McMurdo Station, December 11 about 10 am.  Taken from the top of Ob Hill.

2-16 It's about 10:30pm. Here, Rock sits and looks over Winter Quarters Bay before turning in for the night.

 2-15 The job is almost over; Rock has been put away - until someone else decides to move him around!

2-14  Valentine's Day. It was Karaoke Night at the Pub so Rock got up before the microphone and put on his best Sinatra. Unfortunately his hopes to woo the lovely ladies were dashed against the rocks. Being outside in the harsh weather 24/7 gave him a sore throat, so his voice sounded all gravelly.

Still, it was a fun evening. He enjoyed himself even though he is deaf as The Post beside him.

Is Rock waiting for the next C17 flight to Christchurch?  Or waiting to send someone off?

While Rock was visiting downtown McMurdo the powers that be deemed Rock a bother. Rock was whisked away from town and sent to visit the Skier.  The two of them had a great view of the vessel as it was unloaded and then reloaded.  Will Rock return? 

Rock wanted to hang out with more people so Rock went downtown to building 155.

Rock has a good idea for an experiment. So Rock went to the National Science Foundation Chalet to submit a proposal.

Rock had a sniffly nose and needed to go visit the Doctor.

Rock visiting the Crary Center. This is the center of all the scientific work in McMurdo. It is named after Albert P. Crary, the first man to visit both the North and South Poles.

Next stop,  the Science Support Center.

Rock goes to town and Rock's first stop is at the Chapel.

This is where Rock's adventure began.

We are waiting. The topic discussed over chow is always the latest shipping news. The ice this year has been very tough for the icebreaker to work, and the week before last while working the shipping channel, the Krasin developed a severe vibration on one of its three screws. She came to the Ice Pier so that divers could get a look and they reported back that one of the four blades of the propeller has fallen off. Today, a week later, a team of seven expert divers arrived to make repairs.

So we wait and speculate. Which will be first? The tanker? She sits about 20 miles out at the edge of the thick ice. The supply ship? She should arrive around Wednesday. When will Krasin be ready? The repair team says Friday. Will the Coast Guard icebreaker be need? She got underway from Seattle 2 days ago, but she is 30 days out.

The dining hall is becoming crowded. The winter crew is arriving, the field camps are closing down, Polies are returning and a crew of about 70 Navy cargo handlers to unload the supply ship are make the lines longer, the seats scarce.

We all can see the end of the season. We were scheduled to be unloading now. Ship offload is an all-hands affair, carried out round the clock until completed. And when it is done our season here on the Ice is finished. But, until the ships arrive, we wait.  

Today's picture is of the Ice Wharf. The Grove is unloading a Helium rack,  ready to be loaded on the supply ship along with all the other containers.

Wildlife,
or the lack there of.

I have seen:

One emperor Penguin.
Two seals up close,
A couple dozen more
Snoozing on the ice
In the distance.
Four Skua.
The tracks of an Adelie Penguin.

No bugs.
No dogs,
and the cats are all painted yellow.

Today's picture is of a seal poking his head up through the ice. This hole was drilled in the ice for the divers to get a look at the bottom of the Ice Pier, and was one of the few places were a seal could climb out of the water at that time of year. The seals often invade the observation holes drilled by the scientists. Now, later in the Austral Summer, the ice is weakening and there are many ways for a seal to haul out and take a nap in the warm sun. I am told that on years when the ice goes out there can be hundreds of seals around Scott Base. Yet another reason to hope for the ice to break up and head north.

Monday evening ... it has been nearly a week since I have written anything, although every plan I make for my day revolves around a few words on a page. This attachment to my resolution to write more is so strong that my failure each day has weighed on my mind. This morning after my hour of QiGong, I sat a 45 minute meditation. My teacher Goinkaji's voice resonated within me. On a ten day mediation, at each sitting, he would begin with, “Start over again.” So, I finished up what I wrote on the 10th, be it good, bad or ugly. Then wrote this drivel...

Today's picture is another shot of Eribus. I took this a few days ago. I was up on Arrival Heights loading out trucks with dark gray rock and gravel. On our way back up to the Heights after lunch, Eribus had this incredible plume. Our little convoy stopped and we climbed up on our equipment and trucks to take photos. Although I have not written, I have found time to take photos and have been able to get at least one good shot each day. I love the visual image, capturing images comes easy.  I am more photographer than writer. Recognizing who we truly are, and not who we believe ourselves to be or want to be... this insight of personal reality, this acceptance, lays the foundation of change. From this footing we can Start Over Again, one word at a time.

Each day is different. The Buddhists say that there is an elemental, essential you. Not the you that is your body nor the you that thinks thoughts, but the you that is the essential expression of the universe, of reality. Be that as it may, the me that is my body is sore and tired for working six days a week, nine hours a day. The me that is my mind is dull and slow from the same.

I spent the day working at the far reaches or McMurdo Station, grading the road to Arrival Heights. This is a SAS, and to go there you need a permit. Delicate measurements of the atmosphere are taken here. The road is being regraded to aid in the installation of a new Kiwi station. The old building was damaged in a "herbie" (hurricane/blizzard) a couple of years ago. The new building will be hauled up on trucks and set on a pad the Kiwis have built. Hence the need to regrade the road.

Parts of the road worked easily, but others... Every time I dropped the mold board (the grader's blade) to the earth a rock would pop up, and each rock would then spawn five more! You can't grade rocks. I felt like Charley Brown with Lucy holding the football, every time I would think, “I'll get this time” up would pop another rock! The deeper my attachment to catching the grade and running with it, the deeper my frustration at the failure. Success lays in persistence, thus my body is sore, my mind is tired. At the end I felt worn to a nub. To lose my attachment... From this dull mind space... Why is it so hard to detach from my perceived failure to attain the goals I lay out before me...

Today's picture is Mount Eribus. The peak is quiet, no plume billowing up. Each day is different.

Don just came by and asked if I wanted to go down to the Russian icebreaker. I almost went, but I have made a promise to myself to write. Missed yesterday, so something has to give. I asked him to take photos. 

Our Distinguished Visitors have left. I hope that Mr. Frosty, the soft-serve ice cream machine will stay in operation. It is a minor Antarctic legend that you can get ice cream 24 hours a day in the galley. In fact, we have seen many an outage with Mr. Frosty only making an occasional appearance, but while our guests were here, Mr. Frosty has been on duty 24/7. Still, the legend of Mr. Frosty makes a great talking point and can aptly describe the domestic side of life in MacTown. Each of us brings who we are, what we have experienced and done, to how we look at the world. Each of us sees the world through different eyes. Each of us will have a different story to tell.  

Today's picture is a close up of volcanic gravel. You can see most of the colors of the local rock in this gravel, although it doesn't occur this way naturally. Most of the hills around MacTown have been scraped by dozers mining fines which are used to build and maintain the Station. Over the past 50 years these pebbles may have moved around many times.

The landscape of Ross Island is made up of rock like these. The reds are porous and light, the blacks are dense and heavy. There is not a single plant anywhere (with the exception of algae in melt ponds). Everything is either rock, snow or ice for as far as the eye can see. No green can survive in these conditions; the cold, the wind, precludes its existence. Yet, the cold, the wind, the ice, make the air crystal clear; the shades of the sky blue to green that can only happen here. This pristine crystal sky is set against a vista of ice and rock. Blues and whites on white, red and gray on black. Looking out across the shimmering frozen sea of McMurdo Sound toward Mt. Discovery to the Royal Society, the scope of the landscape fools the eye. Those mountains are over 40 miles away, the highest peaks reach up over 16,000 feet. Looking out my heart tugs, I love this place. I have not yet begun to miss soft landscapes of green.

Another fine day! Our Distinguished Visitors (three Senators and a dozen or so Representatives and their staff) have brought good weather with them. This group, which includes John McCain, is here to review all the goings on here, to review all the science. They all flew to the Pole for the day. 

I am writing this on Sunday afternoon. I was too worn out on Saturday evening to sit and write. And besides, here in MacTown, Saturday evening is busy with social life. This evening the McMurdo Alternative Artists Group, or MAAG, put on its annual art show. The Science Support Building was transformed into a very stylish gallery. The people that populate this ugly little town are a very bright, energetic and well educated group, and the art on display clearly demonstrated this. About 10:30, I left the MAAG and went for a walk 'round town. It was very warm as I walked along Waterfront Drive, the midnight sun shining brightly - almost glaring - off the sea ice. Wound my way up around town and ran into, Emily, a young lady from Virginia, looking for a spot to go skate boarding. You see, you never know what you will find someone up to in MacTown.  

Today's picture is of Mount Eribus. Eribus is the only active volcano in the Antarctic. It is the highest point on Ross Island at just short of 13,000 foot high. Eribus hides from most of McMurdo Station, you either have to go out to the sea ice or climb up Ob Hill to look over the Hut Point Peninsula to see it. The volcano's presence is still always felt; all of Ross Island is red, gray or black volcanic rock.

A stunningly beautiful day. Bright, crisp, clear and calm. It is amazing how fast conditions can change. The pallet of light is now made up of blues, whites and grays. As the season progresses I wait for golds and reds to return with the setting sun.

Today's picture is of: 

Terra Nova,
Ross Island. 
The cloud dips low
To the white of the mountain.
Impossible to know
Where the sky ends
The land begins.

Snow. The 1100 weather observation: 18 degrees, 7 mph winds, 5 degrees with wind chill and snow. (Note: I think I may have reported yesterday's wind chill in Celsius, making seem much lower.)  When we started work this morning the dark grey volcanic rock of the Island was covered in a white coat. As the day progressed the wind has moved the snow, exposing the rock below here and drifting it up there.

Today picture is of me. Behind me in the photo is Fat Cat the heavy lift forklift. We have started hauling milvans, (shipping containers) filled with this year's trash down to the pier. No trash can be deposed of in Antarctica. The Antarctic Treaty requires that everything that comes to Ice must find its way back to the States. So, everything is collected, sorted, stuffed into milvans, loaded on a fleet of old trucks left over from when the Navy ran the show, moved to the pier and stacked up ready to load on the freighter.

The second picture is of the Russian icebreaker Krasin docked tonight at the Ice Pier, shore leave for the hard working crew. The ice is very thick this year and it has been hard going opening up the shipping channel. Soon, the Port of McMurdo will start seeing shipping traffic. The Nathaniel Palmer, a science ship, a fuel tanker, the supply ship and even cruise ships. 

The Ice Pier is essentially a giant ice cube. In the winter a snow berm is pushed up and then filled with sea water and left to freeze. Repeat this process, adding layers until the ice cube is 25 foot thick. Then, during the summer, a foot thick layer of gravel is placed to insulate the ice and give a good working surface (I spread the volcanic fines with Ice Maiden, the Cat 140 motorgrader). Cables lash the pier to the adjacent wharf so it won't float away and is bridge is built for access. Add a small Jamesway warm up hut and the port ready for business. This Ice Pier has been in place for 7 years, a record, because the ice has not broken up and 'gone out' because a huge iceberg, B-15 (the size of the Connecticut), was blocking the entrance to McMurdo Sound. But, that's a story for a different day.

The second picture is of the Russian icebreaker Krasin docked tonight at the Ice Pier, shore leave for the hard working crew. The ice is very thick this year and it has been hard going opening up the shipping channel. Soon, the Port of McMurdo will start seeing shipping traffic. The Nathaniel Palmer, a science ship, a fuel tanker, the supply ship and even cruise ships. 

The Ice Pier is essentially a giant ice cube. In the winter a snow berm is pushed up and then filled with sea water and left to freeze. Repeat this process, adding layers until the ice cube is 25 foot thick. Then, during the summer, a foot thick layer of gravel is placed to insulate the ice and give a good working surface (I spread the volcanic fines with Ice Maiden, the Cat 140 motorgrader). Cables lash the pier to the adjacent wharf so it won't float away and is bridge is built for access. Add a small Jamesway warm up hut and the port ready for business. This Ice Pier has been in place for 7 years, a record, because the ice has not broken up and 'gone out' because a huge iceberg, B-15 (the size of the Connecticut), was blocking the entrance to McMurdo Sound. But, that's a story for a different day.

It is katabatic cold.  When I checked at lunch the weather observations were 18 degrees with winds about 20 miles per hour adding, or should I say subtracting, to a -21 wind chill. Polar weather is driven by katabaic winds. The katabatic wind begins as warm air high in the atmosphere is drawn over the pole and then cools and sinks down. The elevation at the  pole is over 10,000 feet, where the continent is covered with over two miles of ice.The very cold dense air the slips off the polar plateau down to the sea gaining strength, often this wind is fierce, regularly blowing in at over 50 miles per hour. The world's weather is deeply impacted. As a Kiwi I met here said: “Now I know where that cold southern wind comes from!”
 
Today's picture is of snow melting. It was not taken today! It was about 40 degrees and calm on New Years Eve, about 4 pm when this shot was taken. Water was flowing everywhere then, today all is ice.

One of my New Year's resolutions is to write more. To that end I will attempt to send as many emails as possible describing my Antarctic experience. It is about 21 degrees ( -2 with wind chill), crystal clear, a few high clouds, and where the katabatic wind bumps into the Island's peaks it wraps them in a misty veil. After the fine weather of the weekend with the temps into the 40's and no wind, today's cold wind is downright cutting.

Today's picture is of Pam, one the Stretch 8 dozers. It was taken on October 24  just after a snow storm, as you can see by the snow drifted around it. The Stretch 8 dozers which helped explore and build the first Antarctic bases 50 years ago were custom built by Caterpillar. They are truly classics, and are maintained and prized because a Stretch 8 can still out pull any machine on the Ice. This machine was parked here after it had pulled one of NASA's Long Duration Balloon building modules weighing in at over 50 tons.