Work

Some folks have been asking just what it is they pay me to do here. Here it is. When a plane comes in it can be so cold that they need heat on the engines and brakes. This keeps them from getting condensation and locking up. The C-17 below can only stay so long. After a few hours it needs to move or it will start sinking into the ice. Over the course of several hours the ice will actualy bend below it. C-130s are light enough to stay indefinitely.

We use either trucks or a tracked caterpillar to drag stuff to and from the airplanes. They always need a power cart which is the more orange looking box above. Below is a picture of the airfield from ob hill. There are no planes. You can make out the runway on the far edge of everything. The road out is in front. I've been running back and forth to work recently. Road out there is about a mile but its hard to tell, there nothing to gauge it by.

So about 75% is dragging heaters and power carts around to airplanes. The rest of the time varies. We inspect the runway a couple times a day. If the planes break we get the National Guard the stuff they need to work on the airplanes and we empty the toilets. Thats it. We spend some days fairly busy, others we wait around for something to do.

On another note. Just outside of town, very close to the ice pier is Scotts hut. Built in 1902 and used by several expeditions. Due to the dry air here nothing rotts so the hut a very well preserved. They never used it for shelter, it was a design that got used alot in the outback so it held heat very poorly.

The food they left out is still there and some of the seals and penguins they had killed are mumified.

These dog bucuits looked almost good enough to eat, almost.

Heres one from scott base nearby. The winterover crew did a perfect recreation of the last supper for thier yearly picture. This one isnt that clear but you get the idea.