Bombs Away!

The air drop finally occurred last night!

Yesterday afternoon the entire air drop crew assembled at Cargo for a safety brief – this included the entire Cargo department, plus the seven of us winter-overs that make up the winter air drop team. It was a full house! During the meeting, Paddy briefed us on what to expect, the sequence of events, and what was expected of us. Our C-17 crew, Mike and Scott, also gave us an inside perspective to the air drop – what we would see if we were in the air, and what we should see from the ground. We then waited for the plan to depart from McMurdo, but in the meantime the crew enjoyed a hearty plate of nachos. Those Cargo folks don’t mess around.

Finally, we got word that the plane had left. We departed soon after to make our way to the drop zone. The C-17’s commute from MCM to NPX (McMurdo to South Pole) is much shorter than the C-130. It takes a Herc approximately 3 hours for the transit, but the C-17 accomplished the trip in less than two hours last night. Since we are super-slow in our tracked vehicles on the ground, we must leave at least an hour before the scheduled drop. This gives us half an hour to travel to the site, and then half and hour on the ground to prepare. Once the convoy consisting of the LMC, Pisten Bully, and snowmobiles arrived at the drop zone, our preparations consisted of hanging around, staying warm, playing in the snow, and enjoying the spectacular sun dog show that the blow snow and ice crystals provided.

Finally the plane made it near the station… and then a Twin Otter squeezed in ahead of the C-17 to land. This delayed us by a few minutes. When the Twin Otter was safely on the ground, the C-17 made its first pass. Since they weren’t authorized to actually drop a package in the winter drop zone (on the skiway!), they practiced a fly-by instead. Of course, at this point in the evening, the visibility had dropped significantly. From where we were about two miles from the station, not even the farthest buildings from the station were visible. Our view of the flyby wasn’t great. They came through fast and low to simulate the drop – the pilots were telling us that they would approach the station at about 800 ft, even in the winter without the same visuals. It was quite impressive.

Then it was our turn. We waited for them to turn around and line up on the summer drop zone. And we waited. And waited. How long does it take to turn a plane around? It turns out they had some sort of mechanical issue on the plane that delayed the drop for a while. Finally we heard that they were ‘go’ and were headed our way. Authorization to drop was given from the ground crew, and the drop proceeded. Because of the direction and speed of the wind (it was picking up!), it felt like the plane dropped the packages right on top of us! Really, they were offset a little bit, but it was still quite exciting. They came through at an altitude of approximately 1000ft, opened the back, and slid out 8 pallets at a time. On the first deployment, two parachutes got caught in eachother, so the packages fell connected at a very fast rate. It was quite the explosion of snow when they reached the ground! On the second pass, one pallet’s chute didn’t deploy at all. That was another spectacular finale for that package! Once the packages were dropped at the plane was ‘Winchester’ (nothing left to drop), the C-17 did a few more flybys of the station before departing. Then it was our turn to go to work.

The crew jumped back in our vehicles and proceeded into the drop zone once it was declared safe by the C-17 crew. There were a total of 16 boxes to recover. Last night we only recovered the parachutes. There was no DNF (do not freeze) cargo dropped, so there wasn’t too much emphasis or urgency with the recovery. To recover the chutes, we broke up into teams. First, the chute must be detached from the package. This entails removing a shackle. Then the parachute is ‘cigar-rolled’ to control its huge mass. The parachute lines are bound together and daisy-chained to contain them as well. From there, the whole thing is rolled up and put in a box dragged on a sled for transport. On one of the parachutes Grace and I picked up to take to the box, it unraveled halfway across – I ended up tangled in the parachute and lying in the snow once we arrived. It was hilarious. We also recovered some other items from the drop – the crew sent a large stuffed penguin down with the first package my team recovered (he was later named ‘Winchester’), and we also found a set of ski goggles that one of the C-17 engineers lost by accident. The recovered goggles were sent back with our C-17 ground crew back to their owner.

Recovering the failed parachutes was a little more interesting. On the two that tangled together, the crew had to dig down about four feet to free the parachutes. On the chute that didn’t deploy, the box obviously did some crazy aerobatics and crashed upside-down in the snow. We dug down through the crater to the box, but there was no way we could remove the parachute. Instead, we marked the location for someone to later return with heavy machinery to pull it out. Yikes. All the packages will be recovered this weekend with loads of help – and big bulldozers!

All-in-all, the air drop was a fantastic experience. Not only was it amazing to see the accuracy of the Air Force with their air drops, but it was also important to get a feel for what to expect in the winter if we need an air drop. Winter air drops are strictly used for emergencies, so we really hope we don’t need one. Plus, although yesterday’s drop was a blast, we had perfect conditions. -17 F, sun, and about 17 kts of wind is much different from winter conditions where it will be -80 to -100 F in the dark. Keeping ourselves warm will be difficult, finding the packages will be difficult, and recovering the packages will be difficult. A fun maneuver in the summer is quite dangerous in the winter.

Although its not officially the weekend, it feels like it. With the air drop over, that’s a lot less stress on everyone. Our mass casualty drill was also postponed until next week, taking a large load off my shoulders. We have a busy flight schedule for the next two days, and we need at least 2 hours between flights, since we’ll be on the skiway. Add in the nasty weather that’s bearing down on us, and its not a good time for a drill.

This weekend is going to be fun – tonight there will be a rousing game of paper telephone, quite possibly the most amazing and hilarious game in the world. Tomorrow is Round 2 of James Brown Bingo (a crazy event not to be missed), and then a screening of ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ in the gym – costumes included. I’m excited to wear the wig I brought down. I was told a good wig is an essential item to pack for the South Pole. Good stuff.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

December Happenings

Ahhhh!  Again I slack at the blogging.  I apologize!  Things have been quite busy here since Thanksgiving – the Pole is definitely in the full swing of the summer season!

Things have been good at work – all of our instruments have been running well (knock on wood!), we are starting to receive cargo, and we’re also starting to ship out cargo.  Life is good.  Andy left two weeks ago to spend the holidays at home.  Patrick has replaced him, but leaves next week.  Its been really nice having friends rotate through – not only is it great to see various people, but its also wonderful to pick their brains for useful information.  Over the last few weeks we have also an increase in visitors.  There have been several people who have come out to see what we do at ARO from the station.  Additionally, we have had several groups of distinguished visitors (DV’s) on station.  The US Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa came out to ARO for a tour.  The National Science Board also paid a visit to the Pole, but unfortunately they weren’t able to make it out to see us; instead we brought a mini presentation and clean air samples to them.  Most recently, we had an Air Force C-17 pilot and load master check out ARO.  More on them later…

The weather has been BEAUTIFUL, so we have gotten a lot of work done outside.  Andy and I raised all of the 2-meter meteorology instruments on our tower.  After several years the snow accumulates, burying buildings, towers, and instruments.  Every so often the instruments must be raised to maintain the 2-meter distance off the snow.  Yesterday Patrick and I raised our albedo rack.  This is a T-shaped stand stuck in the snow that holds 3 solar instruments which look at the albedo, or reflectivity, of the snow.  It was easy to raise our instruments on the tower – that only required wrenches.  The albedo rack was a little more fun.  Patrick and I (ok mostly Patrick) dug a huge 8-foot hole in the snow in order to expose the bottom of the rack post.  It was quite the job.  Once we were at the bottom, we were lucky to have Marco and Joselyn assist us in lifting the entire rack.  We shoveled and packed snow under the post until it was at the correct height.  Then we filled it all back in.  This whole project took from about 10:00am to 3:00pm (including a lunch break).  We were blessed with sun and little wind, so working outside was easy.  During the shoveling I stripped down to liner gloves, a hat, and no jacket.  I never thought I would be so hot outside at the South Pole in -20 degree weather!   After all that shoveling yesterday, I’m a little sore!

On this past Monday the Air Force was supposed to conduct two air drops: a winter and a summer drop.  The main differences between the summer and winter drops are the air drop locations, how the packages are dropped, and out of which hatch they are dropped.  In the summer, we send packages grid South of the station, but in the winter we would direct a plane to send the package over the skiway.  The summer drops are routine because the C-17 is able to open its rear cargo bay hatch and send out the packages by gravity on their sliding mechanisms.  This procedure is well-practiced and is fairly easy for the crew.  The winter is a little more complicated.  The hydraulics don’t work well in the temperatures we are talking about here in the dead of winter (-100F), so the cargo bay hatch cannot be opened.  Instead, cargo is physically pushed out of the paratroop door (the door on the side of the plane parachutists jump out) on the side.  There is no gravity assistance, and its COLD!  To matters more interesting, a winter air drop is done in the darkness.  This is not a problem for the C-17 crew – they are used to this stuff!  It’s a little more difficult for us, the crew who has to pick up the crashed cargo.  Last week we had several meetings to discuss how we would run a winter air drop, how we would set up, and how we would recover the cargo.  In preparation for this week’s drop, the air drop crew learned how to light the burn barrels that will illuminate the winter drop zone.  We also planted flags at the surveyed locations which indicate where our burn barrels would be located.  It was a lovely boondoggle in a pisten bully out about 2 miles away from the station. 

Well, Monday rolled around and the air drop was scheduled for 1800 (6:00pm).  During the day the drop was put on delay, then mechanical delay, then indefinite mechanical delay before being cancelled all together.  Today was their next opportunity, but it turns out the C-17 needs a part shipped in from the US and there is no way that part will arrive today.  Tomorrow perhaps?  In the meantime, the C-17 air crew (pilot and load master) who came to assist on our side of the air drop are loving their mini vacation at the South Pole!  They are a great group of guys, and we are very glad to have them!

The ERT team (emergency response team) is in full prep mode this week.  On Friday we are scheduled to have our annual mass casualty drill.  I can’t speak too much about the prospective incident, but I know it will involve a mock plane and several people down.  It is going to be a real test of the system we have set up.  I’m nervous for the event, but I’m also pretty excited for it.  We’ve put in a lot of hours hashing out how we would handle several serious injuries at once, including initial response and transportation, so I’m looking forward to see how everyone handles it.

Other than work and emergencies, I’ve continued to have a lot of fun down here.  The weekend after Thanksgiving there was an Open Mic night at Summercamp.  It seems half the station crammed into the Summercamp lounge to see our fellow Polies show off their musical talents.  And a talented group we are (myself not included!).  I was completely blown away by my co-workers, friends, and peers!  I was very much inspired to continue my goal of learning at least a little of the guitar this winter.  We had extremely talented guitarists, a keyboard player, a banjo player, and a few other types of instruments.  There were soloists and groups that performed.  It was wonderful.  The music ranged from folk to bluegrass, to classic rock, soft rock, you name it.  I had a moment of “Whoa.  Here I am.  In a tent.  Its -40 degrees outside.  I’m listening to awesome music with my friends.  I’m at the South Pole!”  I have those moments every so often where I have to take a step back, assess my situation, and remind myself I’m at the bottom of the world! 

I’ve also kept up with my swing and salsa dancing.  We’ve been learning more and more advanced moves, but we are also gaining attendance during class.  I think a lot of people think dance lessons would be silly or stupid – but that’s until they try it.  I was able to convince several friends to attend a class, and now they are hooked.  Or at least they are having fun and don’t feel so silly.  It was awesome the other night at the Carp Shop party – a rock song was playing (I forget, but something on the hard side of rock), and my buddy and I were able to salsa dance to it – and I think we looked pretty good!  I was impressed with our ability to make the salsa fit into that situation and not completely screw it up.  Dancing is definitely a good skill to have.

Christmas, although it doesn’t feel like it down here, is right around the corner!  Some people have done a little decorating: the galley dish pit is very festive, and Comms went all out on their side of the building!  Its nice that Christmas is on a weekend this year so we can actually celebrate it on a weekend.  Like Thanksgiving, there is a feast and a party.  But before all this happens on Christmas Day, there is the Race Around the World, a race around the station and grounds.  This is a crazy race: you can either walk, run, ski, bike, board, ride, or whatever you can think of.  I am trying to convince the fire fighters to let me ride on their rig for the race.  The fire ‘truck’ is named ‘Elephant Man’, so we’re going to decorate it like an elephant.  I think I know what I’m doing Sunday.  A little sewing, anyone?  I want to make a big trunk to strap to the front!  Plus ears and eyes.  And probably a tail.  Nice!  Christmas, although not at home, is going to be a blast, I think!

Tonight is ARO movie night and we are showing a modern New Zealand classic:  Black Sheep.  This is not the 1996 Chris Farley Black Sheep.  Oh noooo… this is the 2007 zombie sheep flick.  Basically, New Zealand has more sheep than it has people.  Imagine the sheep becoming infected or genetically changed, and craving human flesh.  It is going to be fantastic!  I’m secretly glad the C-17 is still missing parts, so the film can be shown tonight!

That’s about all that is currently going on around here.  We’re free from the Christmas buzz at the South Pole.  There are no radio or tv commercials, no ridiculous holiday displays at stores, and so far no real Christmas music.  I hope you’re all enjoying it back home!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving at the Pole was FANTASTIC!  Holidays are a community effort down here on the Ice.  Everyone pitches in to help out and make things run smoothly.  The week before the big dinner, there were several sessions of community preparations.  One night about 15-20 people pitched in to bake pies.  We baked in epic proportions.  I helped out with the pumpkin pies, as those are my favorite.  I have never added gallons of pureed pumpkin to a bowl before!  And it was definitely not a bowl – more like a cauldron.  I stirred the filling with a HUGE whisk, and it required two hands.  It was awesome.  The next night there was the potato peeling party, which was more like vegetable cutting and prep. 

Last night was our Thanksgiving dinner.  There were three different shifts because we have so many people on station.  I was in the first seating with the majority of my friends – it was a blast!  Before dinner, the ladies got dressed up and it felt like we were going to the prom.  I found some killer red pumps in skua and tested those out – success!  Everyone arrived in the hallway outside the galley 30 minutes before the start of dinner for h’ours d’oeuvres (sp?), music, and mingling.  Then we proceeded to dinner.  I was shocked by how beautifully-decorated the room was.  All it took was some lighting, table cloths, candles, and a fake fire on our tv displays to turn the galley into a fancy banquet hall.  The food was served buffet-style and we had wine and pie stewards running around keeping our glasses and plates full.  It was quite different than my normal Thanksgiving dinners and was quite a treat!  I loved it!

After our seating, I took an hour off to work off the delicious turkey dinner with a few games of fooseball in the lounge.  It was great.  After some play time, I returned to the ‘hall’ to help clean, get another seating ready, and serve wine and pie.  It was a blast volunteering, but I think next time I am going to work in the dish pit cleaning dishes.  They really had a party going in there – disco lights and all!  The party migrated later on in the evening to SummerCamp, where the dancing didn’t cease until after 4:00am.  All in all, it was a great event!

Ok... its been a while!

Okay.  As has been pointed out to me by several people, I have totally fallen off the blog bandwagon.  Sorry!  Its actually a good thing though – things have been great here!  Where to begin?

Well to start off with, my baggage made it here!  It was amazing unpacking everything and then picking out an outfit the next day.  The boxes I shipped myself also arrived.  My bed is officially the most comfortable in the station!  I have a memory foam bed top, down comforter, and flannel sheets.  Its heaven.  Seriously!  The bad part is that it seems that ALL my boxes arrived at once!  I had several people ask me how many winters I plan on staying.  Ooops.  After living so long with so little, I realized how overboard I packed!  And there are more boxes on the way… oh well!  I plan on making a large donation to skua at the end of the winter (the community pile of odds and ends free for all). 

The previous NOAA winter crew left!  Andy and I have been flying solo for several weeks at ARO without major issues!  We’ve fallen into a good routine, and I’m feeling pretty comfortable with the basic job.  This is a good thing – Andy leaves in a few weeks and Cully comes in.  Then I’ll be alone at ARO for a few weeks – over Christmas and New Years. 

The Emergency Response Team has been working pretty hard here the last few weeks.  We are ironing out all the bugs in the system and getting trained up.  There is a lot of experience on the team to draw from – its fantastic.  The aircraft fire fighters have also been awesome.  They are excellent teachers and have been an integral part of our training!  They have also stood in and observed our drills, giving us constructive criticism in our drill debriefs.  We are slowly coming together.  We had the opportunity to test our system in real life a few nights ago.  At 2:00am on Sunday night we had a fire alarm trip in the garage.  We all jumped

People arrived!  TONS of people!  When I first got here, there were about 80 people on station.  Now there are 232!  Its just crazy.  The station is full, and the Jamesways are near their capacity as well.  The rumor is that we are going to top out at 250 people this season.  Its amazing seeing how many people it takes to support the science that occurs here – and its really cool being a part of it.  We have plumbers, carpenters, electricians, dishwashers, chefs, HR, heavy equipment operators, fuel specialists, cargo experts, materials personnel, grub luggers, utilities technicians, professional fire fighters, station engineers, power plant mechanics – you name it, we have it!  Everyone is fantastic.  I have met people from all over the county and all over the world since I’ve been here.  Everyone has a fascinating story as well – you don’t get down here by having your run of the mill lifestyle, hopes, and dreams.  Its wonderful talking with the people sitting next to you at meals, hearing where they are from, and what they have experienced.  I love it.

Aside from work, there is TONS to do here, recreation-wise.  Volunteers teach classes every morning and night of the week.  If you’re bored here, its strictly your own fault.  I have been taking part in the dance classes – I’ve been swing and salsa dancing several nights every week!  It’s a blast!  There aren’t too many of us, but it’s a lot of fun to just let loose and learn something new.  I have also been hosting movie night at ARO every week.  Attendance has been improving.  This week’s film is going to be ‘Strange Brew’, a classic Canadian comedy about two brothers on a quest for free adult beverages.  This movie is a little nostalgic for me – we used to play it on Rainier when we were cruising through Canadian waters on our way through the Inside Passage.  Since the station is currently out of beer (good beer, anyway), I thought it was the perfect choice this week.  Saturday nights have been movie night in our Communications Shop – they have a projector, disco ball, and bubble machine.  Good times.  Last Saturday night was the 10^th annual James Brown Bingo.  It is an evening of bingo and craziness hosted by our top chef.  It was pretty insane!  There was a cream pie fight, at least one shirtless guy, and enough yelling for me to begin losing my voice.  I can’t wait for the next bingo night. 

This morning a bulldozer finally made it out to ARO to clear the HUGE drift that was in front of the lab.  We can’t get cargo in or out with the snow in the way.  For about two hours, the dozer pushed snow away from the cargo deck and smoothed out a nice ramp for forklifts to nudge up and take away our boxes.  It was like watching an artist work!  The equipment operator was a PRO!  She did a fantastic job clearing the small mountain and then using the blade of the dozer to make a nice smooth ramp.  In the aftermath of the clearing, there was the perfect setup for a snow fort.  So what did I do?  I grabbed large blocks of snow created by the dozer and began stacking them.  I plan on building a little more each day until I have a superior structure which provides excellent shelter from incoming snowballs.  Not that anyone throws snowballs other than me… but maybe I will when I start ambushing visitors to ARO.  The first test is going to be tomorrow night when my friends come out to watch the movie… Muahahahaha!

We had an Indian traverse group arrive on station yesterday – they came in three GORGEOUS Toyota Tundras retrofitted for Antarctic travel.  They run on jet fuel, have huge tires, and are outfitted to haul huge trailers and complete science during their trek across the continent.  I’m not sure where they started, but they made it here in only 10 days from the coast!  Crazy!  Our traverses which bring fuel take at least a month to get here.  These guys were HAULING.  I saw two of the trucks driving around the Pole for a photo shoot, and they were amazing.  These things are definitely built to float over the snow.  The ride looked a little bumpy, but not terrible!  I can’t imagine traversing the continent in less than a month.  Along the way, they are completing several studies, including looking at aerosols, glaciology, and other things – I can’t remember what their scientists told me this morning during our conversation!

Thanksgiving is this weekend!  Yes – I said this weekend.  We aren’t celebrating Thanksgiving on Thursday with the rest of the world.  Instead of breaking up the week with a day off and then having Saturday being a normal working day and Sunday off, Thanksgiving was shifted to Saturday.  This way, the Raytheon crew gets a solid two days off in a row.  Everyone is pretty excited for that!  So this week is chock full of preparations for the 232-person feast this weekend.  I’m helping bake pies on Thursday evening.  There is also a huge potato-peeling party on the same night.  There will be three different seatings for dinner itself – two for the day crews and one for the night and swing shifters.  I’m helping serve wine at the last seating.  I am attending the first seating, where a good chunk of my friends will also be.  It should be a lot of fun – I’m excited to put on a dress, do my hair, and wear makeup!  It’s the little things… 

That pretty much sums up how things are going here.  I’m loving life.  Until next time…

PS – Hello Ben’s Dad!

Happy Halloween :)

31 October 2010

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from the South Pole!  Today marks my one week anniversary at 90 South, and we are still blissfully happy!  Okay… lame, I know.  Truthfully, everything is still great down here.  After a week of turnover with Johan and Nick, I’m feeling pretty good about them leaving on Wednesday.  There are still things I’m shaky on, but at some point you just have to start doing things by yourself.

Since many winterovers were sure they were leaving Saturday, there was no Halloween party planned.  We were supposed to have two Hercs arrive on station, but two unfortunate events occurred that day: a French helicopter crashed somewhere on the Ice, causing one of our Hercs to be deployed for the recovery mission, and the second Herc suffered an engine casualty soon after takeoff from McMurdo and had to return to the airfield immediately.  Both events left the winter-overs stranded at Pole for Halloween.  At the last minute,  a few of the science techs banded together and created their own party.

The party was a lot of fun!  The party supplies down here are pretty awesome.  We had serious lights (strobe, disco, different colors) run by a real light board, and a serious sound system!  About half the attendees arrived in costume.  We had: 2 pirates, a shark, Indiana Jones, Lucifer, and a man with a beautiful blonde wig.  It was quite funny.  Aside from the winter-overs and a few new summer guys (myself included), the flight crew from a Canadian twin otter that spent the night joined in the fun.  Good times!

Today was busy, busy, busy!  On top of the instruments I am brushing up on, we had to do a little fixin’.  When I left Boulder, I was given a few replacement parts for the Nephelometer, an instrument which measures aerosols and their scattering properties.  I brought with me several photomultiplier tubes and filters for the unit.  One of the components of the instrument was getting incorrect readings – hopefully one of these parts would be the fix.  We first installed the new filter.  This involved shutting down the acquisition system, shutting off the nephelometer, completely unplugging it, disconnecting all of the air intake and exhaust tubes, and taking it down off a high shelf.  Then we took off one of the covers, swapped out the filter and re-assembled the instrument.  Once it was up and running again, we were able to look at the data and see that the problem wasn’t fixed.  Next we replaced the photomultiplier tube through the same process with the same result.  Darn!  We’ve all the trouble-shooting we could do down here for the moment.  Now we just have to wait to hear back from Boulder this week with more ideas…

So we think tomorrow is the BIG DAY.  Aka the first Hercs will probably arrive!  There are four flights on the schedule – two with passengers arriving, one taking passengers away, and two presumably with fuel and cargo.  Very exciting!  All of us that arrived by Basler (about 50 of us) are anxiously awaiting our luggage (as I’m sure you gathered from my last few posts).  I’m also excited to see the friends I made in fire school!  Keep your fingers crossed that the weather will cooperate in McMurdo and that the planes actually run!

Hooray for showers!

The ozonesonde launch went well yesterday – it was wonderful having the entire process thoroughly explained and then launched in one sitting.  It was also fantastic seeing the data which resulted from the launch.  The ozone hole is still depleted over Antarctica, but it is showing promising signs of its annual breakup.  Very cool stuff.

Today I took my first shower since I reported to Pole.  You may think that’s disgusting and unbelievable, but water is very scarce here.  We are allocated two showers per week, two minutes each.  Amazingly enough, it is so cold and dry down here that you really don’t get THAT dirty in a few day’s time.  Contrary to popular belief, we don’t all smell like Appalachian Trail through-hikers.  Even when you’re working hard, its still -40 to -50 degrees outside, so your body is pretty much maintaining.  It did feel wonderful to wash my hair though!  Like any 2-minute shower, you have to have a plan of attack going in.  I found it worked well to soap up as much as possible sans water, jump in for a few seconds, lather, and then spend the rest of the allotted time rinsing.  I have never put so much thought into a shower before.

After my shower, which was by far the highlight of my day, I spent the rest of the day at ARO continuing to learn the ropes with Johan, Nick, and Andy.  I feel much more comfortable after today’s time out there.  Its all coming back and I’m beginning to have a decent grasp on the job.  This is a good thing – Nick and Johan leave next week!

Our bakers made the most AMAZING dessert tonight:  a chocolate and raspberry truffle cake with white chocolate icing.  I thought I had died and gone to heaven.  Wow.  I can’t wait until my body has adjusted enough to the altitude so I can hit the gym!

The forecast looks decent tomorrow for flights – could this be our day?

Crazy Daze...

Day 3 at the South Pole – wow, was it busy!  The day started sleep-deprived (it is seriously hard to sleep here since it is SO dry!), but at a decent hour.  There was an 8:00am meeting for all Emergency Response Team members in preparation for today’s drills.  As soon as the large planes (‘Hercs’) begin flying in, our winter-overs from last year will be headed out.  And with them, they take a year’s worth of emergency response experience and information.  Now is the time to train with them!

At 10:30 we had our first drill.  The pass-down drills were scheduled to get us newbies into the groove and see how things work.  The alarm sounded in the station (surprisingly not jarring, like the insane bell alarm on the ship) and we heard on our radios that there was smoke and fire detected in the B-3 section of the station (right near the main entryway), first deck.  Once it was announced where we would muster, the new guys shadowed the old hands during the drill.  Because there were twice as many people as normal responding in a tight space, it was a bit crazy.  As the fire team lead, I shadowed the crew member who was coordinating the victim search and fire attack teams.  It was quite interesting, and a lot to keep track of.  The fire team sent in an initial team to rescue the one victim we knew we had down.  Once she was safely removed and transported to medical, the same fire team entered to fight the simulated fire (smoke simulation and all!).  A ventilation team entered the space once the fire was secured and removed the smoke from the building with fans that blew the air out of the main doors (yes – into the -55 degree F weather).  Once the scenario was secured, we broke for lunch and then it was our turn.

The simulated smoke again set off the alarm not too long after lunch.  The other teams mustered immediately and the fire team donned all gear necessary to enter a scene with a fire (the ‘red zone’, as we are calling it).   Donning our gear seemed to take FOREVER.  I know our speed will come with practice.  Once everything was on, we reported on scene.  One of my firefighters was suffering with the effects of the altitude and was having difficulties breathing.  Since there are only 3 of us new fire fighters at the station, we quickly changed roles within the team.  I transitioned into a fire fighter on the primary search team, while our other member who could not enter the space took over command.  For a last minute change, it went quite well.  The new fire team lead had good control over the situation and great radio presence.  Myself and the other fire fighter, a summer crew member without any fire training, entered the space, rescued the victim, and then responded to fight the fire.  The conditions we had were not ideal, since there were only 3 of us on the fire team.  Any time a pair of fire fighters is sent into an incident, they need an equal or greater amount of people as backup.  These backup members are there to rescue any fire fighters which may become victims, and bring in additional resources to the main fire attack team.  This was simulated today – it will be really nice to have a full compliment of team members in a week or two!

Although the fire drills were insane, confusing, and a little frustrating at times, I think we did a decent job.  I received a few compliments myself, so I’m optimistic that we’ll pull together our response teams pretty soon and will be a cohesive team in a few months.  We normally drill once per month, but in November the station will have a drill once a week so we can get in additional practice.  Although drills are stressful, they are also a little fun.  The fire alarm really gets your heart pumping!

After my morning and afternoon of fire fighting, I ran out to ARO – okay, I walked slowly out to ARO – and went through the daily instrument checks with Nick, Johan, and Andy.  There is so much to learn!  I’m really looking forward to when things calm down just a bit and I can get into a routine with these guys!  When the daily checks were completed, Johan, the Ozone Master, showed me his zen techniques he uses to operate the Dobson spectrophotometer.  The Dobson is an instrument which measures the total amount of ozone in the air directly above you, from the surface to space.  This baby was invented in the 1920’s and is still the standard for total column ozone measurements.  Since the design of the instrument is a little antiquated, it has definite quirks and must be run by a well-trained technician.  This Dobson is different than the ones I have used in the past, so there is a bit of a learning curve.  It is fun to use though – it feels like real science!

Tomorrow Johan (also the ozonesonde Master!) is showing me how to properly launch ozonesondes at the South Pole.  An ozonesonde is basically a weather balloon with two instruments attached:  one is a small chemical sensor which measures ozone in the atmosphere, and the other is a unit which transmits the ozone data back to the earth, plus additional temperature, pressure, and altitude data.  I’ve only seen 3 launches, so I am quite eager to learn how it is done down here.  We have to use different balloons in the winter because the air temperatures are so cold, and we also have to pay close attention to the temperatures of the sensors.  I’ve heard there is a fine balance that must be taken into account.  Good stuff!

One other wonderful thing I discovered tonight was one of our ‘Skua’ locations in the station!  A skua is a scavenging coastal Antarctic bird.  At McMurdo station, if they see you walking outside with food, they will attack you to get at what you have.  They can be quite aggressive!  After the winter months at McMurdo and Pole, people are ready to get rid of the items they have not used and will not be taking with them to the States.  All of these wonderful things get dumped into several boxes and new guys on station can take what they want.  I found a huge stash of wonderful lotions!  This may sound trivial, but I must reiterate how incredibly dry it is down here!  Wow.  I thought Boulder was dry.  No way!  I now have a great cache of lotions that will beautifully supplement the ones that are on their way down here in my luggage and boxes I sent months ago.  Thank you, skua!

So ends another exciting day at the Pole!  Hopefully we’ll be getting more people in here soon and will fall into the Summer routine quickly!  Goodnight, all!

Made it to the Pole!

26 October 2010

Good morning from the SOUTH POLE!  We were lucky on Sunday and were able to sneak Basler #3 away from McMurdo and all the way to the Pole!  It was a fantastic journey!  The Basler aircraft are privately-owned and operated DC9s converted specifically for polar travel.  They are beauuutiful aircraft!  They are tail-draggers on skis, not fully pressurized, and took only 16 of us from McMurdo to Pole.  The ride from McM to NPX (McMurdo to Pole) was about four hours long – without toilets!  Eeeesh.  Luckily, I didn’t have any issues… We took off at 0840 in the morning, about 20 minutes early of our scheduled departure.  All we were allowed to take with us was a personal bag with our electronic equipment (computers, etc) and a small bag of personal items (a few days worth of clothes and toiletries).  The rest of our gear is probably sitting out on pallets in the snow at McMurdo waiting for the Hercs to start flying (LC-130s) – those planes are workhorses and can take muuuuch more cargo than a Basler.

About an hour into the flight we climbed high enough in altitude that it was necessary for passengers and crew to wear oxygen.  Although the plane ride was a ‘low altitude’ ride, we still had to get pretty high to clear the Trans Antarctic Mountains.   I think we got up to about 14 or 16,000ft.  Unfortunately we were in the clouds and our windows were completely frosted over, so there was no view within 15 minutes of takeoff.  Four hours later, we took off our nasal cannulas supplying oxygen and landed at the Pole!  It was amaaazing to land in the middle of nowhere in a tiny plane and then have to ski around to taxi to our off-loading area.  The pilots had to give the plane a lot of power and really muscle her around to get her to move on the ground.

Nick, Johan, and Andy were waiting for me just off the plane with hugs and a camera!  It was a wonderful welcome!  It was about -35 to -40 F when we landed, but I felt extremely overdressed for the weather!  Those big red parkas they give us to wear here don’t mess around! I can’t to get my gear and downsize to a jacket more suited to these temps and my activity level!

My first few hours here were getting settled in – watching an orientation video, getting my room (which is HUGE, by the way), figuring out the layout of the station, and getting acquainted with my lab, ARO (Atmospheric Research Observatory).  Since we are at 9,300 ft here and there is less atmosphere at the poles of the Earth than the Equator and midlatitudes, it feels more like 11,000ft.  Breathing up here is a little difficult – you get winded pretty fast.  The air is also extremely dry, making breathing even more interesting.  I’ve been very fortunate with my acclimatization so far.  I haven’t suffered any headaches, nausea, or any ‘hangover’ symptoms that accompany a huge leap in altitude like the ride in the Basler.  I’ve just been tired – walking out to ARO (the 5-10 minute trek through the snow) is a cardio workout, and its been difficult sleeping in my dry stateroom.  I can’t wait for my humidifier to arrive on station that I sent out a few months ago!

ARO is really really cool!  It is a lot more impressive than I had expected!  It is a two-floor, multi-room facility that is laid out well.  There is plenty of room inside the station to spread out and not interfere with the equipment.  There are tons of windows to allow natural light.  Its great – I’ll have to explain more later!

Yesterday was my first full day on station and it was spent at ARO.  We completed 3 sets of flask samples for different groups within NOAA, went over some of the equipment in more detail, and completed daily checks.  Its amazing how different the Pole is from the training I had in Barrow.  Every station has its quirks – Pole definitely has its own complete set!  It will take a lot more coaching to get it down. 

Today I’m getting fit for my SCBA mask (for fire-fighting) and we’ll probably start the hand-down of duties.  I’ve been assigned as the fire team lead, so there is a LOT I have to learn about not only how things run down here, but the physical aspects of the station.  Just like a ship, I need to know the spaces inside and out, know what hazards are in each, and how to fight a fire in each space.  Whew!  This is a lot of stuff for a sleep and oxygen-deprived week!

Well, I’ve gotta run and start my day… have a great one, guys!

Last Day at McMurdo

23 October 2010

Today began like the past few here in McMurdo: up at 5:45, put on clean(ish) clothes, brush my teeth, trek over to building 155 and check my emails, get breakfast with Freija and Jens, head to Crary lab to get some work done… and then things got interesting.  It was snowy and windy with limited visibility, but we saw movement at the airfield.  To our amazement, Basler #2 loaded up, taxied out, and took off!  The weather at Pole was beautiful!  Very cold, very sunny, very little wind!  So the second Basler made it, delivering a fresh crew to staff the summer months!  And what did this mean for me?  My plane is next!  And will probably go tomorrow!

After this great news, I attended the Outdoor Safety Lecture, which is mandatory training for anyone who wants to engage in hiking, skiing, and other recreation away from the station.  We learned about the dangers encountered outside the confines of the station and how we can mitigate our hazards and be prepared.  It was a decent lecture for someone who was brand new!  After a huge lunch, Freija, Jens, and myself decided to put our new knowledge to use and hiked the Hut Point Loop.  This 3-mile loop takes hikers past Scott’s Discovery Hut, out to the point, up a ridgeline, and out to Arrival Heights before returning them to McMurdo.  It was a gorgeous hike!  The views were simply breath-taking, especially since the snow had cleared and the sun had come out since lunch.  It was amazing!  We thought this trail was going to be a walk in the park, but it actually was a decent workout.  The hills were sizeable, and when you factor the difficulty of movement and weight of all the outdoor gear required to be outside in Antarctica (even in McMurdo) for 3ish hours, it was more work than we originally expected.  We were able to see Black Island, White Island, and even Mount Erebus in the background!  Mount Erebus is an active volcano and one of three volcanoes in the world with an exposed molten lava pool at the base of its crater.  It was smoking the entire time we were hiking and had a ring of clouds midway up the mountain that made it look like a scene from Lord of the Rings.  Amaaazing!  The hiking terrain is interesting – it is all volcanic ‘soil’.  You are basically walking on a mix of snow, snow drifts, volcanic dust, and small volcanic rocks like pumice.  It makes for interesting footing.  I was very happy that I chose to wear my normal hiking boots for this trek and not the extreme FDX boots which are issued to us.  The FDX boots are seriously insulated, but they do not have the traction required for this type of hiking.  My poor companions could have used crampons for the scramble up some of the sections!  One thing I noticed during the hike is how the snow sounded.  It was the very squeaky, crunchy snow you usually get on the coldest days in New England.  The snow is very fine, it is very cold, and very dry here, making this sound everyday.  In some sections (when we were walking on the edge of the glacier) the squeak of the snow almost had a hollow sound to it.  The pitch and quality of the sound changed.  I can’t fully describe it, but the difference was striking.

Our hike and extensive photo session outside left us pretty tired.  After dinner, the three of us found a Scrabble board and played a game in one of the lounges.  I am definitely out of practice with Scrabble.  My opponents were from Belgium and Germany (not native English speakers) and I just barely won.  Eeeeesh.  My dear friend Stephanie would be very upset with me!  Hopefully I’ll manage to get a greater command of English over the winter and win some games against Americans too. 

As ridiculous as it sounds, one of the highlights of my night was taking my first dose of medication to combat altitude sickness.  This means I am probably almost on my way!  Medication is prescribed to Polies because the South Pole Station is at approximately 9,300 ft, but it feels much higher because less atmosphere is physically over the Pole (Earth spinning & centrifugal force is pretty important).  I’m allergic to the normal meds, so I was given a low dose of steroids.  This treatment is commonly used by high altitude backpackers and mountaineers.  I just hope there aren’t too many side effects.  I suddenly feel the need to go pump some iron…

Hopefully tomorrow I will be writing from the South Pole instead of McMurdo!  Keep your fingers crossed….

I'm in ANTARCTICA!

I’m in Antarctica!  Since I’m here, it’s time to really knuckle down and start this blog!   A lot has happened since my last post…

The last time I wrote, I was just starting training in Denver with my fellow Polies.  It was a great two weeks!  The first week was some orientation stuff, Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM), Peer Counseling, and Wilderness First Responder.  It was all really fantastic training!  I must say during the CISM and Peer Counseling training with the psychologists, we all started analyzing ourselves and had some interesting conversations.  The most memorable was our conversation(s) about rage – specifically how they told us that rage could only be dissipated through destruction.  Believe what you want… but rage is serious!  Our first aid class was great – our awesome instructor was from Portland and had a lot of great experience as an EMT to back up all of his lessons.  He did a lot of hands-on work, including using makeup to simulate injuries.  At one point, I had a compound fracture on my right shin that looked quite real.  I took a photo and texted it home… apparently my family thought I had really hurt myself for about 10 seconds before they saw the caption that went along with it… oops!

Week #2 was firefighting at the Rocky Mountain Fire Academy in Aurora, CO.  I was slightly concerned about this training going into it because the last time I had fire training, I hadn’t been comfortable in the SCBA’s we had to wear (self-contained breathing apparatus – the regulator and tank system which allows fire-fighters to breathe in burning buildings and smokey conditions).  Luckily, I had mentally prepared myself well for this slightly claustrophobic feeling and had no problems during the Aurora training.  In fact, I loved the fire training!  It was a lot like being a kid!  We got to play dress-up in the turnout gear, crawl through tight spaces, look for people in the dark, play with hoses, get dirty, and play with fire.  Good stuff.  The training was excellent – the staff of the fire academy were fantastic and extremely helpful.  They had all skill levels to deal with and worked everyone’s individual comfort levels.  The training I had here was not even comparable to the training I received at BOTC (basic officer training class) in New York. 

One of the highlights of our firefighting class were crawling through a trailer that was a maze of wires, boards, and tight spaces.  It was a lot of work with all the gear on (plus air) and a ton of fun!  We did a lot of pitch-black search-and-rescue that was a blast.  We also did a relay race (ladies vs. gentlemen) where we had to put on all our gear and run a lap of the fire tower (5 stories).  The kicker was that when we weren’t looking, our neatly-laid-out gear was all thrown in a HUGE, messy pile and no one knew who belonged to what.  We just threw on random gear and ran up and down the tower.  The ladies lost on a technicality.  We also went into the burn room and experienced a 500-degree fire and smoke.  We fought a car fire with water and a wood fire in the burn building with fire extinguishers (realistic, since we only have extinguishers at the Pole!). 

The COOLEST thing I did all week was drive a fire truck!   All week I had been salivating over the trucks.  One of my fantastic colleagues had probably gotten tired of me saying all I wanted to do was drive the truck, and he told one of the instructors.  The last morning, our instructor called two of us out of the room to ‘help’ him with something.  We walked out on the drill ground to the truck and I was told to get in the front.  I asked what he meant, and he told me sternly to get in the front!  So I hopped in, put on my seatbelt, and the three of us drove around a bit.  I was told that if I saw the chief I should throw the truck in park and jump in the back.  Very illegal!  So my fellow New Hampshirite and I got to drive the truck!  The firefighters tried to recruit me.  So basically if NOAA ever gets rid of me, I can always start a new career as a firefighter in Aurora.  Good stuff.

So that takes me up to my departure from Colorado.  Mom flew out and we drove from CO to NJ in 2.5 days.  It was wild – we drove about 13 hours each day and just banged out state after state!  We were machines.  At home, we had a going away ‘penguin’ party with friends and family that was fantastic!  I also got to be in my best friend’s wedding the day before I departed!  What a way to leave the states!

5 days ago, I boarded a plane in Newark, flew to Dallas, flew to LA, and then got in a huge Airbus A320 and few across the Pacific!  It was a super-nice plane (ginormous and new) with the nicest crew of New Zealanders you’ll ever meet!  Kiwis are so wonderful!  It was a long flight – 13 hours.  I got to watch a movie and some tv shows and take cat naps.  It could have been a lot worse!  It was blissful arriving in Auckland, New Zealand!  I felt like I had been at sea for weeks – land!  Solid land!  I cleared security in the beautiful Auckland International Terminal and hauled my 150 lbs of luggage (yes – I overpacked) to the domestic terminal.  From there, I boarded one more plane and made it to Christchurch!  In the meantime, a 5.5 earthquake had hit Christchurch and messed up things at the Antarctic Program Offices a bit.  I hauled my stuff over to the Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) and picked up all the cold weather gear you could ever imagine.  Besides the big down coat with a HUGE hood, serious ‘bunny’ boots, and super-lined Carhardtt overalls, I was amazed to see that I own all the other gear.  That’s what happens when you’re a gear junkie.  I couldn’t get my flu shot at the CDC because the nurse had left to help with the earthquake. 

At this point I was extremely exhausted and I just wanted to rest!  I caught a shuttle to my beautiful hotel in downtown Christchurch and took a much-needed shower!  I checked my email and saw that a few friends were meeting for dinner nearby, so I ran out the door again and had my last non-Antarctic meal with the Polies.

The next morning I was back at the CDC by 0600 and re-packing all my luggage for the flight to Antarctica.  We took our bags through security at a small terminal at the Antarctic Program Offices.  From there, we watched a quick orientation video, jumped on a bus in all our Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear, and drove across the street to our Air Force C-17 waiting on the runway, engines turning.  We all piled onboard, strapped in to our seats (airline seats!), and took off!  The flight was wonderful!  I got 3 hours of sleep, got to go up in the cockpit, and read a little.  I was expecting a rough ride in a military transport, but it was the smoothest ride of the 5 I had taken in the past 36 hours.  Five hours later, we put our seatbelts on and landed on the icefield at McMurdo station!

The runway is actually on ice.  Sea ice.  It’s frozen ocean!  I got a huge kick out of that.  It didn’t feel any different than asphalt when we landed and taxied.  We threw on our ECW gear, grabbed our carryons, and disembarked.  Snow!!!  My first impression was how white and bright it was!  Holy Snow, Batman!  As far as the eye can see, there is snow.  I now understand snow blindness!  Sunglasses are essential.  We walked away from our C-17 and onto “Ivan the Terrabus”, a big red bus with huge snow tires.  Ivan took us to the ‘Chalet’ in McMurdo, which is an office building that looks like a chalet.  There was another, more comprehensive, orientation in the chalet.  We also got our room keys for our dorms in McMurdo, I got my flu shot, and everyone who was at the training in Denver got their assignments for the South Pole Emergency Response Team.  Because of my amazing firefighting skills, I am the lead of the primary fire team.   This should be interesting…

McMurdo reminds me a lot of Barrow.  I am quite comfortable here.  There are a lot of small buildings on stilts.  The roads are snow and dirt.  Everyone shuffles around outside between buildings.  Huge trucks and heavy equipment rule the streets.  Everyone pays a lot of attention to the comings and goings of the airplanes and helicopters.  You have to be creative and make your own fun.  The main differences are that the food is awesome here (and free) and that people take care of the environment – there are no derelict snowmobiles or piles of animal bones along the roads.  There are about 1000 people on station, and you can definitely tell.  Meals are insane.  There is one huge galley, but it’s a madhouse.  The people who have been here a while (flights have been coming here since August) constantly complain about how many people are here and how they don’t know the rules!  Its hilarious.  This is your seat?  Sorry!  I didn’t see your name on it!   Just kidding – its not that bad.  It must be a shock to have your quiet home invaded by a bunch of loud newbies who don’t know how things work and mess up your established routine.  It is going to become even more crowded in a few weeks.  Bunk beds are being put in every room in the next week to help accommodate the extra population.  I’m glad I don’t have that much time here – I’m looking forward to getting to a place with a slower place with less anonymity.  (I can’t wait to look back at this blog in the middle of the winter and see how much my attitude has changed!)

I was originally scheduled for Basler flight #4, but some strings were pulled somewhere along the line, and I was bumped up to Basler #3.  That’s good news!  The bad news is that Basler #3 was scheduled to leave yesterday.  And Basler #2 still hasn’t left.  Flights go sequentially, so there is still some time to wait here before I can get to Pole.  The poor guys who were scheduled for Basler #2 have been here for a week and are getting quite sick of it.  On top of it, we do the ‘Bag Drag’ the day before our flights are supposed to leave – this is weighing and packaging all non-carry-ons for flight.  Essentially, it means that all you have is a small carry-on to last however long it takes for you to fly to Pole.  It could be a day, it could be two weeks.  Plan accordingly!  On top of it, even if a Basler gets to Pole, luggage flies in on the Hercs (C-130s which can carry much more cargo).  So you really have to think hard about what you will need for several weeks.  It’s a lot like camping.  But in the Antarctic.  Interesting.  I think I’ve done a pretty good job.  I have a lot of socks, underwear, and techwick shirts that I can wash in the sink.  I’m good to go.

Last night was “American Night” at Scott Base, the Kiwi research station.  Little did I know, they are about 10 minutes from us by vehicle (van, snowmobile, what have you), just over the hill!  Their facilities are beautiful – McMurdo looks pretty dumpy by comparison.  Scott Base is much smaller – only a few people winter over there.  Most of the buildings are connected, so you don’t need to walk outside to get between major areas.  They have a decent store (which was a main attraction) and a huge bar!  I was surprised.  I poked my head in there to check it out, but didn’t stay.  I was a little tired from my flu shot the previous day and still a little jet-lagged.  I took some pictures and caught another shuttle home.  A good night!

Today I’ve mainly done work all day.  There are a few odds and ends to tie up from the States.  That sounds so strange!  I want to get as much done as possible while I have decent internet access.  People complain about the internet here, but its faster and more reliable that it was on the ship!  I’m just waiting for Pole – it’ll be much different, I’m sure.  Man.  Live on a ship for a few years, and you’ll see the world in a new light! 

Tonight I’m planning on going to a yoga class offered at the chapel here on base.  Its much-needed after my airline and bag-drag adventures.  With any luck, the weather will clear in the next few days and I’ll be able to complete my long trip to the Pole!  Yay!

Finally Training with the Crew!

Yesterday was my first day of training in Denver with the South Pole crew.  There are about 30 of us here from around the country (and the world!) completing two weeks of trauma, first aid, and fire training.  It is great finally meeting some of my future co-workers and family members for the next year!  The crew attending this training was split into two groups - my half of the group is doing the safety orientation/trauma/first aid training this week while the other group is fighting fires.  Next week we'll switch and head over to the fire academy.

Training has been fascinating so far.  We began with the safety systems at the Elevated Station.  Compared with the ship (and most other non-spaceship structures), the fire detection, suppression, and other systems are amazing!  Here are some fun facts and statistics we learned:

• SPO (South Pole Observatory) potable water is made by pumping warm water into holes drilled 800-1,000 ft deep in the ice.  The water melts surrounding ice and creates a 'lake' under the ground.  
• SPO water is the most pure water in the world - if we drank it untreated for a long period of time, it would kill us because the water contains zero minerals.  It would eventually cause minerals to leach out of our bodies.  Luckily, it would take several years.  Needless to say, our water is treated.
• What happens with the wells that are completely depleted?  We use it for 'outfall'... *ahem*... solid waste.
• The daily usage of water at the Pole is about 18 gallons/person/day.
• It costs about $25 to create one gallon of water.
• There is a 3-year supply of frozen food at the Pole.  An emergency 3-month food cache stored in the snow is rotated every ten years.  Yummmmm. 
• The station is powered by diesel generators - three 750 kW generators and one 239 kW generator. One generator runs at a time and they are periodically switched.  The lower-rated generator takes up the slack if the maximum load for one generator is exceeded.  All generators run on JP-8 jet fuel.
• Fuel is delivered to the station through two means: 50,000 gal are brought to the station via fuel traverse (35-day trip across the continent with snowcat-like vehicle towing fuel sleds) and by siphoning off 2,000-3,000 gal of fuel from each airplane landing at the station.  
• Aircraft cannot land at the Pole if the temperatures are below -57 degrees F.
• Although its a little chilly outside, the Elevated Station is kept at a balmy 65.
• Up to 250 people live at the South Pole in the summer - about 100-150 people live in tents (aka 'Jamesways') outside the station.  Hard. Core.
• If the station lost power, you would be able to see your breath inside in 2-3 hours.

Today's training consisted of dealing with traumatic incidents - the main take-away message is never tell someone to 'calm down'!  ...Or tell them they need to calm down!  It was very interesting because they were involved in cases such as Columbine and the incident at Virginia Tech.  The psychologists had a lot of experience.  Hopefully we won't ever need the tactics of handling critical incidents during the year on the Ice.

So far so good!  The training continues tomorrow with wilderness first aid... 

Info, dates, and other such fun things

Hello all!  Thanks for tuning in to my blog!  I'm not really a diary/journal/blog person, so bear with me here.  Hopefully I'll remember to post something cool every once in a while!

Ok.  Here's the skinny.  I have just over a month left in Colorado - two weeks at the office and two weeks of fire fighting/trauma training near Denver.  From there, I will be driving back East to spend time with the family and attend my best friend's wedding!  The unofficial/official deployment date is October 17.  I'm still waiting on a plane ticket, but I've its in the works.  Once I fly to New Zealand, crossing the International Date Line, I'll have an afternoon in Christchurch to get my cold weather gear, and then I'll hop on a plane to McMurdo station.  And THEN if all goes well weather-wise, I'll be at the South Pole the day after.  Yikes.

I'll be on the Ice for just over a year, returning to the states in December 2011.  The last flight out of Pole should be mid-February and we will be 'marooned' there until late October/early November.  If you want to send care packages (hint hint*), let me know soon and I'll send you the address - no more mail after February (which means send it now!).

More later....