friends. The sun is out. My motorcycle is waiting to be ridden. The virtual world will be here when I get back.

Galapagos

2008-11-21T16:18:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures from the Galapagos Islands:

A blowhole along the coast of south Plaza Island.

Nazca Boobies.

Not-so Prickly Pear Cactus.

A large female land tortoise.

A sea turtle.

Sea lion swimming with us.

Me in contemplation.

Yellow Rays.

The mighty flippered house ape (me).

Buses

2008-11-11T07:25:00.000-08:00

For the past 72 hours I have spent 54 of them on a bus. Two double-decker buses were needed to get out of Peru and one ancient, rumbling bus got us from the Ecuadorian border to Quito, Ecuador's capital. The double-deckers were much more comfortable than what we had after entering into Ecuador, but being on the second floor both times added to the sway of the curvy Andean roads. Oh, and two days before I took off I somehow contracted food poisioning, so my stomach was off for this whole trip.

There were no worthwhile pictures to share. Starting out, the view out the window was pretty spectacular as we weaved in and out of switchbacks in the Andes. As the sun went down on our first overnight ride, we had movies playing to lull us to sleep. Food was served at some point and it was very comfortable. Spending a few hours in the Peruvian capital of Lima allowed us to stretch our legs enough to be ready for the next overnight trip to the border with Ecuador. The ammenities were the same on the second bus. Crossing the border from Tumbes, Peru into Ecuador was more complicated than it seems necessary (it all had the feel of being confusing just so that you HAVE to take a few taxi rides to help prop up the local economy). Nearly eleven hours were spent in a forgettable, smelly tourist town. Then we spent another 13 hours on a bus with only a small cup of Coca Cola offered early on. It was $10, so I shouldn't expect to many frills. I did find it odd how people seemed to be randomly getting on and off the bus as we stopped at non-bus stop looking places along the way.

Anyway, I'm in Quito. I feel a bit derranged and my body has grown tired of reclining. I'm ready for a shower and a real bed and maybe even a bit of walking around.

Machu Picchu

2008-11-08T08:22:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures from my journey to Machu Picchu, though a hundred pictures would not do justice to the place:

Getting there was fraught with peril. After taking a bus to a small town halfway to Machu Picchu, I biked for an afternoon. Turns out the storm we encountered was bringing down more than rain.

If the landslide wasn´t enough, we had to cross a river that had overflowed it´s banks. Luckily, some other tourists were nice enough to give us a ride over the fast moving waters.

After the harrowing bike ride, it was two days of hiking in beautiful, mosquito-ridden terrain. The scarf I wore around my head and beard on my face had me mistaken for an Arab.

Tip-toeing across a bridge that wouldn´t pass inspection in the USA.

It seemed like I crossed that same rive a dozen times in a dozen different ways. This time, via zip line.

There, finally. Even without the Incan ruins on the old mountian (Machu Picchu means old mountain), the site is stunning beyond words or pictures.

Arriving just after dawn inside the ruins, there was still an early morning haze over everything.

Yes, I´m really that tall.

An overview of the city that once was.

More ruins, more mountains, more clounds.

This is me trying not to fall down the steep, narrow stairs at Machu Picchu.

Cusco

2008-11-01T10:05:00.000-07:00

After my stop at Cape Shirreff, the rest of the crossing in the Drake Passage was pretty standard...there was a lot of rocking back and forth during periods of watching movies. We (the other eight Palmerites heading northward and I) arrived in Punta Arenas late at night so we waited until the next morning before scurrying off to catch our flights to various parts of the planet. Some were heading directly back to the US of A, some were stopping briefly in Punta Arenas, and some, like me, were stopping in Santiago, Chile to visit South America. I had an overnight stay in the Santiago airport before catching a flight to Lima, Peru before continuing on to Cusco.

Cusco is the ancient Incan capital of Peru. It resides at high elevation, which reminded me of my old home in Colorado, at least the headaches associated with high altitude were familiar, but there were plenty of differences as well. First of all, there are no sky scrapers or really any other modern buildings. Much of the city was built on the foundations left by ancient Americans, with much of that being sturdier than architechture erected by the Europeans much later. Also, this area is very wet compared to what I was accustomed to in Colorado. It seems to be acting on the urge to rain fairly frequently.

I have been relaxing in a hostel for a few days now. I find my days filled with siestas, roaming the street markets looking for something to fill my belly, more siestas, more food, so on and so forth. I have made it out to see a stage performance of local culture, though I feel like I understand no more about the history of this place after the often confusing play. Yesterday was Halloween, which Peru has apparently adopted as a holiday*. The streets were flooded with children in all assortment of costumes accompanied by their parents. I was approached by princesses, brides, vampires, spidermen, ghouls, jokers, and a colorful variety of other characters who would hold up a small jack o´lantern with greetings of "Halloween!!!". Apparently they thought I was carrying candy that I was willing to part with. Instead I would often just reply back "Halloween" and keep walking, because I was a little light in the sweet department.

Next on my list of things to do is go see Machu Picchu then off to the jungle.

Here is the obligatory spread of pictures from the town...

The city was completely terraced by the natives, so just about anywhere you want to go will be arrived at via stairs.

Cusco´s main square at night....

...and by day.

A view from my hostal.

Slacklining next to our hostel with a local and some Spaniards. I tried this little tightrope act enough to know that I need more practice.

*This city seems to always be celebrating something, with fireworks going off throughout the day.

Crossing

2008-10-28T05:51:00.000-07:00

I got out of Palmer Station last week. It was strange to see people jump off the dock from the boat's perspective. We passed through the Neumeyer Channel with perfect conditions:

Along our way home we had a stop at Cape Shirreff to put in a camp for NOAA, who was observing seals and other life in the area. Below is a description that I wrote in an email right after we finished:

I jumped into my ECW & float coat, went out to the deck having just missed the first wave of people going to shore. It took about 20 minutes to get to shore, then another fair bit of time for them to unload things, then 20 more minutes to return. Watching them load fish crates onto the Zodiacs with the mini-hoist, in over twenty foot seas, was quite impressive. It got no less exciting when they started putting people, including me, into the other zodiac.

The crossing to the shore took us essentially through the waters of the southern Drake. It was the choppiest zodiac ride of my life. The way the waves were crashing around us, there was usually at least one person in the air at all times. Wally said it best when describing the ride: "It's like being body slammed by Hulk Hogan". The LMG couldn't get closer because it is very shoaly around the island. We had a very narrow gap between shoals that the zodiac could skip through. Oddly enough, there was a protected cove that we used as a landing site and it was as calm as the rest of our crossing was rough.

The island where Cape Shirreff is located is beautiful, but quite different, from Anvers. For starters, there are no glaciers. Also, the numerous shoals made for some exciting wave crashes all along the coast. There were mountains everywhere, but mostly they were small and rocky, no ice caps there. The station where the NOAA guys were going to live consisted of three wooden buildings. One was a lab with a couple of cots for sleeping, then there was the storage area, which I believe also had a cot, then the rec/kitchen/lounge building which had a couple of cots. There was a tent which contained the WC. Most of their water comes from rain collectors, though they had a lot of bottled water as well.

My job during the put in was to haul, very much like a mule or someone from the Scott expedition, everything from the boat landing site to the station. There was slushy snow on the ground, so we used sleds to pull. The distance covered was about 250m. The station resides on a hill, so it was hard going near the end of the trip. There were 11 fish crates, plus various non-crated knick knacks. Each boat could bring two crates at a time and there were two boats running (every half hour - 45 minutes one would arrive on shore just as the other was arriving at the boat). Several people were running the zodiacs. The NOAA guys were up at the station unloading the boxes we dropped off for them.

It was arduous, but fun actually. I got to get off the boat and do some work. There were a few seals around (seals are the main reason for the camp), one followed the zodiacs in for awhile, just porpoising with no purpose. :) There were several varieties of penguins around as well, including chinstraps, adelie, and gentoos. One gentoo landed on the beach where we were unloading. He apparently noticed the stairs that we had cut in the snow to get onto dry land easier. The little guy hopped from rock to rock all the way down the beach, then hopped up each of our steps, wandered around our gear for awhile, then went to lay on his belly facing away from us and towards the ocean. I didn't have a camera.

We eventually finished just before dark and just as the winds were picking back up. I think the whole operation took around 6 hours. The most exciting part was getting back on the Gould from the Zodiac in high seas. Litterally, we just waited to be catapulted off the Zodiac onto the back deck. With one hand firmly on the ladder and the other firmly grabbing one's own ass to make sure it came along, we would just wait for the surge to put us even with the deck and just stepped over. When the surge subsided, we found that we could barely reach the bottom of the rope ladder.

I got back on the boat well after dinner time, but they had left some pizza out for us. I grabbed three pieces, snarfed them down as quickly as possible, when to my room to shower (which was pretty brutal in high seas), got into some clean clothes, then went to the toilet for a technicolor yawn. Yes, I've finally lost my vomit virginity. Most likely I had just eaten too much too fast. I crawled into bed and slept until 6am this morning.

So, we're on our way to PA.

Going, going, gone

2008-10-22T13:59:00.000-07:00

I'm about to head out of here. If things go as planned, I should be aboard the ship tonight and heading north tomorrow. We'll stop to drop off some hitchhikers along the way, but then continue on to Punta Arenas, Chile. It's going to be a whirlwind trip after that (see below for details, though most of the dates are squishy) all over the western hemisphere. I'll try to post something on here from time to time to keep things spicy. Until then, cheers!

Where are you going? Create your own travel map!

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PQ's Pix

2008-10-19T05:50:00.000-07:00

Paul Q. went camping this past week at Old Palmer with the photographers, Scott and Homero. The next morning I went with Chris to pick them up. Along the way back we got to see some seals enjoying a meal in very different ways. Here are a few pictures from our journey.

Chris hanging out with a few penguins. After barely seeing any penguins all winter, in the past few days we have seen hundreds of penguins arrive for breeding season.

A baby elephant seal suckling its' mom. This is about as active as seals on land ever get.

That's me.

Scott, Homero, Chris at the tiller, and me.

This leopard seal had caught a fish and was trying to climb onto a growler to enjoy the meal. The sight of food drew the attention of several gulls who where eager to take advantage of the opportunity. If the seal were in the mood, water fowl could have been added as a second course. After playing with the fish for awhile in the water, eventually the seal submerged never to be seen again.

Arriving back at station, we had to navigate around several large bergy bits that had found their way into Hero Inlet.

Eat A Kiwi

2008-10-14T11:57:00.000-07:00

This is a post that will be completely lost on my friends at the south pole, as the only kiwis they have seen are those with a poor grasp of the English language and occasionally missing a digit. Here at Palmer Station, we actually had more kiwi fruit than we could manage to eat. So, in an attempt to keep the fruit from rotting, we had a kiwi recipe contest. We tried to have several sweet and savory dishes. Ultimately, we ended up with kiwi chutney, kiwi pie, kiwi baked goods, kiwi curry, kiwis in kiwi sauce, roast kiwi, deep fried kiwis with kiwi sprinkles...ok, maybe I exaggerated on those last few, but we did have some pretty good kiwi dishes.

For those who don't already know, this is what a kiwi looks like on the inside.

This is me disassembling a kiwi.

We had a kiwi decorating contest as well. Don't worry, no kiwis were harmed in the making of these fine pieces of art.

All in all, a pretty good kiwi spread.

My personal favorite, the kiwi o'lantern.

Blue

2008-10-13T10:13:00.000-07:00

The day started out as overcast, but the sun quickly dissolved away the haze. It has turned out to be a great day to slap on some sunscreen and get outside. The wind has been blowing from the west and has brought in several small bergy bits to Arthur Harbor and Hero Inlet.

The view out the window of the GWR stairs.

The sun light echoed off of everything once it escaped from behind the clouds.

This little guy showed up yesterday, a nice blue bergy bit.

Fire

2008-10-10T00:15:00.000-07:00

There are hundreds of individuals who make sacrifices to work during the winter in Antarctica. Everyone who works on this continent is part of a large extended family. Regardless of nationality, I feel like we have a shared experience by being in this wonderful place. As is true anywhere on the planet, there are risks that go along with the many rewards of life on the ice. One of the more terrifying things that we prepare for but hope we never have to deal with is fire. A fire in Antarctica can be a disaster as it could destroy shelter, energy, and food supplies, not to mention loss of life during the fire. One such fire just occurred at Progress Station, near Prydz Bay. My heart goes out to our Russian friends at a time of loss.

Misc. Pictures of Me

2008-10-07T12:03:00.000-07:00

Since Lou, my replacement, has shown up, there's actually somebody to take pictures of me besides me. She takes pretty good pictures, though it's hard to go wrong when you're pointing the camera at me. :) This is a montage of me for the past 10 days.

Casting off the LMG one last time. The rope was stuck, which is why I have the pained expression.

After a quick jump in the ocean, warming up in the hot tub.

I'm about to squish the mountain.

Speaking of squish, here's my new friend the octopus.

Our weather display.

It was windy and I was tired of walking.

Lugging around a jiffy drill motor.

Me on top of Terra Lab.

The Outer Limits

2008-10-03T13:56:00.000-07:00

The other day I had the opportunity to help with a grantee's trip to the edge of the boating limits for some photography. It was a beautiful day (nearly as serene as today), with plenty of visibility. The wind was calm and the sun was warm. It's hard to believe it's the same place that was being hammered by freezing rain earlier this week.

To start our journey, we had to load up a Zodiac with four souls and plenty of camera equipment.

Next, Chris help set us adrift on the open seas.

After a slow ride out to the eastern boating limits, we tied up on Jacobs Island, unloaded the cameras, and started hiking uphill to find a good vantage point.

Here's the camera that is modeled after those used by early Antarctic explorers.

While the artist, Scott, was busy taking pictures of grand vistas, I looked for little signs of spring with my little point-and-shoot camera. Here is a spot that birds have used to eat their yummy clam catches, which has been covered for months but is now thawing out from under a canopy of ice.

It's not easy work getting the big camera to just the right spot. Scott's assistant, Homero tightropes his way to a prime location while Scott keeps his balance behind.

Once in place, Scott lines up the viewfinder for the perfect shot. Now if that pesky nerd would quit taking pictures in front of him and just get out of the way....

PQ soaks up the view.

Homero takes down the camera, Scott puts away the accessories, and PQ is still taking in the view.

On the way home we had a cormorant flew above our boat to check us out. I could hear his wings flapping just a few feet overhead as we were followed for at least a minute before it changed directions. I was too mesmerized to grab my camera, so instead here's a photo of the crew on the way home: Homero, PQ, and Scott holding his camera that's worth more than a government bailout.

Did I Ever Tell You That I Saw A Platypus Once?

2008-09-30T19:08:00.000-07:00

After weeks of annoying ads, I finally clicked on the link on the sidebar of facebook. This pic reminded me of my trip to Australia, where I saw a real platypus hanging out in a river.

They forgot to mention that they are part radar station because of the electric impulses they detect with their snouts.

Icicles

2008-09-29T11:40:00.000-07:00

We had a big freaky ice storm that left everything covered in icicles. Today high winds and warm temperatures made everything disappear, but it was kinda nice to have it for a day.

Tiny icicles on the hand rail between buildings.

The wind was blowing while the icicles formed, so they ended up being curved.

The other side.

It's like somebody came through and decorated for holidays.

The ice even froze the little wind bird outside my window in Terra Lab.

Art

2008-09-27T05:24:00.001-07:00

Most of the grants awarded for work at Palmer Station are for sciences, with many of the grant money going toward biology. With penguins, sea birds, seals, microscopic organisms, krill, whales etc. abound, it's easy to see why. The NSF does award other, non-scientific grants to Antarctica through it's Artists & Writers Program. One such grantee is on station now, creating some amazing images using old-timey techniques. Go check his site containing some of his past works, and keep checking back to see what images he produces while he's here.

In other news, my replacement is here and she blogs too.

Whiteboard

2008-09-23T06:38:00.000-07:00

Since the last boat arrived with the summer replacement crew, it has been a strange and busy time here at Palmer. Saturday we received our winter-over medals & certificates after our normal day of housemouse. Sunday I was on station watch, making sure the power plant was up and running. Yesterday we refueled the station using giant hoses strung over from the LMG...without spilling a drop of fuel. Today we have our turnover firedrill with the new people on station. Tomorrow the boat leaves, heading north to Punta Arenas. It leaves with most of my remaining friends. It leaves without me. It is the 11th northbound cruise of the season. I'm on the boat after that. I keep track of the upcoming boat schedule on my whiteboard for shipping purposes and today I finally got to write the cruise number that will take me out of here. Just another month. It has gone by so fast.

Note the list of items I would like to have sent down, just as soon as the budget opens up a little bit....

Sportin' the 'stach

2008-09-21T08:37:00.000-07:00

The boat has arrived with the summer crew. I had to change my look from the costume party to be a little more presentable to new folks. I decided that a mustache make me look, well, see what you think....

Return of the Penguins! (and everything else)

2008-09-17T06:03:00.000-07:00

Soon we will have the summer crew here to begin their work and many of us are preparing to leave. There is change in the air. The best indicator that things are changing around here is the return of wildlife. For the past few months we have been lucky to see the occasional bird fly by. Now....

Look, two at once!

By far, the biggest seal I have ever seen. It was the size of a Buick.

The obligatory penguin photos.

More penguins being penguins.

Actually, out of the water they seem to just stand around most of the time. I believe these are Gentoo penguins, which apparently don't march.

We were out and about, like a dream. You can see me there in the orange.

A group of us went boating. I was the pilot, so I didn't have the chance to take any photos. All of these were taken by Wally (see more of his photos by clicking that link on the right that says "Wally"). It was a really good time. It seems like the end of the season has snuck up on most of us, so it was good to get one more chance for boating and sightseeing.

Warming Up

2008-09-14T09:10:00.000-07:00

The weather the last few days have pretty much run the gambit...sideways blowing sleet, misty rain, heaps of snow, then clear skies for as far as you can imagine. It's really been all over the place and usually changes a time or two during each day. Spring is fighting it's way back into the area. We're starting to see more sea birds and even some penguins are hanging out on the nearby islands in preparation for breeding season. This is the last week of the winter-only crew being on station. The LMG will return next weekend and bring most of the summer staff. I will be sticking around until the end of October though.

I hiked back along the shore towards the glacier recently to see how the sea ice is breaking up. It's almost all gone now, except a little bit remaining where the glacier meets the seas.

Just a few days ago the ice edge was just behind the station, now it is almost all broken up.

The ice would break off in large sheets, which would then break down into smaller sheets and eventually become one with the ocean again.

The sun really brought out the blue coloring of the glacier. Pretty soon the warm weather will bring about more calving of ice off of the glacier. Any ice that is above the open ocean will eventually break off.

Costume Partaay

2008-09-07T14:17:00.000-07:00

We decided to have a costume party in September since most of us wouldn't be around for Halloween. Besides, do you really need an excuse for a costume party? All photos courtesy of Sean.

That's me arriving at the party as the slack-jawed yokel from the south...deep south...Antarctica south. Take note of Carla's Liger suit (half lion, half tiger).

Webster puts the finishing touches on Brendan's Legolas costume. He won first prize for best costume, while Webster came as a super hero: The Polar Plunger!

The boat people.

One of many flashless photos.

Adam came as Luke Skywalker.

The micro-organism group came as a bunch of doctors with special psychedelic medicine.

I was using beef jerky as chew. Yes, I shaved the middle of my head.

She was self-absorbed (get it? she's wearing sponges), he was a pimp (get it? he's wearing bling). Could they make it last?

Jean-Francoise came as our dry-erase white board...so did Wally (in the white suit). How embarrassing! It was fun writing little messages on each of them though.

Willey and Guillermo from the LMG!

Lilly watches our Leader explain the pattern on his tie.

LIMBO! How low can you go?

Oddly enough, this photo wasn't edited, it just came out that way somehow. Cool.

Remember the Liger costume Carla had on earlier? She switched with David. One size fits all. Also, Grace there just happened to dress as Princess Leia. Lucky Luke!

Yeah, there was dancing.

She: Charlie's Angel. He: Ummmmmm.....

More dancing, or is it arm-wrestling?

Group Shot

2008-09-05T07:35:00.000-07:00

Before the boat left, we all got together on Gamage Point for a photo.

I Am Here

2008-09-04T07:58:00.001-07:00

Here's a satellite image of the antarctic peninsula. Palmer Station is just above the red lettering.

Just like being in a mall....

You'll notice some cloud cover, which is ever present here, but also plenty of sea ice. On the eastern side of the peninsula, the sea ice is much thicker than it is on the side containing my home on Anvers Island. The boat is leaving tomorrow and can expect to see plenty of ice for the first full day until it reaches the Drake Passage. Then they can just hope that they avoid an earthquake along the way.

Lazy

2008-09-03T05:43:00.000-07:00

I have a pretty good view of things up in my office overlooking Palmer. I am usually the first to know when the LMG will arrive because I can see it coming around the bend. I have front row seats to every sunrise and sunset. I can clearly see the mainland (we are on Anvers Island, about 20 miles or so from the peninsula of Antarctica), though there are some towers in the way making for nasty eyesores. A visitor to TerraLab once asked me how I got any work done. The secret is that for most of the winter, it's too dark or hazy to see anything. On the few clear days, it makes it all worthwhile. Over the last few days, I've taken these photos from my chair in TerraLab. I think it is a sign of laziness that I counldn't manage to get out of my chair to snap these photos.

So far, this is the only dolphin that I've seen in Antarctica.

Hoar frost on the comms tower, with my pet bird from Vernadsky in the foreground.

The really cool sunset that I couldn't be bothered to walk to the other side of the tower to get a clear shot for.

Moving Ice

2008-08-30T05:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the Gould returned to Palmer Station. With the fishing line out of the way, it was time to move some ice and dock....or so we thought.

Coming around Anvers Island, it's the LMG.

The Laurence M. Gould approaches the pier at Palmer Station, crunching all of the ice in it's wake.

Note the orange paint left on the bergy bit there in the harbor after the Gould pushed it out of the way.

Paparazzi were abound to snap photos of the Gould doing it's thing in front of our pier. My $80 camera took this photo of about $8000 worth of photography equipment.

In the end, the ship ran out of daylight before the pier could be cleared of ice. They will try again today to get the last couple of bergy bits out of the way so that they can tie up and everything can get back to "normal" around here.

End of the Line

2008-08-28T13:15:00.000-07:00

Finally, the line has been removed from Arthur Harbor:

Lily and Ken celebrate after pulling the final bit of fishing line up.

Now, there is nothing standing in the way of a ship docking at the pier. Well, maybe the miles and miles of ice in front of the station, but that's "normal". It's a significant accomplishment to have that monkey off our back (line out from under the ice?).

In other news, our medical evacuation patient has made it back to mainland South America. The word is that the patient is "fine", which is about all I know to share. The boat, along with all but two of the people that I just said goodbye to (Amber went with the patient on the plane north), are on their way back here. I guess the short farewells meant a short trip. They were all sent along just in case flight arrangements couldn't be made. Since the med evac is over, the ship is resuming normal operations, which including coming back to Palmer for some more fishing.

One final bit of news: The sun came out today!

My pale skin adds to the overall reflectivity of the planet, thus slowing global warming.

Blink of an Eye

2008-08-27T06:30:00.000-07:00

The view from TerraLab yesterday as the LMG cut a path through the frozen harbor.

A good portion of my job takes place in the safe confines of TerraLab, a large triangular building resting on a hill overlooking the rest of Palmer Station. It's clean, relatively warm, quiet, has phenomenal views, and save for lacking a bathroom, it has most of the amenities you would need to stay comfortable all day long. I often state that I possibly have the best office on the continent. So, during these past few days where I have had to come down the hill and work outside, it has been a terrible strain on my delicate sensibilities. :)

In addition to the tasking that I laid out in my previous post, we had a sudden unexpected need to send the LMG north again. There was a medical concern that led to the decision to send the boat out of here several days early. This caused people who were planning to be here for more than a week to scamper about station to tie up loose ends, namely getting packed and turning over their jobs to those of us left behind. For the rest of us, we set out getting everything off station and on to the boat that needed to head north, while getting as much off the boat as possible that was needing to stay here. We were alerted after lunch and everything was supposed to be ready to leave by 6pm. A week's worth of work had to be compressed into an afternoon.

Remarkably, everything went off without too many hitches. It was a lot of hard work, but everyone knew what they needed to do and worked effeciently. The uploading of everyone's gear and unloading of mail, fish, and cargo was pretty seamless. Having gone through this exercise a week earlier to a smaller degree helped make us more confident in what we needed to do.

It was sad to see so many of my friends leave (Adam again, Carla, Amber, Duck, Matty, Kristen, Liz, Grace, and Bo), but it was made easier by the fact that we were all so busy and surprised by the sudden departure that nobody had much of a chance to get very emotional about anything. It's only today that it's sinking in that my cartoon buddies, my poker friends, part of my line-handling team, my only coworker in TerraLab, and the only person who I knew that could gross me out all left together on this boat. There is a big void here on station and I'll miss them all. Happy trails guys, I hope to see you all soon.

Long distance cargo ops call for a long arm.

The reflective tape on everyone's jackets looks cool in the flash from my camera.

Amber on her way out. She'll be back soon though.

A Zodiac boat was used to move most of the cargo back and forth, with most of the people walking across the ice with the assistance of men in immersion suits.

Webster being escorted by Jack, coming back from dropping samples off on the Gould.

Today all that remains is the tracks left in the ice by the LMG.

Walking On Water

2008-08-26T08:33:00.000-07:00

The ongoing saga of the line stuck under the ice preventing the LMG from landing is, well, still ongoing. We have resorted to shift work to try to pry the line out from the frozen ocean, which is between 18 inches to a few feet deep (about half a meter to a meter for you metric types). We started with chainsaws and when the chainsaws froze, we moved on to augers. When the augers froze we used brute force; we simply hack at the ice with pike-like crowbars (fondly known in my group as our tool). My shift was 2-4am with Lily, Chris and Carla. I donned an immersion suit, flailed hopelessly away at a pull cord on an auger for 20 minutes, nearly dropped my tool all the way to the bottom of Arthur Harbor, untangled some line, got my arm wet up to my elbow, wondered repeadedly if I was being of any use at all, hacked at some ice on which I was standing, hoped that my suit did a better job of keeping water out than it did of keeping my farts in, used a hundred feet of line like dental floss on a bergy bit, tied a series of knots that would make our GSAR lead cringe (if you can't tie a knot, tie a lot), then went inside to reflect on the whole situation with some salsa & corn chips.

I was too wrapped up, literally and figuratively, to take any pictures of the endeavor, but here is a photo of what people who know what they're doing look like during the daylight hours.

Today the sea ice goes all the way to the horizon and the LMG is hovering nearby, otherwise not much has changed.

Epic

2008-08-22T05:56:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I really enjoy writing about how situations unfurl down here in the Antarctic. Sometimes things happen here that just don't happen anywhere else. One of those things happened this week. Carla wrote about it and I really don't see how I could expand on things much by adding my own verbiage. Go take a look at her site and see what went down. The short version is that we had to overcome a slew of events conspiring against us in our attempt to eat fresh fruit, receive visitors from afar and open packages containing goodies from home. There's even a nifty little video.

Cartwheels & Car Bombs

2008-08-18T06:25:00.000-07:00

Because there's no such thing as a bad excuse to do cartwheels. ....

Celebrating with jeans and wool socks!

This is just one example, of many that I could produce, of reasons why I only drink ICBs once per year. Last year I drank them, fittingly, on St. Patrick's Day and drew the admiration of many the lonely man (and even one who wasn't so lonely) with my skill at drinking like The Fox. This time around I managed oscillate between being mildly amusing to mostly useless, while once or twice passing by fairly destructive. Luckily, I have size and a complete lack of caring if I look like an idiot on my side. My stomach was rotten all of the next day, which was a miserable way to spend my day off. At least I don't have to do that again until next year.

Frost On The Gould

2008-08-13T06:54:00.001-07:00

I somehow managed to take only one decent picture during my recent expedition on the LMG. I helped out on the deck with pulling in pots (science fishing) and managed to capture this one shot of frost and pancake ice. A much more thorough description of the trip can be found here or here.

The crane tower of the Gould, with the open seas in the background.

Candid Self Portrait

2008-08-11T13:14:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when I try to suddenly surprise myself with a photo from my camera...while I have set it up on a box...with a timer.

I never saw it coming.

Beginner's Luck

2008-08-08T05:22:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I was dethroned as the poker champ at Palmer. Since then I have been unable to regain my previous mojo. We have had four tournaments this season, with me finishing 1st, 1st, 2nd, & 5th. Paul took a nice photo of me about to crack under the pressure.... The last two weeks have seen first time players perform very well. Maybe if we play again this weekend I'll get my groove back and send all of the rookies, wanna-bees, has-beens, and never-quite-made-its back to were they belong: in the poor house. If I don't win, then maybe I have to consider the idea that maybe I'm one of the has-beens who's now a wanna-bee.

What Is The Duck Looking For?

2008-08-05T11:38:00.001-07:00

Find out here.

Just Another Sunrise

2008-08-02T10:36:00.000-07:00

Funny how this looked better in real life.

Fish Tank

2008-07-31T05:29:00.000-07:00

During the winter months at Palmer, we don't get to see much wildlife compared to what is available for viewing in the summertime. What little we do see is pulled in by scientists who are fishing at various spots around the station. For the most part they are trying to learn more about how various species can exist in sub-freezing temperatures. What they bring back ends up in our aquarium in the BIO lab. Here is just a sampling of what we have on hand now.

I'm not a biologist, so I won't pretend to know what everything is living in there.

Any guesses on what this little critter is?

I really should go talk to somebody to find out what species these are before I start making blog postings about them.

These little guys are used to being in deeper water. They don't move around much, but they are invaluable to the science group that is studying them.

I was on the fishing cruise that brought several of these back. Pretty cool, eh?

Back

2008-07-25T05:08:00.001-07:00

I made it back from my trip. It's always nice to come back home, even if home is someplace as temporary as living at Palmer Station. The bad news is that we never made landfall on the island where the weather station needed to be put in, so we'll have to try again someday...

My room.

Out Of Office

2008-07-21T17:18:00.000-07:00

I'm going away on a little trip this week. There is a weather station in need of installation on a rock called Santa Claus Island, which is near a small island called Hugo Island, which is south west of Anvers Island. See my finger below for details. If the weather is right, the other science projects don't need to change the course of the ship, and we have all of the parts that are needed, then hopefully I'll get to put in a new automatic weather station that will run on solar power and transmit data back to Wisconsin. If it doesn't work out, then hopefully there will be some nice fishing.

My destination for the week.

Coupla Pix From My Glacier Hike

2008-07-15T05:54:00.000-07:00

I awoke on Sunday with the sun beaming in the window and the incredible urge to take advantage of it. My normal Sunday routine would have to wait, as Webster and I joined forces to hike up the glacier. I had not been up the glacier for a few weeks due to poor weather, so I was really looking forward to the trip. As it turns out, nearly everyone on station had the same thing in mind. We crossed paths with just about everyone we knew as we walked through the back yard and up the ice sheet. At the top we met up with Carla and Sean, who were taking in the scenery.

Us, taking a picture of them, taking a picture of us.

Webster, me, and Sean do a jump for joy at the top.

Look! Up In The Sky! It's A Bird! It's A Plane! It's....

2008-07-12T08:26:00.000-07:00

Kimber put out an all call earlier telling everyone to go outside and look into the sky....

What is everyone looking at?

Oh, it's a rainbow!

The seals don't seem to be amused.

Hi Webster!

It's been so long since we had any sunlight here, that it was special to have the sun greet us again in such a way. Hopefully this weather continue into our day off, even if it means I don't get to sample any air this week.

Henna, Delayed

2008-07-08T05:32:00.000-07:00

A couple of nights ago there was a henna party in the lounge. Since Amber & Carla already talked about this on their blogs, I won't elaborate too much. It was good times and there were some interesting designs. Webster was doing the tattooing, so she waited until last night to add any art to herself.

A tattoo artist's tattooed hand.

I didn't take part in the original henna night, mostly because it occurred during prime nap time. When Webster started working on her own hand and there was plenty of henna left over, I decided to let her work her magic on me. It's funny, but I've always said I never want a tattoo. There are lots of reasons to get one, but for me I just can't think of anything that I want to have attached to me for the rest of my life. My whims change far too often for that. Having some artwork that fades away is a little bit more up my alley, as the picture below demonstrates.

Thumb's Up!

4th

2008-07-05T04:32:00.000-07:00

A little bit of boating ops to start the day before the LMG left. Several friends left on this boat (Gil, Craig, Adam, Anthony, John, and Jonathan), but somehow I managed to only take this picture of the Zodiac

After the boat was gone, we completed a normal day of work, then had a BBQ party. Nothing says party like 1870's facial hair.

Dominoes.

Our new comms tech, David Blaine. He kicked my butt multiple times at Wii Tennis.

Our galley was decorated from the going-away party the previous night, so we just left everything up for Independence Day.

Snowball

2008-07-03T12:58:00.000-07:00

This evening we were supposed to be having a pig roast. Fate intervened and took our pig away before his time. Instead we will be having lamb now. Investigations are still underway on what really happened to poor little Snowball, as he was dubbed. Apparently, there was a little too much heat applied during his final preparations. His time in the Antarctic was too short, his sacrifice now seems in vain.

Little Snowball's final resting place, before the horrific accident.

The little guy, getting ready for dinner.

Much like the Apollo I tragedy, we mourn the loss of a great American hero.

Create Your Own Caption

2008-07-01T13:58:00.001-07:00

"..............."

Pillow Fight

2008-06-28T16:41:00.001-07:00

When you have entirely too much time on your hands in Antarctica

Curly Made Me Do It

2008-06-27T13:57:00.000-07:00

Well, not really, but I just haven't done one of these in so long I almost miss them.......

1) WHAT WAS I DOING TEN YEARS AGO?

Ahhh, I was still in my 20s, living in Colorado, and working the night shift in an electronics factory. I was going to school part time, paying rent by myself, and watching whatever an old black-and-white television's reception would allow. I was eating a strict diet of rice & ramen, paying a higher monthly rate for insurance than for the loan on my Mitsubishi, and sleeping 4 hours a day. I was preoccupied with my portable CD player, the concept of free internet, and growing my first goatee.

2)WHAT ARE 5 THINGS ON LIST TO DO TODAY?

Earlier I hiked up a glacier to chop down errant flags, so recovering from the hike is part of my plan now. A Guinness and maybe a Green Spot will go a long way in helping that recovery. I may have to get a massage as well.
Dinner. I will eat it with reckless abandon.
Ragdoll fighting. It's exactly as fun as it sounds.
I will consider my options for personal grooming. I will come to the same decision as always, that it's a bit more effort than I think I have in me, then go see about a nap.
Walk around outside in my rubber boots, because then the snow doesn't bother me so much.

3) THINGS I WOULD DO IF I WAS A BILLIONAIRE

Buy the full version of Ragdoll Fighters.
Probably give my two week notice.
Go to the North Pole.
Go ride my motorcycle.

4) FIVE PLACES I HAVE LIVED

Mitchell, Indiana
Colorado Springs, Colorado
The South Pole
Palmer Station
Indianapolis, Indiana

5) THREE OF MY BAD HABITS

I take conversations off-track, through the weeds, down a hill, bump into a few boulders along the way, and leave them in a ditch.
I let everyone know about my problems digesting food of all sorts.
I eat too many sweets, which will probably be my end someday.

6) FIVE JOBS I HAVE HAD

Cart-pusher in a large retail chain
Wafer Inspector in a mid-sized electronics company
Product Engineer at that same company
Research Associate at the South Pole
Taking out the trash for my mom

7) HOW DID YOU NAME YOUR BLOG

I put a lot of thought in the my old blog and came up with a really clever name that had a nifty double-meaning, but it was taken by some schmo who was failing freshman courses in California. So, I just put hyphens in the title and kept it for a couple of years. This blog I simply just used my name, which again was already take (seriously, who else really needs to take "payot" on blogspot but me?), so I had to integrate my last name in there.

8) NEED TO TAG 5 or 6 PEOPLE

I choose to tag nobody.