Last sunset

  This is an interesting time of year as the days quickly get shorter and shorter. We have a few hours of twilight each day which will soon fade away completely, then the long night begins. I got to go on a trip out to the runway to see the last sunset a few weeks ago. We watched it from the remains of an old aircraft that crashed there forty some years ago. All my photos turned out blurry since my camera does not work well in the cold. I'll try to get some pictures to post later on. 

  There is not too much to report as I've just been working a lot on the 210 remodel. This winter seems to be going by fast. I realized that my week nights seem to follow the same routine: Monday band practice, Tuesday radio show, Wednesday trivia , Thursday American night at Scott base, Friday go to bed early, Saturday laundry, Sunday brunch and work in the wood shop. It's hard to believe mid winter is next month.

  Here are some photos of the last sunset, the 210 project, and some random photos of McMurdo that I took while there was still light.

Building 210 with the temporary furnace known as the purple people heater.

We have our chop saw set up in a mil van outside due to lack of space and fire danger.

New structural steel and temporary cribbing.

Installing the new I beams.

DJ

Mil vans outside the frozen food warehouse.

I don't know what goes on in this building, I think the meteorologist works there.

Cargo lines.

Back of the carp shop.

The paint barn.

Front porch of the carp shop.

Icebergs, Emperor Penguins, Etc.

I'm finally feeling settled in and ready for the winter ahead of me. The last flight went out almost a month ago (sorry, no pictures, it was cloudy) and since then I've gotten to know many of the 141 other people here at McMurdo, as well as the 15 people over at Scott Base. The days are getting shorter and shorter and it's only a few weeks until the last sunset. The remodel project I'm working on is going well and keeping me very busy. I'll be posting some pics of that soon. For about three days we had a giant iceberg floating off of hut point. I thought it would freeze there since it didn't seem to be moving, but the next morning it was gone. Seriously, this thing was the size of a large building and it literally disappeared over night. Crazy. Aside from that, there has not been too much happening lately. I was lucky enough to see a group of Emperor penguins over at Scott Base. They've been hanging out there for a few weeks. Pretty cool. We are in the middle of our first two day weekend of the winter. The nice thing about winter is you get a two day weekend once a month. Today there was a horseshoe tournament over at the heavy shop, which generally happens the Saturday of each two day weekend. I only lasted two rounds. Better luck next month.

It's getting colder

I'm starting to get settled in after a few weeks here, though I don't move in to my winter room for a few more days. The weather is looking much more like winter as the wind has been blowing nonstop for days and the temperature is slowly dropping. There is still much wildlife around and I was lucky enough to see a group of penguins at hut point the other day. I've been keeping busy with the remodel  of building 210. The interesting thing about projects down here is that you can't just go to the hardware store if you are missing parts, nor can you easily contact the architect or engineer if there are mistakes on the plans. Not that anything like that would really happen, just saying. There is not too much else to report on, other than the last plane leaves at the end of the week following which we will be isolated for the next six months. 

McMurdo from the top of observation hill (notice the National Science Foundation logo  painted on the fuel tank this past summer)

The sea ice is melted all the way out to Scott Base

Hut point. The buildings behind Scott's Discovery hut are work centers for the Antarctic Heritage Trust  personnel  who have been restoring the hut and preserving the artifacts within.

Adelie penguins at hut point.

Back on the ice

  After a nice four month weekend I am back at McMurdo station for another winter. As odd as it feels to be here, it is nice to be back. It's the tail end of summer and lots of people are leaving as well as winter-overs arriving. There is much open water as the sea ice is gone all the way to Scott Base. There is still much wildlife about including Adelie Penguins, Wedell Seals, Orcas, Menke Whales, and of course, Skuas. The temperature is dropping and winter is definitely in the air.
  I was hired on to remodel Building 210 which is going to be a huge project that will last well into summer. For all I know I may be here for a full year again. I'm not sure about the music scene this winter but I am hoping for the best. There is still a few more weeks until all the winter-overs are here, and with any luck there will be enough musicians for a few bands.
  As it is cloudy and windy outside, I don't have any pictures yet, though I will be sure to post some in the next few days.

Leaving the ice

  It's been almost a year since I arrived in Antarctica. Although most of my time here was spent patching drywall in building 155, I have been lucky enough to see and do some amazing things, and meet so many incredible people. In two days I will be in New Zealand, eating fresh produce and trying to wrap my head around what I was doing here for the last year.

  The first flight of winfly came in about six weeks ago, changing the dynamic of winter. All sorts of new people looking all tan and happy wandering around. It was weird. Two days later was the first sunrise. I got to take a trip out to the runway to see it. It's hard to describe the feeling of seeing the sun for the first time in four months. I was also lucky enough to get to go out for a day flagging a road on the sea ice. We went all the way out to Cape Evans and got to go inside Robert Scott's hut. I remember as a kid seeing pictures of Scott's hut in National Geographic and thinking how cool it would be to go there. Well, I actually did. It was amazing. Seeing all the artifacts that were left there and knowing how few people ever get to go there was the highlight of my Antarctic experience. The only problem was that my camera battery died right after I got there. Lucky for me, two of the guys I was with used to be professional photographers and gave me some awesome pictures. On the way back I saw the most spectacular sunset of my life. It was a good day.

  So here I am, packing my bags and saying my goodbyes wondering when I will be back here. I had a contract for next winter remodeling building 210, which is what I was supposed to be doing this winter,   but it just got put on hold again. I now have an alternate contract for next winter. We'll see what happens. I can honestly say that this was an incredible experience and I do want to come back, maybe not for a full year next time. Winter does do strange things to your brain. You get a lot of memory loss and a thousand mile stare. I think it's due to vitamin D deficiency. The funny thing is, you don't realize it until new people show up. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my blog. If you want more info on McMurdo station, check out www.mcmurdo.usap.gov. There is a lot of interesting stuff about the US Antarctic program. If I get it together, I'll do another post with a bunch of pictures of this season. Hopefully I'll be on a beach somewhere on a tropical island.   

Full moon over Observation Hill

Iceberg at Cape Evans. This broke off the Erebus glacier tongue. Photo by Deven Stross.

Most amazing sunset ever. Photo by Deven Stross

First sunrise at the airfield

Scott's hut  

Sunset at Scott's hut

Me inside Scott's hut

Me in front of Mt Erebus

Nacreous clouds. 

The Hagglund in front of a sundog on the way to Cape Evans. Photo by Deven Stross.

Winfly is almost here

  The first flight of winfly will be here in two weeks. Everyone is excited because today we found out we will be getting fresh produce! I would do almost anything for a fresh salad at this point. It seems crazy that the winter season is almost over and that I will be going home in a few months. It's hard to believe I've been here for almost a year. It's been busy around McMurdo lately. The runway needs to get set up, buildings need to be opened, and I still have 20 rooms to remodel before October. We have our last two day weekend in a few days. One of the benefits of working here in the winter is that you get one two day weekend each month. Two of my friends are having their wedding ceremony on Saturday and it should be quite the party. You can't legally get married in Antarctica, but they decided to have a party anyway. Fun fact: Even though you can't really get hitched here, you can begin divorce proceedings.

  The weather is getting worse lately. The runway has been -40 for the last few days and the wind has picked up a lot. August is always the coldest and windiest month. Everybody hopes for a condition 1 storm so we can get a day off, but the station almost never goes con 1. Only if there is blowing debris that could kill you does con 1 get called. There has been a storm here that blew a sheet of plywood into  a building like a knife.

  I've been trying to sort out all my photos from this winter and I will make an effort to post more of them. In the meantime here are some photos of the aurora australis, the moon, and our station winter photo.