The Latest From The Field
28 January 2010
Day 70
Arrived In McMurdo
The Traverse Has Come To an End
It’s finally over, oh thank God! Now don’t get me wrong, I feel privileged to be one of the very few people to say that they got to drive to the South Pole, but traversing takes a LONG time and we are all a bit burnt out right now.
Earlier in the season and just a hundred miles from McMurdo we had cached some fuel tanks. On the way back from Pole, the Powers-That-Be decided that they wanted us to move those tanks another 225 miles farther south. We were so close to McMurdo, we could even see Mt. Erebus, and to turn around and head south again was seriously bad for morale. But we did it, and we got back to McMurdo without killing each other.
The return to McMurdo was a bit anticlimactic. When I left McMurdo the Housing Department gave my wife a roommate (which she hated because we’ve had our own room for the past several seasons) and she STILL had a roommate when I returned. So instead of snuggling up to my wife who I haven’t seen in the last 2 and a half months I was given a key to go bunk in the 155 dorms with six other smelly dudes. Awesome!
People keep asking me if I’ll do the Traverse again and the answer is most likely no. As the saying goes- you come to Antarctica the first time for the adventure, the second time for the money, and to be honest I could make about the same amount working in town, near my wife, working far fewer hours. The Traverse was a once in a lifetime adventure but I think it will remain just that. I would however recommend traversing to anyone with even the slightest desire or inclination; after all, it is a true Antarctic experience!
Thanks to everyone for visiting my Traverse Journal, it was a lot of work at the end of a very long day and I struggled to keep things updated. Thanks for your patience. And thanks to my lovely wife for encouraging me to pursue this venture when she knew it would take me away for a good two and a half months. Love ya, Darlin’!
Dave
I leave you with some Traverse Fun Facts, enjoy:
- Gallons of fuel delivered to South Pole- 94,626
- Gallons of fuel delivered to fuel caches along route- 24,000
- Gallons burned- 62,000
- Number of miles traveled- 3,126
- Gallons burned per mile- 20
- Number of LC-130 flights offset- 27
- Number of Twin Otter flights offset- 4
- Average miles per day outbound- 36
- Average miles per day inbound- 66
- Number of days on Traverse Route- 50
- Number of days layover at South Pole- 20
- Fastest travel with load- 10.5 mph
- Slowest travel with load- 4.8 mph
- Most miles achieved in a day- 104.9
- Least miles achieved in a day- 22
- Coldest temperature seen- -37 below windchill
Warmest temperature seen- 32 - Sleds broken- 17
- Showers taken- 2
- Loads of laundry washed- 4
- Favorite part of the trip- Ascending the Leverette Glacier
- Worst part of the trip- Dealing with broken HMW sleds on the Plateau
- My favorite meal- Rob’s Traversalini
- Worst meal imaginable- Tube turkey in cranberry sauce
- Gallons of urine collected- 250
- Gallons of incinerated fecal matter collected- 8
- And number of audio books listened to-16
17 January 2010
Day 59
Advanced North: 823 Miles
Total Milage:1,873
Elevation:279ft.
Overcast, 23 Degrees
We’ve been on the trail north for about 13 days now making an average of 63.3 miles a day. We’ve been doing well, made it down the Leverette Glacier in one piece and have been hauling ass on the Ice Shelf.
59 days. That is a long time to be working and living in such close knit quarters. After a long work day, we all crowd into the living module and jockey for positions around the dining table. We then sit shoulder to shoulder eating the crappy food that someone else chose for the day, the same crappy food that we’ve been eating this whole trip. You might not have noticed the way so-and-so smacks his lips when he eats on day one, but be sure, on day 60 you know the annoying little mannerisms of every individual and they know yours too. And yes, I snore. Why didn’t we put all the snorers in one bunk room and all the non-snorers in the other? I don’t know but no one is going to give up their bunk at this point in the game. Nope, not even me- live with it!
We saw a Skua a couple days ago. A Skua is the Antarctic version of a Seagull. It was the first living organism we had seen other than people since we departed McMurdo two months ago. Just a lone Skua flying along some 500 miles from the coast. He must have seen our trail and followed it all the way here. A lot of people don’t like Skuas, mostly because they try to steal food from unsuspecting McMurdonites but I like them, they are survival experts to the extreme. I mean, they could fly anywhere in the world but they choose Antarctica and they thrive here under the most inhospitable of conditions. This particular bird took a stroll 500 miles to one of the most remote places on the planet, just to see what might be there. This bird was obviously an adventurer. I’ve heard of other critters doing this, like the Emperor Penguin that walks south, away from the ocean, the colony, and into oblivion. Or the Weddell Seal that slugs his way over countless jagged rocks up into an area called the Dry Valleys just to parish many miles away from open water. Did these critters have a death wish, or perhaps they were sick and thought they’d go out with a bang, or maybe they were just the adventurers of their kind and the adventure itself got the better of them?
The Skua checked us out and then continued its merry way south. Skuas have been seen at the South Pole, nearly twice this distance away, they supposedly follow the jet contrails left by the Herc’s. And once there, do they die? Most people think so, but I’m not so sure. I think they grab some food out of an open dumpster, get bored of the place, and then fly their way back to the coast with a good story to tell their feathered friends.
So the crew has been playing a game over the radio called ‘Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon’. The idea is to come up with an actor and see how he or she can be linked through movies back to Kevin Bacon. So one might ask how John Wayne could be linked back to Kevin Bacon? Well, here is an example: John Wayne was in ‘The Shootist’ with Ron Howard, who was in ‘American Graffiti’ with Harrison Ford, who was in ‘Star Wars’ with Carrie Fisher, who was in ‘Blues Brothers’ with John Balushi, and John Balushi was in ‘Animal House’ with Kevin Bacon. This went on for HOURS over the radio.
This traverse business has all the ingredients for MURDER!
05 January 2010
Day 47
On The Trail, Advanced 80 Miles North!
-19 below wind-chill
Yes, we are finally headed back home- YEAH!!!! I am sooo freakin’ happy. Pole was cool, don’t get me wrong- but 3 weeks was just a little bit too long. I want to see my wife for cryin’ out load!
So we made great mileage today thanks to our well worn trail.
03 January 2010
Day 45
South Pole
Miles Advanced North: A Big Fat Zero
Ice Fog, -30 below wind-chill
A track on one of the tractors froze up. When that piece of equipment was used, a large piece of rubber came ripping off one of the idler wheels. Luckily, we have another wheel in McMurdo but we’ll have to wait a couple more days to get it.
I went down into the Ice Tunnels today. They lead to the Sewage Pit and Rod Wells. It’s a constant -60 below zero down there. In 1993 a sturgeon was flown in from McMurdo and stored in the wall of the Ice Tunnels. Not sure why, but it was pretty cool none the less.
Did I mention they’re taking down the Dome? Yea, the Dome is coming down bit by bit. I hear they’re going to try and resurrect it in a museum in California.
When I was in 9th grade I remembered seeing a picture of the Dome in one of my science books. That picture always made me mad because I hated school and I knew I was never going to be a scientist and therefore would never get to see the Dome. When I saw the Dome for the first time, it was kind of a realization of a dream. I’d proven to myself that I could do and see amazing things if I just wanted those things bad enough.
So when I heard they were taking the Dome down, I was bummed. I mean, come on- the Dome in California? How lame is that?!
Taking the South Pole Dome down
Telescope
31 December 2009
Day 42
STILL at the South Pole
Moral: Plummeting
Clear, -36 below wind-chill
Happy New Year, whoopidy freakin’ dooo daaa. We’ve been here for over two weeks now, much longer then I would like. We are expecting at least a 3 week trip to get back to McMurdo and every day we stay here is a day added to our trip.
Soooo, half the crew went to retrieve the cached fuel bladders while the other half (including me) stayed behind to offload the fuel and do preventative maintenance on the equipment.
The Recovery Crew made it back with the bladders. They did 300 miles in 6 days and transferred 33,000 gallons. They came back looking haggard and required a couple days off while the rest of the crew offloaded the remaining fuel. In total, we delivered a D6D bulldozer and over 94,000 gallons of fuel to the Pole. This should offset about 30 Herc flights. We’d done our job- and now we have to get back to McMurdo. ASAP!
Our plastic HMW sleds didn’t do very well this year. Out of 31 sleds- 17 are either cracked or broken. All of our sleds are white except for 4 black ones. So far, the black sleds have a 100% success rate. Some think the black sleds allow for solar gain to heat the sleds and make them less brittle in cold temps. While the others think it’s the dye additive in the black sleds which causes them to be more flexible. Perhaps it’s a combination of both.
We were planning on returning to McMurdo with heaps of the South Poles trash. Unfortunately, we just don’t have the sleds to carry it all. However, we will be returning with the ITASE (International Trans Antarctic Scientific Expedition) modules and sleds. The ITASE traverse ended at the Pole after exploring West Antarctica- I believe last year. The modules look pretty trashed, I’m sure the carps in McMurdo will give them a facelift!
25 December 2009
Day 36
South Pole, Planet Earth
Elevation: 9,300 ft.
Sunny, -29 below wind-chill
Merry Christmas!
We are as far from Santa’s house as we can possibly get but the Christmas spirit still manages to reach the bottom of the earth. Traditionally, Christmas morning brings the, ‘Race Around the World’ where participants do a 2.5 mile jog, walk, or ride around the Geographic Pole. In essence, the participants actually travel around the world, as they cross all lines of longitude.
I only expected a handful of people to show up for the event, a few of those hardy souls that consider masochism fun. I’ll remind you that the geophysical elevation was around 10,400 ft. (because there is less atmospheric pressure at extreme latitudes) and the temperature around -30 below zero. But much to my surprise nearly the entire town, about 250 people, were participating in the event. Those who chose not to run, rode along on parade floats, snowmobiles, and in one case a hot tub on skis. Two of the floats were extremely impressive. One, a dragon on skis that blew smoke out of its nose and two, a giant chariot that could hold nine beer drinking riders. Many of the folks dressed up in costumes as if it were Halloween. The serious runners came in with frost covering their faces and I’m certain that some of them frostbit their lungs as they were coughing hysterically.
I think most people would have been impressed with the ‘Race Around the World’. It was the Polies humor and ingenuity that turned what could have been a sad day away from family and friends into memorable experience and a hell of good time.
Breathing Dragon
Parade Float
