Two Huts

When the Robert Falcon Scott expedition sailed in the Terra Nova back into McMurdo Sound in 1910, they brought pre-fabricated wooden structures, intending to build a significantly larger hut than they had built at Hut Point in 1902.    This time they elected to build at Cape Evans, 20 Kilometers (14.4 miles) north of the first landing, to avoid having their ship frozen into the sea ice as it was during in the first expedition.  

Today, I was allowed into the Discovery Hut, near McMurdo Station, and last week I took a trip over the ice to Cape Evans to see the second hut which is named The Scott Hut.  I’ll tell you about today’s experience first to keep with the chronology of the story and to save the better trip for last.

The Discovery Hut was occupied, off and on, until at least 1917, but some of the artifacts are remaining from the 1902 to 1904 expedition.  On a number of occasions it has been buried in ice and snow and uncovered again.  New Zealanders, over the years have made efforts to preserve the hut, while disturbing the artifacts in and around the hut as little as possible.  The same story is basically true for the Scott Hut at Cape Evans.  While it is obvious to the visitor that there is some decay in the animals, furniture, and canned goods, etc., it is still remarkable how well they are preserved, especially at the Scott Hut.

Here are some pictures of the smaller Discovery Hut:

A Monument

A Seal, Presumably Meant For Food

Blubber

A Stove

Articles of Clothing

Skinned Animals

The Outside, Sanded Smooth by the Weather

The Scott Hut at Cape Evans is even more remarkable:

Animal Stalls

Penguins for Research

A Dog Still Chained to its Bed

Adequate Stores

Note the Heinz Catchup

Lots of Lab Equipment



A Penguin Ready to be Dissected

 If I keep going, you won't be able to download it all.  Maybe I'll make a slide show.

The Observation Tube

I’m getting a back-log of things I want to share with you, but I’ll never be able to share it all anyway.  Let’s start with today, and then maybe I can catch up on some things later.  Today (Sunday) was the second day of our Thanksgiving holiday.  Chapel was well attended today, and that in itself was to enough to make it a good day.  The weather today was very pleasant.  I know the thermometer said 18 and the wind chill felt like zero, but early in the afternoon, the wind was calm and the sun shone warm while   three friends and I went on a little site seeing tour.

First let me tell about the tube.  Scientists have dive huts at several places on the ice, so that divers can monitor the sea life in McMurdo Sound.  Near one of them, they installed an observation tube that allows a person to sit inside a glass chamber to observe the sea under the ice.  Just enough light comes through the four or five feet of ice to allow viewing of fish, and seals and whatever else might wander by.  When the scientists aren’t using it, ordinary people like us get to go down and see for ourselves—so we did.

The first challenge is climbing down a very narrow, twenty foot tube that barely accommodates a full grown man.  Once down in the chamber, it is fairly cozy and comfortable.  As my eyes adjust to the dark, I begin to see a mass of silvery little fish swimming everywhere.  Behind me, I can see the steep bank dropping off into the sea. 

My Friend, Father Kevin, and Me

Gotta Strip Down a Little to Fit

Then the challenge is to get back up into that narrow tube, since my legs don’t bend in the right places to be able to get my feet back on the ladder.  But with a few chin-up maneuvers, I manage to get back up the long tube to the top again.  My friends say, “Did you see the seal?” “No, what seal?”  “The one that popped up into that abandoned dive hole.”  The dive hut had been moved, leaving an open hole that the seal used as a breathing hole.  The seal must have been too black for me to notice in the dark water.  It did come back though, and I was able to get some pictures, as you can see.

Looking North Toward Cape Evens

Looking South West

I've Been Skua'd

I think I told you about the Skua bird.  It is one of the rare non-human life forms here. They are aggressive scavengers.  Just like the seals and the penquins, they have no fear of humans.  They seem to know that it's against the law here to intimidate them, let alone harm them.  Like Yellowstone Park, beasts have the right-of-way here.  Every newcomer here is warned about being careful when carrying food from the galley across to a dormatory.  Skuas, they say, will dive bomb you, startle you, or even peck at you if they think they can steal your food.  So, if anything is abandoned here for lack of luggage space (which is very common), then whatever is abandoned is called "skua," and is available for anyone to claim and use.  If anything is stolen, or missing, you say, "I've been skua'd!"



They look small here, but they're at least size of a small duck.



No Kidding!

Well, I've always suspected that being "skua'd" was largely a camp legend, since I had never seen it happen.  But while I was staying away from the the general population with my case of the "crud," I asked my partner, the good Father Kevin, to dish up a plate for me so I could carry it across to the dorm.  Well you know what happened--I was skua'd!  I had my parka hood partially up, but I noticed something very large coming down at my head from the right side.  I looked up to see these enormous wings flapping right above my head, and a big set of tallons reaching down for my food.  I knew right away what it was, and decided I wasn't going down without a fight.  If challeged by the law, I would claim self-defense.  As quick as I could, I pulled the tray down to my left, and was trying to figure out if I could hold it with the left hand and put my right fist into that birds chest.  But, before I could do that, the skua swooped on down to the ground and walked casually away as if no crime had been committed.  Fortunately I escaped with my food, and no charges were filed; but the skua got away scott-free.

We Are Thankful

Well, I survived the “camp crud,” and for the first time in three days, I feel alive and energized.  For that, I am thankful.  Today was Thanksgiving—at least here at McMurdo.  The normal work week here is Monday through Saturday, but a day off is given on Saturday for major holidays, such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day.  So, today, (Saturday here and Friday in the U.S.) was Thanksgiving.  The two major events of the day were, the Turkey Trot (5K run) at 10:00 AM, and a turkey dinner at 5:00 and again at 7:00 PM.

When people ask me what it is like to live here, I usually describe it as an outpost; almost like being on another planet.  Today, as the Turkey Trot runners were forming at the chapel, it made me think of the 4077^th M.A.S.H, for the zany way that people dress and express themselves.  I’m happy to say that I’ve never seen anything that I thought was out of line, but you know what they say about all work and no play.  So, things get creative at times.  It reminds me a lot of Bible Camp, too.  The turkey trot is usually run on the sea ice, but this year it was run over the peninsula toward Scott base and back.  There are four kinds of surface in Ross Island: snow, ice, vocanic gravel, and volcanic bolders.  Due to a relative lack of snow, the sea ice was deemed…well…too icy. 

The dinner was well worth the long cues (Am I starting to sound like a Kiwi?). Wine is allowed in the Galley for special occasions, and most took advantage of that.  Some even dressed in nice clothes—suits, ties, and dresses—a very rare sight in these parts.  Not only were there turkey and crab leg, and cranberry, but even better—lots of “freshies.” “Freshies,” is used to describe fresh fruits and vegetables and salad greens—things that are non-existent in winter and somewhat rare in the summer.  Bananas are usually doled out, one per customer.  When I say salad greens, that doesn’t mean you should expect to see real lettuce.  But this meal was worthy of the term, “feast,” and was well appreciated.  The kitchen staff got a standing ovation.  At the chapel, we’ll offer special thanks during the normal worship time tomorrow, at both Catholic and Protestant services.

The Camp Crud

You can't have over 1,000 people serving out of the same dishes, without having occasional outbreaks of the "crud," even with a huge emphasis on hand-washing.  Between the ultra-dry weather and the almost constant hand washing, I think the skin is about to fall off my hands. I seem to catch the crud about the second week, every time I deploy.  This one is no exception.  At least I have the respiratory kind, and not the gastro-whatever.  So, I haven't been much in the mood to post over the last few days.  I trust you can wait a little longer to hear about my Cape Evans / Scott Hut /Ice Road trip.  I have some good pictures, and may have to do another slide show.
Speaking of 1,000--today we passed 1,000 hits on my blog.  Thanks for your interest.  I appreciate your support and I read all of you messages--though I may not always respond.  When I looked at the picture that I posted of the chapel, I realized that the covers over the opening of the steeple were never removed this spring.  That's going to be done this Friday, so we can play some chimes around Christmas time.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

The Chapel of the Snows

In 1956, while the Navy SeaBees where building McMurdo Station, there were no plans for a chapel.  Chapel services were to be held in the mess hall.  But quietly, and on their own time, the navy chaplain and off duty SeaBees built a little chapel at a high point in the camp and named it The Chapel of the Snows.  It had the distinction of being the southernmost house of worship in the world.

In 1978 a fire destroyed the original building, and a temporary chapel was constructed.  On Sunday, January of 1989, a group of 80 people gathered to dedicate the current Chapel of the Snows, perched on a little knoll, overlooking McMurdo Sound.  Just 840 miles from the South Pole, it is still the only house dedicated specifically for worship on the Antarctic continent.

Originally a Navy mission, Operation Deep Freeze is now a joint force effort.  During the spring and early summer, while the ice is too thick for ships to enter, most of the airlift into and out of McMurdo Station is accomplished by the U.S. Air Force, and the New York Air National Guard.  Each summer, 3 Air National Guard chaplains from across the country augment the 109^th Air Lift Wing and rotate through McMurdo to provide Protestant chaplain support for McMurdo and the South Pole Station.  Catholic support has been, for many years, provided by a series of “Kiwi” priests from New Zealand.  (New Zealanders are proud to call themselves “Kiwis,” as Australians are called “Ausies.”)

Each Sunday, the chaplains provide Protestant and Catholic services, daily Mass, Morning Prayer, and twice-weekly Bible studies for the entire McMurdo station, and sometimes the nearby Scott Base Kiwis.  AA has a weekly meeting at the Chapel, as does a Ba’hai group.  Yoga classes are offered 3 times a week and well attended.  Other than that, individuals often come for silence and meditation, or to play musical instruments. 

Most of the worship services involve volunteers who provide a variety of music and other enhancements to worship.  Above the altar of the chapel is a window look out on a part of the Trans Antarctic Mountain rage across the McMurdo Sound.  Above the window is a beautiful stained glass window with a distinctive Antarctic theme.  All of this makes the Chapel of the Snows one of the most peaceful and attractive buildings in an environment where at least man-made beauty is not prevalent.

Pressure Ridge

Pressure ridges happen when sea ice buckles under extreme pressure.  With all of the dynamics of glaciers ice flows, warming weather conditions, and what not; pressure ridges are very common here.  Between pressure ridges and crevasses, the early explorers found traveling on the ice to be anything but smooth sailing.  It all looks so smooth and flat from the air, but up close it's a different matter.   When hauling sledges across the ice, the explorers could find it smooth and slippery, or rough and course and friction creating, or jagged as a boulder field.

Last night I had a chance to see a pressure ridge up close.  One advantage to the “midnight sun” is that tours here can start as late as 9:00 PM, without any worries of running out of daylight.  I got pretty good pictures; a few of which I’ll post here, but I took several hundred.  Every step and every angle seemed to offer more good photos.  I made a slide show and posted it the following address.  The photo quality suffered in the process, and I’m afraid they’re not as striking as the originals, but you’re welcome to look.  I would recommend looking at them in the smaller frame (not full screen) because you’ll get a little higher resolution.  You will be asked to sign up and give an email address, but I don’t think there is any risk or harm in doing that.

Anyway, if you’re interested, here is the link:  http://www.shwup.com/openalbum/pressure_ridges/5yUTBDBVxsd

And here are a few select pictures.    

McMurdo Sound

McMurdo Sound carries the name of Lt. Archibald McMurdo who sailed on the HMS Terror, along with the HMS Erebus, with the James Clark Ross expedition of 1840-43. The expedition discovered and probed the Ross Sea of which the Sound is a part.  It is a relatively safe harbor, as far south as a ship can sail in the summer before encountering the permanent ice of the Ross Ice Shelf.  Ross Island, with one side in the sound and the other side frozen into the ice shelf, made a most convenient embarkation point for later explorers.  (The two volcanos on the island are named Mt Terror and Mt Erebus).

The Robert Falcon Scott expedition came south 60 years later (1901-1904) aboard the HMS Discovery. The Discovery was able to get through the sea ice into McMurdo Sound to build a hut on “Discovery Point” of Ross Island.  McMurdo Station, today, is situated in that very place overlooking McMurdo Sound.  The Ross Discovery Hut is still on the point, looking virtually as it did the day it was built.  It’s contents are undisturbed just as they were when the original explorers last left it.  Being that it is bone dry and seldom above freezing here, there is virtually no decay.  The hut can be entered, but only during guided tours.  I’ll let you know when I get a chance to go in.

As I write today (November 16), McMurdo Sound is frozen solid enough to land large airplanes on.  When I came (November 5) we landed on the Sea Ice Runway within easy walking distance of McMurdo Station.  As I write, through my office window in the Chapel of the Snows, I can see trucks driving the ice road between the little airport and the station.  Across the Sound, I can see snow capped islands embedded in the permanent ice shelf and the Royal Society mountain range on the far shore.

By the first week of December, as we head closer to the Austral summer, the ice will no longer be strong enough to support the landing of airplanes.  The little buildings of the airport, including the control tower, are all built on sleds, so they can be towed to the Pegasus runway farther out on the permanent ice.  By the time I am scheduled to leave in January, the trip to the airport will take 15 or 20 minutes, instead of the 3 to 5 minutes it takes now.  By late January or early February, the ice will be soft enough to be broken up by ice breakers so that supply ships can come right up to McMurdo Station, offloading a year’s supply of fuel and other necessities needed to sustain life here.  That year’s supply will be added to the year’s supply that has been kept in reserve.  With the weather so unpredictable and the rest of the inhabited world so far away, we always have at least one year of reserves.

I’d love to show you hundreds of pictures, but you’ll have to settle for a few.

The Sea Ice Runway on McMurdo Sound

The Control Tower Folks are Very Nice

Each shop can be towed away before this all becomes open water again



Even on a pretty nice day the wind still bites out here

Scott's Hut
On the far corner lies a dead seal.  I don't know how many years
or decades it's been there, but things just don't decay here.



McMurdo Station

            One documentary narrator described Antarctica as entirely “indifferent.”  It is the sea that supports life.  The land itself discourages, and even forbids it.  It does nothing at all to sustain life. Unless you count ice that can be melted, everything needed to sustain human life must be brought in, since harvesting from the sea or under the ice is not allowed.  The Antarctic treaty insists that the continent must be kept as pristine as possible.  Even sled dogs are no longer seen here.  They used to be fed from seal meat, but hunting is no longer allowed.  It is a major endeavor to keep human life sustained, so there are no domestic animals here.  In the four days I’ve been here so far, I have seen only one seal and half-a-dozen Skua birds.

Skuas are drab brown birds about the size of an albatross or a large sea gull.  They are legendary here for their aggressive behavior.  If they see food, they will take it.  If an unwary person comes from the Galley (the Navy term still abides for the dining hall) with, let’s say a hamburger that is unprotected, that person will be dive-bombed and harassed until he/she either gives up saving the food or dies trying (so they say).  So, if anything is lost or stolen around here, it is labeled “skua.”

In regards to sustaining human life, McMurdo Station is 2,415 miles from Christchurch, New Zealand, which is its closest supply point.  So, all supplies must be brought by cargo jet until the sea ice melts enough, in mid January or early February, and ice breakers can cut a path into McMurdo Sound to allow ships to re-supply the station for an entire year.  Then, all waste materials, including food and human waste, must be loaded onto ships and taken out.

As for McMurdo, itself, my first impression was that this place is in close running for the ugliest hill on earth.  Science is the object, not beauty or any extravagant human comforts.  The people here come from every background imaginable, but there is an amazing sense of community and camaraderie.  There is a sort of individualism and spirit of adventure that is prevalent.  There is also a sort of stoic acceptance of the lack of comfort or luxury.

The weather here has been unseasonably mild for this area since I came.  We’ve had temperatures between the mid twenties and low thirties (Fahrenheit)—perfect skiing weather back home. (You have to remember, though, it’s spring here—the equivalent of May for us.) When the wind comes up, though, it’s “no-kiddin’” cold.  Even on a nice sunny day, you don’t want to be too far from your cold weather gear.  Sight-seeing trips are offered almost daily, but even in a vehicle, people are strongly encouraged, and even required, to take a cold-weather bag along, if it’s more than a half-hour from “home.”

There are ample opportunities to take in science lectures and see some of ground-breaking research that happens here and at the South Pole.  I hope to share some of that with you as time goes on.

Today is Sunday for us, so it was my first introduction to the chapel community.  We have a number of good musicians that like to help lead worship.  There is even some talk of forming a choir.  We’ll have to see how all of that goes.  For now, I’d better show you a few select pictures.

McMurdo Station from "Observation Hill"

My dorm is on the right--first floor

 

The Coffee Shop looks a little rough on the outside...

 

...but isn't so bad on the inside

The "Chalet" serves as NSF Headquarters--one of the most attractive buildings, though modest in size

The Crary Science Lab is fascinating to anyone interested in science. 

Note the freezer-like doors--they are to keep the cold out, not in.

Everything is recycled...

...and conserved

The weather is closely watched.