The Antarctic Birkie

As many of you already know, last weekend was the American Birkebeiner in Cable, WI. It would have been my fifth year participating, and my third year in the elite wave. Obviously, that wasn’t going to happen, being at the South Pole and all. So, I decided to do my own Antarctic “Birkie”.
Due to the various challenges of skiing here, I knew before I started that I wasn’t going to get 50K, but I decided I would stay out as long as I could and see what that got me. Afterwards, depending on how long I lasted and how I felt, I might head to the gym and do some bungee poling.

My loop is between 5 and 5.5 K, probably closer to the 5 mark. I start over at the cryo facility. Where I’ve been storing my chosen ski gear. Then I head up a small hill over the fuel arches and to the geological pole. After that I take a left and head past the ceremonial pole and ski along the elevated station (folks grabbing a bite to eat from the galley can probably see me ski by). Then across the ski-way, where the planes come in, past MAPO, up to BICEP2/SPT and back. Once I get across the ski-way, I take a right passed the SPX terminal. Then out along the outside of summer camp and the berms, where building materials, fuel, waste crates, etc. are stored. Looking at the map, my route takes me a little bit beyond its borders, to the edge between the berms and the antenna field, where nobody but the satellite techs are allowed to go. Then keep looping until I’m back at cryo.

On Sunday I started bright and early, ~5AM, and I figured I was getting started around the time some of the fasted guys were finishing back in WI. The weather was chilly, about –50F with a wind-chill around –80F. The snow was what it always is here, old, windblown, and squeaky slow. The wind was a calm 6 kts and directed up the path towards the telescopes. 

I was able to do one lap before I had to get some pants on. I can’t say that I raced much the course, either. It is tough to get going fast here. Heading out towards the telescopes, when the wind was at my back, was probably when I was able to go the fastest, but heading back in was just plain cold. In all I made it just under 2hrs and about 3 laps, so close to 15-16 K. At that point I was still in decent shape temperature-wise, though my legs were getting a little cold. My biggest problems were my boots giving me blisters on my heels and my buff freezing over to the point where it was getting harder and harder to breathe. I took a look at it after I got inside and the outer layer was pretty much a solid sheet of ice, along with the collar of my jacket and heavy long underwear top, while the inner layer was soaked from the moist air I’d been breathing out.

I did carry my camera along with me, with the intent of taking pictures on my ski. But it decided that –50F was just too cold and all I got was a picture of me at the start.

Anyways, I had fun doing it, and I think I’ll try it again, once I find a pair of boots that fit a little better, maybe at sunset or mid-winter.

Question Time, part 1

So, I’ve gotten some questions that I probably wouldn’t get around to answering in a normal post, so I’m going with a Q&A.

Q: How many other people are there..that you actually interact with ...on a day to day basis?

A: There are 50 of us here for the winter. At work, I might interact with 6 other people, or nobody, depending on if things are running smoothly, or if something isn’t working. Yesterday, a valve on the air handler went out, causing the temps in the cryostats to spike (which is a problem if it goes on for too long), so Nate came out and worked on that. Jared and Jay were also out working on the fire and low O2 alarms (which still may or may not be working). Katie came out to do an inspection of the fire extinguishers, Steffan came out to talk a little about our dewar fill tomorrow, and Trace came out to visit and to grab Nate for another project. So far, that hasn’t been the typical day, though. Usually it’s one or two people, or nobody.

Outside of work, though, I see more than that. Meals are the main place where I see folks. There are a number of people I eat with pretty regularly. There are about 8 of us who are playing volleyball three nights/wk, and another group of us trying to get a weekly soccer game scheduled. Then there are a couple of people who’ve expressed interest in learning to ski, so I’m trying to get something together for next week, and we’ll see where that goes.

Q: How long are the days, i.e. how many hours of light?

A: Right now we have twenty-four hours of light a day, and that will continue until sunset on March 21^st, the equinox. After that there will be dusk for a month or so, and then it will be dark for 4-5 months (this is when the aurora happens, and we are supposed to get really good aurora this year, on account of there being a lot of solar activity going on), then another month or so of dusk, and sunrise, and then light again. Right now it is still pretty bizarre to wake up in the middle of the night, or first thing in the morning to go for a run or ski, and have it be full light outside. I’m actually pretty excited for sunset and darkness.

This was taken from the window at the end of my hall, at
about 6:30 in the morning

Even when the sun sets, we’ll only have about half of that time when it is actually dark. The moon is up for two weeks and down for two weeks at a time here, and because of all the snow, it should get pretty bright, even if the moon isn’t full.

Q: What happens to our wastewater?

A: First, it is important to know where our water comes from. All our water is melted out of the glacier beneath us. That water is some of the oldest and cleanest water in the world. It is also not safe to drink. That’s because it is basically distilled water, and a body can only drink so much of that without having a negative reaction. So our water gets various mineral added, I’m not sure what all, but I know that it gets run through a limestone treatment.

As the water is melted and pumped out of the ice, it created a hollow. Eventually it gets to the point that the hollow is too big/deep for more water to be pumped out efficiently. At this point it gets turned over to waste management. The vast majority of our wastewater ends up frozen in the old wells. A small amount of grey water gets shipped to McMurdo and beyond for treatment, but it is very expensive to do that. Jon O, our waste guy, is hoping that we’ll eventually get some sort of waste treatment facility, but that probably won’t happen for a while, if ever.

As for the rest of our waste, we do a lot of separating. There are bins for food waste, cardboard, wood, cans, metals (ferrous, copper, and otherwise), electronics, plastics, glass, non-recylables, mixed paper, paper towels, bio/sani. Our waste guy will go through a lot of this and further divide it. Some of it is incinerated, some is shipped backed to McMurdo for further sorting and then shipped back to NZ or the US. We also have Skua, which is for things like clothes, toiletries, and other fun stuff, that is still usable, but somebody doesn’t want/need anymore. Then it is fair game for the rest of the community. I found a pair of ear-buds in there, and used them to fix my nice head-phones, which I managed to break on the way down here.

Q: What is the altitude like? How long did it take you to acclimatize? How did you do it?

A: The South Pole is located at about 9,300ft above sea level, which compared to Minnesota’s handful of ft, is a lot. Even after about three weeks here, I still get a little winded going up the stairs into the base. When I got here, I gave myself about a week of just walking around before I tried to do any running or skiing. It worked out pretty well. My first run last week, easy and short went well. I’m still doing stuff easier than I would back home. Hopefully in another couple of weeks I’ll be up to doing some hard intervals, but I’m playing it by ear and seeing how my body feels from day to day. For example, I was planning on doing my first run over an hour today. I ended up helping shovel a fuel spill, and was pretty tired afterwards, so a short run and then a nap instead. I’m hoping to do a long ski in a couple of days, but that is also going to depend on how I feel and how long I can stay out in the cold.

Q: What is the helium used for?

A: Helium is used because it’s just not cold enough down here. :)

Seriously though, liquid helium is used to cool things down to about 4.2K, just a few degrees above absolute zero. My main support goes to BICEP2, a telescope that is looking for anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background. The helium there is used with some of the electronics. Cooling it down to those temperatures reduces electron and dark noise to a point well below the signals they expect to get from their observations. If there noise were higher, it would make it more difficult, to nearly impossible, to separate signal from noise and to analyze the data.

I also keep track of several thousand liters of gaseous helium. Meteorology and NOAA use that to launch weather balloons. Met launches balloons twice a day, and NOAA piggybacks on them once or twice week. I’m planning on getting out for one of the launches to see what all goes on. When I do dewar fills for BICEP2, we end up having to vent some of the helium in order to keep the pressure in transfer dewar down, such that the fill only takes 2-3 hours, rather than a day or more. This last dewar fill, I set up a fuel bladder, now know as the Bouncy Castle, as a way to capture the vented helium, rather than let it go into the atmosphere. It worked really well, although it got bigger than expected. I was able to fill about a quarter of one of gaseous helium tanks from it. That helium will probably end up getting used by Met, although some of the gaseous helium ends up getting compressed back into liquid helium.

All right, that is all for now. Keep the questions coming and I’ll try to answer them as they come up.

A View of a Room

A picture post, mostly. Since space is pretty limited here, so are the rooms. My room is 6x8ft, enough room for a bed, desk, closet and drawers. Some of the folks who have more ice time get twice the space. I actually like my room and am getting settled in pretty well. I've got one of the inner rooms in A1, on the second floor. It's a prime location, right across from the mess hall. 

This is everything I brought with me from home, plus most of my ECW gear, in the orange bags.

Some of me ECW gear. I've been using the Carhartt jacket more than the parka because it is less bulky and it keeps me warm enough for the short walks to and from Cryo. 

Turn around and it's the rest of my room.

Caitlin and Kikkan both survived the trip. So did the book and card the Central skiers made for me.

My walkie, set to Science. Antarctica's answer to the cell phone.

Next post is going to be a Q&A, so if you've got questions, post 'em in the comment section. I'll get some more substantive posts up soon

 

To Work

Last flight out. Goodbye summer. Bring on the winter!    

             Two days ago we said goodbye to the last of the summer folks. For me that meant that the cryo facility is now officially my responsibility. Normally, when a new cryo tech is hired, they spend 13 months down here, four of which are spent getting trained and getting to know the systems. But because of the fact that I was hired late, I got about 6.5 days of training. The previous cryo tech, Flint, and I put in a week of long hours trying to get me oriented and trained on all my duties, and making sure everything was in good working order before winter and station close.

Flint and I, just before he leaves and I take over cryo.

             Usually, when people get to the pole, they get the rest of the day to relax and acclimate a bit, but we got straight to work. That first day was mostly me watching and listening to Flint and a couple of scientists from BICEP2, the main science I am supporting this winter. The next couple of days consisted of transferring the helium Flint and I escorted from McMurdo to the pole in 500L dewars into our three Wessington dewars, each ~4000L.

From L to R: Simon, Theo, and Alvin

I did one of these for each dewar, as well as couple of other fixtures.
This is mainly used to help regulate the pressure in the dewars.

             Flint joked that the cryo tech is basically a glorified plumber, and there is certainly a lot of that happening as well. I did a lot of rebuilding of the fixture on top of the dewars, swapping Teflon tape with Locktite and replacing some of the fittings and valves, in an effort to seal up some leaks. That is especially important this year because we have less helium than is normal for the winter. Usually, liquid helium is transported down to the Pole in a 12,000 and 18,000L dewar, but due to a couple of screw-ups that made for a hectic summer for Flint the helium had to be brought down in many small dewars, and that translated to less helium. My goal for the winter is not to run out of helium before the first week of November. That translates to roughly 38L/day or less used; last year they used ~42L/day. Before he left, Flint and I came up with a couple of plans to help the helium last. I also learned how to run the LN2 plant, recharge the compressors, change the adsorbers on said compressors, how to pump down a lines who’s vacuum has gone soft, along with all the record keeping and reporting. I’ve also got two, or possibly three, science projects I am running/monitoring this winter.

            Now that training is over, things have calmed down a bit and I am working a little shorter days (our hours are supposed to come to 54hrs/week, or 9hrs, 6 days/week). It still feels weird that I am responsible for this, though. It is my first real job, and if I screw up it means that the science I’m supporting doesn’t happen. But I feel pretty optimistic, and that I can handle things.

            On a different note, when I first got the job offer Doug (from Finn Sisu) and I were doing a little research on South Pole Station. We found out that the tradition is to watch The Thing and The Shining after the last plane leaves. We didn’t watch The Shining, but we did watch The Thing (1982, Kurt Russel) and The Thing (2009). The 2009 one was a prequel, and I actually thought it was pretty good. The movies both take place at remote stations in Antarctica in the winter, and in the last few weeks before winter, respectively.

             Lastly, yesterday my heart rate was finally back to normal, more or less, so I took that to mean I had adjusted to the 9,000ft+ elevation here and went for a run (short and on a treadmill). It felt great. My next step is to find the ski hut, and go ski. 

Further South

Everyone has to have some of their ECW gear on or in easy reach    

A 5am on the 8^th, we headed to the airport, got our gear checked and loaded a bus to get the plane.
The flight to McMurdo (actually to Pegasus airfield) was about 4hrs and very noisy. The Air Force guys handed out earplugs before we got underway, along with our flight lunch. Other than us, the cargo included 2 pallets of pop, a ~2000L tank of milk from WI, and a crate of explosives used for shaping the ice dock in the bay below McMurdo. 

We aren’t the only cargo headed south

About an hour and half out from the airfield, things are starting to get a little colder

Headed for the Deltas. It is about an hour ride in these from Pegasus to McMurdo

After arriving at McMurdo, I got my first orientation. Then dinner and bag drag to get stuff loaded for the flight to South Pole. I also met Flint, the cryo tech who is training me in and whom I will be replacing in a few days time. 

Scott’s hut. Used for storage 1902-1905. You can also see the ice dock in the background.

A view of the bay. I t is pretty unusual for it to be this open, this late in the season.    

After that I took a hike down to Hut Point with Robert, one of the grantees headed down to the Pole, working on MAPO, one of three telescopes at the South Pole looking at the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB).  We walked around Scott’s hut, which was built in 1902, but never actually used for living in because the ship stay anchored, so the team used the ship instead. There were 6 or so whales swimming around in the bay, which was really cool. To give an idea of temperature (I think it was in the high single or low double digits in McMurdo), many people were walking around with light jackets on, and a few people running around in shorts.

This is the ski-equipped Hercules L-130, with new props.

Februrary 9^th and it is finally time to head to the Pole. Flint and I took a slightly later flight than the others in order to escort a five 500L dewars filled with helium. After another 3.5 hours on a plane, we got to South Pole Station. Getting off the plane, it is about a five minute walk to DA, the main entrance to the new station. And it was definitely chilly getting off the plane, about –40, not including windchill. While feeling a little dizzy and out of breath from the altitude, I got another orientation, which was pretty similar to the McMurdo orientation. Then I got a quick tour, and it was time to get to work.

Journey South

Remember kids: deep snow and phones don’t mix

It has been a long week, but I have made it to South Pole Station. Yay! And I finally was able to get on the internet for more than a few minutes. Double yay!

Anyways, my last day in the US, Feb. 4^th, was mostly pretty good. I tried to get up into the mountains to ski, but the parking lots filled and they were not letting anyone else in. Not to be discouraged, I headed over to Golden Gate Canyon State Park and found a trail that some other folks had snow-shoed in. I just had my Neos, so there were times when I sunk down to my thighs. But still fun, and very pretty. Unfourtunately, I proceeded to loose my phone in that deep snow, and even digging for about a half hour in the area I thought I dropped it didn’t do much other that give me very wet gloves. Actually, my entire trip to the pole was me loosing things in random places. A water bottle, a hat, my luggage (I did get that back, though).
I made it to the Denver airport, then to LAX, which I don’t think I like much and not just because they have no free wifi. Then a 13hr flight to Auckland, NZ. It was long and not particularly comfortable, but I finished Journey to the Center of the Earth, watched some movies, and didn’t sleep a whole lot. Then through customs in Auckland. I got my year-long visa, even though Raytheon did not get me my letter requesting the extended visa before I flew. I did have a bunch of stuff from Raytheon with my name on it, so the guy at the customs desks was nice. Otherwise, I would have been stuck with a 3-month visa, which might have made getting home in 9 months more exciting, but I think I’m okay with less exciting in this instance.

After Auckland, I headed to Christchurch, which was about a 3hr flight. Then I met up with the Raytheon folk. There were actually about 20 of us heading out to the Ice. Most of them were stopping at McMurdo for the winter, or boarding one of the science vessels, but there were five of us going to the Pole. Then we were off to our hotels. I stayed in one that was fairly close to the orange zone in Christchurch. Several months ago, Christchurch had a fairly big earthquake and they are still recovering from it, particularly since the downtown area was the hardest hit, and much of it is still cordoned off.

The next day, Tuesday Feb. 7^th for those keeping track, we got issued our extreme cold weather gear (ECW).  Mine consisted of: 

-       1 pair of bunny boots (white, not so awesome)

-       1 pair of FDX boots (blue, awesome)

-       1 huge USAP parka (red)

-       1 South Pole Station parka (green and black)

-       1 Carhartt jacket

-       1 pair of Carhartt bibs (which I have been wearing pretty constantly since getting here)

-       1 pair of insulated wind bibs

-       2 fleece jackets

-       1 pair of fleece pants

-       3 pair of heavy long underwear, top and bottom (I have a hard time telling these apart from my fleece stuff)

-       6 pairs of heavy wool socks

-       2 fleece balaclavas

-       2 fleece neck gaters

-       2 fleece hats

-       3 pair of leather work gloves

-       1 pair of choppers

-       1 pair of over-mitts (that look like bear paws)

-       2 pair of ski goggles

-   3 orange bags for carrying everything

Most folks don’t bring everything, but first-timers are encouraged to, because it takes time for people to figure out what works best for them, so I have three bags stuffed with cold weather gear.  Sue, one of the other folk stationed at South Pole, was a big help at making sure I had the gear I needed and that fit right.    

PQ'd!

So, its official. I am physically qualified (PQ'd) and just waiting for my final itinerary.
I got to Denver Wednesday afternoon, got my rental car and got to the hotel without getting too lost. I haven't done a whole lot of traveling on my own, so my biggest worry on this leg of my trip was not being able to find my way. My phone was quite helpful in keeping me headed in the right direction.

First thing yesterday morning, I headed out to my first appointment. It was a chest x-ray and gallbladder ultrasound, which meant no breakfast. Not my favorite way to start the day. The appointment was fine, and the people there have seen a number of folks headed to one pole or the other. That has actually been true for all of my appointments here. Anyways, afterwards I picked up breakfast and ate it at a park on the way to my physical. I was immediately accosted by a flock of geese who were very interested in my croissant.

One of about 20 geese wanting a piece of my food.

I successfully defended myself without loosing much of my breakfast.

The physical went well pretty well, too. The EKG took a while though, because the sticky tabs would not stick to my skin. We got it eventually. Then onto the dentist.

Ridiculous view from the dentist's office.

Note the lack of snow. The only snow I'd seen up to this point was the stuff on the mountain tops in the distance, and a few small piles in parking lots. Nothing on the ground. 

Got a call last night from Audra, my contractor at Raytheon, saying that I had passed the medical portion. She also gave me permission to call a cab in the morning to get to my psych appointment because a huge snow storm was blowing in. Good timing, huh?

This morning there were 4 or 5 inches of snow on the ground, with snow still falling. The roads didn't look too bad, though, so I drove myself over. 

View from my hotel room this afternoon.

The test portion of the exam was long, about 600 True/False or similar questions. Some of them were really weird. The interview portion was basically asking me about my general history and experience, not really what I expected out of a psych exam.

And now, here I am. I got cleared to travel about an hour ago. The preliminary itinerary they sent me, has me leaving for LA tomorrow at 7pm, then to NZ at about 11pm. I'll get there sometime on Monday.

Wish me luck.