December 26, 2010... Sunday: Still a work day for us

I was ready to go out again with my team and work on our first system. We almost finished working on it. We had to revisit it later to fix some of our instruments after we heard back the status from our engineer and our Steve from Ann Arbor.

What was more tiring during this day was changing the clothes every time I head out or come back. For the coming few days, I decided not to go through this hassle and keep all my layers except the parka (even though you sweat a lot inside the heated station) when we return to the station for lunch etc.

Later in the evening, we dressed up again and went to the Pole to take some pictures. I held our Indian flag high and was a proud Indian to put it next to the South Pole. Just a reminder, Antarctica is a free continent and doesn’t belong to any nation.

We could not start our work on the second system. It was necessary to finish building the two systems at the Pole before our departure date on 3^rd Jan, 2011. So, amongst four of us, I decided to stay back and help Bob set up the next system at the Pole while Hyomin and Joseph were going to fly towards the remote camp on the Eastern Antarctic plateau about 650 km from the pole to retrieve a system that stopped working in a month after it was deployed 2 years back. In a way, I was glad stay back in the warmth of the station at least at nights instead of sleeping in cold tents on the plateau. I also had a loads of good food available all the time at the station!

December 25, 2010... Merry Christmas

I stayed back on the Christmas day and along with the whole station enjoyed the holiday. My other team members worked even that day. In the morning, we had some gifts to exchange. The later part of the day was slow and relaxing for me when I tried to catch on my blog. At 10.00 am, many enthusiasts at the station took part in the “race around the world” which was a 3 mile-long lap around the station starting and ending at the South Pole.

Race around the world starting at the South Pole.

The whole day, our galley scroll was showing Santa Claus’s North pole to South Pole flight status.. We finally learned that the flight was delayed due to Ornery reindeer. :D

Later in the evening, we had a Christmas special dinner. The blinds in the galley were down to imitate night (we were already getting bored of too much light, this was a welcome change) and the TVs showed fire. Everyone was dressed nicely and we were served an amazing dinner and wine. After the dinner, we had a small social where we were filled in with loads of exciting stories by the polar research veterans: Bob, Vladimir and Don.

Christmas fire on the Galley TV.

A nice Christmas special dinner.

December 22 - 23, 2010... Getting Acclimatized at the Pole

On December 22, 2010, we just surveyed places to decide where two of our Space Science systems are going to be. We stopped by the South Pole and took some pictures at Southern end of the world. This was the highlight of the day. More excitement followed with our snow mobile training in the afternoon. A snow mobile is a pretty cool and useful vehicle. We used two machines for four of us for the coming days, to go to our farthest site, move stuff around etc. We got our stuff moved to our work place. A cherry on the cake for me was I got to see sundogs that day.

Sundogs. The picture is not that great though.. It was just too bright, I could hardly see my camera screen.. I do have a video on my flip. I will upload it on youtube once I get back to US.

Me riding a snow mobile.

December 23 was the third day at South Pole and we were already in on the ice shoveling, setting up our stuff. While your body is trying to get acclimatized, i.e. while it is already working hard to settle up oxygen level, heart and respiration rate, you need to take it a bit easy by not giving the body extra muscle work. I learnt a tough lesson that day. My body could not take the strain. That resulted in shortness of breath, high respiration and heart rate, and dry cough and fever. I had to stay back for next couple of days to avoid any medical complications and high altitude sickness.

December 21, 2010... Heading further South

I don't think we did anything constructive on December 20 apart from getting ready to go to the South Pole. We had to take our bags to the check-in place that evening. This event is called "bag drag" in Antarctic lingo.

We left McMurdo on December 21, 2010 around 9.00 am. LC 130 was like a huge hippo with a belly full of cargo and a couple pf snow machines probably caterpillars. Our carry-on bags were strapped in the center and about 15 of us sat on the side seats. I was the only female in the group and I got a seat at a very end on one side, where it will be convenient for me to go to the back of the plane to use the ladies toilet if I want to. For men, there was a urinal at the other end with a big curtain around it.. :D Remember, it is mainly a military cargo plane..

It wasn’t really comfortable take off for me as everybody was sliding towards the tail end where I was sitting or rather falling off from the seat. The take off time was quiet longer as the plane takes off from the ice and thus needs a longer runway to comfortably get in the air. Once we were up, I changed my place to another empty spot and dozed off for a while. The bunny boots have a small valve for altitude pressure control of the air inside the boots. That air acts as a good insulator but needs to be controlled at different altitudes. So, we had to leave the valve open. It was so loud inside the plane that we had to use ear plugs. Slowly, everyone started moving around, taking pictures from the two small windows available on the plane. Some of us visited the cockpit as well. It was an incredible view from up there.. We crossed the trans-antarctic mountain ranges, some glaciers etc. and then we saw all white flat landscape. I got the worst seat while taking off and the best seat while landing back. I got to sit in the cockpit during the landing. It was just breathtaking experience. The Amundsen-Scott South Pole station getting bigger from a tiny little spot on horizon was one of the scenes I will never forget. The landing on the ice was pretty smooth. In fact, it was so smooth that we really didn’t realize when we were on ground.

Me in cockpit

When we landed, I locked the valves on my bunny boots, stepped outside and had a blast of cold, clean air hitting my lungs instantly. I had to be very slow while walking towards the station from the landing place. We had an orientation, lunch and then enough rest. The first 2-3 days are very crucial while acclimatizing to a high altitude place like the Pole. I saw the South Pole from the galley, our dining place but I was not ready to venture out in the cold right away. That was a wise decision and thus, I could go out the next day.

I will never forget this day because I had one of the most amazing flight experiences, I landed on the South Pole on a special day: Summer solstice of the southern hemisphere and winter solstice of the northern hemisphere. It was literally the biggest and longest day of my life. :D

December 19, 2010... McMurdo: Kiwi base and Discovery hut

Sunday was a lazy day for everyone else but I got up at 6 am to talk to my parents back home (India is 7:30 hours behind). After a good full brunch, we all scattered to do whatever we want. Some went to attend the Service at the church, I went out to the Kiwi base: Scott base about 3 miles from McMurdo.

In the afternoon, we went on a small tour to the Discovery hut near McMurdo station built by Robert Scott in 1902. His team was surviving on the last bits of 800 or so gallons of rum, 800 pounds of steak and some oatmeal, cocoa, seal meat they gathered here during their expedition.. When the help arrived, the members had to leave in a hurry, so you could see half cooked meat, half eaten cookies, an opened seal (the smell was atrocious).. Everything is preserved like it is and esp. in the cold weather down there, all food items are still like they were 100 + years back.

On our way back we saw some seals lying around..

December 18, 2010 ... Wrapping up work and some fun time

We met our mountaineer in the morning got all our work, food collection checked. The next task was to get the cargo properly packed ready to ship. We got each and every packet with its contents registered in the McMurdo Cargo system (We had 27 packets in our list!)

I attended a 2 hour communication class to know in detail about the VHF, HF and Iridium communications in Antarctica. These communication modes may get some interruptions. The GPS navigation system always works fine even in Antarctica with visibility of at least 10 satellites all the time.

The work was done and now was some time to relax. There was a "Women Soiree" that evening. It was a small charity function cum talent show arranged by women in McMurdo. We thoroughly enjoyed it..

December 16-17, 2010 ... Preparing our camping gears and Food Pullout

Even though we were extremely worn out due to the time intensive drills at the happy campers, we had to take care of a lot of things to prepare for our field camp further away from the South Pole.

So, we have two systems to be set up at the South Pole and we have another system to fix or pull out from a place which is quiet remote.. The site is about 650 km away from the South Pole and about 2000 ft higher (an altitude of 12000 ft). Some of us will stay and finish the work on the systems here at the pole and some of us will go to the remote site. A twin otter plane will drop us off around 27 th December. We first need to set up our own camp near the system at the remote place. Then work on the instrument, if required, pull it down and bring it back with us. Now, here is a catch. We will be ready to be picked up in 2-3 days. But, there is just one twin otter in this area and several such groups to be dropped off and picked up from various places. The weather plays the most crucial role in deciding the flights. So, in worst case, we can be there waiting for the plane and praying for the bad weather to calm down for about a week extra.

For the two days, we were simply trying to get all our cargo including all camping gears such as sleep kits, tents, shovels, kitchen box, survival bags, Gamow bag, toilet cans etc. at one place. We also had a food pull out where we took food for 4 people (including mountaineer) for four days and 7 days worth emergency food (dehydrated meals). Food included breakfast items such as cereals, instant oatmeals, lunch items such as energy bars, soups, trailmixes with loads of dry fruits and nuts, and dinners including rice or pasta and meat.. I might have to pass on steak etc... but we do have veggie soup options to go with rice.. Powdered energy drinks and hot cocoa was of course included.