Week 3: Survival Training

So the week began with a blizzard, gusting up to 70knots (roughly 140km/hr) while a small team completed our survival training in Antarctica. Survival training included navigation via map, compass and GPS. It also included sleeping out in the elements in a bivouac or divvy (human chip packet) and consuming dehydrated meals while using a FUD (female urinary device) to help you pee into a bottle (grey water needs to be disposed of appropriately).

Despite the noise and fear of blowing away we all survived the night and returned wind swept and tired the following day.

This was the week that the winterers returned to Australia (RTA) after spending 12 months at Casey Station. 4 winterers remained to handover the station to the incoming Summer and particularly winter crews to ensure an easy transition. We celebrated with a 4 course, 5 star meal with wine. It was a memorable evening and lots of dancing ensued after to help work off all the energy we had just consumed!

It also meant a colleague, A/Prof David Smart came to conduct a specialist review of the diving programme in Antarctica, which is what I am helping to medically support as a component of my Summer contract.

Davids' first iceberg!

Grant (winter Dr) and I in front of the fuel line.

 James, the winter Dr from Mawson also flew out this week after most of the year at his station due to contractual obligations back home. We enjoyed his company for only a short night, but had great fun in the 3hr Hagguland trip from station to the aerodrome.

Grant, James and I in front of the Antarctic circle on the way to Wilkins skiway.

 The A319 runs almost weekly flights of 4.5 hours during the beginning and end of Summer from Hobart, Tasmania, transporting personnel, resupply items and allowing potential for an areomedical retrieval should it be required. It also aids international Antarctic projects by acting as a gateway to Antarctica, as opposed to the 8-10 day voyage on the icebreaker, Aurora Australis.

Wilkins aerodrome

Farewell to the Winter crew.

While it was sad to see the winter crew leave, anticipation for the upcoming Summer months for resupply and settling in for the new crew hit with fervour. We were looking forward to surviving the cold and isolation of Antarctica, but also the claustrophobia and overwhelming personality of station life.

Week 2: Arrival at Casey Station

After a few false starts over the previous week, we were finally bus-ed via "Ivan the Terra Bus" to Williams (Willie) Field to hop on a Herc (LC-30) to Casey Runway, a 4 1/2 hour trip away to Eastern Antarctica. Some of the group had been delayed by 3 weeks at this time, so you can imagine their relief to finally be on their way!

There were 42 new expeditioners descending on 18 wintering expeditioners, who had been isolated for the previous 9 months. It took 2 Herc trips, and fortunately the whole Casey crew who were at McMurdo made the trip in perfect flying weather.

While it was a culture shock for both the Wintering expeditioners and the Summering expeditioners we were made to feel very welcome with a warming lunch and hot drinks. Then began the station inductions with a walk around and exploring our surrounds that is Casey Station. Ali, the Winter Station Leader (SL), who has done 3 previous Winters with the Australian Antarctic Division and more with the Kiwis as a geologist and SL.

Ali showing us around station.

 
We were taken for a jolly another day by Scottie and Matt, 2 Winterers down to Shirley Island, which was a 30min walk from station - not that far, but the snow fall had been quite thick and proved tricky to walk through slowing our progress, especially for those of us who weren't used to walking in heavy snow boots through mid calf high snow.

Shirley Island is accessible across sea ice. Part of the safety measure with crossing sea ice, especially at either end of Summer is to measure its thickness and quality. This is done with a sea ice drill, which is hand held. The loose snow is cleared from the surface and then the drill is applied until you hit sea water. The drill shavings give you an idea of the quality of the sea ice and the measuring tape gives you the thickness. The ice can melt from the bottom up, so it doesn't matter how thick it is necessarily. The thickness needs to be at least 20cm to walk on, 40cm for a quad and 60cm for a Hagg to travel over of good quality ice. The 26th November heralds closure of sea ice travel for AAD staff in Antarctica, however, Casey has a weekly reprieve provided the sea ice remains in good condition to Shirley Island.



Drilling and measuring sea ice thickness with Gabe and Scottie.

 The incentive for crossing to Shirley Island was to visit the Adelie penguin rookery and Weddell seals that wallow on the sea ice after finding gaps in the ice. Skuas live near the penguins, preying on weakened Adelies, their eggs or chicks. They are opportunistic predators and will even attack humans if they feel that they are fair prey. You have to keep 5m from the wildlife, unless they choose to approach you. In the case of the Adelie's this is fairly often as they are very curious and will come over for a visit. We even had some wandering the ~2km into Casey station to check out the activities.

Curious Weddell seal.

Adelie penguins checking out the rock scene.

Tide crack in the sea ice - check it with your ice axe, so you don't fall into a slot!




 

Another day on station allowed for a short climb up Reeve's Hill, named in honour of Geoffrey Reeve, who succumbed to hypothermia after becoming lost in a blizzard out at Robinson's Ridge in August 1979.





Wednesday coincided with my birthday and it was wonderful to be able to spend it with my new friends with lots of well wishes from afar and my new home. Eddie, the Wintering chef was kind in offering to make me a birthday cake of my choosing - cheesecake with berry swirl on chocolate biscuit base! Yummmm!!! I shared the day with Ian the plumber who had 20 Bakewell tarts made for him. It was an awesome day.

We topped off the night by playing "Cards Against Humanity", which set the tone for the evening. Lots of inappropriate adult jokes and hysteria ensued on a number of occasions with peoples' sense of humour being finely tuned.

I'm going to enjoy being a part of this community!

Week 1 Hobart to McMurdo Station

 It has been a dream of mine for at least the past 15 years to travel to and work in Antarctica. This dream became a reality in early November 2014 after a false start in 2013. 

 

I was employed as an Antarctic Medical Practitioner to assist with the 2014/15 Summer season out of Casey Station, one of the 3 continental Australian stations (Macquarie Island, the Subantarctic Station was where I wintered briefly in 2011).

 

 

On the morning (04:00am) of Wednesday 5th November I embarked on the trip of a lifetime with 38 other expeditioners with the Australian Antarctic Division. We flew on the airbus A319 from Hobart to McMurdo Station, which is an American station. We were to directly transfer to a Hercules LC30 once we landed at Pegasus airfield and fly on to Casey station. Instead we were stranded due to poor weather at Casey and lack of staffing at McMurdo for a week. Which was a blessing in disguise...

 

 

 

 

 

 

McMurdo is supported by the Federal government under the auspice of the National Science Foundation. I had flown on the NSF Hercs in Greenland 4-6 years earlier with my work as an Expedition Doctor with a Danish Science group on the ice sheet.

 

It sits on Ross Island in the NZ territory, housing up to over 1000 personnel during busy Summer periods. It resides under the ever watchful eye of Mt Erebus - an active volcano, infamous for the Air NZ plane crash in 1979 (auspicious year!), which killed all 257 people on board.  

 

The rumour was the recovered bodies were kept in McMurdo gym until repatriation back to their homeland. This was where we all spent the first 3 nights on cot beds until there was room in the dorms with the US personnel moving on to their positions at the South Pole or WAIS Divide remote camp.

 

Mt Erebus was amazing, active since 1972, tucked behind the Mountainous range behind McMurdo.

Regardless, the scenery was stunning. 

 

 

Scott's Hut is on the peninsula just down from station which is currently under restoration by the kiwis, who diligently come over from Scott base, 3km away to voluntarily maintain and document the historic site. It was an honour to see the hut so well preserved after over a century since the fated expedition set out to claim the South Pole (only to be beaten by Amundsen). 

 

St Vincent's Cross is close by, commemorating the lost life of T.Vince in 1904 while he was deployed with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). 

St Vincents Cross with McMurdo in the background.

Not to be outdone, is the cross commemorating Robert Falcon Scott and his men who perished in their race to the Pole in 1902. With McMurdo later establish in 1956.

 

Other sites of interest around the place included:

 

Craig and I in the medical facility with the hyperbaric chamber for diving operations that happen yearly with the US Antarctic Program (USAP).

The chapel, with a Navy chaplain as caretaker, harbours the "Scott's chalice", donated by Scott's great granddaughter. It is housed at the Cathedral in Christchurch over winter and was found intact after the earthquake in 2011 allowing the continued repatriation to Antarctica each year.

The canteen with 24/7 pizza and popcorn! With the recent flights into station there was ample fresh fruit and veg, so we made the most of it knowing that resupply for Casey station was still another 6 weeks away - therefore no, to limited fresh produce.

The local terrain around station with the snow and ice starting to melt caused treacherous conditions, necessitating it's removal with machinery.

 

With the 24 hr pizza, needless to say we looked forward to venturing out and exploring our surrounds. This included Scott Base, run by our Kiwi cousins. They run a substantially smaller Antarctic program to the Americans and restrict visiting times due to resources (the bar) being overwhelmed. Like McMurdo, they also had a shop and sold Antarctic trinkets and good quality clothing. So we spent a bit of time there...

 

 Scott Base (green buildings), 3km from McMurdo a pleasant walk or short 'taxi' trip. A great bar with a nice view, great souvenir shop and friendly locals.

 

Luckily we were given a few opportunities to take in other sights including a trip out to the NASA science centre where the clever people are formulating weather and climate data collectors that weight many tonnes and are designed to hang below a massive hydrogen filled balloon. Hard core science.

 

The Casey crew at McMurdo.

 Finally, 1 week after our arrival and unexpected delay we were off to Willy's runway for our Herc flight to Casey! There were 2 loads of personnel and we were all successful in travelling the 4 1/2 hours to the Casey runway, 20mins out of station (not to be confused with Wilkins runway).