Antarctica - Winter 2014

[Sean88gt]

LOL@ the bottle of Jergens.


I get how the cold air dries out your skin and you must put the lotion on, but dick skin rarely dries.

[Mike K]

Hows the food?

GREAT! We ran out of fresh fruits and veggies a couple days after the last flight, so most of the stuff is canned or rehydrated (if that is the right term), but I can't complain at all. For dinner we just had ribeye steak and lobster newburg. Each day of the week is always the same (Wednesdays = Mexican food) but each Wednesday they make a different Mexican dish, so it isn't exactly the same. Bread and pastries are made fresh every day. Deserts are also made fresh every day and we have a soft serve ice cream machine here. You would think that after being out in the cold all day that the last thing you would want to eat would be ice cream, but it is extremely popular.

This... Also which way does the toilet water spin?

Counterclockwise.

but dick skin rarely dries.

and imma make sure it doesn't!

[Mike K]

A couple of weeks ago we had to get a bunch of the AGE equipment that is used to support flightline operations and pack it way for the winter.

As always, click for full 3000x2000 picture

Here was the drive down to Pegasus Runway. This picture was still on Ross Island as you drive from McMurdo to the Kiwi side of the island.


It is a 14 mile drive on the Ross Ice Shelf out to Pegasus Runway. The flags designate the path and in this case there are 3 lanes. Far right lane is for track vehicles only and the two to the left are for wheeled vehicles. The track vehicle lane is the only one that is maintained during the winter. They have to pack the snow down real hard so that vehicles with tires don't just sink into the snow. Green and red flags are normal paths (either color doesn't mean anything, it is just which ever one the put up). Blue flags mark fuel lines, black flags means danger, and a yellow flag is a pee (urine) flag.


Here we are passing a Challenger 95E pulling a Magic Carpet. The thick plastic sheets are used to tow shit around.


Like this Cat D8R and Challenger 95E that are broke.


We made it out to Pegasus and started to dig everything out of the snow to pack it way for the winter.


The vehicles we drove back to the base and the AGE equipment (there was more to the right of the picture) we had to dig out and stuff into one of the buildings.


We used the D3 to move all of the AGE equipment around.


A couple of the vehicles we had to drive back.


All of the AGE equipment and the D3 packed away for the winter. The wind storms we get in the winter will pack building full of snow. The snow finds its way into every little open crack, no matter how small, and fills everything.


Getting ready to drive back.

[Mike K]

The vehicles equipped with the Mattracks setups are NOT fun to drive. They look cool in pictures, but jesus, what a pile of shit. No turning radius, you have to keep it in 4WD low and can’t go over 20mph or risk the transmissions overheating, and loud!


View of Ross Island from Pegasus Runway.


Sunset – 30 March, 2014
Couple people waiting for the sunset at Hut Point.


Cross out at Hut Point.




While we were waiting for the sun to set, I heard this heavy breathing and walked up to the edge. Found a seal chilling in a small hole made for breathing.


View of McMurdo before the sun completely set.


And ….. sunset

[Mike K]

And today I did some walking around the base. I wanted to get another shot of the 1956 D8 before they shipped it off. The other two were shipped off this last summer season.


Here is all of the equipment that they use for the South Pole Traverse.




During the summer season the South Pole Traverse team drives all of the equipment (everything is towing supplies and/or fuel) down to the South Pole to deliver supplies and fuel. This cuts down on the number of flights needed. Here is the route:


For more pictures and a detailed journal of each day, I would go here: http://beyondthebackyard.com/categor...pole-traverse/


Sunset – 5 Arpil, 2014
And here are the sunset pictures from today. I tried to walk up Observation Hill (Ob Hill) to get a picture of the sunset, but the person I was going with never met me at my room, so I left without her. I was running late and didn’t make it to the top of the hill in time to get the sunset. Ob Hill is the 750ft hill in the background:


Here was a little under half way up the hill and the sun was just starting to set.


Here was the trail I was walking up. It was pretty steep and it did a great job of kicking my ass.


Just after sunset and I was about 3/4 of the way up the hill.


There are actually several recreational routes you can take around the island. Some are closed for winter and most require 2 people to travel. You also have to check out (and back in when you are done) at the firehouse. They give you a radio for communication in case of emergencies. Before you depart you have to submit an electronic form that says who is going and where you are going. If you fail to return, or check in via radio, by the submitted estimated return time they will send a search and rescue team out for you. Here is the website with all of the different recreational routes. That I can go on.

[JC316]

The vehicles equipped with the Mattracks setups are NOT fun to drive. They look cool in pictures, but jesus, what a pile of shit. No turning radius, you have to keep it in 4WD low and can’t go over 20mph or risk the transmissions overheating, and loud!

How the hell does a transmission overheat in that kind of weather?!? Looks like fun, but still not my cup of tea.

[Chili]

Was reading the below story and thought of this thread:

http://www.weather.com/travel/12-places-frozen-time-photos-20140723

It's on the 6th page.. Not sure if this will work: http://www.weather.com/travel/12-pla...40723?pageno=6

How about an update??

[ELVIS]

best thread ever on this site. really cool, thanks for sharing.

god bless.

[Chili]

best thread ever on this site. really cool, thanks for sharing.

god bless.

Agreed.. Hoping for more pictures.

[Chili]

Just saw he has posted some recent pics in the random pic thread.. I don't usually look at that one due to the size:





C'mon Mike.. More pics!

Edit.. BTW, that last pic is really kick-ass..

[Mike K]

Was reading the below story and thought of this thread:

http://www.weather.com/travel/12-places-frozen-time-photos-20140723

It's on the 6th page.. Not sure if this will work: http://www.weather.com/travel/12-pla...40723?pageno=6

How about an update??

Yup, Discovery Hut is here in McMurdo. As a matter of fact that is where I took the last sunset pictures at.

Ok ok... I've been lazy, let me start getting some pictures together for an update.

[Mike K]

Wow, I can’t believe that last time I posted pictures was April 5th! It seems like it has been an eternity since the sun has set. All of these pictures are going to be in chronological order.

As always, click the picture for full 3000x2000 picture.

After the sun set we still had varying degrees of twilight, so most of the day it looked like a normal sunrise/sunset, except the sun never peeked over the horizon. Here is a picture of us overlooking Scott Base (New Zealand’s base – green buildings) as we are headed out to Pegasus Air Field (14 miles out into the ice shelf). Picture was taken a little before noon, but you get the idea.


The flights to McMurdo ended a long time ago, but Fleet Ops was extending the runway another 1,000ft to give the pilots some extra room. Every time the wind brings snow, it always dumps it on the runway, along with everything else. They use large snow blowers to clear the runways like this SnowBlast hooked to a Cat 950E. We have two kinds of snow blowers and this is the smaller of the two, the Kodiaks are the bigger versions and are run by a Cat C10 (if memory serves me right, it is a C10).


Here is a Cat D6D with Mt. Erebus in the background. Mt. Erebus is the southernmost active volcano in the world; leave it to Americans to put their research station at the base of a volcano in Antarctica.


Me standing on a Cat D8R.


I had to replace all of the bushings in a Foremost Delta that has a Hendrickson suspension setup. It was easier to just cut away the bushings with a gas powered chop saw than it was to do it any other way. And I am going to be honest, using the gas powered chop saw was a lot of fun.


Mid-Winter Dinner - June 21st

Mid-Winter Dinner is held on the winter solstice and, obviously, signifies the middle of the winter. The galley really goes all out in preparing a super awesome meal and it is amazing what we had available considering we haven’t had ANY fresh food delivered since the last flight in early March.

However, before mid-winter dinner, I walked up Observation Hill to take a picture of McMurdo in the dark, considering this is the longest night of the year and the sun will start coming up (or, should I say, get less dark) as the days go on. You can see just a hint of twilight in the skyline, but keep in mind my shutter was open for 30 seconds, so there wasn’t a lot of light. I apologize that the picture wasn’t framed properly. I brought my nice camera down, but didn’t bring a tripod. I had to prop the camera up with some snow on very tip of Ob Hill and this was the best I could do.


All of these pictures are of mid-winter dinner. I didn’t take my camera, as I knew plenty of other people would. First picture was of the menu. Everything was buffet style, so you could get as much as you wanted of each item.

[Mike K]

Mid-Winter Dinner (continued)






They had a photo booth there, which turned out to be a TON of fun. I won’t bore you with a bunch of pictures, but here is one of the VMF crew (with one operator sneaking in there in the very front turned sideways). I am in the blue plaid.

And of course, my idea: Dick in a Box




McMurdo 2014 Winter Over Crew
We got the entire station together to get a picture of all 142 on station. I wish I would have taken my camera to take a picture of the ‘behind the scenes’, because we have like 5 trucks with their lights on to provide the light and one guy standing on top of a 12’ ladder to take the picture. And FYI… we are all holding our breath so the steam doesn’t ruin the picture.




4th of July Part at VMF
The Mid-Winter Dinner is where everyone gets all dressed up and goes out to eat at a ‘pretend’ fancy restaurant. The Independence Day party is where we completely shut down the VMF and set up a party. This year we had a carnival theme so we had live music, human jenga, chili cook-off, and various other activities and booths going on.

A couple pictures of human Jenga.

[Mike K]

And now we have my most recent updates. Pegasus Air Field has been shut down for a while and most of Fleet Ops has been working on the LDB project. LDB = Long Distance Balloon. Don’t ask me what it is, because I don’t know. All I know is that the project got a lot more funding and they are clearing 40 acres about 5 miles out on the ice shelf.

*EDIT* LDB info: http://stratocat.com.ar/bases/41e.htm

Day 1 - Terry and I got a service call because nothing would start out at LDB. We get out there and shit… it is cold. We couldn’t get a D7 started due to a bad starter (which means we have to change it out there) so we got another dozer started for Fleet Ops.

Day 2 – We have to go out again to get the equipment started for Fleet Ops and to get started on replacing the starter. This time we take a meat thermometer that goes to -58*F (but it should do, right?). We get the equipment started and the starter out, but our heater was having a problems running because it was so cold.


Thermometer at -55*F, right before the screen froze. We were wondering if it was really -55 out or if the screen was freezing and not allowing it to read all the way down to -58.



Day 3 – We went to finish the starter, but this time we took a Fluke multimeter with the temp probe to read the temp outside (we weren’t even sure how far down it would go). I was hoping it was going to get to -66.6*F and I was going to make the joke that I found the temp that hell freezes over, but the temp just kept dropping. All the way down to -70.2*F, but I was only able to get a picture of -70.0*F. And keep in mind this is AMBIENT temp! We had a slight breeze and according to online calculators a 5mph wind (which is nothing) brings the wind chill down to -93*F.



How cold is -70*F? Well when we rolled up the air hose on the service truck, it didn’t roll up. It was frozen solid and broke in about 5 places as it tried to roll up. Even the tires froze completely solid. There is a slight flat spot on the bottom of your tires due to the vehicles weight (we all know this), but it was so cold that it completely froze the tire solid making it feel like we had square tires.



And now my most recent picture, taken on July 13 with the full moon over McMurdo.

[TRAILBLAZER]

^^^

NO FUCKING THANKS TO ALL THAT SHIT


Cool pics though ! Stay warm !