Bill's 2022 Antarctic Adventure

  12-31-2022   Should I or Shouldn’t I…It’s the annual question we all face on December 31 st  every year. The older I get the more likely the answer is shouldn’t. This year is a little different because it will be the last year I can celebrate in Antarctica and besides that, bands will be playing into 2023. We won’t have Dick Clark of course (I know he’s dead) nor Ryan Seacrest (I probably spelled that incorrectly and I’m pretty sure he’s still alive).  There will also be a bunch of sloppy drunk young people (definition of young now includes anyone 50 or younger). But it is my last chance. What do you think. You still have over 24 hours to make up your mind. I have fewer than 5. I’ve included a few pictures. It really is a fun time just a little cold though but what would Icestock be without a little chill?

  12-30-22 The Skua chicks have been born. I haven’t seen them myself yet, but I will search them out tomorrow and will try to catch a picture. Over 50 seals are sunning themselves together on the ice. The ice breaker is just a day or two away and ready to start clearing the channel into the ice pier. Tomorrow is the big Ice Stock concert. I suspect much alcohol will be consumed. We even have Starbucks coffee!  One of the helicopters I was working today spent 4 hours looking for a seal that the scientists have been tracking for several years. The seal has a small transmitter that they home in on. Unfortunately, no luck today, but they’ll keep trying. 

  12-29-2022 What makes you smile…I was on the treadmill  this afternoon  and when I looked down at the timer it read 3443. It made me smile. (It’s the address of the home my dad built and that I lived in while growing up) It was snowing hard when I left work today and as the snow glanced off my face it made me smile. Smiling led me to think of other things like the faces of my grandchildren. As I told you yesterday the rhubarb dessert made me smile thinking of family. I love to smile because it always gives me a warm fuzzy (do people still say that). It doesn’t take much to make me smile and that makes me smile. Take time to smile. The set for Ice Stock is almost completely set up. They brought the bleachers up from the softball field for the band fans to sit on (it made me smile)  All of the back yard chefs are preparing to make their favorite chili recipes. Some of them are really good. On another note, tomorrow is my last working day of 2022. (betcha can’t figure...

  12-28-2022 Fun stuff…At dinner last night.  They served a rhubarb mango cake. It tasted great and made me smile as I thought of my sisters Nancy and Barb (who reads the blog every day, Hi Barb). Nancy makes a great rhubarb cake and Barb supplies me with all the rhubarb I can eat every summer when I visit them.  It was also a comfort food night. They had a macaroni and cheese bar. They provided the basic Mac and Cheese with bow tie pasta and then provided all the toppings you can imagine for dressing it up.  Today at lunch  they served grilled ham and cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. It was a perfect meal for a cold day. Speaking of a cold day, we experienced a sight I’ve only seen once before in my three trips to the Ice. The wind was howling between 20 and 35 knots and a light snow started to fall. The snow was made up of tiny flakes that were widely spaced. The wind stirred them in all directions unlike drifting or blowing snow that generally flows in one ...

12-27-2022 I went to a travelogue tonight,"The Way to Santiago". It’s a pilgrimage through Spain. There are several different trails you can follow but almost everyone makes the trip on foot. Sleeping arrangements run from huge dorms with shared facilities for 10 Euros a night or hotel accommodations for about 50 Euros per night. The scenery is quite beautiful but the thought of back packing twenty to thirty miles per day seemed daunting. The presenter said about 400,000 people made the pilgrimage last year. He made the trip in July of this year before he came to the ice. Spain was experiencing a heat wave at the time, so walking was done mainly from early  morning until around noon .  The ice edge is getting closer by the day. We get daily updates from pilots flying by. They are required to stay at an altitude that won’t disturb the wildlife although I think there are times when they take liberties. There are many seals and penguins at the ice edge because of the abundance o...

Cool ice sculpture made by Mother Nature.   12-26-2022   It’s almost as if she knows….the sun has slipped slowly and gently from its lofty peak just a few days ago. But she knows. It’s still sunny all day and we still need shades on the windows to sleep, but she knows. Just a slight chill in the air that wasn’t there yesterday. Just as death follows life the cold follows the warm foreshadowing the future. We know it’s coming. Some of us look forward to it and some fear it but the relentless passing of time and tide goes on. Although we think it does, it doesn’t pass more slowly for the young nor faster for the old it just passes and with it the days of our lives.  Live, love, survive, exist you chart your course forward for better or worse. Take time to appreciate where you are and where you’re going. We never truly know our destination as hard as we may try …but she knows.   It was colder today.

  12-25-2022 I’m celebrating my last Christmas in Antarctica today. It was especially nice when I headed for church this morning because snow was coming down heavily. It stuck to the ground for about an hour and even though it was just a dusting it looked beautiful. After brunch I headed down to the Ice Pier loading area and what 2 days ago was an open lot was now converted into a softball diamond complete with dugouts and bleachers. It was fun to watch because everyone was out there having fun and being a little silly. One of the guys I work with was an umpire so of course I found it necessary to heckle him. I was very impressed by the number of women playing and their skill level. We head back to work tomorrow for a short week here in town. It’s always good to take a breather from work. I wish you all a Merry Christmas tomorrow.   I wish you all a Merry Christmas tomorrow.  25-2022   12-25-2022   I’m celebrating my last Christmas in Antarctica today. It was es...

 12-23-2022 Just thought I’d take a minute to remember our first responders. Our firefighters at the airfield lined their vehicles up last night so I snapped a couple of pictures. You wouldn’t see this lineup of vehicles anywhere else in the world. Lieutenant John is in one of the pictures. He’s a really nice guy and a heck of a leader. I’m watching the guy’s practice for the Christmas Day softball tournament. Don’t tell them I said this, but they are way better firefighters than softball players, but at least they’re out there trying.  I took a hike to Hut Point looking for penguins today. No sign of them yet, but there are a bunch of seals. (there’s probably an official name for a bunch of seals). I also found a really cool piece of mother nature ice sculpture. Even with the best cameras though you can’t capture the true beauty of nature with a picture.  Last little item of news. Tonight, is the big town Christmas Party. It’s one of the highlights of the season, especia...

 12-22-2022  Yay, we did it! We launched the Long Duration Balloon this morning. Sadly, I was in the gerbil gym on the treadmill when it launched but I was able to see it as soon as I stepped outside. It was climbing out of 30,000 feet when I saw it and still clearly visible. We were able to see it on our radar until it cleared 60,000 feet. I saw a picture of it just before it took off and it looked like an old fashioned incandescent light bulb. I will remain in a circular orbit over Antarctica at 120,000 feet. The project objective is to identify the signature or primordial gravitational waves in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). In other, more understandable, words, they hope to take “baby pictures” of a young universe forming just after the big bang. Eventually the balloon will land.  After it lands an exhaustive effort to recover it will be undertaken. It’s really pretty cool science in action!  One other quick aside, I went outside today...

 2-21-2022  Mission Penguin…..I heard a rumor circulating around town that a penguin had been sighted on the outskirts of town an Hut Point. How could I not take a hike to try to capture a picture of the little fella in his native surrounds. I climbed the treacherous 50 feet up to hut point to gain a better vantage point from which to view him. (The climb wasn’t really treacherous) I saw many a seal but nary a penguin was to be found. Apparently, the little fella heard I was on my way, and he vacated the premises.  Conditions here a very dry and dusty this time of year. Unlike when the land in blanketed with snow. Picture an old spaghetti western, Clint Eastwood just stepped out of the saloon looking for the bad guy. As he steps down onto the street his spurs drag the ground with a clank and a puff of dust floats up and over his boot. That’s what it looked like as I walked out to see the penguin today (without the spurs of course). If you read this entire paragraph, witho...

  12-20-2022   Before I forget to tell you, the sun moves around the horizon…..wait for it…..in a counterclockwise (right to left) direction. And it’s true the flush water in the toilets turns in the opposite direction from the northern hemisphere. By the way tomorrow, December 21, is our longest day of the year. Soon the sun will begin its descent back below the horizon. For now, we are enjoying sunny relatively warm weather.   I can’t explain why, but lately I’ve had a high energy level. Along with that I’m feeling positive about my life here. I’m also happily looking forward to my return to family and friends! I had a nice text chat with my first air traffic control trainer from Japan this afternoon. I’m happy to say we have remained friends for more than 50 years and it’s always a pleasure to talk with him. Ross Island Yacht Club pennant on the left.   Finally, I’ve been a card-carrying member of the Ross Island Yacht Club since my first trip here. The club has h...

  12-19-2022 Before I forget again… the sun stays up all day here as you know. So, it rotates around the horizon, east in the morning and west in the afternoon. Here’s the question; which way does it rotate, clockwise or counterclockwise? For those of you too young to remember those terms does it move from right to left or left to right? Stayed tuned for the answer tomorrow (assuming I remember to tell you)   The Crary Lab was open for visitors today. They do all kind of cool science stuff there, but it was the aquarium we were able to visit today. They have all kinds of critters in the touch tank. One of which was an urchin. I sent a picture of him. You can recognize him by his cowboy hat that he picked up from the bottom of the tank. His bottom is up instead of down so you can guess what the hat is covering. Apparently, he’s very modest! I sent along some other pictures as well. The lab assistant who was showing us around says they will all be released back into the wild in ...

  12-18-2022 Well, I found map of the rail system in Antarctica. I hope you like it as much as I did. I also took a quick hike to Hut Point after lunch today to check on the seals. They are still sunbathing and now an area of water about a wide as a creek has opened in the sound so that they have sun and food available without needing to travel far. Life is good! Since Sunday is odds and ends day, I snapped a picture of a small science shelter. I thought the note on the door was funny. I also found a spot where a Skua had molted. It’s a little hard to see in the picture but there are hundreds of tiny white feathers. I finished my week of midnight shifts this morning. They are very peaceful but apart from catching up on emails there’s not much to do and they really throw your sleep patterns off. I’m looking forward to a good night sleep tonight. One last note. The guy I relieved last night was working on his personal laptop when I relieved him. He said he was looking at flights goin...

  10-17-2022   Howling… right this minute its midnight going into Sunday morning and the tower is rocking (and not because of anything I’m doing!) The wind is gusting to over 40 knots and snow is drifting like it does to my family in Northern Minnesota and North Dakota. Thankfully the heater in the tower is working so I’m snug as a bug in a rug. It looked like we were going to launch our Long Duration Balloon yesterday but again mother nature had the last word with these gusty winds. I’ll try to get some pictures when it finally launches. I went to a travelogue presentation by one of our helo pilots two nights ago. The stories he told about flying helicopters in the mountains around Mt. Everest were gripping, frightening, happy and sad, sometimes all on the same flight. He called his presentation “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly”. He talked for an hour and had us all on the edge of our seats wanting more. Hopefully he will come back again and share more of his tales.  One ...

  12-12-2022 I went for a walk today and found some interesting buildings some I’d seen before and some not. Some I knew what they do there and some not. For instance, “Spot Shop” no idea what they do there. The “eyebrow building” is a science building and the place I had my outdoor survival class in earlier in the year. The McMurdo General Hospital is where I had my tooth repaired. Hotel California is VIP housing, I think. The main base fire department. Mammoth Mountain Inn. I’m sure there’s a story behind the names on the dorms I just don’t know what it is.  I also came across some more Skuas two of them were in front of the ramp to the Ice Pier where all our ships will dock. It was a nice day for a walk. The temperature was about 30 degrees with little wind.  One last note. I stopped by the Skua store and scored a yoga matt for my room. I’m very happy about that!

  12-13-2022 Generationally speaking I’m way out of the loop down here. The young folks (and I use that term loosely) enjoy playing board games like Dungeons and Dragons and others I’ve never even heard of. The movies they like all involve Sci-Fi and/or movies with lots of action and killing. Tonight, they ran, “4 Weddings and a Funeral” on one of our TV stations. Those of you who know me well know that I’m a sucker for a good Rom/com or a Christmas Hallmark movie.  On another station they are running a different classic Christmas movie every night so I’m quite enjoying myself and getting into the holiday spirit. Most of the work areas also have some type of decorations up and tomorrow night they are having a night of caroling and decorating at the Chapel.  I know the holidays can be quite sad for many people for many reasons. I hope you can find it your heart to reach out to those hurting with love, hope and kindness. I love you all and I’m happy you have enjoyed the blo...

  12-11-2022 Day off.. It’s Sunday again. I heard someone say this week, “the days go by slow, but the weeks go by fast”. I had to think about it a minute and now I agree. It’s like life, sometimes the days go by slowly, but the years go by fast. I can’t believe as I look back how quickly the years have flown by. I started my day, as usual on Sunday, in the laundry room. Met my barber in front of the mirror in my room and got a shave and a haircut. No money changed hands but my cost per cut from my clippers went down again. Then it was off to church. The Catholic Priest left this week so I’m back to a non-denominational service. It’s interesting how services vary amongst religions. Following church, it was off to Sunday brunch and a Belgian waffle with Log Cabin maple syrup. Arrival Heights It was a nice day, so I took a hike up to Arrival Heights. It’s always a little chillier up there so I layered up and I was happy I did. I saw several skua’s nesting and flying in the area. I al...

  12-10-2022 I just walked into the lounge to compose my daily blog and one of the dorm mates is watching a hockey game. It just occurred to me that here in McMurdo, in the Antarctic, you can ride a bike, play softball, soccer, walk, run, play rugby but what you can’t do is ice skate or play hockey. We are literally surrounded by ice! Don’t ask me I just work here. Mt. Erebus was spewing even more steam today than last week. If you don’t hear from me in the next few days send help. The razing of building 203 is complete. What was home to many thousands of McMurdoites is no more. Almost immediately they will begin building a replacement dorm that will be largely single rooms. Not big rooms, but single non the less and there is a huge appeal to that.   For a few fleeting moments last night, I had access to internet at speeds you at home expect. I don’t know why (although I can speculate) but the feeling was exhilarating. Imagine, those of you old enough, that you had to return t...

  12-9-2022   I learned a lot about LC-130’s here at McMurdo last night. The military folks told us about their role, how they got here, how their airplanes work (and sometimes don’t). The presenters ranged in McMurdo experience from first year to 20 th  year. The perspective certainly was different from each of them. The C-130 transport has been flying since the late 19 50’s. If that’s not exactly right forgive me. (I’m chuckling right now because I must have hit a button, unintentionally, and now my font has changed. I like it so I’ll continue using it!).  It has been used, the C-130 that is, in many different roles and configurations in both military and civilian life. The LC-130 ’ s we fly here are unique in that they use both wheels and to land on. They say there are only 10 flyable LC-130’s in the world and they were designed exclusively for use in the arctic and later the Antarctic. These workhorses take quit a beating here because they often land on unprepare...

  12-8-2022 Mt. Erebus Mt. Erebus… I’ve described it earlier in the blog but today she was particularly active. The volcano has been very inactive over the past couple of weeks, noticeably so. Normally there is a small plume over the cone. From a distance it looks like a cotton ball sitting on top of the volcano. When it was inactive there was no cotton ball. Levels of very low activity are of concern to vulcanologists because the normal pressure that is released is not being released for some reason.  The hope is that pressure doesn’t build to the point that the volcano erupts. Today, on my way to work, Erebus was more active than I have ever seen in my three seasons here. A plume extended for about 20 miles from the cone and is visible in the picture. Hopefully this venting will relieve some of the pressure that has built up over the last few weeks.  "Bombs" from Mt. Erebus  In the normal course of events huge chunks of lava are spewed out of the cone. Normally the...

  12-7-2022 Anger… This is something I’d forgotten happens here. It seems to occur about halfway through the season. I’m not a psychiatrist or psychologist so I can’t explain it, but it happens non-the-less. It manifests among friends, co-workers and many times between people who have no association with each other.  I wonder if it’s the result of the newness of the adventure wearing off or the past and pending holidays away from family and friends that causes the angst. It may be a combination of all those things and more. It’s a lot like politics in that the angry people try to drag everyone around themselves into the caldron of anger. I’m sure military units and families have dealt with this for generations.  It makes me sad when it appears and again reminds me how precious life is and how often we take it for granted. My new eyes still allow me to witness it but now I don’t allow myself to be drawn in. The good news is it seems to be like a bad cold and works itself o...

  12-6-2022 The Delta The transition from land to glacier has gotten almost impassable for vehicles, even those with the largest of wheels. One of the vehicles that can still make the passage is called “The Delta”. Remember watching “earth movers” when you were a kid? They had a huge tractor like front end connected to a large trailer that scraped dirt into itself.  Wow, that wasn’t a very good description, but I hope you know what I mean. That’s kind of what a Delta is except it’s designed to haul people instead of dirt. I’ve attached a picture to help your imagination. That’s what I rode on this morning getting to work. If you like roller coasters, you want to ride in the very back of the passenger compartment. Every bump and turn are magnified to the point that if you don’t have a seat belt on you may well bounce your head off the ceiling.  The other interesting thing is on the inside of the Delta, instead of graffiti people put stickers on the walls and ceiling. I’ve ...

  12-5-2022   There was a science presentation last night about, "Long Duration Balloons". They attach a package of instruments that generally weighs as much as a Volkswagen Bug to a balloon that’s six stories tall fill it with helium and away it goes. It ascends to a ridiculously high altitude and gets caught in the jet stream and circles the Antarctic continent gathering scientific information.  It’s all over my head (no pun intended) but it’s great fun to watch them launch the thing. The date is always up in the air (again no pun) because the weather conditions need to be exactly right before they will launch. Eventually the whole kit and kaboodle returns to earth and then a team tries to locate it and return it to McMurdo. Whoever is working the tower on launch day gets the best seat in the house but that all turns out to be luck of the draw. I’ll send some pictures when they launch.

  12-4-2022 Saving the planet..The Southern Ocean is brimming with sea life of various kinds. Two of those are whales of various kinds and toothfish. For many years whales have been protected by international law from being hunted. An exception is for research, supposedly in place to study them to help restore their population throughout the world.  The number of whales that are allowed to be harvested in this way is strictly limited. This time of year, a couple of countries harvest whales over the limit that ultimately make their way to market because of the high price of whale products. We get involved when patrol planes go out looking for the poachers. The patrols stay in the air for more than 12 hours at a time flying search patterns for the offending ships.  Another fish is the toothfish. The meat of the toothfish is sold in many countries as Chilean Sea Bass which has been severely over fished in the Pacific. This fish is also protected but poached this time of year...

  12-3-2022   Hugs….Everybody needs them. In fact, I read that to maintain a healthy mental state we all need a minimum of three good hugs every day! I didn’t read that online so you may doubt the veracity of that statement.  Many years ago, and again more recently I read, “The 5 Love Languages” by Gary Chapman. I learned, reading the book, that my two strong love languages are touch and words of affirmation. Because of past and present abuses of hugging it is almost never done anymore. Even in my own family, where love abounded, hugging was not a thing we did. Because of that I didn’t know how important a good hug can be. In fact, when I first started in theater, I was put off by hugging, especially by men. Now I relish a good hug, not a little lean in barely touching hug or a handshake bump shoulder kind of hug. A good hug is a firm embrace without fear of rejection.  A sharing of good feelings and a sincere desire to share good will with another human being. I hav...

  12-2-2020 Are you kidding me??? The day before yesterday was summer. Today it’s winter again. No snow just cold temperature and very gusty winds coming down from the Pole. To be exact it’s called a catabatic wind. It begins 10,000 feet above sea level at the South Pole and tumbles downhill towards McMurdo picking up speed as it goes. By the time it gets to us a sea level it’s really howling. Anyway, it makes me happy that I’m an indoor worker! The demolition of Dorm 203 continues. As I was watching it come down, I was thinking how I’m drawn to the razing of buildings. When I was Chicago, several years ago, our apartment had a great view of the old Sun Times Building. It was being torn down to make space for the new Trump Tower. While this is a mini version of that I still find it fascinating.