Antarctica - Winter 2014

[mardyn]

How does one dispose of "the crap in a bag" in the Antartic?

btw... love the pics, keep 'em coming.

mardyn

[CJ]

Mike must be in the brig.

[DamonH]

Netflix has a video "Antartica - a year on ice" that was pretty well done. It showed a lot of the things you've taken pictures of. Pretty "cool" ... for sure!

[Mike K]

Fun article I read:

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and...too-much-booze

There are several versions of that article depending on what source wrote it. I wouldn't say the drinking is a 'problem' like they say. However, I think people do drink more down there. For one, there isn't much else to do and, second, we don't have to drive back home. The main reason I never drink here in the states is because I don't want to drive back home and run the risk of getting caught.

Do you guys have to plow much or is the snow dry enough to just blow it out of the way? How deep is the snow?

Both. It is the driest driest desert in the world, so there is no moisture to keep the snow packed together like you would have here in the states (or anywhere else for that matter). However, because it is so dry and it is just ice crystals, the wind does a really good job of packing the snow together. It almost never snows down on the ice... more like it blows in. The wind does a really good job of getting rid of loose snow too. However, if the wind has a chance to pack the snow together, then it gets pretty hard and yes, we have to do a lot of plowing (with bucket loaders, graders, backhoes, snow blowers, etc) to get rid of built up snow. Make sense?

To give you an example, here is a picture of me being silly and posing for a picture. Notice I am not sinking into the snow where I am standing. You can actually walk on top of it.

How does one dispose of "the crap in a bag" in the Antartic?

btw... love the pics, keep 'em coming.

mardyn

We turn it into Haz Waste and they ship it out when the annual vessel comes in. :-D

Mike must be in the brig.

Just got home (back here in Dallas) a couple hours ago. The charger for my laptop stopped working, so I couldn't upload any pictures (the reason why I haven't been updating my vacation thread) and the last couple of days I have been flying (NZ to South Africa to Dubai to USA). Glad it is all done. Trying to get my pictures off my camera now. Expect vacation pictures within 24hrs :-D

Netflix has a video "Antartica - a year on ice" that was pretty well done. It showed a lot of the things you've taken pictures of. Pretty "cool" ... for sure!

That is a great documentary! Quite a few of the people interviewed in the video still work down there. The guy that made the documentary (I helped fund him on Kickstarter, but have never met him) is back down on the ice right now doing more filming.

Also keep an eye out for this guy: https://www.facebook.com/Alasdair-Tu...-186689162815/

He is doing a lot of filming down there and wants to do a similar documentary, but focus on the science that goes on.

[Rick Modena]

Welcome back, Mike! Glad to see you made it out alive and not frozen solid. Looking forward to your pics.
Did your girlfriend come back with you?
Also, will you/ya'll be going back or are you done?

[Mike K]

Welcome back, Mike! Glad to see you made it out alive and not frozen solid. Looking forward to your pics.
Did your girlfriend come back with you?
Also, will you/ya'll be going back or are you done?

Thanks!

My girlfriend wants to do the holidays with her parents and the summer season down in NZ, so she will fly up in March. I have to look at what kind of visa she can get, but right now it looks like only a visitor's visa. If anybody knows anything about visas... I am all ears, because I don't know anything.

We are both done with the ice. I am going to start looking for work around here.

[CWO]

incredible