Cryo Building Move

The sky was beautiful today! Such awesome clouds!

I found these ice crystals when I was digging around in the berms (rows of outside storage and old cargo) looking for some compressed gas cylinders.

I helped as photographer for the cryo facility move a few days ago. That’s me up in the “Man Basket” waving.

 I tried to move the building myself, but it didn't work.

Since I couldn't move it, we hooked up six tractors to the building to slide it forward about 50 feet and level it out because it was sinking where it was originally. It was a very large under taking and everything went smoothly. The tiny building up in the right hand corner is ARO, that's where I walk to every day.

I found a better ice wave to surf.

 

I had an avocado today and it was perfect and wonderful. Also someone found a bug, and we named it Stinky!

Christmas at 90 Degrees

Every Christmas there is a 3 km race called the "Race Around the World" everyone dresses up in silly costumes and picks a mode of transportation. Most people ran this year, but we did have one penguin on a treadmill behind a snowmobile. I tried to ski it but it was only my 4th time on cross country skis and I was very slow and came in 5th to last. Took me about a half hour, just slower than the walkers.

 Dinner was really, really good, It was better for meat eaters with the lobster tails, beef wellington and scallops and other things.

 One of my friends in the galley making the scallops for the second seating of Christmas dinner.

 The dessert was even better than dinner (as always) with flourless chocolate cake and hand made truffles.

I helped make the truffles and the cookies. And decorate them, the one above is my favorite.

Field Trip to SPICE Core

 We went on a field trip today over to the SPICE Core (South Pole ICE Core) drilling site.

 This is where the cores are extracted. The cores will be flown back to Colorado to be analyzed for CO2 concentrations, other trace atmospheric gasses and many many other experiments to validate other drill site findings.

 This is the drill. The core stays in the center and there is a casing around the outside that collects all the ice chips. RIght now they are dry drilling, just with gravity, once they get to more solid ice and much deeper they will have to switch to wet drilling.

This is the whole drill camp. It has a changing room, warming shack with tea and snacks and meeting table and the cold drill tent. The drill tent is kept at around -20 F all the time. The whole camp is about 3 km from the station across the skiway.

 Riding in the sled behind the snow mobile is fun until everything touching the sled gets really cold and the wind blows the exhaust in your face.

 One of the telescopes was getting a new ground shield today. You can see the crane moving the shield.

 SPT (South Pole Telescope) was pointed straight at us on the roof while we watched the shield operation.

 Inside the old ground shield.

This is highest the sun will ever be at the south pole. The worlds longest sunset started on Sunday!

South Pole Mall Santa

We had mall Santa pictures with "good Santa" and "bad Santa" yesterday at the store/post office!

I painted the background. Complete with Christmas presents labeled for NPX (Naval Polar eXchange, our airport), a do not freeze sticker and icicles . You can also see the radio I carry everywhere.

Snow Surfing, Skiing & Santa

We got real snow over the weekend, not just the blown in ice crystals, everything was very still and cloudy (it was just a light dusting though). There was a new snow drift today that was shaped like a wave so naturally I surfed it. I'm wearing "little red". It's not a big goose down jacket like big red, but it's nice with a hoodie on warm sunny days. It was -35 F today, the sun really makes all the difference.

 Went skiing again today out past SuperDARN. It is really incredible to look at such expanse of sky and ice, especially on quiet days when there is absolutely nothing to hear.

 I have been trying to capture the blue color that the ice gets in it's gaps and shadows and I finally got one that sort of gives it justice. The red is the reflection of my jacket in the ice.

 A few scientist had to dig one of their experiments out so that it could be taken out into the field and left this huge trench which was fun to walk around in and check out.

 Ice wall they built out of the ice blocks taken out of the trench. Trenches are dug with a shovel and with a saw, it's easier to make a small hole, cut the ice into big pieces and knock the blocks into the hole with the shovel to widen and lengthen the trench.

 I didn't help shovel or saw but I did help enjoy the trenches afterwards, in the picture above I'm pretending I'm in a hot tub because it was a nice hot tub sized hole. The scientists estimate they moved about 1100 lbs of ice in the past two weeks, all by hand, outside in the cold all day long.

I crossed a huge track vehicle crevasse without falling in! The more I try cross county skiing the more impressed I am with early expeditions in Antarctica.

Santa made a surprise appearance on a snow mobile today.

Man Hauling and Other Outside Activities

We man hauled some empty liquid nitrogen dewars out to the berms. We have to empty out the cryogenic plant building (Cryo) because it is tilting over into the snow. Cryo is the grey building behind the one with the big doors (the one with the big doors is the balloon inflation facility). The plan is to slide the building over the ice about 50 feet to flat ground with five big tractors. The building is on skis and we will be moving it right after Christmas.

They tested the ice density where we are planning on moving it.

The heavy things we move on snow machines and sled. You can also ride in the sleds to get places, I drove a snow machine with three scientists in the sled last week.

 There is a Frisbee golf course out in the berms. Maybe on Sunday I'll play a little bit if it's warm out.

 The berms are our rows and rows of storage from past projects and left over materials from building the station. This is just one of them.

 I finally stopped by the climbing gym. The climbing room is heated so the ECW isn't necessary but I was only staying inside for a few minutes and is wasn't worth it to take it all off. There are shoes you can borrow, chalk, and the floor is lined with old mattresses.

 The green house is filling up really well. We harvested some bokchoy leaves and some other leafy green things earlier in the week. In another couple weeks we should have a pretty good jungle in there!

Cross Country Skiing

 This past Sunday I tried out cross country skiing for the first time. That's me on the right, with the boots in my pockets.

 We found a hill to ski down and I didn't fall over. (Until I was completely stopped and on flat ground for no good reason.)

 We skied out to ARO to do my daily checks and I gave a little tour of the science that happens in there. On the way back we stopped by the pole and I was pretending to be Amundsen, but ended up feeling a lot more like Scott. But I suppose Amundsen didn't ski to the pole on his first day on cross country skis and he had dogs to help out too. It was a good time!

The galley and main lounge are decorated for Christmas and someone found a large box full of Santa hats!

 

Side note, I haven't showered in six days, this is the longest I've ever gone without showering or swimming ever in my life that I can remember. Before you think I'm super gross, remember there is really nothing to get dirty with here and it's so dry you don't sweat either. I don't feel that dirty at all even now and it's definitely not a bad as I thought it would be. I brought a spray bottle so I can get my hair wet and condition it and brush it every few days and that helps a lot but I'm probably going to need a trim soon. Plus, I get to take a four minute shower tomorrow, which is very exciting (double the time because I skipped my second one last week)! I've also become one of the two hair cutting people on station but the other one will leave at the end of summer and it will most likely become my job for the winter.

Exterme Cold Weather (ECW) Gear

Today there was no wind, it was very strange and very very warm, it looks like summer is finally arriving. Now that it has been a month, I'm starting to figure out how to wear my Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear so that it works for me. I still look like a the kid from A Christmas Story almost every time I go outside, but it keeps me warm.

This is what it looks like when I check the weather before I go outside, it is on the south pole intranet.

 

All of the temperatures I will talk about below will be the wind chill temperatures in Fahrenheit. Every body uses their ECW a little differently but this is what I've been doing for the past month and it seems to be working, I rarely get cold. I think I get a little too warm more often than I feel cold for the most part. I always keep a pack of hand warmers in my big red  in case I get cold and need to activate one to keep my hands warm. I've used them twice, both times it was below -55. I've also used them to keep my radio battery from dying when it's really cold outside. I always carry my radio with me, comms announces the incoming flights and any other station announcements over the radio and it makes it easier to get a hold of people. I also have to wear the booties with the FDX boots so that they fit correctly, the booties are less about staying warm and more about making sure my feet aren't swimming around in my boots. I'm sure in winter I'll need them for warmth as well though.

 This is what I wear when it is colder then -40. I wear jeans or sweatpants, Carhart pants, wool socks, booties, FDX boots, glove liners, work gloves (I substitute the work gloves for mittens sometimes), long sleeve shirt, hoodie, big red, neck gaiter, goggles, hat and big red. When it was below -60 I also wore a pair of sweat pants over the jeans as well, but I've gotten more used to the cold now so I probably won't need those until it gets significantly colder again.

 This is what I wear when its warmer then -40 and colder than around -25 sometimes I sub out the booties for the wool socks depending on the amount of wind (more wind=wool socks instead of booties). If its in the twenties I can usually get away with normal hiking boots if I won't be outside for too long as well. Here I'm wearing jeans or sweatpants, snow/wind pants, long sleeve or t-shirt, socks, booties, FDX boots, glove liners, gloves, thin neck gaiter (but if it's really windy I'll go with the thick one), goggles, hat and big red.

This is what I wore today, no wind, warmer then -25. Just jeans, little socks, hiking boots, glove liners, tank top (I even took off the flannel shirt I was wearing in the station), UV protection sun glasses, a hat that covers my ears and big red. Big red was too hot though, I probably would have been okay with a hoodie and thinner jacket, I had to unzip big red on the way back to the station because I was too warm and even took my hat off. The sun felt very warm and it was a beautiful day!

When I test fuels I generally go with the Carhart jacket, a different blue neck gaiter, and a different hat, snow pants, FDX boots, jeans, and whatever I'm wearing that day in the station under the jacket. I keep that set of ECW gear down in the fuelie coat room and don't wear any of my usual gear to take fuel samples so it keeps it clean and not smelling like fuel.

Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream

 The galley made ice cream with the liquid nitrogen we brought them from the cryogenic building.

It was Thai food night and there was Pad Thai and home made coconut ice cream.

 It was really cool to watch.

And it was also very tasty.