Windmills in Antarctica and Other Assorted Gadgets

Cindy & David, two electrical engineers enjoying the ice pressure ridges below the energy generating windmills above Scott Base. Marvels of earth and science.

Wind energy is now an important source of power for Scott Base.  Depending on conditions, wind now provides more than 10% of the energy needs of Scott Base.  When you are on the base, it is clear why wind is so useful.  It is rare that the wind is NOT blowing at least a little.  For more information and an up-to-date webcam, click HERE.

What surprised me perhaps even more was the history of wind energy in Antarctica.  The first use of windmills to produce electricity that I could find was Scott / Shackleton’s Discovery expedition, where a windmill provided electric lights aboard the ship.  (More details HERE.)  Both the Scott and Shackleton huts had electric wiring, and I was curious where the power would come from.  I haven’ t found confirmation of this yet, but it seems it must have come from wind energy as well.

David took this picture inside the Scott Terra Nova hut. We thought it was parts of an old weather station. But maybe? it is parts of the windmill that generated power for the hut?

I’d like to find out more information about the early electrical systems and other scientific explorations in the Scott and Shackleton voyages.  I’ll add information here as I find it.  Here is what I’ve found so far….

From the Shackleton Endurance Expedition:

James Reginald, physicist (from Cool Antarctica: http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/History/biography/james_reginald.htm)

“Gentle Jimmy” was the expedition’s magnetician and physicist. Macklin wrote that he had: “some wonderful electrical machines which none of us understood…and a joke of ours that annoyed him very much was that he did not either.”

From Shackleton’s Endurance Expedition — Gadgets, Gadgets, Everywhere!

“There are different views about when the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration came to an end. Shackleton’s Endurance expedition is sometimes referred to as the last Antarctic expedition of the Heroic Age. According to Margery and James Fisher, Shackleton’s biographers: “If it were possible to draw a distinct dividing line between what has been called the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration and the Mechanical Age, the Shackleton-Rowett expedition might make as good a point as any at which to draw such a line”.A journalist inspecting the ship before she sailed reported “Gadgets! Gadgets! Gadgets everywhere!”.These included wireless, an electrically heated crow’s nest and an “odograph” that could trace and record the ship’s route and speed.^“

Hurley the handiman

In this portrait – taken after the Endurance had sunk – Shackleton (1874-1922) gazes thoughtfully at the camera while Hurley skins a penguin, next to a stove which he probably made himself. Hurley was an extremely efficient handyman as well as an accomplished photographer, and many of the electrical and practical devices on which the men relied for their comfort were manufactured by him. — From the Royal Collection

When I first saw this photo at the ‘Heart of the Great Alone’ exhibit in Christchurch, it reminded me so much of David.  Over the course of the past couple of weeks, David had changed from a student into an engineer.  I loved watching that metamorphosis in how he approached challenges and problems, working alongside of him as we both puzzled over the science challenges at hand.  This was a very cool part of the trip for me.

Post script:

Wow.  Climate change may apply to wind power.  Seems like the global wind is decreasing, thus decreasing the effectiveness of wind power just when we need it most …  CLICK HERE

What was it like at camp K131?

Antarctic Camp K131

We were camped out in a ‘remote’ base camp about 20-30 km from Scott Base run by Dr. Tim Haskell.  It was definitely remote in the sense that it was a self-sufficient camp sufficiently detached from the main base that we could not easily go back and forth.  The wanagins (a name originating in Maine for a hut on skids) we lived and worked in were metal insulated shipping containers welded or bolted onto large skids.

Airing out the sleeping bags on a sunny day.

Before we came they had been towed out from Scott Base by large tractors, and they were towed back in after we left.  One wanagin held the large generator (and tried in vain to hold its thrumming noise in as well).  Another was for storage and spare parts.  Another was for a cold room (a freezer!) for Dr. Pat Langhorn’s crystallography.  A fourth was the kitchen, with large glass doors looking out on a magnificent view of Mount Erebus, the nearly 13000 foot active volcano that most often spouted fumes to remind us of that fact.

Mount Erebus

Tim Haskell is known for his choice of views for his camps.  The kitchen had a small electric stove/oven, a couple of counter/tables, a coffee pot, a perpetual tea/hot water pot, and enough folding camp stools for all or most of us.  Dishes were done by heating water in a second coffee pot and catching the washings in a 5 gallon bucket to later be filtered and poured down the ice holes.  Everyone took turns cooking, washing, fetching snow for water, etc.

Malcolm, Cindy, Ken (on the left) and Sean on the right enjoy a good technical conversation over dinner.

Everyone helps around here. David is doing the dishes today. Thank you, David!

The food miracle of each day was a huge loaf of fresh bread that Tim cooked in a bread maker in his wanagin.  Waking up to fresh bread and brewed coffee in an Antarctic camp has got to be one of the true joys of life.

Tim always made fresh bread for breakfast in a breadmaker in his wanagin. This was such a delicious treat! On a good day there might be enough left for lunch with cheese and sausages.

The evening meals were fabulous research collaborations, plus a ‘quorum’ that justified sharing of chocolate and occasionally wine.  We had one wanagin as a lab, with a bench along one wall, lights, and outlets (New Zealand style … the first thing we did was blow the main breaker in camp testing to see if one of our questionable plug strips would do the job … nope, better stick with the heavier duty ones.).

Uh oh! Within 5 minutes, we had tripped the circuit breakers for the entire camp and let the magic smoke out of this plug strip! Guess you knew the electrical engineers had moved in! (Yes, we knew we might blow the breakers, we just had to try it anyway. New Zealand power is 240 V, and US is 110 V. The US plug strip had some electronics inside that couldn't withstand the 240 V, and poof! David is loving that ozone smell...

The four of us shared a second bunk wanagin for sleeping, and divided the space into ‘girls’ and ‘boys’ with a tarp.  The 9 other researchers in camp had a collection of lab and sleeping wanagins, and some slept in Arctic tents (in part for fun, and also for a little more privacy than the packed quarters most of us shared).

Joyce peeking out of her bunk. Each bunk had curtains to darken our sleeping space and for privacy.

Electricity was supplied by a large diesel-powered generator.  It was used to heat the lab and sleeping wanagins, running our coring drill, recharging the batteries of all of the other equipment, cooking, etc.  Food boxes were delivered from Scott Base periodically during our stay, mostly dehydrated foods, with a little frozen meat and veggies, chocolate, canned or dried fruit, pasta/rice/couscous.  Cooking for one would have been pretty simple, but cooking for 13 was a little peculiar, as we mixed and matched various combinations of foods to try to come up with ‘what’s for dinner.’  Strange as the combinations might have been, it all tasted good, no doubt because hunger is the best sauce for any food.  Water for cooking or dish washing was slightly salty and came from melted snow.  Water to drink was hauled from Scott Base.  There was no other water (no showers or wash water).  We kept pseudo-clean using wet wipes and dry shampoo.  The toilet was a bucket in a small outhouse and holes drilled in the sea ice.  When you walked just a hundred yards or so from camp, it produced the most beautiful silence, perhaps even an eerie silence, except for the wind.  I am used to backpacking in Utah, where frankly, it is rarely silent as the multitude of birds, bugs, and animals keep your ear drums vibrating.  So in these respects, this camp was remote.

In other respects, our camp was not so remote. It was right on the ‘main drag’, so we often looked up to see some fantastical Antarctic vehicle buzzing along in the distance.  A collection of treaded vehicles (Pisten Bully’s and Hagglunds, for example) as well as big-wheeled conveyances are shown on our photo blog.  We were about an hour’s drive from Scott Base, and in direct line of the airport.  We watched the daily C17 flights whose flight path was within easy sight of our camp.  In addition, we were in constant radio contact with Scott Base, providing an emergency lifeline for everyone’s safety.

The coolest part about K131 was the collegiality, the FUN, the play, the belly-bending laughter, the true enjoyment of spending time with science, scientists, and science challenges.

There was a lot of laughing and horsing around in addition to serious science in our camp.

Our friends at K131!

For more photos, check out:  http://picasaweb.google.com/ccfurse

 

Teachers at the Pole

Are you a teacher who might like to go to the Pole?  Check out this ‘cool’ opportunity:  http://www.polartrec.com/polar-connect

And here is a cool project for your class … preserving snow flakes with microscope slides and superglue.

http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/preserve/preserve.htm

Dichotomy

One  of the things that struck me most about Antarctica, and that still walks with me, is the strong sense of dichotomy of this experience.  We left Salt Lake City in the midst of a snowstorm.  This is what my house looked like at the time.

Home: Snowing. Cold. Blowing.

The snow was cold  and slick carrying my suitcase out to the car, so I wore my winter Sorel boots to the airport, and my big winter coat.  But I knew we were headed to New Zealand, where it had been 70 degrees that day!  And Antarctic New Zealand was going to be issuing us multiple pairs of boots.  So to minimize my luggage (ha ha!  traveling with electronics requires some biceps for sure!) I left my boots and coat in the car and wore my favorite sandals on the trip to New Zealand.  This turned out to be an extremely comfortable arrangement.

Dichotomy: Traveling boots and sandals

We rode one plane after another, like a time and space machine, carrying us to a totally different world.  And indeed, it was.  As we flew into Aukland and then Christchurch, New Zealand, it was a tropical paradise!  Lush, brilliantly green farms stretched out below is, edged by beachs and PALM TREES?!

Christchurch, New Zealand: Brilliantly green, beautiful!

The next morning, we went to Antarctic New Zealand (wearing my sandals) and were issued our cold weather gear — about 40 pounds of it!  This was SOOO weird, so unreal.  We had left snow, arrived in a tropical paradise, and were headed out to a frozen world we had never seen before.  The airplane was definitely a space travel machine, and we could have been on a different planet as far as I could tell.  We suited up in our Antarctic gear and hung out by the palm trees and the pool, just because it was so strange, indeed!

Extreme Cold Weather Gear and Palm Trees.

PALM trees????!

Wow.

The next morning, we put on our cold weather gear, sweltering and sweating in the lovely New Zealand weather.  And we boarded our next space travel machine with several other scientists — headed for Antarctica, a frozen world that for me had just been pictures.

Flying in over Antarctica, we first saw sea ice, floating as huge chunks.

And then the frozen world that would be our home for the next few weeks.

Antarctica -- Volcanic mountains overlaid with ice, sometimes as much as 5 miles thick.

Antarctica is a place of stark BLACK and WHITE — Black volcanic rock and white ice or snow — a place of contrasts.

Fire rock turned to sand.

Snow Toes

Even the animals are black and white.

We worked under the watch of Mount Erebus, an active volcano that last erupted in 2008 and is now enshrouded with thick, frozen ice.

Mount Erebus, frozen volcano billowing plumes of smoke.

For me, this was the ultimate ‘Fire and Ice’ experience.

And then, more dichotomy, we turned it all around again. When we returned to New Zealand, we took a train to Arthur’s Pass and hiked to the most beautiful waterfall.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

This trip was an experience in Black and White, Fire and Ice, Tropical and Antarctic, the ultimate dichotomies.  It was Stimulating and Exhilarating!  And a little bit confusing.

Thank Yous!

This blog is particularly important, because there were a whole lot more people behind the scenes for this trip that there were on the front line ….

THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!  to the following wonderful folks ..

Thank you to our Electrical Engineering Research Team:

Erik Gamez  and Jake Hansen who, along with David Lubbers, helped figure out what equipment we should take for the electrical testing and developed the electrical connection methods we took with us.  This is their senior design project, and they will all be graduating this spring.

Thank you to our Mathematics Research Team:

Adam Gully, Christian Sampson, Ben Murphy,  and Jingyi Zhu who helped develop the mathematical models that will be used to better understand the data.  These graduate students have done a fantastic job in all regards.  We also appreciated Adam’s thoughts about the ways we needed to be prepared, based on his previous trip to Antarctica, and the wonderful core holders he built.  Dr. Elena Cherkaev, also a mathematics professor, is helping to develop inverse models to utilize this data and better understand the implications of the science.

Thank you to Della Rae Riker, Administrative Assistant in the math department, who did EVERYTHING in her power to get us to Antarctica, with our stuff, with all of our stuff, with ALL of our stuff.  She was the organization behind the expedition.

Thank you to Antarctic New Zealand, who provided the most fantastic support for this mission.  Paul Woodgate, in particular, provided excellent help and information.  ANZ suited us up professionally and well, and provided excellent support for our field camp.

Thank you to Dr. Tim Haskell, who ran the K131 field camp.  Tim did everything from requesting spare parts and chain saws to keeping the generator running (a huge effort in and of itself), the yellow buckets emptied, and keeping  all of us safe, secure, and effective.  In addition to the daily efforts, and the special efforts required at times, Tim was an incredible source of information and science. A HUGE thank you to Tim!

Thank you to the wonderful staff and support at Scott Base, Antarctica.  What an amazing crew, capable of ushering us naive novices and all of our stuff safely and efficiently through a rather complex field expedition.  Thank you for the friendly, family-style support and care!  We really felt looked after and safe under your watch.

Thank you to our collaborators, Dr. Malcolm Ingham and Dr. Pat Langhorne, in particular, and their students, Sean Buchanan and Stefan.  Malcolm instigated and facilitated our trip to K131, and both he and Pat provided much technical insight and discussion.   Pat also provided all of the exquisite sea ice crystalography you see in our work.  Thank you for opening up this beautiful view of the sea ice to us.  We look forward to continued collaboration and sharing of data as ideas progress.

Thank you to the National Science Foundation who supported this work financially.

Arctic Natural Sciences and Division of Mathematical Sciences (administered through ARC):  NSF Grant ARC-0934721   (Collaborations in Mathematical Geosciences, this is the main grant supporting the measurement project.)

Division of Mathematical Sciences: NSF Grant DMS-0940249   (Mathematics and Climate Change Research Network, also supporting Ken Golden’s sea ice work and the expedition)

NSF Grant DMS-0602219   (Math Dept. VIGRE, supporting Joyce Lin and Math undergraduates doing ‘Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU))

The NSF is a key supporter of scientific discovery and development in the US, and we are extremely grateful for their support of this endeavor.

Thank you to the University of Utah, for providing a research environment that allowed us to generate the ideas and concepts that got us here in the first place.  We value the continued support for our labs, our students and our research.  And, knowing that we now have some pretty huge crates headed our direction, we thank whomever finds us the space we need to prepare for the next leg of our research expedition — an upcoming Arctic trip to compare the ice on the other side of the earth.

And finally, we thank our families, who did without us for a month and welcomed us back with warm homes, lots of fresh veggies, and (in the case of our four legged family), wagging tails!  We missed them, and talked about them, and know that they gave up much so we could go on this expedition.

And finally finally finally (this is Cindy speaking), I want to thank the other members of our Antarctic team — Dr. Ken Golden, Dr. Joyce Lin, and David Lubbers — for some of the best belly laughs I’ve had  in a very long time!  and all the while, working like wild things until the wee bright hours of the midnight sun on this exciting and engaging research project.  Thanks for making it happen!

Ice Pressure Ridges and Seals

When ice freezes, it expands, and when it freezes across the ocean, it expands too.  The expanding ice has to go somewhere, so it basically ripples and folds into pressure ridges near the land, in this case in front of Scott Base.  This creates a magnificent wonderland of ice that is a photographer’s dream!  It also makes spaces for seals to come up out of the water to sun their giant bodies.

To see photos and videos of our trip through the pressure ridges, and a couple  of our favorite seals, click HERE.

Fun with photos!

Let an Undergrad help !

A comfortable seal enjoying the sun.

To see photos and videos of our trip through the pressure ridges, and a couple  of our favorite seals, click HERE.

Penguins

Penguin parents at Cape Royds

Penguins!  One of the most comical, enjoyable birds to watch, make their wild home in Antarctica.  We thoroughly enjoyed being able to see the Adele penguin rookery at Cape Royds, thanks to Antarctic New Zealand’s ‘fam’ (familiarization) trip.  What a wonderful gift!  The penguins are just as comical, entertaining, and delightful as you have probably all seen on TV.  My three most significant observations.  (1) (you can’t miss this)  Penguins stink. They do not sort of smell funny. They stink.  I guess it is years of pooping in the same place and no rain to wash it away.  Phew!  (2)  A rookery of penguins sound like they are GIGGLING! It is the most delightful, pleasant, happy sound.  Listen to some of our videos to hear them in action.  And (3) Penguins make their nests of love stones, or so I have heard them called, on bare frozen ground.  There is generally a central nest, the most popular gal on the block I guess, surrounded by several of her girl friends in a circle.  It is definitely a ‘gaggle of giggly girls’ =)

High on the cliffs above the rookery, we could watch and enjoy these awesome, engaging birds.

To see more pictures and videos of our penguins, and the skuas that feast on them, click HERE.

A Kiwi Farewell

The C17 we rode home in. Wow! That is one BIG plane!

For more photos and videos of our C17 ride, click HERE.

We left Antarctica today.   Our flight left at 2:40 in the afternoon (that is 14:40 at Scott Base).  After a lovely breakfast of fresh bread thanks to Scott Base’s incredible chef, and a nice salad/sandwich lunch, we gathered our remaining bags, and suited up in our ECW (Extreme Cold Weather) gear for the last time.  As I pulled on my most familiar black overalls, and felt the weight of their straps over my shoulders one last time, I thought of the comfort of the small pocket where I have carried by Blistex sunscreen all of these many days, the mechanical pencils that froze up in the snow, and the cameras cuddled in the coverall pocket to keep them from freezing up in the blowing snow.  As I laced up my huge boots, I thought of the snowy ice where we had walked, the cracks we had stepped over, and the dusty volcanic trail I walked last night to the top of the mountain above Scott Base.  As I pulled on my ECW parka, the fluffy fur so soft against my cheek, I remember the tremendous comfort of tucking my chin and cheeks into its gentle space, escaping the raucous wind rasping crystals of ice across my face.  As I put my sunglasses on the top of my head, I remember the beautiful see-forever Antarctic sun that never goes down (this time of year).  And when I tucked my worn black windproof gloves into my pocket, I think of the excitement and thrill of creating a method for measuring ice that wasn’t here before, of the trials and the re-trials, and the challenges and the sheer Cheshire-cat joy when success finally peeks over the research horizon. I am glad I can take these gloves home with me, because they have touched more of Antarctica than I have.’

Our happy team is headed home! Antarctica was actually a very difficult place to LEAVE. We loved our camp K131. We loved Scott Base. We were excited to go home, but it was also difficult to leave.

We had washed up our own breakfast dishes in the water efficient washing system, and taken them from the washer to the pile where they will be used for the next meal.  We had stripped all of the sheets off our beds, preparing them for the young women who care for us all at Scott Base, putting them by the washer so the bunk rooms we had cozied up in were readied for another small troupe of incoming scientists, artists, visitors, journalists, and more.  In the morning, someone was running the vacuum and mopping up the floors.  Everyone helps here.  We, the ‘visitors’ help.  The CEO helps.  The staff at Scott Base bend over backwards to help you in every way they can.  (If you are 15 minutes late checking in from an outing, Gideon will get a page, and their search will be on …. Remember to check in, that is for sure!)

Russell the Ram donning his Antarctic gear for the last time ... riding home on the C17.

As we leave, the staff collect by the door, distributing hugs, well wishes, hand shakes, and cheerful banter.  The lead officer of the base is the last one we shake hands with as we go out the refrigerator-style door and down the metal steps to the crunchy ice that is a little lower than when we first came.  We board a red windowed van with extra high suspension and extra large tires.  Our driver, it turns out, has lived in Sugarhouse, very near the University.  He has a Texas accent, that is his home state. Everyone waves as we leave, and we wave back.  Our friend, Greg, is video taping our exit, and Tim stands beside him, both in front of the green wanigans that have been our home.  We wave happily at them as we go by.

We drive up the hill, overlooking the pressure ridges where we walked in a winter wonderland and saw two large seals just yesterday.  We can see the extra ridges as the ice presses against the shore in cold expansion.  We pass the antennas at the top of Crater Hill, antennas that David and I now know more about, thanks to a generous tutorial from Tony the radio engineer.  We enter McMurdo base, which is run by the Americans.  Scott Base is run by Antarctic New Zealand.  The close proximity of these two bases (they share many critical support systems, an ice air field and flights, and even a few TV channels) was chosen to enable the excellent collaboration we have experienced between the American and New Zealand teams.  We enter a metal building, where we are checked off to be sure we are the right folks going the right place (good thing, no flights going anywhere else today!), and we board ‘Ivan the Terra Bus’, a huge bus hoisted off the ground on huge struts with tires whose huge treads leave tracks nearly 4 feet wide.   Many other American scientists join us as well.  They are dressed in red, the assigned clothing for the American system.  The Kiwi (New Zealanders fondly call themselves Kiwis) clothes we have been wearing are orange and black.

We drive through the streets of McMurdo on our way to the airfield.  McMurdo is many separate buildings, most of them brown metal, that hold bunks, garages, laboratories, and even a store.  It seems like a small town compared to the smaller Scott Base (where all of the buildings are linked together by hallways so you can reach every place on base without re-tying your ECW boots!).  There are several  yard areas with wooden packing crates, a small wooden building where someone has added green wooden cactus, and people wave at us as we pass.  How can anyone resist waving at Ivan the Terra Bus!  Others have told us that McMurdo is different than Scott Base, but they haven’t quite described it in the way that we now feel it.  McMurdo feels kind of like an Old Western Town, and I almost expect an outlaw to jump out with six shooters!  It is a military base, used for science.  Perhaps it feels that way because we have not lived here and made it our quiet home.  The other scientists joining our plane from McMurdo seem to have developed the same family that we have on the ice.  Ice can bond things together.  Things like people.

Scott Base is quiet, so quiet and peaceful.  The sleeping rooms are separated from the work areas, and they are kept darkened round the clock.  They are the ONLY dark places in Antarctica right now, I think!  When you enter or exit your room and the main door, you close the door very quietly, gently folding back the door knob so that the click is quiet as can be.  Someone is likely to be sleeping there, having worked a long night.  With so many people, strangers by definition but friends by purpose, living in such close quarters, having a calm and respectful living place helps bring us all together because we are not irritating each other apart.  And somehow this quiet respect extends beyond the metal walls and insulation of the warm and cozy Scott Base.  It extends to how everyone here treats the only continent in the world that we have not messed up.

'Door art' was not uncommon in Scott Base. This is the room that Joyce and Cindy shared, duly decorated by David.

We move out onto the ice, driving bouncily towards the huge US AirForce C-17 awaiting us on the ice.  It is HUGE!!!!!!  Its big belly is going to take us and our equipment and gear, and all of the other scientists and their equipment and gear and even a few artists and musicians and THEIR equipment and gear back to Christ Church New Zealand.  (Last night Dave Dobbyn, a favorite Kiwi singer, entertained us with his guitar at Scott Base.)  There are no boarding passes, the security check is just asking everyone to remove the sharp things from their bags, and no beeping scanner for tickets (just a pleasant young man checking our names off on a clipboard).  We walk across the ice in our ECW boots, wave at Ken who has the video camera, and walk up the stairs into the huge aircraft.  The guts of the tremendous aircraft are wide open!  We can see the air vents for the engines, the wiring as it courses down the ceiling of the plane.  Everything is open visible metal, and it really is cool!   There are no windows except a few portholes that are not next to anyone’s seats.  David, Joyce, Ken and I have pull down seats on the side of the plane facing into the center.  It is more leg space than we have ever had on a commercial flight!

We drive a long distance to the runway, and we imagine we know where we are going because of where we were when we came in.  The plane turns, facing into the wind, winds up its 4 huge whirring engines, and races down the ice runway we imagine beneath its huge wheels.  We are airborne in a large leap, and our ears pop and whistle.  The plane is noisy.  There is nothing to absorb the sound of the engines and the air rushing by as the plane tears through the atmosphere high above the ice-filled ocean.  We were just down there measuring that ice and looking up in amazement at the planes (even this very plane!) just a couple of days ago.

On the plane, I take out my lunch bag, carefully packed at Scott Base by the chef and a helper or two, all people we now know, and enjoy.  There is a nice homemade sandwich on thick slices of home baked bread, an oaty bar (!!!! We ate BOXES of oaty bars in our camp, and it makes me remember the red zippered food boxes and how excited we all got to rummage through them for our favorite discovered treats.) , an apple (FRESH fruit, such a luxury flown into a frozen continent) and two nice homemade cookies wrapped in saran wrap.  I have the overwhelming sense that this was a lunch made with love.  I feel embraced again, as I have felt so many times already in the icy volcanic Antarctica.  I have the sense that I am leaving more than a place.  I am leaving an entire continent.   Drilling, measuring, sleeping on, resting and playing and working and thinking on her frozen ocean ice, I feel like she has become home very very quickly.

Part way into the flight, it is warm, and everyone starts to doff their ECW gear. First the big boots, laces now tied neatly together beneath my seat.  Next the outer jacket I am sitting on to pad my seat.  Then the overalls, the weight easing off my shoulders.  Finally on with the tennis shoes.  I have even taken my socks off, and it feels so good!  We know that in a few hours we will be back in New Zealand, which felt totally tropical when we were last there.  Paul Woodward (Woody) will pick us up at the airfield and help get us to our local hotel.

Thank you, Kiwi Antarctica, for such a warm welcome and a warm farewell!

We are on our way home.

For more photos and videos of our C17 ride, click HERE.

Edmund Hillary had Moxie

Moxie is a cola-like beverage from my home state of Maine.  It stands for all of the wild, gutsy things people with moxie do!  It’s a pretty macho drink, and mostly it is guys who like it.  My dad said it would put hair on your chest, and I believe that is true.

Sir Edmund Hillary had Moxie when he started Scott Base and moved into Antarctica as if humans could live and work there in relative comfort and safety.  An experienced and well organized mountaineer, Hillary was the right man for the job.  It was fun to tour the start of Scott Base, Hillary’s Hut, now ensconced for preservation in the Kiwi green.  This old base now serves as the emergency ‘last resort’ in the event Scott Base suffers a fire.

The little building on the left houses the orignal Scott Base hut.

This is one of Edmund Hillary's original ice axes. He is happily driving his favorite tractor, forever remembered in the Scott Base sun room.

For more pictures of the Hillary Hut, click HERE.

For more pictures of Scott Base today, click HERE.

The board game of Polar Exploration, in Hillary's hut. How cool is that?!

Frozen in Time: Scott and Shackleton

Wind Vane Hill at Scotts Terra Nova Hut

One of the most significant experiences of our trip to Antarctica was visiting the Shackleton ‘Nimrod’ hut at Cape Royds and the Scott ‘Terra Nova’ hut at Cape Evans.  These two famous explorers braved the then-uncharted Antarctic in the very same places that we were living and working.  Visiting their huts was an amazing experience of being ‘frozen in time’, as if the guys would be coming home for dinner at any moment.  Except, in the case of Scott, we knew that would never be true.  The ghost of Scott haunted me, and I still cannot understand the reasoning behind the passion that drove him to lead his men ‘into the great white alone’.

There is much available on the internet that you can read about the adventures and misadventures of these brave explorers:

Ernest Shackleton

The Nimrod Expedition

Robert Falcon Scott

The Terra Nova expedition

Ernest Shackleton

Captain Robert Falcon Scott

Shackleton’s Nimrod Hut

Ernest Shackleton's 'Nimrod' hut. Everything was literally 'frozen in time' as they left it

The Nimrod hut is being restored. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4185851.stm

The kitchen in the Nimrod hut was well-appointed with a wide variety of foods and a cozy cook stove.

Many of the crates that make up this bedroom 'set' were stamped with the expedition name, much like our equipment was stamped with K131.

Darned wool socks ... Just like them, we had to get out our sewing kit several times while we were there to make repairs and alterations to our gear.

Mr. Joyce in the Shackleton party was the dog handler. Not sure what local joke led to this original graffiti. For our team, who were constantly joking and joshing and laughing together, it seemed pretty clear that the Shackleton crew were also playing and laughing together. Not also the upside down writing on the lower box that advertises the Antarctic Nimrod expedition.

Boxes and crates were left stacked in the snow around the hut, still filled with provisions for the shore party.

An axe, some straw (probably for packing), a rusted metal box, and some white frozen blubber dot the rocks near the Shackleton hut. My guess? I think they were using the axe to hack away at the frozen blubber from a recent or not so recent catch, when they left it in the snow and lost it or left before using it again. The place seemed eerily as if Shackleton and his men had just gone out for the afternoon and would soon be back for supper.

For more pictures, click HERE.

Scott’s Terra Nova Hut

Wind Vane Hill at Scotts Terra Nova Hut

Scott's Terra Nova Hut

Another well appointed kitchen at Scott Hut.

Parts of an old weather station.

Yum, yum, yum!

Pony horse shoes! The ponies were used to haul the sledges, but they didn't work out all that well. They slipped on the ice, their feet sank into the soft snow, they kicked their handlers, and they fell into crevasses.

The laboratory. Scott's expeditions were scientific explorations in addition to gaining fame for himself and the British empire.

The VERY BAD DAY anchor from Shackleton's misadventure with the Aurora, that floated away. Read more about it here http://www.jamescairdsociety.com/shackleton-news.php?id=103858

For more pictures, click HERE.

When we returned to Christchurch, there was a fantastic exhibit — Into the Great Alone — at the historical museum.  They had 85 original photographs of the expeditions, plus the black and white ‘silent movie’ that was based on those photographs and original movie footage taken on the expeditions.  Watching Shackleton’s great ship, the Endurance, crushed to bits by the ice … Watching Scott’s men, at first singing and dancing and playing with the dogs and ponies, then strongly shouldering into the sledges as the trekked optimistically towards the elusive South Pole, later exploring Admunsen’s tent, the crushing blow that they had been beaten, all the while knowing that these men never returned to the wives and children they wrote of in their diaries… After seeing these photos and video, much of it in places we had just been living and working, places we now recognized, places that felt a sense of belonging … this was very humbling, haunting, thought and emotion provoking.  The world is a very, very, very big place.  Less than a hundred years ago, this place that we had just been, cocooned in a safety net of radio links and emergency support equipment, had been truly wild and free and rough and lonely, a place that tempted and teased adventurous men to risk everything to be the first to reach the bottom of our huge, wonderous earth.  This was a haunting experience for me, one that has rattled my cocoon a bit, one that has made me think and explore … What would be worth risking my life for?  What would I defend, want, do, desire so much that I would knowingly risk all that I have and all that I am and all that I ever will be for that one passion?  What is my life worth, and what can I do with it?  What do I most want to do with this one precious life I have been given?  When I tell my friends and family that this trip changed my life in ways I hadn’t anticipated, this is one of them.  I returned with a strong sense that life is worth a great deal because of what you can do with it.  I have always set out to make a difference in the world, and the haunting touch with these early explorers reminds me yet again in a way that touches me deeply that my life is here and now the only way I will ever have to make a positive difference in the other lives around me and the world in which they live.   That is the passion for which I can, will, and do risk the precious clock-ticking hours of my time.  Captain Scott wrote with brave and nakedly sincere words in the frozen days he knowingly awaited death in an icy tent with the wind howling to carry him away.  Those words will touch anyone who reads them, all in different ways.  Thank you to Captain Scott for reminding me again that a good life has a great passion, and reinvigorating mine.

Find out More about Antarctic Conservation of these historic sites HERE.