Taylor Glacier, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica 14/15 Field season

[AxleIke]

Not technically a 4x4 trip, nor wheeled vehicle supported, but it was helo supported, and it was an adventure.

I spent a month camping out on a glacier doing field work this past December and January, and thought I'd show some pictures from the trip, hope you enjoy!

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Started out in Christchurch, NZ. After clothing issue a team member and I walked around the city for an afternoon. The city is still recovering from the massive earthquake a few years back, and the ruined Church (namesake of Christchurch) was pretty moving.

The next day it was a very crowded flight down to the ice, but at least it was a wheeled C-130, rather than a ski equipped LC-130, that we took down, which makes it a 6 hour trip rather than 8-9. This one belonged to the New Zealand Air Force.

A view of the sea ice as we made our way down

We landed out on the sea ice, which is known as Pegasus Field.

your's truly.

Mt. Erebus from the field

We rode in on Ivan The Terrabus, which is actually not that comfortable, but does have 65" tires, so thats cool.

We stayed at McMurdo Station for 3 days getting trainings and prepped to go out to the field. It looks like any industrial mining town: brown, dirty, and lots of heavy equipment. I liked it!

Satellite monitoring equipment for the US Military. Looks like, and is called, The Golf Ball

The Kiwi's have much better trucks than the US. Most of the Cruisers and all of the US trucks and vans are running around on aired down 35's or 37's. I saw BFG MT's, Goodyear MTR's, Trxuss MT's, etc...

I went over to Hut Point, and checked out a cross dedicated to one of Scott's men who drowned at this location.

Scott's Hut. It was the worst thing they could have brought to the Antarctic. Designed for tropical expeditions, this hut acted more like a freezer, and kept the men cold inside, rather than a haven from the cold outside. Ah well, they were tough. The Kiwi's are restoring it so it was closed.

 

[AxleIke]

I got a chance to visit Scott Base (the New Zealand base) while I was there. It was really cool, and the gift shop was nice, but didn't get any pictures inside as I wasn't sure if that was cool.

Obligatory sign picture:

Pressure ridges along the shore in the ice:

Some LAZY leapard seals. They just lay out there for weeks.

It was then time to fly to the field camp. We flew in a Bell 212 Helicopter, or Helo, as everyone down there calls them. Guess it sounds cooler. Anyway.

Suited up to fly:

Iceberg frozen in the sea ice still:

Glaciers, glaciers, everywhere:

Flying up Taylor Glacier towards camp:

 

[AxleIke]

Made it to Camp!

These 4 season mountain tents were cozy but worked well. Mine did come apart a bit during the 4 days we had high winds, but more on that later.

All of our food and fuel was transported in, and all of our waste was transported out, by helo, usually by sling.

I have a bunch of shots around camp:

This was "night". We would work through this time because it was colder, which was better for our equipment. It was really from about 1:30 am to 5:30 am, and the sun would just go behind this ridge, call the Coukree Hills.

This is "sunrise"

view

A cold morning (cloudy), but pretty

"morning time" which was really like afternoon since we were on night shift, but this was around 10:30 am.

We only ended up taking 1 day off while I was there, but it was a good one. We headed up glacier to Cavendish Ice Fall, and Cavendish Rocks.

Along the way we saw many mummified seals which essentially go crazy and wander up glacier until they starve to death. These ones were likely a few hundred years old.

This is the ice wall next to Cavendish rocks.

View back to the glacier from the rocks:

Chilling on a frozen lake:

Looking back towards Taylor Dome

Ventifact. Formed by the wind only. Similar to how arches are formed in Utah, but without the water.

On a different day, after work, we took a very short trip to the melt channel, which is a canyon like structure formed on the glacier when melt water comes rushing down at the height of summer. It was only about 30 feet deep, but pretty cool.

There are many rocks transported down glacier. The warm sides melt the ice away from the edges, leaving them perched on small pedestals.

 

[AxleIke]

As I mentioned, we had some windy weather. Sustained 50-60 knot winds, with gusts up to 100 knots.

It was tough working, but we managed. Just had to look like serial killers:

We just told each other to "Scott-it-up", in reference to Scott and his team pulling all their sleds by hand after their ponies died. Same as "nut-up", but more PC for the ladies we had in camp.

We'd usually work between 10 and 14 hours a day, but because there is not much else to do, as you are completely cut off and isolated from the outside world, you really don't notice it. I helped dig a trench (1mx1mx30m). Since the glacier is solid ice (no snow) we'd use chainsaw to cut the sides of the trench out 5 meters at a time and then a breaker bar (heavy iron bar with a chisel at one end) to break the ice into chunks. Then we'd shovel the chunks out, and repeat. It was very rewarding at the end, but went to bed pretty sore a few nights.

We had a very nice Christmas dinner, and a white elephant gift exchange. It was a lot of fun, but all of us missed our families. We had a nice Christmas tree though:

Towards the end, we had to pack up all our gear and build sling loads for the helicopters. Myself and a Team mate finishing one up:

One of the last nights there. I should have brought a better camera. This doesn't do the glow justice:

We got to see a lot more glaciers on the helo ride out. It was pretty spectacular.

After getting off the ice, we had 10 days in McMurdo to sort, and get our Cargo ready to ship out. After that, it was an 8.5 hour (we had a ski plane on the way out) trip to Christchurch, the last half of which I had food poisoning for, which made it a VERY rough flight. Ah well.

I'm glad to be back, but this was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had, and I hope to go back someday.

Thanks for tuning in!

 

[concretejungle]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[skcolb]

Thanks for posting -- great photos and descriptions!

 

[mph]

outstanding...that looks an awesome experience!

 

[peneumbra]

Very cool trip report.

Have you thought about opening a 4x4 shop in McMurdo? You'd have a captive clientele and NO competition...

 

[AxleIke]

Very cool trip report.

Have you thought about opening a 4x4 shop in McMurdo? You'd have a captive clientele and NO competition...

LOL, I wish!

 

[ttora4runner]

Nice.

 

[wyota884]

Nice Pics, thanks for sharing. I miss the scenery down there, I wish I would have went back.

 

[v_man]

very 'cool' trip report , thanks for sharing ...

 

[pugslyyy]

That looks great, thanks for sharing. I had a cousin who worked in Antarctica for many years, always seemed a really neat place.

 

[AxleIke]

Thanks! It was really neat. It is really odd to be in 24 hrs/day daylight. My internal clock got all messed up, and my body adapted to sleeping only 3-4 hours a night, even after 12-14 hour work days. It also gave most of the people in camp very strange, extremely vivid dreams. I woke up most mornings feeling like the dream I just had was real. They would also continue. You would wake up from a disturbing dream, think "whew, at least that is over", go back to sleep and it would pick up right where it had left off, almost as if you had just pressed "pause" on the VCR/DVD/Bluray/DVR, LOL. Most of the team had similar experiences, even those who had been down for every season for 20 years. Said it was very common.

 

[pmatusov]

Awesome! Do you work at NCAR?