Dawn in Antarctica

Dawn marking a coaxial cable for the drop camera with duct tape and a sharpie. November 30, 2013 After settling in the prior evening, it was time to get down to work.  I marked out 3 lines at 5 meter intervals so that we would know how far we were lowering our equipment into the lake.  We drilled some holes in the ice and collected our first conductivity-temperature-depth profiles.  We got our first scientific result: Lake Vanda was a meter higher than it was in 2010!  We also got started on melting the dive hole.  And it was warm - most of us were down to one layer on top. We drilled 3 holes in the ice with a Jiffy drill and then lowered a copper coil filled with antifreeze into the hole.  The equipment shown here heats the antifreeze and pumps it through the coil to melt the hole.

Don Juan Pond and the Dias, west of Lake Vanda, from the helicopter November 29, 2013 I realized we didn't have a US-style extension cord or power strip.  I got a ride over to McMurdo first thing in the morning to pick some up.  While I was there, I caught up with Meghan, our coordinator for the cancelled USAP part of the trip.  She said they were just getting things caught up, and it was really good that I pulled the Lake Joyce project this year.  We would have been competing with a group putting in several camps on the Taylor glacier with 30,000 pounds of equipment!  It was really hard to get them all in. That afternoon, Anne, Devin and I flew out to Lake Vanda!  The entire team was in the field on our 3rd day in Antarctica!  The flight out was beautiful, of course.

November 28, 2013 Devin and I came back from camping after Ian and Tyler flew out to Lake Vanda.  Anne was still at Scott Base, coordinating things from her end.  We cleaned up our gear from the overnight and started helping Anne.  Things were mostly done, so there was time to take some pictures of the base.

I spent last night in a polar (Scott) tent on an ice shelf in Antarctica. It was a "required" snow school training event since I haven't been to Antarctica with the New Zealand program before. It was warm - just below freezing - and there was no wind for the entire afternoon, evening, night and morning.  Two of those on the school (Devin - part of my team - and Karl - a photographer, videographer) slept out, completely out!  Karl complained that his nose got sunburned over night. Today is Karl's 22nd birthday, and he is thrilled to have started it sleeping out in Antarctica.  Here he is in the back of a Hagglund (I looked on a vehicle to spell it approximately right...). We took a drive up to Castle Rock in the evening. This is me with Mt. Erebus in the background.  (It's the southernmost active volcano in the world and overlies a hot spot.) And here is our field trainer Matt (left) and fellow student and reporter Deidre (right). And here is Karl&

Photographer Karl, trainer Matt, and Devin enjoying a chat after setting up camp. November 27, 2013 Our first day focused on training.  Anne, Tyler and Ian got to just take the refresher training because they had previous taken Antarctic New Zealand Snow Skills, whereas Devin and I had the full overnight experience.  Anne, Tyler and Ian started working on sorting gear after their half day, whereas Devin and I went out for camping on the snow.  It was very warm with no wind.  It was loads of fun, whereas the others were hard at work collecting the remaining gear, trying to figure out what had already been shipped out in the field, etc.

Typical view of the inside of a C-17 on its way to Antarctica.  The blocks strapped down in the foreground are cement construction blocks.  The thing that looks like an airplane propeller is one. November 26, 2013 We returned to the boarding area at 7 am (since we had already checked our bags), and this time there was only a short delay before I was seated in a jump seat on a C-17! We landed on the ice runway and were greeted by Scott Base personnel.  We had a great briefing, started dealing with field gear, and started working out the logistics for getting our gear from the US program and organizing to send our samples and gear back through the US program. Anne at the ice runway.  Beautiful weather!

Tyler, Devin, Ian, Anne, and I all made it to Scott Base yesterday on our C17. The flight was fine - I'll post some images later.  We then went into a flurry of field preparations. Tyler and Ian will go to Lake Vanda tomorrow with the rest of us following of Friday. Devin and I spend the night out in a tent as part of field training tonight. I'm not likely to post again  until we're back from the field in late Dec or early Jan unless the weather goes bad.  Until then...

The waiting lounge for Antarctic flights. November 25, 2013 At 6 am, we arrived at the boarding area for Antarctic flights, checked in, ate breakfast at the Sudima Hotel, and learned that our flight was delayed.  Rather than wait in the Antarctic Lounge, we decided to wait in the main domestic airport lounge. Tyler in the domestic lounge of the Christchurch airport, just before we learned our flight was cancelled. Our flight was cancelled, so we went back to the farm (after a delicious Indian lunch).  We had Thai food for dinner.

It looked hopeful that we’d get to fly, briefly.   Word was that they were starting to sweep the runway.   However, just before noon, they cancelled our flight.   I suspect the snow was blowing back onto the runway as fast as they could remove it.   Thus, we headed back to the farm.   We stopped at a great Indian restaurant on the way for lunch!   We’ll try again at 7 am tomorrow morning. McMurdo web cam at 2:30 pm, 25 November, Christchurch time The web cam for McMurdo shows only high clouds, but on the right side, out on the sea ice there are some fuzzy looking buildings. (You'll have to click on the image to expand it to full size to see them.)  That’s where the runway is.  They look fuzzy, more fuzzy than the mountains in the distance.  That’s probably the blowing snow. Here's a picture of snow dune patterns on the sea ice from 2009: Patterns on the sea ice, taken from a helicopter (scale unknown) The wind has been blowing constantly from the south with

The view of Castel's from the C1 Espresso, Christchurch November 24, 2013 Staying in a caravan on a farm outside of Christchurch, NZ. We thought this was our last day in New Zealand, so Ian, Tyler and I went for a walk in the fog along South Brighton beach.  We had pizza and beer at Castel's near the Cardboard Cathedral.

The weather at the sea ice runway for McMurdo and Scott bases has been windy, with blowing snow dunes for several days. People who tried to fly on Friday, tried again yesterday, and are supposed to be on our flight today. Our scheduled plane switched from a Hercules (run by Safair) to the C17 that was scheduled to fly on Friday. The C17 (left) is our plane, which is much larger than the Hercules (white plane in background, which is the Safair plane chartered by the Italian program from a South African company; grey plane on the far right, which is a US Air Force one.) Thus, our (now) scheduled plane can accommodate the increasing number of passengers and also has a bunch of cargo. Word is that it is the last C17 scheduled to fly down this year until February. Once it's "warm" near Ross Island, the big planes can't safely land and take off.  Thus, they really want to get this plane and its cargo down south as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the weather is sti

Today was full of science and planning.   Our entire field team (Tyler, Ian, Anne, Devin, and me) assembled at 10 am this morning at Waterways, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, NZ.   First, we went through our hazard assessment for our field season.   This included talking about our plans, how they might change, making sure communications are clear, avoiding environmental damage to Antarctica, avoiding damage to our bodies, training we will get at Scott Base, etc.   We then moved on to talking about something very important: diver safety and the signals we’ll use to communicate between the diver and the people on top of the ice tending the dive.   In the past, we have had voice communication between the diver and the dive tenders.   This year we won’t because we are diving under the Antarctica New Zealand program.   They have different rules and equipment, and the divers will take down their own air with them.   The diver still goes through a hole we melt in the ice.   They

My home sweet home for 5 days. Tyler and I arrived in Christchurch after a 12.5 hour flight from San Francisco to Auckland, NZ and a 1.5 hour flight from Auckland to Christchurch.   Ian and Devin met us at the airport, and we went directly to Antarctica New Zealand, which is less than a mile from the airport.   At AntNZ, we left some of our gear for shipment to Scott Base and selected our cold weather clothing.   The AntNZ clothing is very nice, and I’ll eventually write about it, probably after the trip so I can provide a review as well. From AntNZ, we went out to Jenny’s farm, a few miles south of Christchurch.   Jenny was Devin’s Ph.D. advisor and is a good friend of Ian’s.   She and her husband are at a conference this week, and they needed some house sitters to take care of their chickens, sheep and cats.   We gladly volunteered.   It’s a great place!   Tyler and Devin are staying in the house, and I got the vintage caravan! The view in from the front door.

Our field season will focus on Lake Vanda this year.  (Due to the US government shutdown, our planned field work at Lake Joyce is postponed until next year.)  And we will be heading to the field at the very end of November.  This is late in the year for us, and the weather should be warm as we head into the austral summer.  My colleague Ian says that the temperatures likely won't fall below -10°C (14°F) even at night.  During the day, temperatures will often be above freezing and will be genuinely warm inside the tents when the sun is shining.  You can monitor the weather at Marble Point to get an idea of what it's like at Lake Vanda.  Our wind conditions will be different, and since we are farther from the ocean, we'll have fewer clouds.  (The main source of moisture in the area is the ocean.)  I have never compared the temperatures between Marble Point and Lake Vanda, so there might be some systematic differences. [UPDATE: Tyler provided a link to the weather station

There are so many little things I didn't think of before the first time I went to Antarctica that make a difference.  I like having clean teeth, so brushing twice a day is very important to me, even in the field.  I can handle dirty hair, but not dirty teeth. It's hard to brush your teeth when your toothpaste is frozen into its tube. That small hole at the top requires the toothpaste to deform to get out. And that part gets cold the fastest, often getting clogged with a plug of toothpaste ice. This isn't so much a problem in December in the Dry Valleys, nor was it a problem at Lake Untersee, because although the temperatures are often below freezing, sunlight heated my tent sufficiently during the day that the temperatures inside could be up to 20°C (70°F!).  However, in October at Lake Joyce, I couldn't get any toothpaste out of a big tube without warming the top of the tube against my stomach. There is a little secret, though: small tubes warm up faster.  Wit