Cold or Not
Written November 14, 2009
Pearse Valley is a new type of environment for me. It’s colder and dryer than anywhere I’ve stayed. There is more ice. It can be windy, although it hasn’t been too bad yet. There are no plants, although rumor has it that lichens have been spotted high up the valley walls where clouds often form.
When I first got here, the cold was intimidating. And it was cold: often about -25°C when I’d get up in the morning. My toothpaste was always too frozen to get out of the tube without putting it in a pocket or my sleeping bag (or keeping it in a heated tent).
However, after a few days, I learned what combinations of clothes work keep me warm doing different jobs. Wind protection is really important, and I tend to always have two windproof layers handy. I also found that I can let my hands get quite cold if I need to do delicate work without gloves. They warm up quickly if I keep the rest of my body toasty and put my fingers in a warm place. Also, my wool fingerless gloves are absolutely fantastic when I’m screwing or unscrewing bolts! (That is one of my jobs when we’re drilling holes through ice.) I can also go between tents and get chilled, but warm up again very quickly - faster than it takes my body to warm up a cold coat if I put one on just to go between tents.
I actually find that I have the hardest time warming up if I’ve been sitting and working on something like the microscope or photographs. I often get a bit chilled, especially my feet, which are down at the cold floor level. They don’t warm up for quite a while (hours) unless I get some exercise, like walk up a hill or do some heavy work. This is a bit of a problem before bed. We often watch movies in the evening, and it cools off significantly. I rarely feel like going for a walk between the movie and going to bed, but it is the best thing for starting the night with toasty feet. A water bottle of hot water in my sleeping bag can also work, but is much slower.
It also took me a few days to get comfortable with the beautiful ice. It is really slick, and we’ve all fallen flat more than once. The second time I did, I was carrying a glass flask of hydrochloric acid in one hand and a bunch of little things in the other. I managed to not break the flask, which was much more important that catching myself on the fall. It didn’t hurt too much. I am now much better at walking on ice. We also have “stabilizers” which are rubber soles with metal cleats that you attach to the bottoms of your shoes. They really help, and I always wear them if I’ll be walking on ice for more than a few 10’s of meters. I’ve also realized that the slipperiness of my boots changes. After I’ve been walking on snow, they are REALLY slick on ice for the first dozen steps of so. I can only step at the bottoms of little slopes - my foot will end up there anyway. Once the snow is off my soles and my boots have either changed temperature or the ice type on the bottom has changed, they are much less slippery.
The ice also has another aspect that needs watching - it falls off the edges of the glaciers. The edges of all the glaciers have large cracks in them, and parts of them can suddenly give way. The Fountain Glacier, to the north of camp, has had the largest ice avalanches to date.
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They are too far from camp to pose a danger. They also very interesting because the debris melts to provide water for Lake Joyce. I’ve already seen some running water due to solar heating. The Taylor Glacier also has ice falls, although they are much smaller and much less frequent. But I do walk along the base of the Taylor Glacier ice wall sometimes. I definitely pay attention to where the cracks are and where ice may fall.
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Last night and today have been our windiest days so far. It is very gusty with moments of calm separated by turbulence. Our personal tents and the Endurance tents are excellent in the wind. The Arctic Oven tents aren’t. They flop around and deform more than we’d like to see. The Scott tent is a good design for the wind, but it is the one that broke today. The stitching in one of the guy lines pulled out on the side facing the wind. The tent is old, and the threats broke. To stabilize it, we tied another line to the top of the tent. The side without the guy line was then bowed inward, which places even more force on the tent. To fix that problem, we put a long box (for a ground penetrating radar antennae) inside the tent, pushing out the side. One end is sitting in a dish-shaped hole in a granite boulder and the other is attached to the point where the guy line should be. It seems to be working well.
It’s hard to take a picture of the wind, but the wind ripples are a good indication. In this photo, there are two phase changes in the size of the ripples. These also correlate to changes in grain size. They are beautiful!
.jpg)
Pearse Valley is a new type of environment for me. It’s colder and dryer than anywhere I’ve stayed. There is more ice. It can be windy, although it hasn’t been too bad yet. There are no plants, although rumor has it that lichens have been spotted high up the valley walls where clouds often form.
When I first got here, the cold was intimidating. And it was cold: often about -25°C when I’d get up in the morning. My toothpaste was always too frozen to get out of the tube without putting it in a pocket or my sleeping bag (or keeping it in a heated tent).
However, after a few days, I learned what combinations of clothes work keep me warm doing different jobs. Wind protection is really important, and I tend to always have two windproof layers handy. I also found that I can let my hands get quite cold if I need to do delicate work without gloves. They warm up quickly if I keep the rest of my body toasty and put my fingers in a warm place. Also, my wool fingerless gloves are absolutely fantastic when I’m screwing or unscrewing bolts! (That is one of my jobs when we’re drilling holes through ice.) I can also go between tents and get chilled, but warm up again very quickly - faster than it takes my body to warm up a cold coat if I put one on just to go between tents.
I actually find that I have the hardest time warming up if I’ve been sitting and working on something like the microscope or photographs. I often get a bit chilled, especially my feet, which are down at the cold floor level. They don’t warm up for quite a while (hours) unless I get some exercise, like walk up a hill or do some heavy work. This is a bit of a problem before bed. We often watch movies in the evening, and it cools off significantly. I rarely feel like going for a walk between the movie and going to bed, but it is the best thing for starting the night with toasty feet. A water bottle of hot water in my sleeping bag can also work, but is much slower.
It also took me a few days to get comfortable with the beautiful ice. It is really slick, and we’ve all fallen flat more than once. The second time I did, I was carrying a glass flask of hydrochloric acid in one hand and a bunch of little things in the other. I managed to not break the flask, which was much more important that catching myself on the fall. It didn’t hurt too much. I am now much better at walking on ice. We also have “stabilizers” which are rubber soles with metal cleats that you attach to the bottoms of your shoes. They really help, and I always wear them if I’ll be walking on ice for more than a few 10’s of meters. I’ve also realized that the slipperiness of my boots changes. After I’ve been walking on snow, they are REALLY slick on ice for the first dozen steps of so. I can only step at the bottoms of little slopes - my foot will end up there anyway. Once the snow is off my soles and my boots have either changed temperature or the ice type on the bottom has changed, they are much less slippery.
The ice also has another aspect that needs watching - it falls off the edges of the glaciers. The edges of all the glaciers have large cracks in them, and parts of them can suddenly give way. The Fountain Glacier, to the north of camp, has had the largest ice avalanches to date.
.jpg)
An avalanche off the Fountain Glacier
They are too far from camp to pose a danger. They also very interesting because the debris melts to provide water for Lake Joyce. I’ve already seen some running water due to solar heating. The Taylor Glacier also has ice falls, although they are much smaller and much less frequent. But I do walk along the base of the Taylor Glacier ice wall sometimes. I definitely pay attention to where the cracks are and where ice may fall.
.jpg)
It’s hard to take a picture of the wind, but the wind ripples are a good indication. In this photo, there are two phase changes in the size of the ripples. These also correlate to changes in grain size. They are beautiful!
.jpg)
