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….