Just what the heck is a "Nunatak"?

Okay, so I asked the same question when told that was where I was flying today.  I knew it something to do with glaciers and it wasn't English.  It's actually an Inuit term used to describe an exposed ridge or rock outcrop in an ice stream that diverts around the feature.  Today I flew down to Roadend Nunatak. 

Roadend Nunatak

It's a base camp for the final deep field camp, actually the LAST field camp to pull out for the summer.  They were studying the Byrd Glacier outlet and measuring flow rates and the glacier behavior for the past 5 months and comparing the results to similar outlet glaciers in Greenland.

Research at Byrd Glacier outlet

Either way, the science was pulled out earlier and I flew in with a handful of other folks to essentially cleanup and gather all their instrumentation, field gear, etc and toss it in the back of the second fixed wing type in our inventory here that I run.  It's an improvement on a classic Douglas DC-3 -- Yes I thought the classic Douglas DC-9 I fly is old, however this makes it look like a spring chicken.  The good thing is that a company came along and saw the value the airframe provided and improved it by re-winging, replaced the old radials with turboprops and upgraded the cockpit avionics to at least the 1970's from the 1940's. It's now known as a DC-3T, or Basler after the company that did the re-work.

VFR over the Cook Mountains en route to the Darwin Glacier

 It's really a great plane now.  A ton of power, flexible configuration, good range and can land and reach most anywhere on the continent without difficulty.  So we took off the skiway at Pegasus field and headed south along the Ross Ice Shelf parallel to the Trans-Antarctic Mountains for about an hour or so.  we figured out where the camp was from about 30 miles out as you can spot the nunatak smack in the middle of the glacier and it was quite easy to break out as the sun was helping the surface definition nicely.  As it gets overcast the definition decreases and the horizon merges with the ground which often makes landing impossible and generally forces missions to abort on these open glacier landings.  Even with favorable lighting the techniques and ability to spot the landing area without auguring in is challenging to say the least. 

After a single pass we circled back to land up the Darwin Glacier into sloping, rising terrain of about 6-7 degrees.  After touchdown we taxied up to the camp, shut down and grabbed our shovels.  Shovels are invaluable here.  You leave a camp, a fuel cache a tent alone for a day or so and the snow drifts.  Two days and its buried.  This stuff was out for under a week and buried. The technique is to mark your gear with flags if you are departing the area so you can find it again.  Simple yet effective (and necessary if you ever want to see your gear again).

We dug for about an hour and pulled about 25 empty fuel drums, 3-4 pallets of gear and an assortment of scientific equipment and loaded it back in the plane.  I now have an appreciation for tractors and forklifts-- you have none of that in the field so it's all by hand.  Fun.  Although -15 or so, you still sweat like a pig after an hour of hard labor.  You have to be careful to peel off your layers and cool down or else everything gets wet with sweat, causing hypothermia quickly and then freezes to you once you cool off.  We spent a couple hours here and then hopped back in and headed back to base camp.

After another uneventful landing at Pegasus on the ice runway there this time (versus a skiway--it's dug down to the blue ice for wheeled planes).  Ironically on final we passed right over the namesake of the runway--the wreckage of the Pegasus--a navy Super Constellation that crashed in 1970.  A vivid reminder to an unforgiving continent.  This is for another blog as I intend to hike out to the crash site (hopefully) before I head out.

A view across the Darwin Glacier at the Darwin Range

The mighty Basler atop Darwin Glacier with Roadend Nunatak in the background

 Anyhow, another fun day.  We're wrapping up business here.  Not much flying left for me here.  I am out of here on a C-17 back to the real "summer" of New Zealand on Monday.  Time to start packing again.  Can't wait to head home and see Tammy and the boys!  In the meanwhile, take care, see you soon!


I need a beer. 

Monster Trucks of McMurdo

Since I first stepped off the C-17 3 weeks ago I have been surrounded by a strange new breed of vehicles.  To say this is a harsh environment and not your standard "wear and tear" on a vehicle is an understatement amongst understatements.  Vehicles are not only bigger, but they transform into new designs not seen anywhere. Ford F350 crew cabs evolve into giant snow mobiles, tractors take steroids, and snow plows come to grow up.

These are just a few of the behemoths wandering around town here...some are gear transports, some for people, some I have no idea...lots are used for what they call traverses.  This is a process they use to haul big gear that won't fit in a C-130 transport plane and is needed in deep camps.  They are able to traverse about 23-25 miles a day.  These are used to run fuel to the South Pole in the darkness winter for example.  It's about a 2 month road trip from here to there.

For perspective, the little red one on the left takes up the back of a C-17 transport.

I know what I want for next Christmas now...

Ivan...seats around 100 people.  Those tires are around 6 feet tall.



Pretty neat stuff, eh?  They actually had an event last Sunday where the operators toured folks around and drive some of the vehicles around.  I missed it, may next year.  It's probably for the better as I would have broken something....anyhow.  Just 2 weeks left here.  Can't wait to go home and get on with life.  Talk to everyone soon! Cheers from McMurdo...

Ships and Ice Piers

Happy Friday to all.  It's Saturday morning.  It's been a busy week so far.  The guy I am working with (relieving) here left the ice yesterday.  2 weeks training enough?  We shall see.  Hope I don't screw things up too bad. 

Anyhow, our fuel tanker has been in port now all week and the offload of 7,000,000 gallons of fuel for the station is now complete.  The difficulty now is getting her out of port.  It's an old not very maneuverable vessel and the Captain has pretty much, and rightly so refused to get underway with winds above 15 knots.  That's not too common here.  So it sat and waited, and waited, and waited.  Until yesterday, calm winds, around 5 degrees--great day for a hike, so off I went after work to an area known as Arrival Heights, a nice 4-5 mile loop around the local hills here. 


 The tanker in port here is tied up to an ice pier.  It's a pier made each year out of fresh water (freezes at a warmer temp) over the winter period where the crews run the water and shape it to the correct specs.  There are two piers, the unused is a backup in case they need it for some reason. 

 The icebreaker Oden was out in the turning basin waiting to come in an help tow out the stern of the tanker to help her on her way out to sea, leading the way out the channel as well.

A look back at McMurdo, the port and Observation Hill.



 Somehow, during the day, Murphy struck.  The old ice pier had slipped it's mooring and drifted out blocking the channel. This prevented the tanker from leaving although the winds were well within limits. Folks were frustrated because as soon as this ship leaves the all important resupply vessel is coming in and already a week behind schedule.  It holds all the heavy equipment and dry stores for the next year.  Folks are anxious to get that evolution done.

Looking down at Hut Point Peninsula and the Oden.

Finally getting underway, setting up to tow out the tanker this morning

Underway!

So that was an interesting evolution to watch, although it took a week to happen.  Now for the BIG resupply ship this afternoon.  The Navy is in town now to offload the ships--so they close the bars while they are here--talk about a reputation!  Lots of parties in the lounges now that the official establishments are closed for the week. 

Well, back to work for me....stay tuned for another exciting, drama filled installment of life at Mcmurdo...

Deep into the Dry Valleys

So the question was posed by the Nation Science Foundation rep, "Want to go fly for 2 hours to better aquaint yourself with our mission in the McMurdo Dry Valleys?"....silly quesiton, I know.  So once again after work, I threw on my flight gear and hopped down to the hangar with one of my lead pilots and an NSF rep to go fly.  We took up one of our ASTARs which is a Eurocopter design AS350 B2.

Flight path overview (Click for a big picture). The little red "O"s are
some of the posted pics, the "X"  is the LZ we landed at.

The pilot I went up with is the same guy I've gone up with 3 times previously except this time the ride in the ASTAR is much smoother and quieter than the Bell 212 straight out of "Apocolypse Now" where your fillings will fall out if they are loose. 

Up valley along the lower Taylor Glacier just up from Bonney Lake where I flew on a previous flight.

Up the Taylor Glacier Ice Stream looking at the Quartermain Mountains

The Solitary Rocks and Ice Falls where the Taylor and Ferrar Glacier streams meet

Ice Falls between the Cavandish and Solitary Rocks

A high speed Ice flow (it's a relative in glacier streams)

Beacon Valley, which gives off a rather Southwest US feel to its colors

Flying up Beacon Valley

Looking across the Taylor Glacier toward Round Mountain and the Asgard Range.

Flying out of Beacon Valley towards Finger Mountain

Finger Mountain showing a good crosssection of the entire local range (Granite on the bottom overlaid by basalt that intruded between the granite and Beacon Sandstone on top.

Finger Mountain

The Asgard Range

A ground effect white out as we touch down at Round Mountain.  We had to pick up a fuel pump from the fuel cache while we were out here as these field camps prepare for the upcoming winter.

The martain looking landscape near the LZ.

Looking back across the Taylor Glacier toward the Quartermain Range

At the LZ bundled up in my cold weather flight gear, it was around 5 degrees but calm thankfully.

Some neat snow patterns in the dry powder.

Across the glacier.  Not a thing to hear as we stood around.  Amazing taking in the views in such silence.

The ASTAR at the LZ

Crossing the edge of the Asgard range looking at VXE-6 Ice Falls at the head of the Wright Glacier and Valley.  Just to the left is the Polar Plateau and ice at around 8000'.

Looking down the Wright Glacier / Valley from the top of VXE-6 Falls

Entering what's known as the Labyrinth which is a canyon formed by a sub-glacial lake under the Wright Glacier now exposed since it's retreat.

A look into the Labyrinth

Wright Valley's South Fork

Lake Vanda and the surrounding scarred earth

Lake Vanda

 Lower Lake Vanda

Fractured Earth near Bull Pass in the Olympus Range

Exiting Bull Pass into the Victoria Valley

Victoria Valley and the St John's Range

Unique features of Victoia Valley--from the bottom up--Ice, Water, Sand, Dune, Glacier, Sky

A good look at the giant dune near Lake Victoria

More sand dunes at the base of lower Victoria Glacier

Dunes at the base of the lower glacier

Loose pack ice as we flew back along the ice edge back to base.  Weddel Seals, Emporer and Adelie Penguins, Minke and Killer Whales were everywhere along it. 

The dots are Weddell Seals that found this tabular Iceburg surrounded by sea ice and made it home, enter the water via the caves on the left.

Mt Erebus with a now exposed Ross Sea along the sea ice edge.

Another good day at work.  2 weeks left to go!  Then back to New Zealand.  Can't wait to get home!  I miss you all.