the world is waiting

While we were delayed and canceled in McMurdo, my motto was "The world can wait." We kidded about how that would change after we were waiting for our flight for a couple more days to "The world is waiting." Now that I'm back on "living" ground again, I feel like the world is waiting.

I'll start at the beginning, waking up in McMurdo to blowing snow and low visibility. Our transport coming down Scott Base Hill is to the left. We honestly didn't think we were going to see a plane land at the Pegasus White Ice Runway. But, the C-17 ducked under the clouds and made it's descent towards us. After unloading, waiting for a bit with anticipation, and then loading the Air Force plane, we finally took off toward the northern living world.

Since our department, Antarctic Terminal Operations (ATO) is in charge of transport and airfield logistics, those of us on the flight, ICE55, from our department received a special transport in a separate vehicle. We have a nice group camaraderie and watched the hour long transport pass along under white skies and over white sea ice. J, my traveling friend from last year and I were on the same flight out of McMurdo this year. I'll miss his companionship while traveling this year.

As a perk for being in Air Services and giving the Air Force crews tours of McMurdo at the beginning of the season, the five of us get to have some flight deck time on the plane when we redeploy. The cockpit of a C-17 has a lot of windows compared to other (commercial) aircraft. There are windows at the feet of the pilot and co-pilot, windows to the side, and to the front, too. I was able to see some stunning views of Antarctica as we flew over. The pilot explained what different mountain regions were and pointed out the mountains that Sir Edmund Hillary climbed to prepare for Everest. I cannot explain, nor put into a photo what it's like to fly over glaciers that feed into other glaciers like rivers off the continent, or to see snow covered steppes and buttes and white mountain ranges!

bag drag

Part of the Antarctic experience is bag drag. This is when you bring all your belongings with you up to the building I work in and check-in. Checked bags are left overnight and built into a pallet (pictured), and myself, my carry on and my ECW (Extreme Cold Weather) gear goes home to be brought back up for transport the next day. This happens the day before the flight so accurate weights can be recorded for the flight, so there is time to load the baggage pallet, and to get paperwork ready for the flight. My job was to check people through and make sure they brought the appropriate gear.

To Christchurch, we are allowed to check up to 75 pounds and have one carry on bag. This year, I packed four bags northbound to a total of 71 pounds and have a 63 pound carry on. I'm not sure how I packed all that weight in my bag, but it's got to arrive in Christchurch somehow. From there we can mail things home to lighten our load while we are traveling.

lasts

With the end of the summer season in McMurdo coming, we are experiencing a lot of lasts: Last load of laundry, last flights to the South Pole, last meal with friends, and the list goes on.

Sunday was my last day at work. I had two LC-130's taking off for Christchurch; the last of six to fly North. The final flight came in across town and did a fly by before jetting off over the Ross Sea. I was glad Susie and I ran outside to see the aircraft's departure. Now we only have a C-17 flying down to get everyone out of town before the winter begins for less than 135 people.

I also had my last Sunday brunch. Next to the Coffee House, this is a favorite time of the week for me. We typically have fruit and New Zealand cheeses, eggs in nearly any form you'd like them, pancakes, cinnamon rolls and all the works. Sunday is the town's day off and while I worked every other Sunday in my job, heading to the Galley for a relaxing midmorning meal was something to look forward to.

Over a month ago, our waffle irons broke. This seems like it would be easy enough to fix, but, like our toasters that went down, they are not replaces efficiently. Our load planners noticed the waffle irons were on the shipping manifest when the vessel arrived, and we speculated they would be unpacked for the winter crew. I cannot tell you how happy I was to see Kirsten making waffles on Sunday morning with the brand new irons! It made my day! So, I took a picture of it; my last Sunday brunch.

the crazy thing about ice

Down here, in Antarctica, where things are a little harder to acquire, and it's a bit more difficult to enjoy some certain comforts of life, we try to make use of what we have. One thing we have a lot of is ice and snow. While we cannot take much from the continent, we do occasionally have an opportunity to indulge in ice.

Last year, Laura brought me some water from the South Pole. It was pure, unfiltered, aged ice. This year, some people who had been out in the Dry Valleys at Taylor Glacier had some glacier ice to get rid of before they flew to Christchurch, so I had some more clean and clear glacier ice in my drink. It's pure and a bit bubbly and plenty of years old. After trembling down a valley for years, I got a taste of it!

strange sights

There are a great number of peculiarities in McMurdo. Normally, you might overlook them if you were to walk by them. In Antarctica, you might wonder just what it is doing here.

First, there is the birdhouse. On any other pole or building, this structure is quite mundane; found around many towns and houses throughout the world. I didn't have to stare at it long to wonder exactly why it was in Antarctica. First, of all, the only birds we get in McMurdo are a few penguins and the notorious skua. The skua runs a few sizes to big to be a birdhouse dwelling creature; although, it might call our dumpters (below) a birdhouse in a pinch. The penguins can't even fly to get up to the bird house, and their size would also prevent them from indulging in the comforts of a shelter on a pole.

These are our garbage cans. McMurdo has the best refuse program in the world. Most of our trash is recycled in one of these many bins and shipped back on the container ship to be processed in The States. All our trash bins here are indicative of what our hallways look like on a smaller scale. Every dorm and floor has at least one set of cans set up, labeled with what sort of items can be tossed in which unit. Our Waste department is an excellent asset to keeping our part of the pristine continent clean.

The chained whale. With an industrious operations station to live in and very functional job descriptions, we all need a little creative outlet. One of the longer standing creative pieces around town is this whale sculpture. Even if you are not fortunate enough to see the real thing in Winter Quarters Bay, you can check out this guy who sits on a perch over the sea.

Our medical building has this cute little bugger mounted to the side. He's holding a sign that says: "Dr. Penguin says: Get Well Soon!" I feel like it should really say, "You must be at least 4 feet tall to enter McMurdo." Given that our healthy adult population is required to be 18 years old, this is not much of a problem. I wish this penguin would have helped me get better when I was struggling with two cases of the crud in a row!

Most people around town have a walking commute to their work center. The Carp(entry) Shop is up the side of a hill that is marked by colorful flags and then through some mill vans of supplies. It has affectionately earned the name of Goat Path given the slight resemblance to a high mountain path worn down by the constant foot traffic to and from the Carp Shop and McMurdo central (the Galley).

Every year we have a MAAG Show (McMurdo Alternative Art Gallery). This year, one of the more creatively humorous pieces was contributed in the form of a road sign: Pee Limit, 10ml. This takes on a whole new meaning when you know there are people in field camps who use pee bottles and sometimes maximize their volume constraints before emptying their bladder.

During the winter, or when we get big snow drifts in town, sometimes it is difficult to see where our paths and stairs are. This set of stairs is, apparently, often overlooked, so a "Stop! Use the Stairs" sign has been put up to direct traffic. However, when the ground is clear, it seems rather strange that a sign would be put up in front of the stairs indicating that one should use them. In fact, there are two such signs in the area.

Our painters are often quite crafty and creative. They have unusual bits of artwork here and there. On the back of their building, they have painted a hot dog stand. Nothing wrong with day dreaming about the real world here!

i spy

I spied on someone the other day.

First, I should preface this posting by telling you that the Coffee House has been closed for the past three weeks due to a leaky roof that culminated into a structural problem in the men's loo. The carpentry shop along with others have been working on getting one of the favorite places on station back in running order.

So, I was running on a treadmill in the "Gerbil" Gym a few days ago, looking straight out of a 2x2 foot window toward the Coffee House where Dave (the guy who had to patch up a hole in the crashed Pegasus aircraft) was finishing some metal work on the roof.

I watched him toss off his used and broken parts, clean up his tools and put them away, walk over the roof to inspect the creases and make sure his metal was secure. After all this, at the close of his workday, he began to walk off. But before he moved too far away. He stopped and turned around and looked at his work. He took one more walk back to the building, and made sure his work was good and complete.

I got to thinking a bit how God must look at his redemption work in our life. He tosses off the used and broken parts of us and he looks us over for any adjustments that need to be made, or things that need to be smoothed out. And, when he's done forgiving us and making us clean again, he steps back and admires his work in each one of us. The only difference is that Dave will likely not have to fix his handiwork for the next few years; whereas God is in a continual process of redeeming our sinful selves.

vessel is here

The vessel resupply ship arrived yesterday. There are 636 pieces to be unloaded and 550 retro containers will head back to the States next week.

It's strange seeing such a large ship at our pier. It's great to have all the personnel who have come in especially for this ship working rather than sitting around tying up our computer kiosk and leaving a mess in our lounge.

Along with the vessel comes weather. It never fails, when the ship makes it into town, the weather gets cold, windy, and white. It snowed last night. It's beginning to feel a lot like Antarctica down here again!

the gianella

After being stuck in pack ice, our fuel tanker, Gianella (sounds like a bad disease to me), arrived last week and unloaded 6 million gallons of fuel, or so. The Oden deserves some ovation for guiding our supply ships in and out of the ice this year. We had all hoped that the ice closer to Ross Island would blow out to give us open sea this year, but we only have the ice channel and turning basin somewhat clear to see whales.

The fuel tanker is gone now and McMurdo, field camps, and the South Pole can now rest assure that we all have enough fuel on the continent to run our operations for another year. Perhaps the biggest challenge is being able to send aircraft full of the stuff to South Pole with a season of maintenance and weather delays. Most of our power needs are generated from fuel. We also feed the aircraft down here with extensive hoses and pipelines.

Some of our field camps have switched to "alternative" energy; like solar power. Scott Base, our New Zealand neighbors down here are working on a project to install wind machines to power their base. They will feed their project through McMurdo who will make use of the excess and decrease everyone's reliance on fuel. Thank you to the kiwis for some forward thinking! It doesn't take a genius to realize we have a lot of wind here to utilize; or, for that matter, a lot of sunlight during the summer!

winding down

The station is in transition mode with ships coming in and departing, winter-over employees flying into McMurdo and futher, down to the South Pole. Some people are changing positions to get ready for our container ship offload, while others are leaving to head home.

I have had The Crud: Part II. This is two nasty colds in two weeks. I have forgotten what it is to feel healthy! Hopefully things will run their course the next couple days so I feel better soon!

We've had very few penguins around and I've missed all but two (at a distance). There have been whales popping up with the broken ice near our island. It's fun to see them surface and sink.

I am working on putting some travel plans together and coordinating some things with friends. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll know where I'm headed after I leave on the 19th! Similarly, I have no career plans yet, but hope to send the resume to a couple more places in the next couple days.

Some of my good friends are leaving this week. It's disappointing to see them go, but they have exciting things ahead. Two of the closest are Lucas and Amanda. It's been a good season made better with them around.

the research vessel

The way things are supposed work around here is this:
1) The Oden, a Swedish Icebreaker comes down and knocks out a channel to our Winter Quarters Bay.
2) The fuel tanker, Gianella, finds its way down here and we unload fuel.
3) The research vessel, Nathaniel B. Palmer pulls into port to offload and load new equipment and science personnel.
4) The cargo ship, American Tern, rolls around to offload new supplies and take a load of retro containers back to The States.

The way things have gone so far:
1) The Oden broke ice and has been chomping away at the channel making plenty of way for the ships.
2)The fuel tanker got stuck in the ice a few hundred miles from our ice pier. This is the first time a ship has been stuck in this sort of ice. The Oden had to go out to rescue it. However, the icebreaker cannot use the kind of fuel we have here, so it won't have enough fuel to make it back to Sweden.
3) The Nathaniel B. Palmer arrived in port first and had to hustle their researchers off and on the boat in front of the fuel tanker.
4) The fuel tanker is finally due in town today at which point, we unload fuel for a few days and cannot walk out to Hut Point because of all the hoses and such.
5) Due to the misadventures of the Gianella, the American Tern was delayed in Lyttleton, New Zealand and now carries fuel which is supposed to be offloaded to the Oden. There is yet to be a determination on the logistics of that transfer.

Yesterday, we were allowed to tour the Palmer. I was on the ship last year, too, but the second time around I learned a few new things; there was a fire on board last September, they were close to the boat that sank between Argentina and the Antarctic Pennisula, and they can send their research equipment to a depth of 5000 meter below the surface of the water.

Boat tours are the one way to get out on our ice pier which is constructed every-so-often out of layers of ice and dirt. This particular ice pier cracked last year and talk has been circulating about pulling it out to sea and beginning again. A special permit is obtained to send this one adrift as it's not a natural occurrence in the sea here.

I think my favorite part of the tour was being on the bridge, seeing the place where the boat is operated from, and then walking the catwalk around it. It's a disconcerting feeling to walk over water. The ship slants toward you and you can't lean into the ship well.

volleyball champions

For the second year in a row, I was fortunate to be on the winning volleyball team for our McMurdo league play. Our last game was pretty close. Both teams play exceptionally well, but we ended up finishing strong and taking home the champagne.

Our team: Nathan, Gifford, Matt, myself, Molly, and Christina, had so much fun playing together. We all looked forward to each game, and I don't know about the rest of the group, but I was really disappointed if I had to miss a match! (Photo by Daniel in Rec)

snow and sickness

You know how sometimes when it's a cloudy day, everyone seems to get a little blue? Here in McMurdo, we've had about a week of cloudy gray days and the station's immune systems got knocked out from under us. Combine some snowy days with an influx of personnel on station and we end up with a whole heap of sick people. The flu is the prevalent force right now; if you get it, you're quarantined to your room between three to five days. I am lucky enough to only have a cold, officially known as "the crud" in McMurdo (perhaps my flu shot earlier in the season is working). When disease gets down here, it spreads quickly since we all use the same dining facility, bathroom, and bedrooms. It's amazing how close we indirectly become when we work, eat, and live in such a small place together!

Despite the general health on station, we are pretty enchanted by the massive snowfall. This much snow is pretty peculiar for the month of January and while it has hampered our flights and delayed the distinguished visitors (DV's) from coming down as scheduled for the dedication of the new South Pole Station, it's a beautiful white way of making our operations station appear clean and beautiful. Typically, this part of the season is reserved for running, biking, and the annual New Zealand v. USA rugby game. The game will go on, but running in drifts and digging bikes out of snow isn't as fun as it might first appear!

The Swedish Icebreaker, The Oden, just made it to our Ice Pier today as well. This ship cuts the path towards McMurdo to clear the way for our fuel tanker, cargo container ship, as well as a couple of research vessels arriving in town. It is a strange sight to see a boat pull up in the area that was once an airfield, and has been covered with flat sea ice for a few months.

The great part about the boat churning up the ice, is the wildlife that may visit our station. We already had a group of Adelie Penguins come to visit and explore last Sunday afternoon, but I missed them while I watched a movie. We hope the sea ice blows out this year allowing the seals, whales, and penguins easier access to our bit of island here.

My pictures are of an icy ditch. When the weather is warm, we make ditches to control erosion and direct meltwaters to the sea. Recently, these streams cooled down again and made amazing designs and shapes in the water. The shadows and sun gave me an opportunity to take some really cool pictures!

the colors of icestock

Icestock is an annual event to help celebrate the changing of the years. This year was no exception. Multiple musical groups from around station come out to sing their hearts out on an outdoor stage. And, adding to the excitement is a chili cook off. My favorite was the Kiwi's dish; but they did have an advantage in their access to venison to add to their stew!

I noticed a lot of color at Icestock this year; this is appropriate given the huge variety of colorful personalities at McMurdo Station. Everyone has a story. So, without further ado, here are some of the colors I took in yesterday!

Chalet Admin Cindy tasting snowflakes.











Painter Leah sporting an up-do.











Cargo Cary showing his band face.











Shuttle Jaime smiling her finest.











Shuttle Taryn dancing the day away.











Crary Admin Katie coloring the gray day.

my christmas, part 2

Plenty of you have asked what Christmas brings to Antarctica. Or perhaps, the question should be what Antarctica brings to Christmas. Despite being part of a community made of multifarious dilettantes (1/2 of whom indifferently consider the Christ of Christmas to be irrelevant or non-existent), Christmas is an amazing holiday to be spent on the coldest continent. There is next to no consumerism, there are no long holiday lines, or traffic jams; no parades or materialistic parties. It's just Christmas. It comes upon us very quickly and is an amazing time to spend with friends, good food, and a couple of days off.

Our Christmas' are typically not white, but brown. It's summer here and most of our snow and ice has melted; although, the day after Christmas, we did have a lovely refreshing snowfall. It makes everything appear clean and new again.

December 23, I got off work 1/2 hour early since our flights were in and things were under control. Our department closed for TWO whole NO-FLY days.

That evening, I went to the Christmas Party (lots of fun) and sang in the Christmas choir (also fun). The party transforms the VMF (Vehicle Maintenance Facility) and provides good hors d'evours, good people, and nice decorations. I talked with lots of people before heading to bed late and rising again at 5am when my alarm went off so I could work at the Coffee House. I covered my shift; a very quiet (nearly boring) morning as most people were sleeping in after the town party.

About the time I woke up my shuttles roommates got a call that there was a Pole medevac. They had to drive a couple transports out to the airfield for a LC-130 to fly down there and back.

Later in the morning, I volunteered in the dish room for a little over an hour before I took a shower and cleaned up for Christmas dinner which I had at 15:00. I ate with J and Lucas; two of my best friends down here. It was a wonderful meal: roasted duck, king crab legs, and beef wellington. Wow! What we miss in family over the holidays our food services staff tries to make up in food. But, of course, it certainly isn't quite the same as being at home for Christmas.

It was really good that I ate at 3pm because I was just about to take a nap and my senior, Susie, who covered the Pole medevac in the morning asked me to go to work to cover the Christchurch leg of this flight tonight. So, I manifested a medevac flight. There was a fight and the one guy got punched in the face and apparently fell down some stairs, breaking his jaw bad enough that it couldn't be fixed here. I read this appropriate verse last evening: Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise. -- Proverbs 20:1 --

After that excitement, I headed to the chapel where we had a Christmas Carols. I sang a duet of O Holy Night with Martin. It turned out pretty well. Singing old favorite Christmas carols with light still streaming through the windows with a full chapel put the meaning into remembering the night of Christ's birth.

The next day was a day to simply enjoy Christmas. I spent a lot of lazy time enjoying a Christmas morning brunch. In the afternoon, our holiday choir sang over the HF radio to the South Pole and some of our field camps. We also laughed that some random truck driver in Yemen might also have picked up our signal! We had a wonderful time singing at MacOps and the South Pole even came up with their own impromptu choir to sing back to us.

My holiday was the way it should be. I remembered, rested, and celebrated.

Photos (from top down): 1) J & myself at the "bottom of the world," 2) Dennis with me in front of the abominable snowman, 3) Lucas, myself, and J after our enjoyable Christmas dinner, 4) my roommate, Char, and I at the Christmas party, 5) the HF radio handset that we sung over at MacOps.

amazing sunday

Today is an amazing day. It’s such a great day because I’m wearing capris in Antarctica and I’m not even cold outside! It’s also a great day because it’s my first Sunday off in a long time where I can have Sunday morning brunch with unlimited fresh fruit, and Belgian waffles and everything breakfasty that I could possibly want! It’s a great day because I was able to go to the Chapel and sing Joy to the World to celebrate Joy on the third Sunday of Advent; I love to sing! It’s a great day because my favorite mountain range, The Royal Society, is out so brilliantly it forces me to believe in some Creator far greater than I, who squished and squeezed the earth together to form such a tremendous natural skyline. It’s a great day because I slept 10 hours, feel refreshed, and had a casual morning over coffee and tea with Lucas; my best Antarctic friend. It’s a great day because God has been good to me and I can feel Him; his love, beauty, life, grace, joy, and creation moving around me in the beautiful people, places, and scenes.

Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven! When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise: “Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.” This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain. Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. For our God is a devouring fire. -- Hebrews 12:25-29 --

the great transition

On Thursday morning, at 06:00, I finished work for 48 hours; expected to be back at work at 06:00 on Saturday morning. So, for two days, I had to upheave my internal clock and move my schedule by twelve hours. The first day I was able to stay up through lunch (think past midnight). The second day, with the help of a two hour nap, I was able to push through until 22:00 and even catch the open mic at the Coffee House that last night!

In my off time, I caught up on some postcards, prepared a couple packages (Christmas presents are delayed until after New Years, this year), made some more cards to fill orders from the Arts & Crafts Fair, e-mailed a few folks, slept a bit, caught up with some friends, did some laundry, cleaned up my room a bit, and thought about life after The Ice (no conclusions).

Now, on days, the town seems to bustle in the morning as people get going, dust flies a little higher since there is more vehicle traffic, the buzz of helicopters is eminent in the a.m. air, and there are people everywhere. My social circle went from about 100 night workers to 900+ dayshifters. That is more of an adjustment than the time difference!

a strange today

I was so happy to be able to talk with my friend, Erin, yesterday. I love my friends down here, but being able to communicate with people who love me back home is fantastic! I was also happy to get some mail today in the form of Christmas greetings and a couple of pictures and a wonderful package from Linda! Since it's my second year down here, I thought people would forget the peculiarity of the location, but the mail is a great reminder that people back home still remember me! So, thanks to those who drop me e-mails, letters, postcards, and packages. It puts a massive smile across my face when I hear from you!

The last two days have been a bit strange. I had a dentist appointment for a tooth that has been bothering me yesterday. If any of you know me, you know I don't entirely enjoy being in the dentist chair, but I've offered the dental industry some job security over the past few years. Nothing is really wrong with it, and it seems that some muscles in my neck that have cramped up may be causing the discomfort. He did say that the tooth in question appears to have gone through a war zone. This was my first trip into McMurdo General Hospital though and it was interesting to see how they operate under limited Antarctic conditions. Our dentist, Fleet, is familiar with the Western Washington area and even knows my dentist's father!

This afternoon, I woke up quite early at noon when the fire alarm went off in my building. So, I put on my slippers first, and then traded those for my bare feet in my boots. I pulled on my fuzzy bathrobe, yanked my external hard drive out of the drawer and pulled the big red parka over it all to walk downstairs for 10 minutes until everything was cleared to return to my room. I've felt pretty good all day, but things seemed to tangle themselves up with our flight schedule and complicate work, and when I put my belt on, one of the loops broke, so I have a little sewing project for tonight!

On the up side of things, it was a whopping 34F today! This is warmer than most of my friends and family back home who live in the northern states, or southern provinces. No complaints there. And, after I leave work in an hour, I'll be off for two days to transition to a day shift schedule. No more nights! I also received my holiday schedule and the way Christmas and New Years fit into the week means we get extra days off for the holiday.

finding time

I have always been the person who needs to have a little time by myself. Never have I realized it so much as in Antarctica where I get out of bed with at least 10 other people roaming the halls and bathrooms, where my space in my room is no bigger than most walk-in-closets, where I have three roommates (literally in one single room), where I eat with 100 other people, or more every meal, and where personal space is limited. It takes a little bit more effort to have alone time here, and now that I'm settled into the McMurdo lifestyle, I am finding my avenues of escape.

I have a friend who found a large room for me to finish my Christmas cards in; alone. I took a walk around Ob Hill (pictured left) to enjoy the quiet and negotiate the unusual rocks that change in shape, color, size and texture as I circumvent the peak. I took a walk out to Hut Point. Sometimes I find the Chapel is quiet. Sometimes, it's just stopping to look at the mountains, or enjoy the "warmer" weather. Sometimes, I have to be alone in the crowd; allowing the buzz of conversation and passing of people carry on outside of my internal peace. Somehow I have found enough of that quiet time to crochet a few scarves, mail off my Christmas cards and put on a pretty good showing at the arts and crafts fair yesterday where I sold some note cards.

Speaking of the art fair, I continue to be surprised by all the talents people have down here that show up at the craft fair; painters, photographers, knitters, jewelry-makers, videographers, and the list goes on and on. This even is one of the nicest bizarres I have ever been to: hats, posters, cards, necklaces, ornaments; nearly all made in Antarctica by the artist at the table!

runway to skiway

Every year, our little community of about 1000 people makes use of three airfields.

Annual Sea Ice Runway: This airstrip is built on temporary sea ice on the fresh ice in the shipping channel that the ice breakers come through. The Ice Runway sits about 1.5 miles from town and hosts wheeled aircraft until the end of November. The photo is a view of what is left of our Ice Runway after the airfield was moved.

Williams "Willy" Field Skiway: The skiway is used by ski planes. This includes the LC-130 aircraft as well as the Ken Borek fleet of three small privately owned planes. The skiway is built on packed snow on the permanent ice shelf. Because it's about 7 miles out of McMurdo, it is only used as an emergency landing airfield until it is officially put into place after the Ice Runway closes.

Pegasus White Ice Runway: This is packed snow that has become white ice. It is named after the airplane, Pegasus, that crashed near the airfield and is still permanently parked under snowdrifts. Pegasus is the runway where we land our C-17 and other wheeled planes after the Ice Runway is closed. Pegasus is about 10 nautical miles from Station, but nearly 17 miles by our permanent ice roads.

This past weekend marked this year's transition from the Ice Runway to Willy and Pegasus. It means taking down the tower, the galley, the toilets, and ice melter, the departmental trailers, the communication lines, generators, and all other equipment to run the strip. Once this is done, the other airfields become populated with those buildings and equipment and Ice Town becomes Willy Town.

This change also means that the fuel lines get stretched out from our storage in McMurdo through Scott Base via a permanent pipeline and then through temporary hose all the way out to the airfield. We unroll big spools of hoses and eventually fuel our planes with jet fuel by way of these huge tubes. Our fuel lines are marked with blue flags and there are special places in the roads where we drive with care to avoid rupturing the lines.

A few years back, the temporary ice froze over too soon for the fuel tanker to dock in McMurdo, so they anchored the ship to the temporary ice with big beams and rope frozen into the ice (like a "dead man"). Then they ran some of this hose all the way from the tanker back into McMurdo for four miles. Because fuel is so important to our operations down here and the inability for the ship to dock was unexpected, they ended up keeping people on late that season to make the operation happen.

december one office fun

After our midnight meal, I came back to work on December 1 to Christmas tunes and an office of festive cheer. The eclectic mix of decorations that is stored in our cargo bay the other 11 months of the year was pulled down and, in the absence of any other good work to be done, we strung up garland, tossed beads over our fake palm tree, and bestowed a wreath over our model LC-130.

Dave was our leader in sorting and arranging the decorations around our work space. He appreciates the Christmas season for all the memories associated with family and friends. He's been in the department a few years and knows where things hang. He also has a grand collection of Christmas music which will, no doubt, be played every day he is on shift from now until Christmas, and perhaps beyond!

Amanda had no problem putting on some holiday cheer. She made the comment that our office looked like a Walgreens Christmas; with such a mish-mash of flashy, multi-colored, gaudy decorations arranged in a ridiculous fashion; simply because we have them.

I must admit that our workspace hasn't improved much with the additional "decoration." But, it's not a particularly pleasant space to occupy anyway. It's dusty, sterile, eclectic, windowless, and unfashionable; but that's nearly entirely due to the fact that we sit in Antarctica. Our palm tree and travel posters are, perhaps, the biggest morale boosters in our department; aside from any postcards, letters, and packages that show up on my desk and in my name!