Ciao Antarctica! Thanks for another awesome season!

Well, it’s that time of year again.  My second season on the ice has come to end.  With that said I give my apologies for not writing nearly enough in this blog.  I just seemed to get lost in life on the ice.  Somehow I always managed to never find enough time or maybe just couldn’t find enough mental energy to sit down and type.  So before I go, I will give you a little recap of the last few months. 

It was amazing how fast Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Eve came and went.  I have so many fond memories of celebrating those holidays down here.  Although, I always miss my family, I am happy to say that I never really felt the sensation of being home sick.  I give credit to all the wonderful people I have met down here.  They truly become “family” in times like that.  Christmas morning was spent with friends in Hut 10 (a house that you can rent for free) while we opened presents, watched Christmas movies all day, and laughed.  It really was a good day.  The same goes for Thanksgiving and New Years Eve.  I celebrated both days in great company and that made all the difference.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Chr

Christmas Dinner!

Hanging out at Hut 10 on Christmas morning!

Celebrating New Years Eve at Ice Stock

Gosh I have some Awesome Ice Friends! NYE was a riot!

The beginning of December was when we had the big switch from the Sea Ice Runway out to Pegasus White Ice Airfield.  If you are not familiar, the Sea Ice Runway is only approximately 2 miles away from McMurdo out on about 8 feet of frozen ice.  Once the ice gets too warm and reaches a certain point of deterioration we make the move out to Pegasus.  Pegasus is 14 miles away from McMurdo and is out on the permanent Ice shelf.   It takes about 40 minutes to drive in a van and about 50 minutes to an hour in a Delta.   But, let me tell ya, for about the first few weeks I have never felt so much anxiety having to drive 14 miles in my life.  The roads from the start of the transition onto the ice to about mile 7 or 8 were fine.  It was after that until you reached Pegasus that was insane.  I’m talking rolling, rough waves of snow.  And with every van that drove through it, they just made even bigger ruts to try and drive around.  Deltas didn’t help much either.  They would pack the snow ruts, but not hard enough, so when you thought it was going to be a smooth ride, you would instantly sink and get stuck.  For those first few weeks you just never knew if you were going to get stuck or not.  And getting stuck was not that big of a deal, it was the pressure from the pax to not get stuck that really drove up the anxiety.  Usually, if you got stuck fleet ops were there to pull you out within 10-20 minutes.  But, if you happened to get stuck during a shift change, you were stuck for a good 45 minutes to an hour.  That would have been fine except for their shift change was right around our shift change, therefore meaning you were going to work more than a 12 hour shift.  And no one wants to do that.   It wasn’t until we started to drive Delta’s for pretty much every run that the roads started to finally pack down.  After the roads got better, and the anxiety disappeared, the warm sun started to melt the transition; bringing that anxiety right back up.  Am I going to get stuck in snowy, slushy, freezing cold melt pools of water or am I going to make it?  Although, you only had to make it through about 50 yards until you are in the clear of that so the anxiety wasn’t quite as bad.  Plus, fleet ops were right there working on the transition so they could pull you out in a moment’s notice.

Doesn't even look like a road!

Unfortunately, there were not near as many penguins this year as there were last.  There were a lot that passed through, but only one here and there that stuck around to molt.  If I had to guess why, it would be because the open water came sooner and McMurdo was just a little too close for their will power to stay out of the water.  Also, there is quite a height difference from the sea ice and the permanent ice from the big ice melt out last summer.  With that, there are only a few places that the penguins could have gotten up onto the permanent ice.  So maybe both played a factor in why we have not seen many.  As much of a bummer it was to not have seen so many emperors in one spot it still was pretty cool to see the few scattered here and there.  You never tire of seeing penguins!  They are just so cute!

On the subject of wildlife, with the open water came whales; lots and lots of whales.  Last year I only saw whales one time and this year I see them every day; orcas and minkes!  I like to think I am the whale whisperer since I happen to see them so much.  I even see them when I’m driving sometimes.  Its moments like those that really make me appreciate where I am and what I am doing.  Seriously, how many people can say that they work at a place where they see whales swimming and penguins just hanging out in their natural habitat on a daily basis?!  Let alone while they are working?!  Those are what I like to call my “Ahh J”  moments.  The moments that let me know I am right where I am supposed to be; exploring and experiencing everything this life and world has to offer J

Minke Whales!

This year also brought more adventure.  For my first boondoggle I went dive tending, which I already told you about.  My second boondoggle was called “Room with a view”.  Room with a view consists of driving skidoos for about an hour out onto the ice and driving up to the base of Mt. Erebus.  I believe we went up about 1,400 ft.  Once you get there you are supposed to get this amazing view of Mt. Erebus, McMurdo, the Royal Society Mountains, Black & White Islands, the Razor Back Islands, the open water, and anything else that this beautiful continent has to offer around the McMurdo Sound.  Unfortunately, my luck is not always the greatest and I had no view, literally.  Down at sea level you could see, but once we started to climb the fog started to get thicker and thicker.  By the time we got to the “Room” we had 1 to 2 flag visibility and could barely see the tent that was set up there.   I am talking, when we looked out all we saw was white/grey.  You couldn’t even tell the difference between land and sky.  Even without a view it still was pretty awesome.  That was my first time ever driving or riding on a snowmobile, so I had a riot with that! 

Had so much fun on this beast

Room with a View!  If there wa no fog you would see a beautiful Mt. Erebus!

My second boondoggle was pretty much all I was wishing for all season long.  A sleigh ride to the South Pole!  And by sleigh ride I mean plane ride, that is just what we call the morale boondoggle trip to the Pole.  When I found out I was going I was like a small child with a perma-smile on my face.  Although, I must say, that with my previous luck with room with a view I was anticipating not so great weather at the Pole.   Luckily, my luck had not run out yet and it was a beautiful sunny day, or rather night, since I was on a night flight. 

So this is how it went …..

30 of us loaded up onto Ivan to transport out to Pegasus, caught a flight on an LC-130 (a military plane on skis), rode 2 ½ to 3 hours on a very loud plane that you had to sit on side netted seats, and land.   Walk off the plane only to get blasted with freezing cold air.  Walk as quickly as you can to the ceremonial pole.  Take a picture.  Walk as quickly as you can to the geographical pole.  Take a picture.   Run around the geographical pole 3 times.  All the while try to take in as much scenery (all flat white ice) that you can.  Walk up 2 flights of stairs in the “beer can” into the station.  Run down the hall to the post office to stamp your passport, only to find about 30 stamps to choose from, all the while trying to take in your surroundings.  Run back out to the plane with about 2 minutes left to take one more photo before jumping back on the plane for another 2 ½ to 3 hour flight back to McMurdo.   Oh, did I mention that we only had about 30 minutes to do all of that at while at the Pole?  But, 30 minutes was all that it took for me to feel complete at the moment.  I had finally set foot on the continent of Antarctica.  McMurdo is on Ross Island; technically Antarctica, but if you want to get real technical about (like we all do down here) it’s not really.  Going to the South Pole, being able to say that I, literally, ran around the world is definitely on the top 5 list of the coolest things I’ve ever done.  Who would have thought that miles of flat, white ice could make a girl so happy?

The South Pole Station

Kissing the ceremonial Pole

Geographical Pole.. Run around that bad boy and you have run around the world!

Jumping for the Pole

the back of the station... with the "beer can"

So, my family and friends, not only have I been having the time of my life exploring Antarctica, I’ve also been experiencing it.  It seems like every weekend has been more fun than the weekend before, with some extremely awesome people. It’s true when they say that the people you meet down here really become like family.   I have made some lifelong friends that, somehow, I can’t imagine not having them in my life.  Every person I have met seems to have taught me something new and inspires me to want to keep exploring, keep learning, and to keep living.  And by living I don’t mean eating, breathing, and sleeping.  I mean really LIVING; to get out, try something new, and do something different without the fear of failure, judgment, or regret. 

So here are my plans before I return home.  I leave the Ice on the February 17th. From there I will travel the South Island of New Zealand for a little over a month sea kayaking, hiking, exploring, and laughing with good friends.  After that I will continue on to Hawaii, visiting the islands of Kauai and Oahu, of which I will also do some hiking, surfing, and relaxing on the beach for 2 weeks.  Then I will end up in Texas with my grandparents and make my way home with them sometime mid to end of April. 

Well, that is that.  See you soon!  Much love from Antarctica!