Dear Weather Gods, We are at Your Mercy

After great luck with weather in our first week of missions, this last week the weather gods reminded us that they are in charge. We had about five down days in a row due to weather. In a place like Antarctica, where your purpose for being there is very specific, down days are pretty tough. We did take advantage of them check a few other "tourist" things off the list. 

Since McMurdo is located on an island, we are surrounded by a floating ice shelf. This year an "Observation Tube" (aka the Ob Tube) was installed in the sea ice. This tube has a diameter barely sufficient for a large adult, but if one can manage their claustrophobia enough to get down to the bottom, you are treated to a magnificent sight. The Ob tube extends about seven feet below the sea ice into the ocean below, and allows you to observe the aquatic life below. The first time I did it, the feeling was reminiscent to the end of the movie "Life Aquatic" when Steve Zissou sees the Jaguar Shark. I went a total of five times, and typically you can hear seal calls which have a very techno/automated sound to them. Once I actually saw a seal swimming around towards the sea floor. Photos below are from my teammate Chris Larsen.

The unsuspecting Ob Tube from above the surface.

Below the surface is a magical world. Chris captured this jellyfish swimming around while he was down there.

Looking up toward the sea ice from below. All the little dots you see are tiny fish. They are in abundance down there.

 There's also several tours one can take in the surrounding area. One such tour is the pressure ridges that form on the other side of the hill near Scott Base. These ridges are essentially the buckling of the nearby ice due to the more seaward ice flowing towards it. These ridges also form cracks in the ice that seals come up through. Also nearby is Robert Falcon's original hut from when he attempted the South Pole in 1901-1902. The hut is filled with a lot of artifacts not only from his expeditions, but also the subsequent expeditions that also used the hut as a launching point for the pole.

Can you feel the pressure? One of the ice formations at the pressure ridge.

Seal stretch. These seemingly lazy beasts remind me a lot of Bowie on a warm sunny afternoon. As our tour guide informed us, seals actually live very tough lives under the sea, and then often come up on the icy all bloody from either fighting or just trying to get out of the ice so their rest is well-deserved.

Inside Scott's hut. Some of their original cooking supplies. Not pictured, but present: dirty, 100-year-old long johns.

Hard to read, but this is 100-year-old graffiti by H.E. Wild. A member of Shackleton's expedition.

Luckily the good weather has returned, and we are back to flying. On Thursday we ended up doing a flight that required us to refuel at Shackleton field camp. Shackleton camp is a remote camp located in the Transantarctic Mountains (emphasis on remote) Before I left for Antarctica, I found out that a friend of a friend would be working at Shackleton. Our times at McMurdo were never going to overlap, so I didn't think I get the chance to meet him. It's amazing how Antarctica can simultaneously feel like a gigantic, desolate, and lonely continent, but also at the same time feel like a small town. Anyone you can share a connection with, feels like family out here. Below are some pics of Shackleton.

Shackleton Camp. Yes, this is pretty much it. Fuel pits in the foreground. Tent city in the background.

                                                       Aircraft parked at Shackleton for refueling.


I'm actually at our RAC tent right now and our aircraft just returned from another flight. Keep your fingers crossed and make your sacrifices to the weather gods so we can keep this good weather.