Sundays Fun: Ski out to Castle Rock and climb it.

Here's whats been happening:

I was part of a trail digging crew this week.


There is a South African C-130 here on contract, flying for various countries and science groups.

I've been trying not to work too hard.

Pluggin' Along

Here's whats been going on in my world:

My radio show is going well, I had two callers last week.
We stopped taking folks out to the ice caves and now we take them out to the pressure ridges.
And my beard is coming in well

Im back from Marble point. Here was last nights 1st annual 'Freezing Man' party.
Here's some random pictures from marble and the surrounding area.

This season I volunteered to take folks out on morale trips some sundays. We go to cape evans and the ice cave, about 2 hours drive in this huge machine called a Delta.

The Cape Evans hut was built in 1910 and still stands. With the dry air and cold temps the hut is entirely intact. Alot of it looks the same as the day it was built. It looks as if the occupants just got up and left without packing.

Next stop was the ice cave. A natural occurance when the calving ice tongue coming off erebus meets the frozen sea.

One of the nice things about my new job this season is we get to go places. Last week I went on a helo ride out the the Dry Valleys. About 75 miles west of McMurdo.

We were finding and digging out an emergency fuel cache. The barrels had been untouched for at least a couple years so we were tasked with digging them out and testing them to see if the fuel was still good, or in the drums at all. About 12 drums had been used up and 15 were still there.

A quick stop at Marble point to wait for weather to change. In a couple of weeks I'm heading back here to work for about 2 weeks.

The fuel cache

Round Mountain

Fuels Department Photo

I finaly made it to McMurdo this past week. Bad weather hammered Antarctica for an entire week. We had tried to fly down the day before, and we made it all the way down here but bad weather moved in and forced the flight to head all the way back to Christchurch. The loadmaster got on the intercom and said (with a grin) 'hey, you guys feel the airplane making a turn? Yeah, that us turning back to New Zealand, get compfy.' So 9 hours later we were in the same spot.

The week in Christchurch was great though. For a few day we knew the flight schedule was several days backed up and a bunch of us took a car out for a couple days. One day down to Akaroa, the next up to Arthurs Pass. But after a week of spending $70 Kiwi everyday, most of us were sick of Christchurch and Ready to head south.

I've been at work over a week now. With budget cuts all around everyone is behind. We are still trying to get everything fired up and ready for the start of the summer season. Last year things were already in full swing at this point. The new job is going well. I've been working outside everyday, which I normaly like, but its been averaging -10 outside with windchills down to -50. So at the end of the day I'm usualy pretty wiped out. Im staying busy though. Lately I've been trying to make a few extra bucks teaching ground school. So, over all everything is going well.

Southward bound again

Well, I guess now its official. I'm headed south again. 5 more months at Mcmurdo Station, Ross Island, Antarctica. After jumping through hoop after hoop, on again off again contracts, a change in jobs and a pay cut: Here I come. I've got airline tickets booked so now I don't think they can change their minds now.

Things I'm looking forward too:

Cafeteria meals- For some the idea of not being able to decide when, where or what to eat sounds awful. But after several months of this, it becomes an easy way to live. Most folks remark that upon coming back to New Zealand they are often not able to decide what to eat, or if they are actually hungry.

Seeing old friends- You tend to make friends quickly when you head somewhere knowing nobody and have to live very close. With a 70% return rate lots of friends should be back.

Antarctica- It's easy to be jaded, but living with spectacular views, penguins, and Shackleton's old stomping grounds all around is hard to beat.

Travel- Free ticket to New Zealand? Yes please.

A new job


Things I'm not looking forward too:

15 hours on a plane from LA to Sydney. Just please don't let there be screaming kids. At least the beer is free.

A pay cut

Institutional living- There are similar rules to living in an institution: 'you may go here, but not anywhere else, you may do only certain sanctioned activities for recreation, and you must have constant adult supervision.'

900 people living together- Sometimes you want to get away, sometimes people tell you no.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Abuse

Step 1: Buy a New Motorcycle with 1 mile on it.
Step 2: Load a bunch of stuff on the back, too much for it to feel stable is key.
Step 3: Ride across the continent, stop to take failed self portrait in Montana.
Step 4: Lose muffler in Yukon, arrive in Whitehorse deaf.Step 5: Use a one page map to go 3,500 miles, get lost once or twice.
Step 6: Ride in the rain, make grumpy face
Step 7: Ride the Haul Road north to Prudhoe bay, 250 miles between 'camps' where gas can be had, I only lost three bolts due to rough roads, I only fell off twice. Others had worse luck.

Step 8: Fall over, fall off, drop it, whatever. Thats what crash bars are for.
Step 9: Kick stands don't work in mud.
Step 10: Get stuck, really stuck. This is why you don't try to ford rivers on motorcycles.
Step 11: Dig
Step 12: Use a tow strap to pull it out of the hole you created. Recruit people passing by to help you pull it out of the hole.
Step 13: Use it to haul anything and everything. A Schwinn and a bb gun anyone?
Step 14: Put Motorcycle away for the winter with 12,000+ miles on it.