Lakes Joyce and Vanda, here we come!


Tyler Mackey, Ian Hawes, Devin Castendyk and I are heading to Lake Joyce in late October, followed by additional field work in Lake Vanda with Anne Jungblut and others.  I am principle investigator and field leader for the Lake Joyce project, my first time in charge of all the logistics.

It's an adventure trying to figure out everything we'll need for 4 weeks of camping in the McMurdo Dry Valleys!  Luckily, I've learned a huge amount from Dale Andersen as well as Ian over the last 3 field seasons (none last year), and we have outstanding field support from Meghan Walker of the Berg Field Center.  I couldn't do it without experience and help.

The first thing a field team has to do is fill out a Support Information Package (SIP) on the US PolarIce web site.  The SIP is supposed to include all the gear and field support you need for your project from the US Antarctic Project (USAP).  It includes everything from lab space in Crary Lab, McMurdo, to helicopter hours, to rope and ice screws to hold your tents down, cook kits, gallons of fuel for generators, propane, spill kits, etc.  I definitely missed some things my first few times through.  Ian caught some things, Tyler caught others.  I think we are close to having our field list now, though.  It's long, but we are trying to keep a lightweight camp, so it's shorter than the lists when we went to Lake Joyce before.  I'll post the list once we iterate on it a bit more.

The next thing is to go through all the medical and dental tests.  I think I only had about a dozen blood tests this time.  Some don't have to be redone every time.  No EKGs for returnees within 5 years, as another example.  Then you submit the forms and find out what you missed.  I think I'm close to having everything tested.  It's now just getting the forms in order and sent off - my project for this afternoon.

Then the focus becomes the gear we'll bring with us.  That's where my attention is starting to shift - that and filling in details on the science we want to do.


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