Happy Camper

As employees we get a morale trip and mine was selected to be Snow Survival School aka Happy Camper. I’ve heard many things about the 2 day/ 1 night program. Most loved it but some hated it. I was pretty nervous because our beautiful summer weather had just left and winter seemed to be knocking a little too loud at the door! I had told myself when I read about the program during orientation(months ago while sitting in an air conditioned room in Denver, CO!) that I would sleep in a snow trench, or at least try! So I packed up all the required extreme cold weather gear and supplemented it with some of my own stuff hoping it would be enough. The last item that I got was borrowed from Jon… his pee bottle. Don’t worry it was empty and clean. Talk about taking our relationship to a new level!

So what does Happy Camper include?

We met in a classroom setting to go over what our schedule looked like and to learn a little about the extreme conditions and what that can do to you, like frost bite, hypothermia, etc. We then gathered up some more supplies and loaded up in the Delta, picked up some bag lunches from the galley and headed out on the sea ice.

We were dropped off on the side of the Pegasus Runway Road, loaded our things into a snowmobile sled and walked off into the snow towards a couple buildings in the distance. 

The Walk...

Once we arrived we had a bunch of activities from learning to use the ultra light stoves to how to sleep warmly. 

Learning time!

Then we got to the more hands on part. We got our own sleeping gear and headed out to where we would make our camp. From there on it was constant movement all while trying to maintain our body temperature in the blowing cold. 

We learned how to set up Scott Tents(double walled canvas, very similar to the ones Scott used 100 years ago on his expeditions), regular camping tents, stake all those down(no grass or dirt to dig into here!), then it was on to making a kitchen by using hand saws to cut the ice/snow into blocks for a wind block wall. 

The tools of the trade!

We had a quick tutorial in how to make a snow trench and then we were on our own until 7:30 the next morning. So we dug, cut, and stacked all while melting snow to boil water for dinner. Hours later the wall was finished, tents set up, and water was on it’s way to a boil, I started on my trench. About 4 feet deep and 7 long, I used blocks of snow/ice to build up the sides more, then using two sleds I made a roof. Home sweet trench! 

Home Sweet Trench!

I set up my sleeping kit all while knocking snow off the walls of the trench. Broad shoulders!

By this time my stomach was growling and the water was boiling, I enjoyed some dehydrated bean chili in a bag with a hot mug of hot chocolate. Luckily we had a stash of snickers bars and trail mix to supplement. I made my final trip to the outhouse for the night and tucked myself into bed a bit after 8 and set my alarm for 5 something am. I had reserved a spot in a Scott Tent incase I got too cold or uncomfortable in the trench, but I didn’t need it! I made it the whole night! I only woke up a couple of times to turn over. Sleeping with a shovel at your side makes turning a bit more interesting!

We broke down camp and boiled more water for oatmeal and hot drinks. After everything was stowed away we had more learning to do plus some scenarios to practice what we learned. We set up a survival bag in 30 minutes. That includes one tent set up and secured, snow melted, water boiling, radio set up and contact made and a small wind block wall made. Plus we had one participant, Christine, play the role of a hypothermic person we had to tend to.

Another scenario was one person is unaccounted for and it’s condition one outside, how do we find them. We did a search pattern and found our person in about 8 minutes! All with buckets on our heads to simulate low visibility.

We also attempted to radio the South Pole but there had been too many solar flares recently so we couldn’t contact them, instead we spoke to Mac Ops.

We packed up and rode back to town, repacked the kits for the next Happy Camper, then the last thing was a video of helicopter safety and demo seatbelts.

I was on a bit of a high when it was over. I took a nice long shower and then a nap was in order before dinner!

If you’re wondering about Jon’s pee bottle… I didn’t end up using it. So I returned it.

Happy Camper was a great time. Learned a lot and completed my goal to sleep in the trench!

Hi, are you Megan?

Who would have thought that a girl from a small town in Vermont would meet one person from the next road over and the father of a high school classmate.  Well, it happened!

In early January Heidi Smith walked up to me as I was working at the deli line and said, “Hi Megan, do you remember me?” It took me a moment to realize that the girl that I did ballet with for years in my youth was standing in front of me in Antarctica. Heidi and I attended school together and often got rides to ballet practice together. Her mother was a biology teacher at our high school, though never my teacher. Heidi was there for her third year in a row collecting samples for research. She comes down for about 3 weeks and then takes the samples back to Montana to analyze. I don’t think I’ve seen Heidi in 8 years!

A few weeks ago a man in uniform walked up to me as I was working the breakfast line and asked me if I was Megan. It turns out he is Kade Etter’s father. Kade and I attended Essex High School from 2000-2004 together. I think we had a few classes together but we were never really close friends. She has been following me silently on Facebook and possibly here on my blog and found out that her dad was going to McMurdo Station for a few days. So she told him to find me, which he did through the aid of my co-workers. At the time I met Mr. Etter I didn’t think much of the fact that he was in uniform. We have a lot of guys that come through McMurdo in uniform as we arrive and depart on US Air Force planes. So a day or two go by and several co-workers tell me a man in uniform is looking for me. So I find him and it turns out he was headed back home that day. I said my goodbyes and we chatted briefly. A few days later I’m on the phone with my parents and I ask my dad(retired Air Force) what 2 black stars mean on the AF uniform. For those of you like me who don’t know the ranks, that’s a two star General! So I met Major General Etter who happened to be at McMurdo as one of our distinguished visitors. After a little Google search we figured out that he is the Deputy Director of the Air National Guard.

Then, just to twist the story a little more…

Major General Etter’s wife was in some way my brother’s supervisor at the Vermont Air Guard base. Ready for it to get even more weird! My brother and sister in law are going to Washington DC next month and are getting a tour of the Pentagon through the Etters!

McMurdo's Inner Workings: DA Style... What exactly do you do all day?

I’ve had some questions about what my day to day life is like here at McMurdo Station. Well, first and foremost I am here to work and support science. My job title is a Dining Attendant, DA, so that means I work in the kitchen/dining room serving meals and cleaning up after them.  I have worked both the evening and morning shifts here and been on a 5 ½ day and 6 day work week totaling 54 hours per week. The shifts are 2 meals each, either breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner. There is also an overnight shift(nicknamed midrats) that serve a meal at midnight and breakfast. We also have the added challenge of working on the holidays so we get a random day off around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.

I was also selected to work out at the NASA/ Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility called the Long Duration Balloon site or LDB for short. My shifts there include about an hour and a half round trip of travel and serving and cleaning up from lunch served for about 45 people. This was a special honor, only 2 DAs work there at a time splitting the 6 day week. I was selected when Jean, my roommate, was promoted to a cook. Because I worked out there I received snowmobile training incase I needed to help with a launch. I also was film crew for the STO payload launches. Yes I said launches. There were multiple attempts before we had a successful launch.

What does a day in the life of a DA look like?

Well, I’m on mornings currently so I’ll describe an average day…

I wake up at 5 am, get myself ready and am downstairs by 5:20. Long commute! Remember I work in the same building as I live! I grab a bite to eat and am ready to work at 5:30. Our leads(aka supervisors) have a tasking sheet or schedule prepped for our days. Our time is broken up around meal times. Sometimes you work the whole meal period doing the same task, but often the meal is split in half. Then we have cleaning chores between meals and we do it all over again. We also have breaks through the day, as well as time for stretch breaks so we reduce the risk of repetitive motion injuries, and a few minutes to allocate or log what we did for the day for some HR type person somewhere to see and file away. So for example my 9 hour day(6 day schedule) might look like this…

Dishes from 5:30 to 6:30

Wash pots and pans from 6:30 to 8

Half hour break

Cleaning chore for an hour and a half

Stretch break for 15 minutes, allocate for 10 minutes

Family meal where all the cooks and DAs eat before we serve the meal

Restock the hot food(aka line) for 2.5 hours

Stretch again for 15 min

Half hour break

Cleaning chore for 1 hour 15 min

After work I generally relax and play on the computer, work out, or nap then shower and go eat dinner. My evenings are filled with things like travel talks, science lectures, tours, movies, dances, hikes, etc.

My day off has been Sundays which allows me to go out on Saturday nights(our big night out due to the 6 day work week). I enjoy Sunday brunch with my Vermont Maple Syrup, do laundry, call home, catch up on computer stuff, etc.

Happy 2012 from the bottom of the world!

So what does a group of a thousand or so people do in Antarctica for New Years? Keep in mind we’ve got 24 hours of sunlight plus the Antarctic Treaty to disturb wild life, so fire works are out of the question. That only leaves us one option… to party the night away Ice Stock style! So that translates to a chili cook off, lots of live bands performing original music and covers of some tunes you might recognize, lots of dancing like you just don’t care, drinks and debauchery Antarctic style. 

My day started out with full day of work from 5:30am to 3:30pm which included serving a special Saturday brunch rather than the standard breakfast and lunch. (We normally only have brunch on Sundays) I then went to my room and napped for a couple hours to prep for the new year. I then met up with a group of friends and enjoyed a few brews over dinner before heading out to buy a few bottles of champagne and dancing the night away. I missed out on the pig roast that was going on during the afternoon and didn’t test any of the chili(but I did get a commemorative mug with chilies forming the shape of the continent). Then the night was spent dancing around to music ranging from rock and roll to blues to pop covers. At almost midnight(still bright as noon time!) father time made an appearance on stage, champagne bottles were popped and the 2012 baby made everyone laugh. Kisses were exchanged and lots of drunken hugs and well wishes for the new year were made. I was pretty tired at this point so I finished my drink and retreated to my warm bed for the night.

Sunday we had mimosas at brunch and enjoyed lots of food and of course Vermont Maple Syrup!! I am very thankful for all the great friends that I have made here. They are the best McMurdo Family I could have asked for!

What does the future hold for me? Well, at this point I don’t have many concrete plans. I will finish my contract out here on the Ice, travel for a bit, work at Sea Base, and hopefully return here for another season. And no, I don’t know what position I’ll come back to.

New Years photos can be found at… https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.708642947139.2146542.44801562&type=1&l=7a2838816f

Christmas in a desert... in summer

So Christmas has quickly come and gone for us here in Antarctica. We in the galley had a random extra day off during the month as our "Christmas." Mine was a few weeks ago. I remember the  day. I spent the whole day in my pajamas. Relaxing was the whole agenda.
Christmas for the rest of the town was a totally different story. Everyone on "Town Schedule" (work Monday-Saturday and Sunday off) got an extra day off, Saturday which was the day we celebrated the holiday. My day had a slow start because of a late night the night before. The Town Christmas Party at the Vehicle Maintenance Shop was a crazy mix of photos with Santa, a slide show of pictures from home, caroling by the choir, snacks, drinks, and dancing the night away. Back to work... My work day was from 9am to 7 pm and included helping setting up the dining room, washing pots and pans, and goofing off. The day went by pretty quickly and included being "adopted" again like Thanksgiving so I got an hour and a half off mid afternoon which I used to nap. I got off work just in time for the last dinner seating and sat with a group of friends and enjoyed some conversation and a few bottles of wine. The night was spent at the Carpentry shop which was transformed into an art gallery for the night. MAAG, McMurdo Alternative Art Gallery, happens once a year and is a showing of everything from interactive art to paintings and a fashion show. The night ended again with dancing the night away.
Sunday was a morning to sleep in. Again a group of us met in the galley this time for brunch and mimosas. We parted ways after stuffing ourselves again. I called home and then went for a walk out to Hut Point and happened to see 6 penguins!! They were way off in the distance so the pictures aren't very good. Then I went to see a group of people put on Charlie Browns Christmas play which was cute and then went outside and saw the CREST LDB balloon up in the sky. Overall a great Christmas weekend.
Up next... New Years and Ice Stock, McMurdo's Woodstock!

My new gig

So I was selected to be the new DA(dining attendant) for the Long Duration Balloon facility run by NASA here just a few miles from McMurdo Station. I have only spent 2 days out there training so I don't have all the info and stats on it and only limited pictures but I am so excited to share the news about it.
Monday will be my first day out there post training and to add to the excitement there is the possibility of a launch! There are several projects going on here in our few buildings one of which is a large balloon with a payload of 7,800 lbs that will be looking at the particles that hit the Earth from Super Novas.
To watch it all happen check out the "real time video" on this site... http://www.csbf.nasa.gov/antarctica/ice.htm
I hope it works!
The window of opportunity that I was told about is from 11am-4pm on Monday here in Antarctica. So that would be Sunday from 5-10pm eastern time. This is subject to change due to weather conditions.
Some more info about the projects...
http://stratocat.com.ar/bases/41e.htm
http://icecube.wisc.edu/info/neutrinos

Some time outside the Galley and the Craft Fair

So a couple days ago I got to get out of the kitchen and do a special project. This is the first special project I've gotten to do since I arrived so I was very excited. I had the honor of spending about 2 hours helping out a very sweet lady named Peggy who is in charge of the food for the field camps. She has a room upstairs in this storage building that is basically a grocery store. But you don't pay.
I arrived at Peggy's after our afternoon break to see what my task would be. I've heard stories from other DAs that they make trail mix or repackage things and that Peggy offers you tea and listens to good music. This sounds very exciting and all... right? So my projects included repackaging baking powder into smaller bottles and labeling them, mixing and repackaging tortillini, and dividing up some sort of burrito chili thing. All in all not exactly thrilling tasks but it was very nice to be able to work on something that I don't do every day. It was also a beautiful day out so the walk to and from the galley was a treat.
Today the galley was transformed into a craft fair and what a time we had! I wish I had thought to bring my camera with me, but none the less it was great. I ended up spending about a hundred bucks on everything from earrings to a t-shirt to a wallet/passport holder. Now you may be wondering what the heck we are doing having a craft fair in Antarctica. Well, we all have to pass the time somehow. Some drink, others sew, or knit, or fold things. What did I purchase? Well, I got a pair of feather earrrings, a passport holder/wallet, a t-shirt stating "You don't have to be crazy to work here. We will train you.", a small fish mobile, some pins/buttons and 2 magnets, some wool gloves, and I think that's it.
Now I've never attended a craft show in Antarctica before but based on the turn out I'm going to say it was a hit! The number of people streaming in and out was great and I think people made some great purchases. A hit in my book!

Inside Bertha

So as part of my usual tasking at work I was scheduled to deep clean our large dishwasher, nicknamed Bertha. Now this is like the 3rd or 4th time doing this for me so nothing that new. An average Sunday afternoon. Now every other time I was one of the ones removing everything from the dish room, scrubbing the floors and walls, etc. What was new about this time was the I was going inside Bertha. Bertha is a large conveyor style dishwasher and has 3 compartments that need to be scrubbed from the outside and inside. The inside part is my turn this week. We first removed all the sprayers and the curtains dividing the compartments and then the cleaning begins. This involves laying on your back, inching through the machine wiping down all the surfaces. Now, this means the sides and inside top of the machine so the chance for splatters is there so a face mask, safety goggles, and a soapy rag. I kept fogging the goggles so I tried to wipe ahead of where I was to reduce the risk of direct face spray. This worked until the very end... the dirtiest part. Mold seems to be pink and goo like here. Don't ask why because I have no idea. Things got very sticky very quickly and I wanted to be out of that machine! I never really felt claustrophobic but I definitely wanted out at the end there. Friend Alyx captured me inside of Bertha. I will post it soon as I am on a public computer without my usb thumb drive.