DA's in action

This is just some of my staff. These folks work HARD! Right now we are at 16 including myself and another lead, Drew. When Mainbody arrives we will have another 19 DA's.

Gina and Rick. Gina is from WA and has lived in OZ. Rick is a Graphic Designer, a NYer, a cynic and an alpha male.


Monica, a PMer, an artist and licensed aesthetician. Yes, that's me behind her.


Tyler, a fellow Coloradan. I colored his hair blue and it's awesome. He's an avid marathon and cross-country runner.


Max, a Chicagoan, used to be on my morning crew, but now he is on PMs. he also hosts a weekly radio show with Sharon called Potato Radio. He knows a LOT about music and film.

Cooks, cooks, cooks

I finally have a few pictures of the people I work with! Starting with the cooks:

Linda, the PM sous chef. She is from Miami, has raised pigeons and is a total badass. She also has amazing bone structure that you can't really see from this picture.


This is my awesome roomate, Chris, helping out the bakers prepare for cookie Wednesday. Chris is a production cook and is always funny, all of the time.


Head Baker Nick and the winterover baker, Josie. Nick used to work at Olga's in RI - small world eh?


Josie and Ben, baking it up!


Leon, a production cook and comepltely insane.

auroras will change your life p2

this is a view from hut point looking up toward NASAs arrival heights. these are a beautiful green with indigo on the fringes.

auroras will change your life part 1

i grew up in aurora colorado, and the weather there was sometimes a little wierd. i remember as a kid laying on a blanket in the backyard with my mom so we could watch the funnel clouds and tornados. often the sky would turn green just before hail, and in the summer that meant a tornado was coming. too bad it wasn't an aurora australis!

McMurdo at night

this is a view of Mac Town at night from the top of the t-site. the lone pointed hill is observation (ob) hill; there is a large 8ft cross at the top that commemorates scott and his team. i climbed ob hill last week and that was some steep stuff! so steep that i decided to slide down instead of climb down.

little fluffy clouds (of doom)

the beauty of antarctica blows me away every day, even on the days i dont go outside and just view it from the galley or lounge windows. each time i look outside, see a video or experience something i get misty eyed.

sometimes i feel like i am living in heaven.



this is out at hut point, and you can see the roll cage mary in the background. she is an anarctican rendition of the virgin mary.

i work to support science

i work here to support science. remember that.

the video of this thing here is of a unmaned airborne vehicle (UAV) aerosonde. these vehicles fly around the Pegasus airfield and eventually make their way over the sea ice towards Terra Nova Bay (near to the italian station) taking digital photos of polynyas (high saline water pools on the ice) and other items of interest.

right now there is a contest on the station to name the two new UAVs. i submitted Tannatt William Edgeworth David because this year is the 100th anniversary of his trek to the south magnetic pole as an extended part of the Nimrod Expedition initially led by Shackelton and joined by Mawson. the older two UAVs are named Shackelton and Mawson...

for further information go to: http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1769

more southern beauty

yup, this place is beautiful.

we only have a few more weeks of sunrises, sunsets and darkness... about 2-3 in fact. so everytime someone tell us that there is a beautlful horizon or some nacreous clouds we all run outside to take pictures because we dont know if it will be the last opportunity we will have to see it.

the nacreous clouds or truly amazing. normally one could watch a cloud change shape over a few mintues, but here we can see them change colors. this one went from green to pink to silver.

i love it here and you ought to be jealous of me. truly. ;-)

a very confused state

so it turns out that hot water does freeze faster than cold water due to the mpemba effect. however, it is a highly complicated process that doesn't always work because it needs highly specific conditions. antarctica happens to have those...

a couple of days ago it got down to -120. we had heard that the polies (people that live at the south pole station) like to throw water into the air and watch it freeze instantly, and we wanted to try it. we did with both hot and cold water of varying temperatures with mixed results - of course it was all for fun and not for scientific purposes.

all i can tell you is that it is very bizzare watching liquid immediately turn into snow. of course, nothing about this continent is less than bizzare, and thats why i love it here.

me on a very loud plane.

here are a couple of pics of me on the C-17 flight from Christchurch, NZ to the Pegasus airfield in Antarctica. the first photo is right about when we boarded the plane and the second was when we were getting prepared to go outside. the dagger eyes are a tribute to my friend, Gizem, who is a crazy Turk. :-)

ok, its cold yo

one of the heavy shop buildings has installed their own weather vane. apparently it sits up pretty high and directly in the wind and they record colder tmeperatures than the weatherman here posts. last night the wind chill was -120 F. this morning it was -104 F. all i can say is that its cold. so cold that we got this email this morning:

All~
Over the last couple of days or so, several people have asked me questions along the lines of "How long will it take my ears to freeze when it's like this {frikkin' cold} outside?" The following chart (below) seems to sum it all up pretty reasonably. It came from http://www.theweathernetwork.com/glossary/windchill . Similar info is also available at non-commercial sites such as http://www.nws.noaa.gov/os/windchill/windchillglossary.shtml. The reference to exposed skin freezing in under 2 minutes ought to get some degree of attention since that's in the general vicinity of how long it takes to walk from 155 to the dorms, etc.


Wind Chill Range Rating Impact
~0 to Minus 9 Low Minor increase in discomfort

Minus 10 to -24 Moderate Uncomfortable
~Bared skin feels cold
~Danger of hypothermia if outdoors for extended periods

Minus 25 to -44 Cold Danger of skin freezing (frostbite)
~Remember that the average person's skin begins to freeze at a wind chill of -25
~Examine face, fingers, toes, ears and nose for numbness or whiteness
~Threat of hypothermia if outdoors for extended periods

Minus 45 to -59 Extreme Exposed skin may freeze in mere minutes
~Examine face, fingers, toes, ears and nose for numbness or whiteness
~Severe danger of hypothermia if outdoors for long periods
~Be prepared to end outdoor activities early or cancel them completely

Minus 60 or colder DANGER!
~HIGH RISK! Conditions outside are hazardous
~Skin left uncovered may freeze in under 2 minutes
~If possible stay indoors

other peoples antarctic photos

when we landed it was in condition 2 weather. this is my plane before we deplaned.



my friend Ned took some amazing pics. he is also the nicest and most positive person i have ever met. he rappels from helicopters to put out forest fires for his real job. here he is a jano (janitor).





a woman named Holly took a few pictures of the Royal Societies (Trans-Antarctic Mountians)



nacreous clouds

week 2

so going back a bit...Christchurch was pretty amazing.



seeing the southern alps in the distance reminded me of home which helped ease the stress of several long flights.



they have a little river there called avon and i really wanted to go punting, but i completely spaced it out. i will be doing it when i redeploy in feb/march. ill also do the lord of the rings tour, however dorky that may seem.



i live here now. it still amazes me every single day. this is the 'southern' tip of ross island, and island that is bigger than the last state i lived in (RI) and has upwards of 1,500 people and 500,000 penguins (no we do not eat them, nor will i likely see one).



tonight i will be visiting the kiwi base again, scott base, which is about 3.6 miles away if they lift condition 2*. they currently have 27 people on station and will max out at 350 during the summer. i went there last thursday for American night and had a blast. their gift shop hadnt be replenished, and kiwis are not as fat as Americans, so their sizes in clothing were small. im hoping to pick up some good swag while im there as well as kick some butt in darts. last week i beat my friend/employee kieffer in two games of cricket, and then on saturday at gallaghers (one of the McMurdo bars). although their station is small, its fairly new and pretty nice, plus they take credit cards and US money in the gift shop and at the bar. i love kiwis!

*the weather here has three conditions: condition 3 is normal antarctican weather (good visibility and low winds), condition 2 is pretty crappy (low visibility, pretty windy and -75 F to -99 F with the windchill and travel is restricted to only going from buildings within the station); condition 1 is horrible with almost no visibility, temps colder than -100 F and leaving any building is prohibited.