[I recheck the links now and then, but still they tend to disappear...sorry]
Here's the record of 2012-13 private Pole treks...
A bit more "polar technology" news...in mid March a feature story was broadcast on Catalyst, a news program on ABC (the Australian Broadcasting Corporation) highlighting yet another possible communications satellite system to offer broadband communications to Pole and other Antarctic stations, using small satellites (cubes only about 8" on a side) somewhat comparable to mobile phones...or mini cell towers. The concept has been developed at the University of Toronto, and the Australian company, Antarctic Broadband, is currently looking for funding; their current schedule calls for a test launch in 2012 and full deployment by 2014. The satellites would have elliptical polar orbits. The Catalyst video includes a bit of a Pole teleconference with researchers John Kovac and Brad Benson, as well as a "G'day" greeting from Daniel Leussler at the ceremonial Pole. Well, we know that NSF has been looking for more bandwidth between Pole and the rest of the world...in April 2011 a Request for Information was issued looking for industry recommendations for satellite-based broadband communications with Pole. This RFI included an extensive and detailed report on the requirements for such a project.
2 April...Jarle Andhøy was in the news again...his boat Nilaya and crew were arrested by Chilean authorities in Chilean waters while en route to Argentina. They were taken to Puerto Willams...across the Straits of Magellan from Ushuaia, Argentina. The search was conducted in a civil manner...it was reported that the Nilaya would stay at the Argentine base until Busby Noble, the Kiwi who was aboard when the vessel left Auckland, was issued a temporary passport. The vessel and crew were released a week later and headed to Ushuaia. They later sailed to Buenos Aires...Andhøy flew back to Norway on 8 May (update).
31 March...the RPSC contract was at an end, as indicated on their web site. Lockheed-Martin has been updating their contract web site. A bittersweet time especially for the Raytheon full-timers who weren't picked up by the new contractor...reminds me of what happened to Bill Spindler in 1990 when ITT lost the contract. It worked out well for me...I ended up in Alaska, and 15 years later I got back into the program.
In March 2012 I moved to Boulder, Colorado, and one of the first things I did when I got here the last weekend in March was attend the "1970s/1990s H&N/ASA Gathering" at Jim Chambers' place in Parker, just south of Denver. 130+ people there, beautiful weather, and great fun.
Before the official sunset at Pole, the weather was raunchy...but at the time of the dinner on the 18th visibility started to improve. At left is a 27 March photo of the sun...well below the horizon but refracted above it...next to ARO. With thanks to SPT winterover Cynthia Chiang.
Anthony Powell has put together a fantastic video of the 2012 ship offload...this is the HD version from his web site. He said he used 4 Canon SLRs, and a GoPro HD, condensing over 150,000 photos were condensed down to make this video. The details of the operation are described in this Antarctic Sun article. My collection of time lapse photos and other images is is here.
14 March, there was news that Jarle Andhøy was heading back to the Antarctic...this time to one of the Argentine bases on the Antarctic Peninsula for repairs to a broken boom on his boat Nilaya. There hasn't been much news since then (updates).
13 March, the shadows were getting longer. There was less than a week until the equinox (1814 SP time on Tuesday the 20th), with the sunset happening a few days later. The big dinner was on Sunday evening. New Zealand (and Pole) are still on Daylight Saving Time until the first Sunday in April.
The last flight of the season, a RNZAF B757, left McMurdo shortly after 1800 on 6 March, leaving behind 153 McMurdo winterers as well as 14 at Scott Base (Antarctic Sun article)
On the other side of the continent, there has been a major fire in the power plant at the Brazilian research station Comandante Ferraz on King George Island. It broke out around midnight local time Friday night (1600 SP time Saturday 25 February 2012) and reportedly destroyed the main station facilities. Two men were killed, and two others were injured. The BBC has excellent coverage here. Comandante Ferraz is located in Admiralty Bay (Wikimedia map) on the south side of King George Island; it is only a few miles from the Polish station Arctowski (where the injured were treated) and Copacabana (the Pieter J. Lenie Field Station), the longtime USAP penguin study site. There were 65 researchers and support personnel on station at the time of the fire. The photo at left is by Pedro Guerreiro, posted on this the Science Today (Portuguese) blog page.
Yet another vessel in McMurdo Sound...Jarle Andhøy's yacht Nilaya was spotted offshore near Scott Base on the 21st. On Saturday 24 February, Andhøy told a Norwegian paper that their Antarctic venture was at an end, and that they were heading for South America (updates). There was no further news until mid-March.
The Green Wave arrived at McMurdo around noon on Valentines Day. It originally tied up at the relocated ice pier, and the pontoon causeway was constructed on the outboard side (left, webcam slide). The assembled causeway was then moved to the offload site...and then the ship moved as well. You could watch the progress on the McMurdo webcams. The backload started on the 23rd...two days later the causeway was disassembled and picked up, and the Green Wave had headed north. Check out the slides; (full coverage of the 2011-12 shipping season)...including seven pages of time lapse photos!
At Pole...15 February...and the last 2 flights. Winter has begun for the 50 souls left behind. Here's the documentation from the Antarctic Sun with photos from Sven Lidstrom.
And at McMurdo...
over this past weekend the ice pier was blasted loose from the shore (right) and moved closer to Hut Point to make way for the pontoon causeway setup. On the 11th the Nathaniel B. Palmer had been docked at the ice pier.
Jarle Andhøy's venture crossed 60ºS into the Antarctic. He's been off the coast of Victoria Land, and planned to head to Franklin Island before trying to get through the ice to McMurdo Sound. The Kiwi workman on board, a Maori activist, actually stowed away...and there are other strange stories about Jarle from Norway.
9 February...boring news from Vostok...the lake drilling has been completed (6 February SP time)! At left is the drillers' hero shot. There is lots of news out there, but this is my translation of the official press release. Other recommended news links...this report from RiaNovosti which includes an excellent animated graphic of the drilling process; two articles from the Russian commercial news service RT..."We raised 40 liters of water" which includes some of the technical details, and this one which features 2 videos with file footage of the drilling operation. Here is the New York Times coverage...and they also have this blog which addresses the Nazi conspiracy theory. Where is Art Bell when we need him? When the researchers get home, maybe they'll publish some papers and we'll find out the rest of the story. Meanwhile, this NOAA site depicts a 2001 aerial photo of Vostok, I don't think the place has changed that much since then.
Lockheed (remember the contract?)...I've updated that page about the contract rebid/transition, including the latest in the fast-changing set of links to the hiring information. Briefly, Lockheed and their subcontractors are focusing on employment arrangements for the current winterovers and incumbent full-timers in Denver... along with all of the other administrivia that goes with the transition. The CH2M Hill protest did not seem to have any impact on the contract turnover process.
Shipping update...the tanker (photo below left) finished offloading about 6.3 million gallons of fuel, and undocked from the ice pier on 2 February...the too-thin ice pier will now be moved out of the way to Hut Point to make way for the Green Wave. It reached Lyttelton on 5 February. Because of the weight of the pontoon causeway on board, some of the other containers were offloaded there and are being flown down. The vessel headed south on the 7th. The offload, plus setting up/taking down the causeway, will take about 11 days...the extra time for the ship offload plus the added flights will stretch the McM closing into early March. Pole reportedly received all of its needed supplies.
Back in the IGY before there were Pole markers, there already was a certain distinctive abbreviation for the station (right). So what does NPX stand for?
2 February, the Pole tourist season was over. The last two teams in the EWR Race to the South Pole arrived on the 28th. After a brief tour of the station, the remaining racers were quickly flown back to Novo, and the Arctic Trucks team packed up their camp a few miles away, and headed for Novo--they should be back by the fifth. The visitors center complex was dismantled the last week in January, and the deserted tourist camp site has also been left to the winterover Polies (left). The only other NGO travelers still moving on the continent are Dixie Dansercoer and Sam Deltour, who have now kited over 3000 miles on a looping track from Novo via Pole and Dome C...setting a new long-distance Antarctic travel record. They were still perhaps 1800 miles from Novo...will they make it back before the end of the season or will they need to get picked up?
The Russian icebreaker Vladimir Ignatyuk arrived at McM the last week in January, here's video of it at work, from the I drive. And after that bit of work, the tanker Maersk Peary showed up on the 27th...(left, a 28 January photo by Steven Royce/Antarctic Photo Library). As for the cargo vessel Green Wave, it left Port Hueneme on 10 January (DLA news article) but it had a few mechanical problems. It was in Lyttelton in the beginning of February. Meanwhile, a crew of as many as 40 members of a US Army causeway battalion arrived to deal with the pontoons that will be used in lieu of the ice pier.
News from NZ...Jarle Andhøy and Samuel Massie, the surviving members of last season's tragic Berserk Pole attempt, have come up with a yacht and crew in Auckland and are heading for the Ross Sea...with a Maori worker who was working below when they cast off. and the NZ authorities were looking for them. They announced plans to head for Pole using the quad bikes they left behind at McM last year, or perhaps they're just going to pick up their gear at Scott Base (the latest news).
25 January...the last few weeks of summer...the tourist season is almost over. Although the ALE camp at Union Glacier is closing this week, several teams from the Extreme World Races (EWR) event (supported out of Novo by the Arctic Trucks team) were still en route hoping to reach the station by the last week in January. Other recent visitors official and otherwise included Michel Rocard, the 1988-91 prime minister of France, as well as British TV star Helen Skelton (right; EWR/Arctic Trucks photo). Helen's polar venture has created an international media frenzy and at least one dubious "world record" claim (ExplorersWeb commentary). Elsewhere around the station, various science projects were finishing their summer work, efforts were continuing to get rodwell#3 operating, with assistance from John Rand, and the team from Lockheed-Martin arrived to begin the contract transition process. And there has been some testing of the new Skynet-4c satellite link.
100 years ago...5 Englishmen showed up at Pole on foot. No warm visitor center, no elevated station, no aircraft to take them back to London...nothing... but a tent left by Amundsen's party which had preceded them by a month. So...the leader Robert Falcon Scott's comment on reaching his goal was, "Great God! This is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward of priority." Gee, what would you say under such circumstances? Perhaps words that I'd rather not put on this web site. Well, on 17 January 2012 things were a bit different, there were perhaps about 70 NGO visitors, and there was a ceremony to mark the occasion. 
One of the speakers was area manager Bill Coughran (left), another was Henry Worsley, a member of the Royal British Legion and a relative of Frank Worsley, the captain of the Endurance on Shackleton's 1914-16 trans-Antarctic attempt. Worsley had arrived at Pole via Amundsen's route as part of the British Scott-Amundsen Centenary Race. The team following Scott's route did make it to Pole before midnight on the 17th. Henry also took Scott's route to Pole a few years ago (more photos and information about the ceremony). Meanwhile, there also was a commemorative dinner at Scott Base, one of the attendees was Falcon Scott, Robert's grandson, who has been working with the Antarctic Heritage Trust on the restoration of the Terra Nova hut at Cape Evans.
Yes...1 January did bring the unveiling of the latest and great Pole marker (right)...an amazing construction by Steele Diggles, the 2011 machinist.
Just when you thought it might not happen...it did. There is a contract protest. CH2M Hill was officially debriefed by NSF on 5 January and filed a protest the next day. This Engineering News-Record story is no longer available to nonsubscribers, but this article should be around longer. "CH2M HILL Antarctic Support, Inc. is disappointed with result of the NSF's selection process for the Antarctic Support Contract," the company said in a statement. Lockheed-Martin declined to comment on the protest. And NSF contracting officer Bart Bridwell noted, "I'm afraid Federal acquisition isn't for the faint of heart." According to the official court docket, a decision was due by 18 April.
At sea 375 miles north of McMurdo, the Korean 167-foot fishing vessel Jeong Woo, with 40 aboard, caught fire on 13 January (right), 3 crew members were killed in the fire...and various vessels including other fishing boats and the Nathaniel B. Palmer (NBP) rushed to the rescue. Seven of the most seriously injured crew members were taken aboard the NBP, which headed swiftly toward McM, reaching the ice edge around 0700 on the 13th. The injured personnel were taken to McM and put on a LC-130 which arrived in Christchurch that evening. The NBP had been on a science cruise from Punta Arenas, studying phytoplankton production in the Ross Sea, and had originally been scheduled to dock at McM on 6 February. Here is a 17 January Christchurch Press article. Earlier articles are from the New Zealand Herald and from Sail World...the photo at right was taken by NBP crew member Johnny Pierce. The final marine update from NZ appears to be from Maritime NZ dated 13 January; here is a 23 January Antarctic Sun article which describes the excellent response by the NBP and the rest of the USAP community.
The folks from Arctic Trucks have been doing some amazing long-distance off-road and on-road exploits...in late December they made a quick dash from Pole to the McMurdo area (blog), they'd previously said that they'd head to McM via the Beardmore Glacier, but they actually made both legs of the journey on the Leverett Glacier USAP traverse route. They met up with Felicity Aston along the way, reached the coast near McMurdo on 14 December, and dashed back to Pole on the 17th. Then, after making further preparation for the South Pole Race, they had some extra time and did a side trip to the Pole of Inaccessibility, which they documented with the photo at left at the bust of Lenin that the USSR erected in the 1958-59 season. It's on top of a building which has a guest book inside, but none of the recent visitors have dug their way in to sign it. After that, the Arctic Trucks folks have been supporting the 2011 Race to the South Pole, an event that started on 4 January. It's 500 miles consisting of 2 250-mile legs...originally there were 7 3-person teams...as of 12 January the racers were halfway to Pole...the Norwegian team was the first to finish, on 20 January. Oh, in addition to supporting/following the race, the Arctic Trucks team was also supporting that ski/kite/bike trip by UK TV celebrity Helen Skelton, her trip also happens to be 500 miles...she reached Pole on 22 January.
Finally, on 28 December US time, almost a week after the announcement on the ice, we have some official press releases about the contract award. Here's NSF's news release, and here is the Lockheed Martin announcement. Interested in jobs with LMCO or their subcontractors? Go here to the Antarctic Memories message board for hints and tips.
It turns out that 2011 brought not one but TWO major weather records! On Christmas Day the official high temperature was +9.9°F/-12.3°C...which significantly exceeded the old record of +7.5°F/-13.6°C set on 27 December 1978. Yes, you'll notice the scroll image at left is a bit off...some things don't change from 1977, when our thermometer was a bit off when we did the 300 club. Here is a blog post from the folks at the University of Wisconsin.
Merry Christmas...Happy Holidays...and the best for the New Year! At right, the 2011 greeting card...created from the group photo with the Norwegian prime minister.
Friday the 23rd around noon SP time...the announcement was made that Lockheed Martin would be awarded the Antarctic support contract. Nothing on the news wires at the time, but the official announcement was made by Sam Feola to everyone in the program. Here's a copy of his email announcement to the community. And Lockheed Martin put up a special preliminary job announcement page for some positions in the program. That is gone, but the current The Lockheed Martin project web site is here.
Tuesday the 13th at Pole was "science day" for Prime Minister Stoltenberg...he toured ARO and the dark sector; at left, Bradford Benson explains to the PM what is going on with the SP telescope (info/credit). As for the 14th...the plans did change...he and his party went out a few miles from the station and skied back with some of the Norwegian skiers (the "South Pole 1911-2011" was still 50 miles away...
Jan-Gunnar Winther and Stein Aasheim from that expedition were picked up and flown to Pole on the 13th, and the rest of the team breathlessly arrived the next day. The big ceremony and video presentation did happen...the major event and ice sculpture unveiling happened at 1600 on the 14th...and filmed to be broadcast later in Norway. It featured a solo performance of the Norwegian national anthem by Zondra Skertich, on flute. Here's the official video! My coverage starts here, and Peter Rejcek was on site for the occasion, check out his excellent Antarctic Sun article! Later, there was a private dinner for some of the senior DV's, and a reception in the gym which turned into a party with live music. There was another bit of a ceremony early in the morning of the 15th...the folks figured that Amundsen had arrived around 0430 on the 15th SP time. And then, despite low visibility...the LC-130 landed on the third attempt...and the PM and his entourage departed. The tourist camp was still full, but since then many folks have departed...while others are en route.
Monday 12 December US time...the Norwegian press is not the only media covering the events. The New York Times published this feature article which describes not only the Scott-Amundsen "race" but also the past and future science objectives on the continent. And on the editorial page, there is also a great opinion piece about Amundsen's venture.
Monday 12 December...Jens Stoltenberg, the Prime Minister of Norway, with entourage, arrived at Pole in time for lunch (!) (right, more info/credits) They stayed for about 3 days...and Jens briefly donned a pair of skis and tweeted "Skiing at the South Pole..." (!) The visit is a record...while heads of state have visited before, none have ever stayed overnight. The group included a state secretary, Hans Kristian Amundsen (!). On Wednesday the Prime Minister gave a speech, which was televised on both of Norway's TV networks. There also was live music from the Ceremonial Pole and participation by the Crown Prince Haakon, from Tromsø, Norway. Here are two news articles from Norway: an article in Norwegian from dagbadet.no with video in English and an article in English from theforeigner.no. Stay tuned...
Tourist time has begun...the Norwegian press entourage has shown up to prepare for the visit of the prime minister. He of course would arrive on an American LC-130, but meanwhile the official Norwegian centenary traverse was also on track to arrive on 14 December, as of the 10th they were at 88°33'S, only 100 statute miles/161 km away. Meanwhile, the first skier teams arrived...and the tourist tent city was growing fast as folks flew in from UG and Novo. Three of the Arctic Trucks vehicles also showed up, led by Extreme World Races (EWR) CEO Tony Martin, reached Pole (or more exactly, the ALCI camp/fuel depot a few miles away) on 6 December...
they were doing preparation for the EWR and leading some high school student skiers. They all arrived at Pole the next day...the skiers were flown out, and the EWR vehicles are soon to be off for McMurdo via the Beardmore glacier. Other tourists are starting to arrive by air (right, more info). The building complex in the background is the visitor center, and the square booth was used for electronics for the ceremonies on Amundsen's centenary day.
Elsewhere on the continent...the Antarctic Ice Marathon was held at Union Glacier on 7 December (more information below). And some rumor control...the Blue Ribbon panel (right) led by Norm Augustine (more information and photo caption) is now in McMurdo...on Sunday 4 December they held an open discussion. Before the main presentation, Dr. Karl Erb said that that an announcement about the contract rebid would be made within the next two weeks. Yes, the team visited Pole as well.
Still more shipping news...it seems that after all that work on the new McM ice pier, it won't work. Too much warm weather and bad weather has prevented its proper completion; it is too thin to support the cargo ship offload. So...the engineers spent some time figuring out what to do...it will be towed out of the way, and pontoons will be used for cargo offload. Where will the pontoons come from and how will they get there? One plan is for the U.S. Army to deploy a modular causeway system (pontoons) with a team of about 40 aboard the cargo ship Green Wave (note, this is NOT the same Green Wave that has visited McM in the past, but a newly reflagged vessel (the rest of the story about the cargo ship contract). Another plan...the responsible agency (the U.S. Navy Military Sealift Command) is looking for a separate breakbulk or LO/LO ("lift on/lift off") ice class vessel--one with cranes that can carry and offload 27 of the 40' causeway sections into the harbor. On 1 December they issued a request for information looking for what's out there. Like yesterday. Hmmm. Remember how easy it was to charter the icebreaker? Here's the 2 December Antarctic Sun article about the pier.
Preparations are continuing for all of the official and unofficial summer visitors expected around mid-December, including the prime minister of Norway (Antarctic Sun coverage). At left, carpenters are busy erecting the visitor center complex, which reportedly will use some of the plentiful midsummer solar energy (photo from Ethan Good). Many of the folks are underway, some are getting close...I keep updating my expedition status list below accordingly. Otherwise...some science construction...preparation for retrograde/storage of the IceCube drilling equipment...rather a strange summer without all of those drillers and other IceCubers filling up the B1 lounge. Some of the hot water drilling equipment is being sent back to McM for future use by the WISSARD (Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling) project...and the
One of many events held in December 2011 to mark the centenary of folks getting to Pole was...a presentation jointly sponsored by the Explorers Club Washington (DC) Group, the Antarctican Society, and the Society of Woman Geographers, on Saturday 3 December at the Cosmos Club. I had great fun going, wearing black tie and a borrowed miniature Antarctic Service Medal (hero shot), hearing a fine talk by Jerry Marty, and meeting some of the other Antarcticans. And I also got to overnight with Antarctic friends. Okay...if you're unfamiliar with the Antarctican Society (more info) you should know that this isn't the only event in which they're involved with the Explorers Club...there was a much bigger event scheduled for 2-4 May 2012 in New York City, the 75th anniversary meeting of the American Polar Society, but it was postponed until 2013. You have even more advance notice for this one.
1 December was the day set aside to mark the signing of an important document. No, NOT the contract, but the Antarctic Treaty...which was signed on 1 December 1959. So today is Antarctica Day. Polie Marie Mclane has more information and a collection of good links here.
As for the contract award, "mid November" has passed...as of 3 December the facts about the contract were...it had still not been awarded. The most recent rumor at the moment was that it might be announced on 1 December 2011. Well, that was a good rumor, it's time for another one (my updated coverage).
The new IceCube winterover team is on station...it includes Carlos Pobes, who, it turns out will be thebe the second Spanish person to winter (I was recently reminded that Francisco Navarro, the 1984 UCLA grantee, also was from Spain). Here's an October interview with Carlos from El Periódico de Aragón (in Spanish). Otherwise, Saturday dinner on 12 November was interrupted by a glycol leak in the power plant...fumes and lots of glycol to mop up, but no power outage...still a significant and successful test for the brand new 2011-12 emergency response teams.
In November 2011, Arctic Trucks received official recognition from the Guiness Book of World Records for last season's trip from Novo to Pole...1434 miles in 108 hours (photo at left). Remember, 25 years ago ANI first set up an air operation in the Antarctic...now Arctic Trucks is rapidly becoming a significant player in ground operations. In 2011-12 they had at least a dozen of their vehicles on the ice and supported several major national and NGO ventures (their 2011-12 Antarctic venture page antarcticachallenge.com has disappeared). Meanwhile, the first teams traveling out of Novo are also heading south, although the Belgian long-distance kiting expedition (Dixie Dansercoer and Sam Deltourran) ran into unnavigable conditions and were being flown back to Novo to pick another route (a Reuters article and their expedition web site). Meanwhile the Norwegian Polar Institute team that has been following Amundsen's route from the Bay of Whales area is about 2 weeks behind Amundsen's pace, they may not make it to Pole in time for the centenary of his arrival (14 November Norway International Network article), or to meet up with the Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who presumably will arrive at Pole by LC-130.
A postscript on February's tragic Berserk expedition...Norwegian captain Jarle Andhøy, who was well on his way to Pole when the boat was lost, was fined NOK 25,000 ($4500) in early November. The official offense was: not notifying the Norwegian Polar Institute, not filing an environmental assessment, and lacking search-and-rescue insurance. Andhøy accepted the fine without comment, although it was announced on 9 November that he would participate with NRK television and produce a documentary about the venture (Vestbold Blad/Norwegian language page) (my coverage of the Berserk incident).
More shipping news...on 30 September Maersk Line, Limited (MLL) officially renamed the ice-class double-hull tanker Maersk Peary. The 591-foot, 38,200 DWT (deadweight tonnes) vessel, formerly the Jutul, was built in South Korea in 2004 and flagged in the Marshall Islands. She was officially reflagged into US registry on 19 September (press release from MLL and a (Tanker Operator article). She left Norfolk on 1 October, her next voyage will be to resupply McMurdo in January (earlier coverage on the Military Sealift Command (MSC) tanker contract).
Another aircraft update...after a 12-day weather delay, the first ANI/ALE Ilyushin-76 passenger flight from PA to Union Glacier finally arrived at 0745 Saturday morning (29 October) SP time, and some of the first NGO venturers are already out there in tents on the first leg of their trip to Pole. More flights were due to follow. Below on this page I've seriously updated the lists of who is coming and from where...only about 6 weeks before the Amundsen centenary...hope the store will be well stocked!
After icebreaker issues and the normal early season weather flight delays to the ice and Pole, there was another brief travel snafu...on Saturday Qantas decided to immediately cancel all flights and lock out its employees (stuff.co.nz article and Sydney Morning Herald live updates). It was a complicated labor issue...and on Monday the Australian government sent everyone back to work during a cooling off period, so flights resumed Monday afternoon SP/NZ time. Remember that RPSC booked most travel from LAX to ChCh on Qantas, and there were lots of ice folks yet to head south.
The first Basler opening flight from McM was delayed again this past weekend...but it finally headed for Pole on Monday the 24th, and landed to drop off 16 fresh faces (right, photo from Jens Dreyer). At last, the summer season has begun! The first Basler was originally scheduled for the 17th but of course they didn't get to McM until the 17th. Here's a 22 October Antarctic Sun article about the first pass of the Baslers through Pole. Oh, the Tuesday and Wednesday Basler flights were cancelled due to weather...at McMurdo...then it looked like the pax for both of these might head to Pole on Thursday on an LC-130. Or a Basler. Not. Another weather delay. Friday...there was an afternoon Herc flight scheduled...after a wait of several hours it was cancelled due to mechanical problems. Saturday...YES. The Herc took off with 40 passengers...and they made it in time for lunch. Whew...now the winter is really over.
In October, NSF was still dithering with the support contract...there were not one but TWO more amendments on 18 and 19 October...we were up to amendment 18, folks. This time...just some error clarifications on the costs for chartering the research vessels...but to give the accountants some time to recrunch, the final submittal date has been pushed back to 25 October. Would the NSF bean counters still be able to announce the award per schedule by mid-November?
On 27 August, the winter site manager, Renée-Nicole Douceur (right), suffered an apparent stroke. After she received medical attention, a medevac was discussed but not implemented. A month later, her niece raised that issue to the world media, so it was South Pole news out there. She WAS flown out on the first Basler transiting from Rothera to McMurdo... continued on to New Zealand the same day, and had an MRI and other exams in Christchurch before heading for Baltimore and further medical tests at Johns Hopkins. Here's the rest of the story.
Something I missed when it was announced...on 29 September 2011 the NSF support contract for ARCTIC operations was awarded to CH2M HILL, the incumbent contractor (Polar Field Services in Littleton, CO). It is worth $324 million for a 4-year base period beginning on 1 February 2012, with options for two additional 2-year extensions. The contracting process proceeded without hitches or delays...there was a presolicitation notice in October 2010, the original RFP was issued on 16 February 2011, and bids were due on 15 April. There were two bidders, the unsuccessful one was URS. The contract provides research support in a number of locations--45% in Alaska (mostly at the Toolik Field Station, which is on the Dalton Highway north of the Brooks Range), 32% in Greenland (mostly at Summit), with the remainder in Canada and Russia. The GSA contract details and award notice are here. It is worth noting that this award breaks a precedent for not awarding a new contract to the incumbent. There is also a precedent still out there that the Arctic and Antarctic support contracts have always been held by different contractors...yes, CH2M HILL was one of the three finalists for the Antarctic contract awarded in December 2011. Hmmm.
The icebreaker...on 5 October the NSF sole-source justification for the Murmansk Shipping contract was published on the GSA contracting site. A history of the procurement activity is provided...the result is that contract for use of the Vladimir Ignatyuk for an estimated $5.66 million this season, with two one-year option periods. Here's the 31 August press release from Murmansk Shipping (Google translation).
Another satellite! A system to access a retired British military satellite was to be implemented during the 2011-12 summer season. Links to the Skynet 4c, now in an orbit with a slight (and slowly increasing) inclination, were tested at Pole during the 2009-10 season by a visiting team from Intelsat and SPAWAR, with assistance from 2010 comms tech Shaun Meehan. This satellite, originally launched in 1990, will provide 1.5 Mbps IP link for (initially) 2 hours and 43 minutes a day, on a consistent daily schedule similar to GOES. The project requires some electronics and a small dish, which was installed inside the large radome with the GOES dish (Skynet and GOES are in opposite directions). That part of the system was completed this season...but it seemed that the satellite orbit had been adjusted, so that it was hidden behind MAPO. So...the dish will need to be relocated, perhaps next season. Here's earlier information: the original 2009 GSA Intelsat contract award announcement and a 2010 announcement from Intelsat.
The 2011 winter season was over...at least for McMurdo. The first two flights of the season arrived on 4 October, delayed for one day by weather. One was a C-17, the first of 63 C-17 flights scheduled for this season, with 113 passengers. Additionally, the Australian Airbus A319 also arrived from Christchurch with 59 passengers. As for Pole, it will be a few more days yet. The first of the Basler and Twin Otter transit flights from Rothera to McMurdo were expected to stop at Pole around the 13th, with the first Basler passenger flight from McM scheduled for the 17th. The LC-130's operated by the New York National Guard were to make their first appearance on 1 November. For travel to Pole at a more leisurely pace (!) there were to be TWO land traverses this year...sorry no passengers. There was excellent coverage on the end of winter in this 4 October Antarctic Sun article.
In case you missed it (well, I did), there were FOUR contract amendments posted in September 2011 on the GSA contract web site. Mostly they provided an opportunity for the number crunchers with KBR, CH2MHill, and Lockheed Martin to break out their #2 pencils and spreadsheets one more time, for another final submission due 30 September...for costs year by year all the way to March 2025. One of the data items in the amendments (they are now up to amendment #16!) was an updated list of USAP subcontracts and leases that are part of the contract. Everything from the Xerox machines and ATM...to the N B Palmer...to...the lease on the RPSC building in Centennial. Which is up on 30 April 2012. No one has negotiated an extension, although when I was last in the office in March 2010 I noted that there was a lot of vacant office space in the area, which I understand is still the case. Also...the schedule on the NSF contract site was adjusted on 2 September to indicate that the evaluations/negotiations would run to 30 September and the contract award would be in November. And the RPSC "Transition" page and FAQ was updated on 4 October to reflect a mid-November award schedule.
It got a bit windy again. Not just a light breeze...it seems that the all-time wind speed record has been broken! According to Tim Markle in the met department, on 27 September "...the peak wind speed of 50kts/58mph broke the record for the all-time strongest wind speed at South Pole. The previous record of 48kts/55mph was set on August 24th, 1989." Ulp. There's an excellent Antarctic Sun report with more information from Tim on the weather records. Oh, at left is Robert Schwarz's photo of what MAPO looked like. Seems that a bit of digging may be in order.
The McMurdo main body opening was to happen soon...(Wednesday 28 September 2011 US time) the C-17 was at Hickam, scheduled to fly to Christchurch the next day...on schedule for the first flight to McM on the third.
Sunrise has happened...the official time of the equinox was 2105 on Friday 23 September 2011, but the weather was not doing much cooperating then. The official sunrise dinner was on Saturday the 24th, it featured an excellent gathering and big feast with meals to order. That day the weather cleared a bit and the sun was actually visible. But on Sunday the winds came up...around 0300 the wind velocity hit 45kts (52mph or 84 km/h)–a new record for the month of September which came close to the all-time wind speed record (48 kts/55 mph/88km/h) set on 24 August 1989. Earlier, on 16 September...5 days early...the sun had first been sighted....then it was calmer and cooler the temps were in the -90s (°F).
The first of six Winfly flights reached McM on schedule on 20 August...the day after the first sunrise of the spring (Antarctic Sun) article and a 25 August USAF press release. Weather backed up the later flights...they were supposed to run through 29 August, but they ran into the first week of September.
Media watch...it seems that HBO has teamed up with Sopranos actor James Gandolfini for a comedy drama series based on Big Dead Place...that iconic Antarctic book written by McMurdo denizen (and 2004 Pole winterover) Nicholas Johnson. Hmmmm. Here's the 1 September deadline.com news article. Oh, and on the bigger screen...14 October will see the release of The Thing, which is actually described as a prequel to that 1982 John Carpenter movie. It stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Here's the official site (warning, very high bandwidth required). Yes, there are flamethrowers. And dogs (?)
Yes, there was a small airdrop at Pole on Monday 29 August 2011 (left, the loads are ready to go). Here's more information, photos and the video link. Not as big a deal as some in the past, since the C-17s are in Christchurch for the ongoing winfly flights...but still the station had a fair amount of preparation and practice...burn barrels etc. The successful result--some medical supplies that were running short, spare parts, a bit of mail, and freshies, well, only a few oranges.
Thursday, 25 August 2011 (US time)...NSF officially announced that they had engaged a Russian icebreaker for the upcoming season! Yes...here's the press release; also a letter to participants was posted on the NSF OPP web site. 
There is a one-year letter contract (with renewal options) with the Murmansk Shipping Company (source of the copyrighted photo at right), for the use of the Russian diesel-powered Vladimir Ignatyuk. This vessel was originally constructed as the Arctic Kalvik in Victoria, BC in 1983, and was sold by Gulf Canada to Murmansk Shipping in 2003. Briefly, it's 289 feet long, with a beam of 58 feet, draft of 27 feet, displacement of 4,234 tons, and a maximum speed of 16 knots (more stats and a schematic layout). Other coverage...a 26 August Antarctic Sun article...this 29 August AAAS/Science Insider article, and a 26 August Russian press release from Ria Novosti. A similar sister vessel, the Terry Fox,, also used by Gulf Canada, is now a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker.
Well, 15 August WAS supposed to be the deadline for icebreaker announcements, but not all deadlines get met. Fortunately the talking and negotiating continued...a few days after the deadline, NSF OPP director Karl Erb was quoted that negotiations were underway with the owners of two foreign icebreakers. The 19 August issue of Science, published this news article "U.S. Icebreaking Woes Threaten McMurdo Resupply, Research Plans" (actually the title said it all, but to view more than the summary you needed to have a subscription or pay for access, sorry). He "hoped to tell the community in a couple of weeks that we have a resupply ship lined up..." according to the article. Meanwhile, here is what he said at the 28-29 July National Science Board meeting about this issue. (Below, more earlier icebreaker info and links).
Also at the meeting, Dr. Erb announced the current schedule for the Antarctic support contract award, "not later than mid November." Not much more room for schedule slippage. He also announced that tour companies had indicated that more than 300 people would be at Pole on 14 December, the centenary of Amundsen's arrival.
More shipping news...on 3 August the Military Sealift Command (MSC) awarded the contract for charter of the cargo vessel for the next few years...to Waterman Steamship Corporation...the Alabama-based division of multinational shipping firm International Shipholding Corporation (ISC). $10 million per year (fixed price !?) for a maximum of five years of resupply trips to McMurdo and Thule. Here's the updated link to the news item, this comes from MM&P. (The contract award announcement (is listed on this page, scroll down a bit). After the award, Waterman reflagged the Cyprus-flagged ice-rated cargo vessel Federal Patroller giving it a historical name...the Green Wave(!) Here are photos of the vessel from Google Images. On a historical note, ISC got its start in the shipping business in 1947 when the then-New Orleans-based company purchased its first vessel, a surplused WW2 Liberty Ship that they renamed Green Wave...honoring Tulane University. Note that this vessel never ventured to Antarctica and is NOT the same one that we are more familiar with. In 1984, the MS Woermann Mira was purchased by the Navy for the Military Sealift Command (MSC) and renamed...Green Wave, and it made its first appearance at McMurdo at the end of January 1985. So the 2012 vessel is at least the third one by this name, and the second one to visit the ice.
Science in the dark...here's a fresh Antarctic Sun article by research associate Marco Tortonese about some of the station winter science projects. Oh, Marco continues his outdoor skiing and running during the winter, he now has more than 2000 miles under his belt. Check out his blog!
On the lighter side...the Antarctic 48 Hour Film Festival took place around the last weekend of July. Entries in the "48 hour" division had to be completely filmed and produced in that period...and they also had to include specific items–a saw, a T-shirt with a chocolate bar stuck to it, the sound of a dripping faucet, the character Popeye, and the dialogue: "….which I imbibed rapaciously." The Pole entry in the 48-hour division is "Popeye the Surgeon Man"...and the Open division entry was the two-part thriller "Attack of the Killer DOMs." And of course many other Antarctic stations have some excellent entries as well. Check out the lot!
Update on the dome (you DO remember the dome, right?)...in Port Hueneme, the top ring has been successfully reassembled and hung in a designated spot in the brand new Seabee Museum (photo at right)! The task was completed by Lee Mattis (second from left), Jerry Marty (fourth) and John Perry (fifth) along with some active-duty and retired Seabee assistance. During the dome erection, Lee was the tech rep from TEMCOR, the dome fabricator, and John was the Navy engineer. Yes, of course I have more photos and links here.
Shipping news update...for several months there have been ongoing negotiations and discussions underway about the icebreaker for the 2011-12 resupply. Or, more exactly, the lack of an icebreaker. On 28 July NSF formally announced the situation to the science community: "...unless we can find and engage a suitable replacement by mid-August, we will have to implement contingency plans that would curtail activities in the near term...." What would be curtailed? Well, field camps and other activities requiring significant air support, among other things...and Pole could close as early as 5 February. The full announcement is in this "Dear Colleagues" letter from Karl Erb, director of the NSF Office of Polar Programs (the letter was posted on the usap.gov home page). It seems that the Oden isn't available this year. Why? Well, it seems that there had been domestic complaints in Sweden because ships had been caught in the Baltic Sea ice during the northern winter, while the Oden was at the other end of the world. 
This story was picked up in July by Popular Mechanics. As for the US Coast Guard's two 1960-era icebreakers traditionally used in the Antarctic...the Polar Star is midway through a major 2-1/2 year refit, and the Polar Sea is about to be decommissioned. The lighter 11-year-old
Healy began a major 7-month Arctic science cruise at the end of May. So there were are. Several items of interest...a 7 July op-ed by retired Coast Guard RADM Jeffrey M. Garrett which outlines the current American icebreaker status vs the rest of the world...focusing primarily on the Arctic...this 27 May Coast Guard press release which outlines what the Healy is doing...and a January 2011 Coast Guard audit of the "Polar Icebreaker Maintenance, Upgrade, and Acquisition Program" (or lack thereof). Remember that in 2004-05 when the big icebergs were causing problems, contingency plans were being made to curtail the season...and the Russian icebreaker Krasin was charter to assist the Polar Star. Oh by the way, in May NSF put out a contract proposal looking for an icebreaker...there are two items of interest here. First, obviously there wasn't a relevant response...and secondly, the RFP contains a map and a detailed history of the US Antarctic program icebreaker support from the IGY to date (MS Word document). By the way, the photo at left shows the Oden (foreground) with the NBP (Nathaniel B. Palmer) in McMurdo Sound in January 2011 (photo by Peter Rejcek in the USAP photo library).
More shipping news...on 1 July a MSC contract was awarded to Maersk Line, Limited (MLL) for charter of a modern US-flag ice-strengthened tanker to deliver fuel to McMurdo (and Thule) over the next few years (Maersk press release and some information about the company). This will replace the old MSC tankers that have been used up until the 2010-11 season; the T-5 tankers have been retired, partly due to old age (earlier MSC press release) and partly due to the new international regulations banning heavy fuel oil from Antarctic waters.
North of Antarctica, the Antarctic Treaty consultative meeting, otherwise known as ATCM XXXIV, was held in Buenos Aires in June 2011. So what happened? Apparently, not much that interested the news media...here's about the only recent article I found, from the Sydney Morning Herald. But I've been through the documents, and there are a few items which may be of interest to folks reading this. One...a report from the Norwegian Polar Institute that they'd considered (and rejected) several NGO expedition requests to use dogs as part of centenary ventures (!). There are two interesting reports about that berserk Berserk expedition, which I've covered here. Among other things, they're considering another venture to Pole and a winterover somewhere (!!). As for the centennial stuff, the US published their revised NGO guidelines and maps for the upcoming 2011-12 Pole tourist season. I've updated my map section to include all of the current guidelines and maps. And a note of historical interest, there was a submittal of a 2008 Texas A&M paper, "The historical development of McMurdo station, Antarctica, an environmental perspective." The meeting documents can be found from this ATS page; click on the link to ATCM XXXIV and then select "documents." My other treaty links are here.
Auroras? Huh? Here's a time lapse that Weeks Heist posted in late June...
A seriously ill contractor employee was successfuly medevaced from McMurdo to Christchurch. With only 18 hours notice, the Air Force C-17 arrived in ChCh from Lewis-McChord base in Washington State. Then with medical personnel aboard, the flight headed south to the Pegasus runway...and were on the ground for only about 40 minutes before heading north with the patient...who was turned over to medical care in ChCh at 2030 on 30 June. The flight had to deal with the usual winter darkness by using night vision goggles, but they also had to contend with volcanic ash from the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcano in southern Chile, the ash has been blowing across the Pacific Ocean since early June; the volcano is about 130km NNE of Puerto Montt. The Pegasus runway had been completely prepared for the flight in only 5 days! At right...the patient is being cared for aboard the aircraft. Here's the USAF press release with that and more photos. Folks at Pole did flight following for this mission.
Update...there are major science strategy reports forthcoming! Remember...in 1997 NSF commissioned the "Augustine Report" otherwise known as the "Report of the U. S. Antarctic Program External Panel"...a principal recommendation of which was to build a new South Pole station ASAP! The new study by the National Academies of Science, sponsored by NSF, is appropriately titled "The US Antarctic Program: Future Science Opportunities in the Antarctic and Southern Ocean." The report, scheduled for release during the northern 2011 summer, is intended to assess the future science directions of the U. S. Antarctic Program for the next 20 years. And, another major policy review will build upon it. The U.S. Antarctic Blue Ribbon Panel which is also being led by Norm Augustine, will evaluate American long-term strategy for conductiong science and diplomacy in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean region. 
Sponsored jointly by NSF and the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the panel will report its findings by early 2012 (White House press release and Antarctic Sun article).
In late June Bill Spindler attended the 2011 Antarctic Deep Freeze Association meeting/reunion in Gettysburg. It ran from 21-24 June...Wednesday the 22nd, many of us took an excellent tour of the battlefield and museum; most of the key meeting events including my lecture happened on Thursday. This organization consists primarily of the folks who were on the ice before and during the IGY, 1956-58, although there are some younger members such as I. One of the more interesting features of the event is a phone call between reunion participants and people at Pole--at left is a photo of the event...on the left is Cliff Dickey and on the right is Ken Waldron, two of the 1957 Pole winterover crew...between them is a more recent Polie, Andy Martinez. Bill Spindler happens to be the only person who has participated in these phone calls from both ends. Here are some pictures of the Pole end of the phone call in 2005.
I hope you had a happy midwinters day whenever you chose to celebrate it! The official moment of the solstice was 0516 (SP/McM time) Wednesday 22 June...McMurdo and Pole chose to celebrate the event on Saturday the 18th...noted by the greeting cards you see at left and at right...while Scott Base will hold their special dinner on the 23rd, to commemorate the fact that Scott and Amundsen had midwinter
festivities on that date 100 years ago. The Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge has posted a blog based on Scott's diaries from 100 years ago; here's the page devoted to the midwinter activities. The full story...the book Scott's Last Expedition (Vol. 1, which describes the main body expedition activities) is available for free from the Gutenberg Project in a variety of electronic formats. Amundsen has a similar brief blog produced by the Fram Museum in Oslo. Amundsen's book The South Pole contains an entire chapter (60 pages) describing the events of 23 June 1911...it is also available, here, from the Gutenberg Project. As for the 2011 event, Robert Schwarz has lots of pictures!.
So is the upcoming summer the "chaos season?" Well, on 15 January 2011 this New York Times article (subscription access may be required) suggested that hundreds of people want to visit Pole in 2011-12, which is the centennial of Amundsen's and Scott's arrival. There will be skiiers from the coast, the last degree or the last 20 miles...tourists on champagne flights...competitive racers...drivers arriving overland by truck...and of course a bunch of official government distinguished visitors. Perhaps as many as 1000 people...compared to last season when there were about 300 NGO visitors. Of special interest is the fact that a number of the expeditions will be retracing some or all of Scott's and Amundsen's routes from the Ross Ice Shelf, rather than the usual routes from near Union Glacier. NSF has a special committee at work to determine what the official commemorative events will be...and Raytheon will have a special coordinator on hand to deal with the hordes, sell them stuff in the store, and keep them safe and away from the science. So who all is coming? Well, if you've been here before, you know that this web site has maintained the most comprehensive list of such ventures since 1999...and despite the sputtering economy, this year's list was rather long and kept growing.
4 June at Pole saw the seventh annual renewal of another strange Pole event...the BF5K...or a 5 km race through the halls of the station...18 laps in all. The spectacular part about it, as always, was the amazing costumes worn by the participants! Check out Robert Schwarz's page of photos!
Global warming? Tell that to the 14 latest members of the 300 Club! Yes...on Friday 27 May (left) the temps dipped into triple digits...let's welcome Susan MacGregor, who at age 62 is the oldest person to be initiated into that great organization! I don't think I ought to post photos of her athletic performance...but I WILL post a link to her May Antarctic Sun article in which she describes the amazing successes of the growth chamber. Yes, there are photos.
Contract news...well, although the rumors are circulating yet again...to the best I've been able to determine they are just that. The facts...Amendment 11 to the RFP came out on 20 May...followed by, yes, Amendment 12 on 3 June! What does this mean? Nothing...except for the number crunchers and bean counters with the 3 finalists who now must recrunch and recount stuff and submit a few more trees by 14 June. We are still supposed to hear something in September...no, maybe in November.
The ice folks in Denver came up with an amazing fundraising event for the Christchurch earthquake rebuilding effort...Saturday 16 April (poster at right) at the Bug Theater. It included a silent auction as well as musical stuff...sorry I was a bit too far away to attend...but I can report that they ran the place out of beer! This and related events have generated $22,700 to be sent to the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal. Amazing ice people!
IceCube hasn't found anything yet...according to this April 2011 paper by the IceCube Collaboration (WIRED blog post with links to abstract of paper). Well...not exactly. It has detected neutrinos, but so far, the attempts to correlate them with gamma ray bursts have been unsuccessful. To quote paper coauthor Nathan Whitehorn, "In two years we'll have an answer, or a lot of scratching our heads. We'll either see neutrinos, or something will be strange with the universe." Which is, after all, why we do science...to find out about strange things.
April Fools? Well, not really...despite the continuing budget wrangling in Congress...the contract folks finally got around to awarding the 1-year support contract to RPSC...just under the wire on 31 March. This was publicly announced at 1832 Eastern time on...1 April 2011. Well, you saw that news here first. Here's the announcement.
Sunset! The big dinner was 19 March...the official sunset was not until 23 March...and the weather was clear enough for it to be watched and documented. One example is at left...actually showing a bit of that rarely seen green flash (general info page). This particular photo was taken by winterover IceCube astrophysicist Freija Descamps...who was interviewed by PRI (Public Radio International) The World on 24 March. She discussed her life and work at Pole, and presented some photos including the one you see at left. Well worth your time! Oh, and if you are looking for an excellent video of the sunset scene, check out this one by Weeks Heist!
The month after closing was the typical hectic round of station closing activities...cleaning and winterizing summer camp...washing all of the dirty linen...rolling up the fuel hose...putting out flag lines to outlying buildings. The outside world was not forgotten...over $10,000 with matching funds was collected to support the ChCh relief efforts...and the folks in Denver are sponsoring a major event to generate additional relief funds--Ice Aid (poster at right) on 16 April at the Bug Theater in downtown Denver. News updates...I'm still working on some of the new big science projects...for example, ARA, the next big neutron telescope.
Closing time at McM...a strange end to the rest of the USAP summer. First...the 22 February massive Christchurch earthquake, which devastated the central city and disrupted the final McM redeployment...along with storms and warm weather that broke up the ice around Ross Island...waves were breaking on the McMurdo beach, and open water threatened the road to the Pegasus runway 
(right, a composite view and more info). Around the same time, news of a sudden February 2-man Norwegian Pole expedition...which started from the Bay of Whales and ended after the supporting yacht Berserk sank north of Ross Island, with the death of 3 crew members. According to one report, the Pole trip made it to within 200 miles of Pole before they turned around...since evacuated to Chch. (story).
Closing time at Pole...February 15th...leaves 49 winterovers for the 2011 season, although a couple of Twin Otter flights were still transiting. The absolute last plane, a Basler, departed for Rothera on the 23rd. The small crowd...35 men and 14 women. Time to rearrange the galley! Things are pretty busy on station these days with all of the closing activities, so the full statistics are still being calculated...
The beginning of February was cargo time at McM 14 February MSC press release). On the 30th the tanker Richard G. Matthiesen showed up, using the channel previously cleared by the Swedish science/icebreaker Oden, which arrived about 16 January. The Matthiesen has been to McMurdo before...most recently in January 2003...when actually it didn't get to the pier, but hoses had to be laid out from about 4 miles away. This is the last year for the Military Sealift Command (MSC) tanker Matthiesen, which is about to be laid up, following the other T-5 tankers. Why? Other than old age, a new Antarctic treaty protocol prohibits vessels (such as old MSC ships) using heavy fuel oil in Antarctic waters, effective 1 August 2011. Thus, this year's cargo ship was NOT the American Tern of previous seasons, but the chartered BBC EMS, flagged by Antigua Barbuda. It finished up and departed McM on 13 February.
What NGA expeditions went down in 2010-11...here's what actually happened...
[For much better coverage, watch thepoles.com, run by Thomas and Tina Sjogren...or the individual expedition websites. Also note that all distances listed below unless otherwise noted are in statute miles (5,280 feet, 7/8 nautical miles or 1.6 km), and times are South Pole time (UTC+13 in the austral summer).
Running stuff...not only was the Christmas Day Race Around the World a historic trekking event vs a the tame "3x round the Pole" event of yore...but it developed later into the first real South Pole marathon.
Around Christmas 2010, there were lots of NGA visitors...all of the various Last Degree participants, plus the "South Pole Race folks. This created a great crowd of people in the NGA camp, and since many of them had arrived in vehicles, they had lots of "stuff" with them. A great party scene...here's one description by David "Pablo" Cohn. the Race folks departed on New Years.
Elsewhere on the plateau, the Russians have finally come up with an environmentally acceptable way to sample the waters of Lake Vostok without contaminating it, and drilling is expected to be completed in January. The top of the lake is about 12,300 feet below the ice surface. When the mechanical drill gets to within 100 feet, it will be replaced with a thermal lance...when that reaches the water, some will be forced up into the drill hole where it will freeze. Next season the team will sample some of that frozen water...(Wired Science article).
Perhaps the biggest news of the month of December...IceCube...after many years of planning and 6 seasons of drilling...starting in 2004-2005 when they successfully had ONE hole running that winter...finished up drilling their final 86th hole and setting the string...appropriately numbered #80 based on the original plans for 80 strings. The string deployment was completed and tied off just before 1800 on 18 December. Here's the Decembeer 2010 report (PDF with video link) from the folks in Madison, and an Antarctic Sun article! Well done! Now let's catch and roast some neutrinos...
Now we know what all those explosives were for...on 1 December Old Pole was blown up! Or so the planners hoped. Several tons of explosives are being used. What for? Well, since last season's Old Pole remediation efforts were less than successful, more dramatic means were called for. More surveys were made, charges were placed, and after they went off there were several deep holes where buildings (or at least their top hats--attic structures originally built to reduce the snow load on the building roofs) used to be. Another blast was conducted on 4 December, and a third series a few days later. Hopefully now the landscape will be safe and no longer off-limits. Common drive photo at right...the rest of the story/pictures/video!.
.The next batch of unusual visitors showed up on 3 December...the 10-member Moon Regan expedition with their two Ford vans and the fancy Bio-Inspired Vehicle (left, more pics/info). After a day or two at Pole they headed off down the road to McMurdo...although they decided to turn around when they reached the Ross Ice Shelf at the base of the Leverett Glacier. They returned to Pole and completed the return trip from Union Glacier on 17 December.
Thanksgiving weekend the first real tourists arrived, on Saturday four Slovakian "last degree" skiers as well as a Basler with 9 tourists--eight from Russia, one from Switzerland. After a tour, the Basler took the tourists and skiers back to Novo. A less publicized but much more significant event accompanied the arrival of the Indian science team (see below)...a massive fuel airdrop by a Russian IL-76 (21 November), about 32 miles away from the station, for use by future science and NGO ventures to Pole. My exclusive coverage.
At least four non-USAP ventures to Pole this season featured wheeled vehicles! Three of these involve Toyota Hilux trucks modified by Iceland customizer Arctic Trucks. Actually the first of these ventures has come and gone already...the Indian scientific expedition by the Indian National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR) (the news page). This group got to the ice (Novo) on 8 November, and left for Pole on in four Hilux vehicles on the 13th, with 12 people (6 scientists and 2 mechanics from Maitri, and 4 ALCI staff (2 drivers and 2 Icelanders). Three of the vehicles reached Pole on the 21st, after having to replace an axle and a radiator en route (right, a photo from 2011 w/o Marco Tortonese (more photos and information). After a rest and some maintenance work in the heavy shop, they headed north on the 24th, after stopping at new ALCI fuel depot 14 miles north of Pole. Another scientific (I think) venture by the Kazakhstan National Geographic Society utilized the same vehicles during December. The other two wheeled trips to Pole were the Moon-Regan TransAntarctic Expedition and the 2010-11 South Pole Race...NGA events mentioned above.
The latest twists and turns in the contract...on 26 October a new amendment was posted, outlining a significant amount of new information that the three final bidders would have to submit prior to a new 6 December deadline. But...in November there was a new set of data requirements, questions, answers, and on 19 November another extension of the deadline to 20 December (the latest complete file from the FedBizOpps site and my page of information on the contracting process)
IceCube was up and running, they started drilling around the Thanksgiving weekend holiday and finished the last 7 holes perhaps before the end of the year. Their weekly reports were posted on the IceCube home page, and there's a blog as well.
More science news...the amazing South Pole Telescope is researching the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR)...dark energy...2010 winterover friend Dana Hrubes (left) was one of the two folks lookng after the SPT this past winter, here is his interview filmed by James Travis III as part of the 10/10/10 One Day on Earth project.
Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions (AL&E, owner of ANI/Adventure Networks) announced in early November that they'd set up a new blue ice runway and primary camp at Union Glacier, about 45 miles northwest of Patriot Hills. The runway has been fully certified. Here's their press release. Camp setup started in early November, but the first Ilyushin-76 passenger flight from PA was delayed for 2 weeks, it did not arrive until 25 November SP time...and the passengers found sunny above-zero°F weather. Another flight was scheduled for the following day.
Airplanes...and no airplanes! A storm later named the "death claw" blew in starting on 6 November, record-breaking high temperatures and high winds made a mess of things for the next few days and delayed the departure of some of the winterovers. A flag line was set up from summer camp to the station due to the low visibility. Here's the Antarctic Sun article, and at right is a photo of science coordinator Al Baker weathering the storm at the ceremonial Pole 
(Antarctic Photo Library photo by Julie Bonneau). And here is the list of broken weather records from the Wisconsin meterological center.
Airplanes at last...the first Herc landed at Pole on Tuesday evening 2 November. There have been more since, and by now most of the 2010 winterovers are in Christchurch or at least on the way. Summer has truly begun. The first of the LC-130s had shown up in McMurdo on 24 October, and original plans were for the first batch of Polies to leave on Friday the 29th, perhaps on a straight through connection to ChCh via C-17. Hah. Weather, mechanical problems, and scheduling delays due to...the tragic French helicopter crash north of Dumont d'Urville (story and photos). So on Halloween weekend the new Polies were cooling their heels in McM and the winterovers were enjoying another weekend of the "soft opening." By now (12 November) most all of the w/o's should be gone, after a 5 day delay of the Herc flight originally scheduled to show up on the 8th.
The Baslers first appeared on Saturday 16 October on the transit from Rothera to McMurdo--left, a photo from Cody Meyer...and here is the Antarctic Sun article. It was a brief stop, and (due to delays) without freshies. The first pax flight was scheduled for Monday but was cancelled because of cold weather. But Tuesday morning 19 October it did take off, and landed around noon with 16 fresh passengers. Temperature was about -65°F. Winter was over. The second Basler flight showed up on the 23rd, and the third on Sunday 24 October, but that one got to stay overnight due to bad weather in MacTown. Only one of the 2010 w/o's left on the Basler flights.
In between the frenetic station opening activities, another unique event occurred on 9 October...the American Radio Relay League conducted an exam at Pole...
the result was EIGHT new technician licensees, who are now on the air! At right, a photo of the exam participants in the large conference room, by volunteer examiner (VE) Ernie Gray (W1MRQ). Here is the ARRL news article.
Summer plans and science news--a rather low-key season is planned, compared to previous seasons which saw pieces of the massive new station erected...and the dome removed. The biggest news involves the two largest science projects. IceCube will complete the last 7 drill holes of its 86-string neutrino telescope (and begin to retrograde some if the construction equipment). Here's an October NSF special report/video, a November 2010 Smithsonian Magazine article, and of course the IceCube blog. And the nearby South Pole Telescope will continue its sky surveys...in October the team announced discovery of the largest galaxy cluster yet seen--7 billion light years away (Harvard-Smithsonian CFA press release). Other more mundane planned projects include completion of the fuel piping system between the fuel arch, station and skiway fuel pits...commissioning of "rodwell 3"...and perhaps a bit more "remediation" of the site formerly known as Old Pole.
September 2010, the sun is up, but the contract was, well, still out there. On 20 September US time a new one-year extension to the RPSC contract was announced...to give NSF more time to select from the best and final bidders. RPSC now will be running the program through 31 March 2012. Here is the announcement, and my updated contract rebid page.
A McMurdo medevac kept the Pole flight following team busy for several days. The first Royal NZ Air Force P-3 Orion flight had to turn around due to bad weather at McMurdo, but another try made it in successfully on the 14th (NZ Herald article). On the 15th the guy, with pneumonia, was discharged from Christchurch Hospital.
Yes, as of 20 August we finally have some news on the contract rebid. The three finalists are CH2MHILL, Lockheed Martin, and KBR. Which leaves out the other four bidders: TransPolar (the Raytheon/AECOM joint venture), Antarctic Research Support, the joint venture between EG&G and CSC, Fluor, and ITT Antarctic Services. Hmmm. Hmmm is all I can say at this point. Well, except that there is another Antarctic contract out there. NSF had a preliminary inquiry out for the nest Title II inspection contract. Remember, Title II at Pole was what I did in 2005.
Winfly was supposed to start on 13 August 2010...but first there was a mechanical delay, and then some Condition 1 weather in McMurdo. But the first of the 7 flights finally made it in on the evening of the 15th. Here is the Antarctic Sun story about these flights.
Important historical stuff from the other side of the continent...the former research vessel HERO has been definitely located in Bay Center, Washington, where the new owner has had it since September 2008. And I do have pictures that friend Jon Lingel took.
Bill enjoyed the Antarctic "gathering" 15-17 July 2010, at Paul Dalyrimple's place in Port Clyde, ME. I was not the youngest Polie there...remember that Paul wintered a few years ago in 1958, so his winterover number is 21. The weekend featured lobster and other great food, and many presentations including one from Bob Benson who wintered in 1957...thanks to alphabetical order his winterover number is ONE. There were lots of Antarctic folks there...remember that Paul is the resident editor of the Antarctican Society newsletter, which now has an enhanced web presence documented here.
The Fourth of July weekend was celebrated with a pork dinner...with the whole pig getting grilled on the outdoor barbecue. And it was followed up with a prolonged period of triple digit temperatures...plenty of time for more 300 club members! The temps dipped below -100°F several times during the first few days of July...and the Fourth of July was the coldest on record.
The 18 June station update in the Antarctic Sun features extensive science coverage by SSL and friend Dana Hrubes, who of course has many more great aurora pictures on his own June web page.
Midwinters Day 2010...the halfway point in the dark season, and perhaps the 2/3 point for folks who showed up at Pole at the beginning of last summer season. The big dinner was on Friday the 18th, with more celebration activities throughout the weekend. Not to mention the annual midwinter greeting (left). Another traditional winter activity, the annual Pole marker design competition, had an amazing TWELVE entries this year, and the winner is...well, it has been selected, and machinist Derek is probably already planning out how to create the hard copy, but the rest of the world will see it revealed on 1 January 2011. This marker is especially significant since it will be the official South Pole marker in December 2011, which of course marks the centennial anniversary of Roald Amundsen's visit. Unlike all of the other folks who arrived at Pole overland, Roald had to bring along his own Pole marker. And I guess I must also point out that Amundsen was the first of only two expeditions that traveled to Pole from the coast using dogs. No, I wasn't around when Amundsen showed up, but I WAS present when Will Steger's expedition showed up with dog teams in December 1989. Oh, in keeping with the season sentiments (and inhibiting attempts to take outdoor group photos) the temperatures have been dipping to the -90s this week.
IceCube was in the news again! Yes, on 1 June, the Wall Street Journal found time to cover this amazing project in between more depressing news about the BP Gulf oil spill and Euro finances. Catch the article while it is available. With photos and video of course!
It was dark. "Astronomical Twilight" (when the sun is less than 18 degrees below the horizon) ended on 12 May 2010. The auroras are out there and they've been awesome! Here's the site for the all-sky camera that displays thousands of images per day.
Contract rebid stuff...no news was no news. The "competitive range determination" and revised milestones for the new multiyear contract, originally promised by the end of March and later by 9 April, were not issued until August. Earlier, NSF and RPSC finalized the one-year contract extension on 25 March (the 5 April Raytheon press release). Here's my updated page on the contracting process.
It got cold! Surprisingly the temperature dipped into the triple digits on 13 April, as documented by the scroll image at right (thanks Dana Hrubes). The temperature actually stayed below -100°F for 22 minutes...long enough for the first officially sanctioned 300 club running since 2006 (on 2 September 2007 the temperature dipped below -100°F too briefly for anything to happen, and it did NOT get that cold in either 2008 or 2009). The only other year in station history without 3 digit temperatures was 1964. Oh, this is well documented as the second earliest 300 club in station history. (The earliest was in April 1982 as documented by Robert Williscroft.) April 2010 was the coldest recorded April on record, with an average temperature of -80.7°F. On the other hand, 2009 was the warmest year on record (Antarctic Sun article).
The sun set, well, perhaps officially around 0900 on 23 March 2010, well hidden behind murky skies. But of course it was marked by an amazing sunset dinner, extremely well documented by cook Cody Meyer.
Two polar gatherings of note in Boulder in the spring of 2010...in mid May was the American Polar Society meeting, (detailed information). Earlier, the "Polar Technology Conference" was hosted by UNAVCO on 25-26 March. Here's the web site...the online list of attendees grew rather impressively in the weeks before the meeting, and the presentations are now online. I was around for both meetings, I spent about 7 weeks in Boulder this spring.
At the Polar Technology Conference I learned that a new wind turbine was erected at Pole this past summer...a 2.5 KW unit constructed by Abundant Renewable Energy (ARE) (below left). Here are more details...
More dome details...on 10 March NSF released this extensive press release with photo gallery!
The McMurdo summer season officially ended Friday 5 March, as the last flight, the Australian A319 Airbus, departed with the last few summer folks that had been closing thing up for winter. 197 souls remained for the winter. Flight statistics for this season--in addition to several Airbus missions, there were 59 C-17 flights, 7 RNZAF C-130 flights, and two trial flights by the RNZAF 757 aircraft. It turns out that the U. S. Air Force flight season to the ice had been completed the previous week, on 24 February (USAF press release).
Some late summer satellite news, there was an enginering test in January investigating the possible use of the Intelsat SkyNet-4c commercial satellite as a replacement for the TDRS-F1 satellite which was decommissioned last October. Who at Pole assisted with these tests...well, Shaun Meehan, the 2008 and 2010 winter comms tech of course. The Skynet satellite is slowly drifting into an orbit with increasing Pole coverage. It could be in service in 2011, here is the contract award announcement, and here is an unofficial IceCube blog presentation about the current and future satellite situation. Use of the current TDRSS satellites costs the program over $100 per minute. Speaking of satellites, NSF has recently updated their Pole satellite stuff including lots of information about the current systems as well as a new availability page which can be found here.
Global warming? Or is it more appropriate to say global warning? One unarguable fact is that the debate itself is certainly continuing to heat up. Other facts...while the Antarctic Peninsula and coastal areas are warming, as evidenced by the continuing and recent iceberg activity (AAD press release, photos and data and Antarctic Sun article), the South Pole temperatures have actually been getting colder since measurements began in 1957. Winterover meteorologist Tim Markle explains this in this recent video interview posted by Earthgauge. Tim also notes that 2009 by itself was the warmest year on record. More commentary is here in this 1 March blog posting by Britsh meteorologist Andy Russell. What does this mean for this winter's potential 300 club members? Too early to tell.
Yes, winter 2010 started on 14 February. This date marked the end of a dramatic summer construction seasson--officially the last for the South Pole Station Modernization (SPSM project). The most obvious change of course was the removal of the dome (left, the 15 January final group photo by Forest Banks, taken just before the last few pieces were removed). But elsewhere things are looking a lot more finished thanks to the completion of the "pretty stuff" as C-note used to describe the siding panels. At right is a February 2010 aerial view of the elevated station (thanks to Ethan Good) showing the finished roof, complete with its yellow grating in the science area above B2. Other buildings around the station also received the finished siding, including cryo, RF, and the SPT wing of DSL.
Elsewhere, a bit less dramatic perhaps, the Cheese Palace was made to disappear, and the long-abandoned Hypertats were dug up and relocated, two by summer camp and two at the end of the world. The remediation of the Old Pole site, begun last March, was continued--one possible use for this area that had been considered is a relocated and expanded NGA aircraft parking/camping area. Efforts this summer included a GPR survey followed by some grooming and dragging, but...as happened last March, soft spots opened up, this time sinking a Challenger and the D-8. The equipment was recovered safely, and plans were being reviewed for additional remediation work, which was completed in the 2010-11 summer.
What NGA expeditions were up for 2009-10...actually thanks to the economy it was a rather short list, with some cancellations.
More on the dome deconstruction...after a the last big food pull the week before Thanksgiving 2009, and some other clearing and preliminary stuff, the structural work began. Skylab went first (photos), and the first top section of the dome was lifted off on 18 December. The rest of my dome photos are here. Other coverage elsewhere--on 10 November the New York Times published this excellent article on 10 November for which I was interviewed. And there is significant Antarctic Sun coverage, this feature
in ExplorersWeb, and the OAEA publication Explorer's Gazette (index page). And as for more photos I must also recommend this fresh collection by Forest Banks, available here. Forest provided me other pictures including the progress photo at left.
Science stuff...IceCube had yet another successful summer, it is hard for me to believe this was the penultimate drilling season, especially since when I showed up for my 2005 winter they had successfully completed exactly one hole. This season they started drilling on 4 December 2009, and completed 20 holes on 20 January, 10 days ahead of schedule, for a total of 79. Current plans are for a total of 86 holes, which means only 7 to be drilled next summer. All of the holes through the firn have been completed. Here is the end of season press release...the weekly reports from this past summer are available in the archive section here. Hmmm...what will B1 lounge be like next summer? Faciliies related stuff...the IceCube lab (ICL) got a real stairway to the roof this past summer, and the computer room fire suppression system was mostly installed. Moving to DSL, the South Pole Telescope (SPT) is producing an incredible amount of data about the beginning of the universe...which of course means there have been an incredible number of papers published just in the past year. For more SPT info the best source I can think of at the moment is fellow 2005/2008 winterover Dana Hrubes. At the other end of DSL the new incarnation of BICEP, otherwise known as BICEP2, has cranked up to study other angles of the beginning of the universe. The SPASE-2 hut has been retired from the dark sector, and the cosray detectors have been relocated between the station and ARO. Back behind where the dome used to be, the antenna crew took down some of the old towers, although if you look closely at some of the dome demo pictures, there are still a couple left out there.
McMurdo update...some fairly major landscape changes happened or are in progress. Probably the most sentimentally significant was the demo of Building 63, the 1950s vintage Quonset hut otherwise known as the bowling alley...which met its demise due to structural failure (yes, the manual pinsetting equipment was saved). Along with that, the T-site building was removed, along with one of the two remaining nuke plant buildings halfway up Ob Hill. And building 155 was given a distinctive coat of blue paint! I do have pictures.
The Antarctic contract...let me say first that major updates are posted on my definitive commentary page about the rebid. On 23 December 2009 the Federal Business Opportunities site posted another update, but it is already stale, since it describes a request for the bidders to reformat some of their financial information back in October. There also are some additional Q&A's indicating that there will be some "best and final" negotiations at some point. Since then, on 5 January NSF FINALLY posted a revised schedule on their contract rebid website, although there is not a lot of new detail here either. The Denver Westword news blog put out this story on 30 December with additional information on the lack of information; writer Jonathan Shikes quotes RPSC spokesperson Valerie Carroll..."they received a lot of info from all kinds of competitors and bidders, and it wasn't as easy to compare apples to apples." She explains that RPSC is negotiating for a year extension, and that the award is expected around September 2010.
New Years Day always brings the unveiling of the new Pole marker at a new location, and 2010 was no exception. Here's my page of photos and info about the marker and the event.
The last weekend in November 2009 marked the sad 30th anniversary of the tragic DC-10 crash on Mt. Erebus. The NZ program sent family representatives to the ice for memorial services, a couple of NZ articles are here and here.
12 November was the 40th anniversary of the first time women showed up at Pole...six of them all at once. The stories from 2009 and 1969 are here, the date was marked by many of the women on station posing in the photo at left.
1977 Pole Soul sad news...and not new. We learned that Dave Pluth, one of our 1976-77 GFA's, died in May 2009 in Rwanda while on assignment with the national tourism agency (more information).
The history of early season flight delays repeated itself at the end of the 2009 winter. After too many Basler delays, the Hercs showed up, and the first one headed for Pole on Wednesday 28 October...and landed. Visibility was back down to 1 mile (NYANG press release on their deployment). They kept flying to ramp things up and put the station in summer mode quickly. By mid November all of the 2009 winterovers were gone.
The second and third Baslers were scheduled for Friday the 23rd, but the weather observations continued to be bad. Finally one took off...and landed at Pole late Friday afternoon. History repeated itself again, and the stage was set as it were for the First Flight Festival on Saturday evening...a major musical event in the gym.
The first Basler arrived on Monday 19 October 2009, bringing 16 new people and taking 3 winterovers north. The Basler along with a Twin Otter had arrived from Rothera on Tuesday 13 October for a refueling stop on the way to McMurdo. The Basler continued on...the Twin Otter crew ended up staying overnight due to mechanical difficulties--it did not continue to McM until Thursday. Since the Twin Otter was the backup rescue aircraft, the Basler couldn't head south on NSF charter until the Twin Otter was in place. So the opening flight originally headed south on Friday the 16th but boomeranged presumably due to lousy weather and visibility at Pole.
Last year the Canadians on the transit flight brought a few gifts and freshies from Chile (Pisco and oranges!) but this year they did not.
The TDRS-1 satellite was taken out of service on 21 October. From here on, in addition to GOES, the comms will use TDRS 3, 4, 5, and 6 via the SPTR-2 link completed last summer (my complete coverage of the satellite systems and issues past and present is below). TDRS-1 was launched (with difficulty) on the maiden flight of space shuttle Challenger on STS-6 in April 1983.
Bill Spindler was among a number of Polies interviewed in early October for this extensive article "Life in Antarctica is cold but bloggers there can still get burned" in the Denver alternative weekly newspaper Westword.
For some reason or other, a number of past, present and future Polies gathered in Denver at the end of September 2009...including the indubitable Jake Speed along with wife Kathy! At right, some of the documentation... along with an update on Jake, Kathy, and the Jake Speed Fund!
The sun came up! And even visible, thanks to a YouTube video from friend Weeks Heist. The sunrise dinner was 18 September, followed by an open mike night. Meanwhile, a New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) C-130 has made a medevac flight to McMurdo.
An environmental agreement by Antarctic Treaty nations and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) threatens to force changes to the NSF resupply shipping to McMurdo. The IMO tentatively adopted a measure banning the use of heavy bunker fuel oil by vessels in the Southern Ocean. The measure is a result of recent cruise ship disasters, and it is aimed primarily at that segment of the shipping industry, but it seems that the older US Military Sealift Command vessels used to resupply McMurdo also require heavy bunker fuel. Here's a Science Magazine blog posting.
A fresh look at the LO arch (left)...it is now brightly lit and filling up with shelving, thanks to lots of cold weather work by carpenters Todd Adams and Bill Stiner, electricians Robert Dragonfly and Monty Myrtle, project engineer Nathan Greenland, and others to help pull wire and put the erector sets together. Last winter we could not comprehend wire pulling during the winter, but they'd developed a workable system (which requires 7-8 people) to make it happen in cold temps. Soon the contents of the dome will be moved out, some of it to the new shelving units. Many more details are found in a 28 August Antarctic Sun article by correspondent/sous chef Michele Gentille which includes that LO arch photo by Nathan Greenland.
After two days of cancellations, the first winfly flight into McMurdo finally happened on Saturday 22 August 2009, bringing 120 smiling tanned new faces to the ice. Ten folks departed, but by one friend's estimate this represented a 12% increase in the Antarctic population. This was the first of five scheduled flights, including another of those "night vision" landings that they started last year (Antarctic Sun article).
Late winter fun...the Antarctic Film Festival has happened. Stations all over the continent created short films which had to include required content such as a roll of toilet paper, the sound of a can being opened, and the dialog phrase "Want to buy a dog?" A Rothera winterover shamelessly credits his station's winning video on this blog page, but he also credits one of the amazing Pole creations, a spoof on the making of a trailer for the forthcoming movie "Whiteout," which may actually get released in September. First you need to watch the real studio trailer of the movie here, then have a look at David Barud's vimeo site for the director's cut of the trailer spoof that he and Francis Shiel created, featuring many of the 2009 wo's. And there is also the film "A new FNG." Yeah, I know, this is a historical web site, but these cinema efforts are awesome :) More film links are available on this blog page from Anthony Powell at McMurdo.
The Jake Speed fundraising effort received great support on the ice and elsewhere. The polar community raised more than $36,000 (and the fund is now closed). An impressive sum...thanks to all who have contributed! In late spring 2009 Jake was discharged from the hospital and was getting outpatient care and therapy near his California home...learning how to use his new bionic features. He still has a long way ahead of him. Please have a look at the photo pages which include lots of photos of the Jake we know.
Yes, the 1999 Pole doctor Jerri Nielsen Fitzgerald, who was medevaced from Pole at the end of that winter due to her serious breast cancer...succumbed to the disease on 23 June 2009. Here's the CNN story that broke the coverage, an obituary from the Boston Globe, a press statement from NSF director Arden Bement,, and coverage from the Antarctic Sun. Apparently the memorial service was still pending as of 6 July. Her photo at left was released by NSF in 1999. Here is my original 1999 coverage of her story, which I've updated with the missing press releases.
From 3-5 June 2009 I was at the Antarctic Deep Freeze Association reunion in Madison...a great time to get together with Antarcticans and Polies from 1956 to, well, today, yes we had a phone call with Pole, one of the featured events.
Hometown boy makes the papers...well, in this case it is Boulder native and 2009 winter site manager Logan Grover, who happened to get covered by the Boulder Daily Camera on 6 June. The reporter actually asked me for info. Anyway, here's the writeup.
News from McMurdo...for the second winter in a row, a significant outbuilding was lost to fire. This time it was the Kiwi A-Frame...a structure I remember from my happy camper course back in 1976. Here's a news story from the NZ Herald with a spectacular photo.
Sadly, Dr. Matt Houseal, who wintered at Pole in 1991 fresh out of residency, was murdered in Baghdad on 11 May...leaving behind a beloved wife and 7 children. we Polies and Palmerites were represented at the funeral...Al Oxton provided commentary and photos, and Dave Gallas sent flowers remembering Matt's time at Palmer Station. Here's the coverage and photos... updated 25 May.
The demise of AMANDA was mistakenly reported here prematurely, but now we have the word...it was turned off at 1511 Monday 11 May, but not before she complained a bit during her final activity. At right, IceCube winterover Erik Verhagen offers a tribute. Now we'll see if we can keep MAPO and the machine shop warm and toasty for the rest of the winter. Up in the heavens, the auroras have been spectacular. I'm a few thousand miles away, but I strongly recommend you check out the amazing sky shots the winterovers are coming up with!
From Summit Camp on top of the Greenland icecap...where some Polie folks and friends go to work during the off season, comes an incredible story of how a 38-year-old equipment operator I know survived being lost outside in a storm and whiteout for 58 hours. Well...by now you may have figured it out...yes, it was the indubitable Jake Speed. Temperatures were reported as low as -44°F, with 45 knot winds. When things subsided a bit and a search party showed up in a Tucker Sno-Cat looking for signs of his body, to the great surprise of the searchers, Jake actually walked up to the vehicle and climbed in, asking if they were going back to the station anytime soon. A bit later his arrival at the Big House triggered a similar reaction. Here's the NSF press release...his discovery and rescue happened on 18 April. While his body temperature and smile (left) were normal, he was suffering from seriously 
frostbitten hands and feet...he was initially medevaced to a hospital in Nuun, the capital of Greenland, and more recently went on to a hospital in California, with his wife. By now he's had lots of surgery, and he did lose his right hand plus both feet, but he is, after all, Jake. Here's hoping that all ends well for this guy!
Also in Madison on 16-17 April--the fifth annual Polar Technology Conference, hosted by IceCube. The meeting purpose was to discuss requirements and planning for polar research. It turned out to be a group of about 40, including yours truly. Bill Spindler was there to discuss such things as the research planning that went into the development of the three permanent stations at Pole, and other such stuff...as well as meeting some other Antarcticans that I haven't seen in awhile. Much of the focus was on power and communications--we're talking something like a few watts of power and a few seconds of connectivity to Iridium, to enable remote data collection sites to operate and stay in touch...along with appropriate computer equipment and software. Since these use alternative energy, my talk included the slightly larger (3KW) wind turbine project at Pole (right) back in 1997. Here is the conference web site. It includes a link to the lists of the participants for this year and the previous years, and the presentations are posted as well.
Yet another of those diplomatic games that sometimes resembles a sporting event, the Antarctic Treaty consultative meeting, otherwise known as ATCM XXXII, took place in Baltimore between 6 and 17 April 2009, complete with a presentation by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The major result of this year's meeting was an agreement to regulate cruise ship tourism. These days these meetings happen annually; last year's meeting was in the Ukraine. America hasn't been the venue since 1984, when the meeting was held in Washington, DC. I've been through some of the reports and resolutions on the official Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) site and haven't found anything earth-shattering, but I may have missed something. The meeting was subtitled "50 years of Peace and Science." In addition to the smoke-free meeting rooms, a number of public events started the weekend before the official meeting--here's the NSF press release announcing the meeting and the events.
Remembering the old days...something not to be missed is the collection I call The 1974 Negatives...a unique glimpse of life at Pole 35 years ago this winter. 
The photo at left shows the last version of the main entrance to the original station...still decorated with some commemorative photographs and other items that can be found in the elevated station today (the black item between the two photos of Amundsen and Scott is that marble plaque that was presented to the station on the 50th anniversary of the arrival of these two gentlemen). Anyway, this gallery contains almost 100 pictures from the last winter of the original station now known as Old Pole. Somewhat approprate to mention here perhaps, since the entrance you see here that used to be on the surface has gradually gotten buried. At some point in the 1990's an extension was put on the top of this vestibule--one of those corrugated steel pipe sections with a ladder inside (which had originally been furnished to extend the Dome emergency escape hatch). The top of this ladder used to be on the surface about 10 years ago...but it has gotten pretty deeply buried...so during the week before sunset NSF decided it was time to dig up the entrance and remove that access ladder...it was yanked out with the D7 (right, common drive photo).
Five years later was 1979, the fifth winter in what we called the new station otherwise known as the dome. This year was fairly well documented by one of the NOAA winterovers, John Bortniak. John supplied a number of photographs to the NOAA photo library, a few of which I have used elswhere on this web site, and he also helped me with other information about his winter. In March John presented an IPY/NOAA lecture/webcast as part of IPY entitled "Recollections on Wintering Over at the South Pole 1979" reflecting on the event of 30 years ago. Here is the link to the presentation, which includes a PDF file as well as audio/video podcasts. And here is a photo that John used in his talk--he is at the bottom of the Holy Stairs...some 30+ feet below the floor level of the vestibule in the left hand photo...down at the original snow surface level where the IGY station was constructed.
The bids for the next Antarctic support contract were due on 23 February 2009...so the real backroom bidding, arm twisting, negotiating, and "best and final" offering began...and is still underway in 2010. Not a small process, since the winning effort isn't scheduled to be announced for another 6 months or so. In the meantime, our current contractor Raytheon is cranking up to hire next year's crew...all of the jobs were uploaded to Rayjobs at the beginning of March, and some of these have already been oversubscribed. The link to the jobs page is available on this RPSC site. For whatever reason, the Denver people have decided not to have a main job fair this year, as the hiring climate continues to change. If you're new to the process or even if not, 
I recommend you poke around on the Antarctic Memories message board to see what others have to say. Down on the ice, the last flight out of McMurdo did so on 22 February...unlike last season there is no "late flight" this year. And at Pole, in addition to all of the station closing and winterizing tasks, work continued through mid March to put the gunmetal grey cladding on the roof. At left you can see William Stiner (left) and Todd Adams working away on top of A1. This photo is only a small part of the panorama Ella Derbyshire took on 27 February (check out the big version!), she reports that it was -52°F with 9 knots, giving a wind chill in the -80s. Brr. But a nice view!
Closing time...well, I have to use the title of that Semisonic tune that closed out the final concert of the winter 2008 band last November. 16 February was the day. After a final couple of flights, including the last one (right, photo by Erik Shirokoff from the USAP photo library) the station became home to 43 winterovers...which by coincidence is exactly HALF the size of the 2005 winter crew. The last week all eyes had been on the scroll as the temperature slowly crept down toward the -58°F/-50°C mark which keeps the aircraft away (Steff Richter's weather page). As of 14 February the population was already down in the 40s, with a few folks still to leave and a few folks still to arrive (!). The winter crew--lots of new faces, and only about 4 folks who have previously wintered...and no Bill Spindler this time. At left is a photo from Jude Gregan of a station gathering on the first Saturday evening of winter (21 February)...astute Polies will note that the couch in the foreground contains 3 of the 4 repeating 2008 winterovers on station this year.
It seems that due to some sort of mixup, there was a shortage of fresh eggs during the 2009 winter...by the beginning of May the last one was gone. Gulp. But elsewhere, the design team passed judgment on the Logistics Facility...conditional occupancy should allow the cargoids to start thinking about moving in eventually...they would do so during the 2010 winter. The back deck didn't count in that review, but it is about done as well. What a couple of months ago was the empty arch was being turned into a real back deck as seen in the mid-January view at left from Dave Smith...and there is siding on the LO facility....Snowcrete was put in for the front deck and it was completed along with rework of the bulkhead and doors. Turns out the back deck required snowcrete as well. Elsewhwere out back, the structure for the SPTR-2 satellite antenna was completed in time for antenna installation and testing, that's what that thing is in the right photo by IT manager Gary Ferentchak from 5 January (USAP photo library); I have more construction photos here. This dome and antenna look suspiciously similar to the ones at Palmer Station--hopefully they'll deal with the demise of the ancient satellites currently in use. Across the runway, IceCube completed all 19 planned strings early, with the last hole drilled on 21 January and the string deployed shortly afterward. The team cleaned up, tested and winterized before leaving things to the winterovers. Oh by the way, on the way out they yanked out a bunch of AMANDA equipment on 3 February, but contrary to what had been reported, the project would continue to run for 3 more months. Read the status updates here; the last summer report for 2009-10 was put up on 10 February.
Jerry Marty, the longtime NSF construction manager for the new elevated station, headed north for the last time shortly before Christmas 2008, and when he departed the station he was saluted not with crossed swords but with crossed measuring tapes (right, IceCube photo by Mark Krasberg). On 11 February 2009 he presented the lecture "Building for Science at the South Pole" at the University of Delaware. The presentation was visible not only live and as a webcast, but also in the virtual world Second Life (!). Oh, and it was also saved as a podcast so you can listen at any time...(full story, photos and podcast link).
Up north, the Antarctic contract bidders were going through the final number crunching before the bids were due on 23 February...they already had to submit bunches and bunches of backup data last month (contract links and historical information).
The "Race to the Pole" happened, well actually all of them. In the event of that name, the Amundsen Omega 3 South Pole Race, seven 3-person teams competed over a 500-mile course, setting off on 5 January...six teams made it to Pole although only 5 finished officially. As happened 97 years ago, a Norwegian team, Team Missing Link finished first and a British team, QinetiQ, came in second. It seems that he Norwegian-American Scientific Traverse crossed paths with them in the Discovery Lakes area on 6 January (photo at left by Ole Tveiten; blog entry here). These vehicles were carrying film crews and medical support staff. Note that the tire pressure was only 2.5 psi!
NGA American solo skiier Todd Carmichael tried to set a speed record from Hercules Inlet...after 39 days of travel he made it on 22 December. The previous record was 40 days, but his record didn't last long. The 3-man team Richard Weber, Ray Zahab and Kevin Vallely got a later start and beat his record, arriving on 8 January with a record time of 33 days, 23-1/2 hours. More info on these and other ventures is elsewhere on this page. By now everyone who was going to show up had showed up, including the three Shackleton descendents that arrived from Ross Island via the Beardmore at 2200 on Sunday 18 January. The other portion of the team that was doing the "last 97 miles" was a few days behind. Another visitor was Monaco's Prince Albert and party, who joined Mike Horn's team at 88°51' S--they all left that trek campsite and flew close to Pole, where they all spent 2 days walking 22km to Pole, getting the Prince there at 0847 on the 14th. Mike, Børge Ousland and two others then flew back to the campsite to finish the longer walk to the Pole. Patriot Hills closed on the 28th. As for the real reason for the station, the Antarctic Sun recently published an excellent article "Field of Dreams" referring to the science projects that are being attracted there.
Back during high summer, the photo at left was a sign that one of the more visible construction projects proceeded--the scaffold that hung off the back of A4 all winter was moved to the next position as the siding installation resumed (photo by Andy Martinez/USAP photo library). The siding installation was pretty much completed on the walls; some work is scheduled for the winter to start on the roof panels. Over at DSL, the 3-year BICEP project was officially decommissioned in December...a bit of a sad time for some good people I know. SPT guy Brad Benson documented the 9 December farewell party in this blog entry. Meanwhile some 800+ miles north, another interesting and highly visible project was underway uphill from Scott Base, the "wind farm" (right, conceptual photo). There were to be be 3 330 KW machines set up near Crater Hill, and a grid intertie between them, Scott Base and McM. This estimated to reduce fuel consumption by 11%. 
The foundations and site work were happening in the 2008-09 summer; work continued through the winter and the turbines themselves were erected and commissioned in 2009-10. This project was being spearheaded by the NZ program, although the USAP did some of the site work and equipment movement. Here's an Antarctic Sun article...and more information from the NZ/Australian contractor Meridian Energy, to which the above right photo is credited. Also of interest to construction folks like me was this newspaper ad from the 15 December Dominion Post newspaper (Wellington NZ) looking for people to work on the project during the 2009 winter.
Traverse updates...there have been 2 science traverses involved with the the station--one of these is of course ths "South Pole Traverse" which left McMurdo on 23 October on what was to be the first of 2 round trips. But...the "shear zone" on the Ross Ice Shelf was a bit worse than expected and during one period while blasting and filling cracks and crevasses they only made 20 miles in 9 days. They had been scheduled to reach Pole around 6 December... they actually pulled in on the 16th. They left the coast with seven tractors here's one of them in a photo by Ted Scambos of the Norwegian-American traverse. 
The tractors pulling, among other things, about 60 3,000 gallon fuel bladders on plastic sleds (photo near Ross Island by Robyn Waserman from the USAP photo library). Some of this fuel is for the traverse use and some to supply Pole. The traverse was scheduled to continue on to AGAP, but that leg was cancelled. The AGAP project finally got underway in full swing in late December, but the project teams figure they are about 2 weeks behind schedule (AGAP project page with news updates). AGAP is an international project to study the snow-covered Gamburtsev Mountains from the ground and from the air--this mountain range is COMPLETELY snow covered. 
The AGAP South camp was initially established by USAP last summer, the AGAP North camp was being operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD). A third "camp" was operated at Pole to serve as a site for high altitude acclimatization. The AGAP South camp received C-17 fuel airdrops. As of 20 December the North camp north of Dome A was set up, the first survey flights had been made by the specially equipped BAS Twin Otter. The team figured they were 15 days behind schedule, but they still completed about 50 survey flights, with the final ones on 10 January. They spent the following week demobilizing the camp before a scheduled departure date on the 17th. The AGAP North blogs are here from the BAS and the AAD. And speaking of airdrops, the C-17 also did one at Pole on the evening of 6 December (left, photo by Hermann Kolanoski of IceCube. The Chinese team that has been building the new Kunlun Station at Dome A (CCTV news article) hauled out the trash and crushed empty fuel drums when they returned to the coast in February. By the way, the new Chinese station is rather impressive considering it was set up from scratch in such a remote station, by only one traverse team and no air support. Check out what it looks like (Peoples Daily news article with a construction photo). Winter use is planned within a few years.
And then there is the second half of the Norwegian-American Scientific Traverse which staged out of Pole to go rebuild and repair their tractors that had been left at "Camp Winter" after 2 of the 4 tractors broke down. Some of the crew made it to the camp site, studied the snow and fixed/serviced the equipment, but their start was also delayed due to weather and poor landing conditions for the Basler at the camp. They packed up the camp and headed for Pole, arriving on 11 December. I met some of these folks at Pole before I left. Now the final traverse team of 12 assembled at Pole, prepared the equipment and supplies for the drive north to Troll, and headed out on the 22nd. As of mid February they were at their last research stop.
Yes, the bidders DID make it to the ice for their job walk, although their travel got delayed a day. They flew to the ice on Tuesday, 18 November and had a few hours at Pole the next day. I spoke with a couple of them in Christchurch. Here's my page of historical information and links relating to the contract bidding process...
Elsewhere in science, the 3-year BICEP telescope project in DSL wound down in November; the instrumentation was removed and shipped north. Coming next, perhaps in a year, is "BICEP 2" in the same location, along with "SPUD" on the former QUAD/DASI mount at MAPO. Here's an recent abstract which briefly describes these 2 projects. SPUD, also known as the Keck Array, recently was awarded a large grant from the Keck Foundation (press release). And on the other side of MAPO, a the old VIPER control room was to be fitted out to control the reactivated VLF antenna located west of the dark sector buildings.
Air transport news...a Bombardier Global Express business jet operated by TAG Aviation left Farnborough Airport in England at 2305 Pole time on Friday 21 November in a quest for a new 50-hour round-the-world over-the-poles record. After crossing the North Pole, it refueled at Whitehorse (Yukon, Canada), Majuro in the Marshall Islands, and Christchurch (0036 Sunday, Channel 3 news story), and passed over Pole later that day in the 11-hour flight to the next refueling stop in PA. The last stop was at Sal, Cape Verde. They ultimately completed the the effort by returning to Farnborough in 52 hours and 32 minutes (news story). There were 8 on board, including 5 pilots a flight engineer, in-flight coordinator, and an observer from Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) which ratified the world record on 23 March 2009. The previous over-the-poles record of 54:07 had been set by a Pan Am 747SP aircraft back on 28-31 October 1977. Oh, also, the specially modified 109th ANG completed the installation of new 8-bladed propellers on the first LC-130--Skier 92 to be exact. The first operational flight was on 16 September...the new props reduce noise and vibration and may reduce fuel consumption by at least 5 percent. The aircraft was spotted in ChCh on 16 November and was expected at Pole the following week. Here's a copy of a Hamilton Sundstrand press release; the photo at right is courtesy of TSgt Derrick Irish; also here is an earlier Antarctic Sun article.
And back in October a few days before the first flight landed, we had an overflight by an FAA Challenger 601 inspection aircraft--basically a business jet--to certify the navigational aids of the skiway, which at the time was in the process was being relocated. The result is the photo at left...here's more information and links to a couple of other news stories.
The accident at Australia's Davis Station (on the coast directly south of Perth) was in the news again, as a NYANG LC-130 medevac mission headed there from McM the evening of 4 November, arriving about 0200 SP time on the 5th after a 4-1/2 hour flight. The aircraft, with a medical team on board stayed on deck overnight and then successfully flew the patient the 1500 miles to Hobart, arriving early on the 6th SP time (NSF press release and AAD press release). The story--the Davis w/o cook, 31-year-old Dwayne Rooke of Tasmania, fell off a quad bike on a field trip 15 miles from the base, breaking his pelvis and both ankles. He was in serious but stable condition as he waited for...the icebreaker Aurora Australis, which was diverted from its course to Casey and headed for Davis. A second doctor and other assistants were flown to Davis by helo from the ship on 1 November when the ship got in range and the weather improved Here's an earlier 1 November AAD news release. At that time the plans were to fly him back to the icebreaker when weather improved again.
Well, by 6 November 2008 we were supposed to have had about 7 Basler flights bring in folks to raise the population to about 170 people...but no...bad weather has kept them all away until that day, when a Basler along with two LC-130s finally arrived, to bring new people and take a third of the winterovers away. What bad weather, we said as we walked outside and look at the crisp new skiway under light winds and surprisingly warm temperatures? Well, all I can say is that the pilots needed better visibility for the first landings than they do later in the season. Oh, and at least a couple of the cancellations were based on bad weather at McM, or at least fear of it (!). So the SP population has finally moved into 3 digits after being stuck at 91 for over a week.
At least some of the postulating and posturing over who comes in and who goes out on what flight is based on on the plan for one final winter band concert, the "red headed stepchild of Polestock" to be scheduled some time after some new people get here and before any of the band members leave. Hmmm. Yours truly wasn't scheduled to leave until the 13th.
Aircraft may not have been showing up at Pole the fourth week of October, but they were landing elsewhere on the continent. The first NGA ground travelers to Pole landed at the Russian NOVO blue ice runway south of Cape Town, and the first passenger flights to PH were scheduled the first week in November.
The 2008 winter ended slowly. The first "soft opening" Basler flight landed on Sunday 26 October (left) bringing 17 new people, more freshies, flu vaccine for us winterovers, absentee ballots, and similar high priority stuff. This aircraft can't carry all that much cargo, so all of the early arrivals have to live out of their handcarry until the 130's can bring in the rest of their baggage. We did have the station suitably cleaned up and decked out for the new arrivals (!). Another flight showed up a day later with another 17 people, and several more were to arrive later in the week...but did not. There were 3 outgoing passengers on the first flight, but no, this was not a "flight of shame" as some of you might be wondering--one grantee got approval for an early departure, one RPSC employee has an urgent dental appointment in McM and will finish his contract there...and a third guy has to hurry home and see family and do all the other stuff before returning to the ice for a winter contract at the beginning of January. Yes...a good winter.
More airplanes...the C-17 flights to McM that were backed up for a week at the end of September have gotten pretty much back to normal. As for our "real" first flights, the Basler, along with a Twin Otter, were scheduled to cross the Drake from PA to Rothera on Monday the 20th...pass through Pole on the 21st, and then start bringing summer folks in on the 23rd. They finally made it Friday SP time (right, my hero shot by Kevin Torphy)...the Basler quickly headed for McM after trading some fuel for a box of freshies (YUM!) while the Twin Otter crew stayed overnight. Saturday the first Basler passenger flight from McM was cancelled due to bad weather at McM. Here at Pole the skiway was ready, or at least half of it...in preparations for moving it south, the marker flags at the north end have been removed, rearranged, and moved yet again...the first flights brought in some surveyors who know where they really are supposed to go, and lay out the rest of the skiway.
Further up in the air (where the communications satellites live) we got word that one of the three communications satellites used here, MARISAT-F2, which until the last week of our 2009 winter was the oldest commercial communications satellite still in service, got a bit shaky in its orbit, and the owner (INTELSAT) needed to decommission and de-orbit after 29 November--something we didn't think would affect us winterovers (Antarctic Sun news story). That cut our ~11 hour satellite window by 2 hours...and is only a preview to what may come next when the other 2 aging satellites suffer a similar fate. At left is the first phase of the next big thing--part one of the "SPTR-2" antenna platform which was put up in February out near RF. It is to be completed this summer--complete with a dish, antenna shelter and an 8-meter radome. In theory this will allow access to a number of different TDRSS satellites for short windows as they briefly pop over the horizon...assuming a healthy set of jackscrews to keep the dish moving in our cool temperatures.
A couple of other serious disasters hampered national programs in other parts of the continent in October 2008... There was the serious fire on 5 October that burned down the main 2-story berthing building at Russia's Progress Station, leaving 2 seriously injured and one dead. The station is on the coast, about 70 miles west of Australia's Davis Station on the east side of the continent, and only a mile from a Chinese base where medical help was obtained. Other station buildings including the power plant and galley were not affected. Here's an iol.co.za news story, and an excellent Antarctic Sun article. And elsewhere, The medevac of 49-year-old mechanic Sigurd Sande from Norway's Troll Station was successful--15 days after he broke his leg on 3 October while near the top of a 2000m peak. The other folks at the base--72°S-2.5°E and 150 miles from the coast, prepared things for a medevac flight to Cape Town, but the first attempt on the 10th was aborted due to bad weather. The flight in a Gulfstream GIIB business jet took about six hours, 2700 miles each way. His original rescue from the mountain to the station is a fairly dramatic story as well. Here's good coverage from fellow 2008 winterover Steffen Richter, and a good blog entry.
Sunrise was celebrated the weekend of 20-21 September...although the actual sun itself played rather scarce. There was been a fair amount of blowing and drifting that obscured the horizon and the low sun. Still, folks spent some time in the galley watching it through the windows Sunday evening the 21st, when I caught the first glimpse of it out of my room window (left). The weekend featured a family style turkey (and lots of other stuff) dinner around one big table in the galley...as well as a blowout "Mother of Polestock" concert Saturday evening (right). 
Meanwhile, the optimistic early season flight schedule for folks arriving on the first flights (starting with seven Basler flights beginning 23 October) was posted, although of course that never happened. As for the skiway, the markers on the upwind half were removed in preparation for the shift of the skiway about 5000 feet south, towards the tailless remains of the buried 917 aircraft.
A bit of McMurdo news floated around the wires...the beginning of September saw the conclusion to "Operation Spring Fly" or what goes for winfly this season. It consisted of 4 C-17 flights into the Pegasus runway--three southbound flights with passengers and one with cargo only, and while the last scheduled flight on the 10th was designated a "medevac" (Air Force news article), it really involved an ambulatory patient who just needed a bit more evaluation than was available on the ice. A related news story...after the end of the scheduled missions they did a fifth "training" flight that landed in the dark just before midnight on the 11th. This was credited with being the first Antarctic landing by a pilot using night vision goggles (Stuff.co.nz article) but we all know it wasn't the first night landing...for example there was the Byrd Station medevac in 1961 and the Pole medevac in 2001...coincidentally we watched videos of that event Friday night.
About the time it gets light enough outside to uncover the windows, it also becomes time for the NOAA team to uncover what might happen to the ozone hole. The World Meteorological Organization has predicted a "normal ozone hole" this year, whatever that is. The results of the ozonesonde measurements are posted on the wall of the galley, but if you're not at Pole you can follow them here .
At the beginning of September 2008 we celebrated Labor Day weekend--two whole days off, and events which included an art show, open mike night, farmer's market (ie pick your own dinner out of the growth chamber), miniature golf, and, well, lots of sleep. Another day we noted was 28 September...that is the latest day in history that the weather reached -300° here. We didn't make it...only the second year in recorded history, the other year was 1964.
One other bit of news...it seems that our power plant supervisor wasn't the only person with crutches...yours truly had his knee start complaining from 30 years of running--it basically swelled up and let me know it didn't want to be walked upon. Anyway, after some treatment and several weeks of crutches and canes it seems to be improving and I've been walking without assistance...still a bit slowly, but hopefully a move in the right direction.
Back in July 2008 we had a recurring winter problem with the GOES/MARISAT antenna...some of the drive system quit working. After some intrepid disassembly, diagnosis and rework by the garage folks, UT's, and satcom enginner, the elevation worm drive was put back together and should function to give us our full 11+ hours of daily internet connectivity for the rest of the winter. The Antarctic Sun has an excellent feature article here. Recent efforts have gone into upgrading the insulation and heating to keep the drives warm and toasty, as it were. I'll spare you the gory gearbox pictures!
Much of the other July/August USAP news came from Denver and other points north--it seems that the price of fuel among other things has prompted some fairly serious budget cuts. What is their impact on the program? Well, science cruises on the Peninsula side have been cut back or cancelled; the "annual ice runway" will not exist this year; "Winfly" has been shortened and moved back into early September 2008, and as of now there will not be ANY winfly next season. NSF recently posted this 18 August open letter to researchers on the OPP web site--it further addresses and lists the budget impacts, which include delays in construction and dome demolition among other things. There have been changes in travel arrangements, cutbacks in projects, and shrinking of populations. One rumor (still not confirmed, since one never knows the real answer until after the last flight) is that the Pole population will be in the low 40s next winter. Stay tuned...meanwhile some of the flight details have been officially announced, subject to change, of course as Mother Antarctica and the weather gods always have the final say. Anyway, it seems that Pole is scheduled for another of those "soft openings" with 7 Basler flights bringing folks in (but not out) starting on 23 October. The first LC-130 flight is scheduled for 5 November. And in another interesting flight schedule twist, the late-season flight schedule to/from ChCh will include 4 Airbus 319 passenger flights. Certainly not the first civilian airliner flights into MacTown, but the first in awhile. 
These are a subcharter from the Australian program, and the charter airline Skytraders, which did a couple of test landings in McM last season.
Other news around this quiet part of the continent--one of the power plant folks--James, my neighbor just down the hall, broke his foot in August 2008 in what must have been a fairly serious indoor soccer game in the gym--I was warned in advance and stayed away. And work went on in and around the "LO" that new cargo building that is taking shape in the old garage arch (above right, more current photos).
The 31st Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting was held in Kyiv (Kiev), Ukraine, between 2 and 13 June 2008. All of the stuff discussed is now online here on the official site, although the lists of meetings and agenda items are difficult to navigate. The 2007 meeting passed a measure "protecting" Pole as a Specially Managed Area. Here is a link to that adopted measure and maps if you drill down to XXXI ATCM and "meeting documents."
One of the more interesting Antarctic events happens every 10 years, and it started in late 2007, far from Pole in the environs of Washington DC. No, not another census or Polar Year, but...the 2-year process of rebidding the Antarctic support contract. The potential bidders started to posture and postulate over a year ago, but only in the (northern) spring of 2008 did the formal requests and announcements start to come out. Here is my look at this great decennial sporting event from a historical perspective (well, did you expect anything else from me?) Oh, just out...it looks like the next contract period may be 13 years rather than 10. And I do have links to the official contract information site, includings the list of registered potential bidders and detailed schedule. Oh, the bids are due on 23 February 2009.
Our Midwinters day weekend happened...demarking the time when the sun starts to move back towards our horizon...the time for a big dinner and the "Son of Polestock" musical blowout (above left, the main promo poster). Yes, a great weekend was had by all... the last 2-day weekend was in recognition of the Memorial Day holiday...although many folks here have job responsibilities over these weekend breaks. One such guy here is power plant tech Will Brubaker...but he did have time to post the details of our celebration. I didn't throw horseshoes or anything else, but I did enjoy the food and the nitrogen martinis. Thanks Will!
As for Pole...things were actually going rether quietly...the logistics facility construction went well, in May 2008 we had our "Mass Casualty Drill" for the winter, where the scenario involved a fire and injuries in the garage, and thus with no vehicles available, yours truly got to help drag one of the "injured" parties up the hill to the station on a sled. Woof woof, as a friend might say. And we had an "egg oiling"--what's that you might say? Our fresh eggs come from New Zealand in boxes of 15 dozen...and they come coated in vegetable oil to preserve their freshness. But once or twice during the winter we need to dip them again to keep them fresh, and this activity is a great social event in the galley (left). My headgear was great fun and attracted several photographers...well, we have a sanitation rule that one must wear a hat when working in the kitchen...and since I came late, this was about the only one left. The photo and caption as it were are thanks to Steffen Richter!
That great musical event of April, Polestock (right) was an incredible success. A couple of my pictures are here along with the promo posters. But there's also a fresh Antarctic Sun article by our local correspondent Jeff King, as well as coverage from Heidi, Tim, and Dana.
17 April brought an unusual ice event north of here--the end of the "extended season" at MacTown. A C-17 visited them bringing freshies, several thousand pounds of mail and a few late winterovers, and headed north with about 100 passengers, leaving 125 folks behind. Some of the northbound folks were late science projects, some had showed up in February to work on a new fuel tank up where TESL, er, F-Stop used to be. The McM winterovers will be isolated until Winfly...whenever that is or whatever that is called. Instead of some flights in the third week of August, that event will be smaller and occur during the first week of September. For those of you curious about the ongoing winter life at McMurdo, admin guy Tom Hamann's blog is definitely recommended. And also this year the Antarctic Sun is maintaining a winter presence. Meanwhile, our opening flights at Pole will likely be the Basler variety staring in mid-October.
Friday 21 March was our big dinner celebration, although we still saw the sun for a few more days on and off and on. Maybe. For the sunset party weekend we have had overcast skies and poor surface definition. Thursday morning 20 March I made the call that we had a "Stonehenge moment"--well, not really, but it seems that at 6 AM the sun shone directly in the window at the sun deck (directly above Destination Alpha (DA), the main station entrance) and a couple hundred feet straight down the main hall, so you could see your shadow in the doors at the other end. Hmmm, at right below is a photo I took of the sun from the same spot in the hallway, looking back towards DA. And here is a hero shot in the B3 hallway...remember I was playing hooky 
from my morning treadmill run...
Not long after station close, there was a women-only sleepover at ARO. Well, I wasn't there, but thanks to Heidi Lim and Leah Webster's camera I do have documentation (below left) that we have a well-rounded population. At left below can be seen 11 out of 12 of the female population--From left: Katie, Deb, Calee, Heidi, Jane, Robin, Mandi, Amy, Leah, Terry, and Katie. Sue was absent--she had to go launch a weather balloon. Do check out Heidi's blog, she has been out and about on the station environs, with camera. Yes, we do have plenty of toilet paper for the winter, a highly qualified facilities engineer, and a well-trained trauma team...:)
The station was scheduled to close Friday 15 February, but it happened a day earlier on the 14th, leaving 60 of us here, down from nearly 200 only a few days before that. Things are going well--Bill Spindler passed his "winter dental review" and finally moved back into the room he was in for the 2005 winter. With some familiar friendly next-door neighbors! In the first week after closing we had some warm (-20s F) temperatures, but now in the first week of March it is flirting with the -60s...
I must add a sad note here...former coworker and friend Mike Pavlak passed away at home on 23 January. Mike worked in the program for several years in the late 70s with H&N, and continued with it and its successor companies. He showed up at Pole to take over from me as the 1978 station manager. This page (at bottom left) includes a classic picture which includes both of us, taken while I was on R&R at McMurdo in January 1977, and here is a brief obituary (MS Word document) from the DMJMHN intranet site.
Well, the icebergs that plagued McMurdo Sound a couple years ago have gone bye bye (watch the icebergs)...but this year we had a new problem--heavy pack ice 500 miles north of McM, much worse than in recent years. The only icebreaker to show up this summer was the Swedish vessel Oden, which got to work after a science cruise from PA. Here's more info on the 2007-08 program, and a link to a PolarTrec blog on the venture. The science cruise departed from PA in late November, the beakers were sent to McM via helo on 7 January before the icebreaking duties began in earnest. Oden first made it to McM on 11 January, after finding much better ice conditions than in the past few years. Meanwhile, the cargo ship American Tern arrived at Lyttleton from PH on the on Friday the 25th as scheduled, and left a couple days later for the ice. But...the tanker was hung up at the pack ice edge, the Oden went up to help, putting the tanker Gianella arrival off until around Tuesday the 29th Offloading finished up and she left late on the 31st. The Tern showed at McM on 6 February and left around the 13th.
More on the heavy traverse season. ...the Norwegian-American scientific traverse--from Troll via Plateau Station (where they found the 1960-era USARP station intact--news article. and the Pole of Inaccessibility (where they found that bust of Lenin)--was supposed to roll into Pole around 19 January, marking the end of the first phase of their 2-year project--a return trip from Troll. But...they ended up stranded after first one and then two of their four vehicles broke down, putting them 220 miles from Pole. First they requested USAP assistance, and accordingly the SP heavy traverse (which was heading back to McM) turned around and arrived back on station on 14 January. As things evolved, the project decided to winterize their equipment at their site, and a Basler was chartered from AL&E to fly the team and some of their equipment to Pole. The first 6 made it on the 20th, and the rest of them along with ice cores and other stuff made it on Monday the 21st. The group flew north to McM on Wednesday the 23rd.
The new station dedication happened on Saturday 12 January...the guest list was rather exclusive, and the on-station ceremonies were extensive. I do have lots of pictures, but since I'm rather busy doing other things at the moment :) for the moment I must recommend the NSF press release and the excellent Antarctic Sun coverage. An earlier story on this event came from the Aussie media. Meanwhile, the station has also been visited by the annual Congressional delegation.
The South Pole Traverse--yeah, that one, the one from McM--doing "trail maintenance"... rolled into the station on 8 January, after advance scout Bill McCormick wandered into the B3 lounge the night before and announced their presence. He was welcomed to Pole, and since he wasn't driving, he was handed a cold beer. The ITASE traverse--this year's venture from Byrd Glacier to Pole--showed up on the morning of Christmas Eve. Teacher Elke Bergholz has an excellent blog entry here. And a bit later there was a Chilean scientific traverse, which appeared to include some paying tourist members. Not unlike recent ISS (International Space Station) ventures. Hmmm.
This season has been an interesting one as far as aviation is concerned--starting with the "soft opening" using the Basler--something that was to be repeated at station close. Then on the morning of 7 December, TWO Twin Otters with 17 pax showed up from PH (left, photo from Thorsten Stezelberger). What did they do? Well, take pictures and visit the store, of course. And then there was that "mystery aircraft" that was flew over on 8 December without saying hello. But not without this picture (right) by Jill Fox, who was part of a campout and happened to have a camera at the right time. Well, it turned out to be that new Airbus A380...the full story is here thanks to help from the ExplorersWeb team. Oh, here's the complete Airbus press release and an ExplorersWeb followup.
And then the USAP-chartered Basler crashed on 20 December near Mt. Paterson, a West Antarctic field site 550 miles west of McMurdo, during a takeoff attempt after picking up the field party from the POLENET (Polar Earth Observing Network) project, that had just installed GPS units and seismic instruments at the site. Ten aboard-six team members and four crew, and no injuries (NSF press release), and Mitchell's blog with the full story and pics. This has put a crimp in the AGAP project as well as that oft-threatened "soft close". A team was sent in to repair the crashed plane; it was flown out via Rothera.
And then there was the C17 airdrop on 19 December. Unlike last year's event, this one, also one of those "proof of concept" things, made 4 passes, dropping about 20 pieces of cargo, in smaller pieces. Actually a great spectator event on a warm (-15°F with no wind) day (more pictures and info).
Oh, as for those NGA folks...the first group of "last degree" skiiers arrived on 15 December and got a tour of the place, including IceCube.
IceCube started its first hole of the season (#63) on Wednesday 5 December and completed it a couple days later. By mid-January they'd completed 16 holes, and they finished string deployment on the "stretch goal" 18th hole on 25 January, on schedule. They then moved and winterized the drill camp...the last of the summer folks went home on 13 February. Their goal for next season is 20 holes... And they completed all 28 of the planned IceTop tanks and associated cabling (it will still take a while for the water in the tanks to freeze). You can read their summer weekly reports here.
Okay, while the domed station has been emptied of buildings over the past few years, a major exterior modification has begun...the station sign has been removed (right, photo from Lawrence-Berkeley IceCube driller Thorsten Stezelberger). This is the first phase of the removal of the Dome entrance, jacking of the former power plant (right) arch to match the elevation of the rest of the previously jacked arches, connecting them all together, and starting structural erection of the logistics facility in the old garage arch. Stay tuned...and follow along with my construction photos.
By now of course the station is fully open for business, but a bit earlier this month things were a bit dicey. The Today Show team from NBC made it to the ice, and while Ann Curry originally planned to go to Pole for a long visit, Mother Antarctica's weather didn't cooperate, so the team barely made it in for a brief triple-shuttle visit early on Friday 9 November. Those flights made it in late Thursday/early Friday giving most w/o's an opportunity to go north after a week's delay. Anyway, for the Ann Curry fans, here is a show website.
Hey, in October 2007, the all-new Antarctic Sun had coverage of what Andy Martinez has been doing with all of the old winterover pictures. Not to be missed!
The scheduled "official station opening" (first LC-130 flight) on Monday 29 October was cancelled--not for temps (it was a warm -45°F/-43°C) but for visibility. This plane was to bring a big summer crowd (plus more mail and baggage left behind by the Basler pax...) But, a second flight later in the day did show up. Along with more later in the week. At the end of that week things turned bad, on Saturday 3 November all 3 flights aborted...the one that actually made it to Pole (only to boomerang for low viz) ended up returning to Terra Nova!
Speaking of the weather, w/o Steffen Richter has created a great automagic weather page...bookmark this for up-to-date met info!
NGA expeditions...what was on in 2007-08...
Okay, the October 2007 "soft opening" went down, with 5 of the 6 planned Basler flights. The first of these with new folks occurred on Thursday 18 October. In addition to 15 new faces and freshies, the aircraft also brought...flu shots (Heidi Lim). The Basler twin turbo had first landed at Pole Sunday 14 October (left, photo from Heidi) along with a Twin Otter. The Basler continued to McM and was to return to Pole Monday with the first 18 summer folks. And fly north with some w/o's. And repeat a few times. But bad weather in McM delayed the personnel changeout. It finally started on the 18th when 15 new people showed up and 2 left. The second Basler flight came the next day. The third didn't happen until 24 November. [Until now the earliest first flight was the 16 October 1999 LC-130 that came in to pick up Jerri Nielsen. But they didn't call that the "opening flight" either.]
What is a Basler? Basically a completely modified/rebuilt DC-3 (read, jack up the nameplate of a WWII DC-3 (or C-47, or R4-D or whatever) and rebuild and modify it). They've been to Pole before, here is more info on the previous visit and the aircraft. In any case, the plan is to get the population jacked up to 260 people by 5 November.
What will happen?? Well, the siding and "chamfer" project will continue, in an effort to save a few more BTUs and KWs as well as make the place look decent for THE DEDICATION OF THE NEW ELEVATED STATION scheduled for 12 January. With of course bunches of DVs scheduled in for a couple of double shuttles...not unlike the first station dedication was held at Pole in January 1975. Oh, yes, that means I must mention this bit of trivia: the actual first station dedication was held in early 1957 in MCMURDO, and the Polies didn't even find out about it until much later. Meanwhile, other construction activity will see erection of the base structure of the SPT ground shield, jacking of the last section of the arch (the old power plant section), removing the old Dome entrance and filling it in with arch connecting the old power plant and biomed arches, and beginning on the foundation work for the logistics facilities to be built inside this arch.
Update....the Norwegian-US Scientific Traverse is one of the more noteworthy International Polar Year (IPY) events. This is a 2-season international multidisciplinary return traverse, exploring the East Antarctic ice sheet, from the Norwegian Troll Station (where the team is now) to Pole. The first half happened in 2007-08, and it included a stop at the site of Plateau Station. Plateau was occupied for the 1966-1968 winters and featured a 30-meter met tower, similar to the one at Pole, although a late 80s event failed to find it. One of the participants is Colorado State researcher Glen Liston...who happens to be a 1983 winterover. Back then he was the maintenance mechanic. Their plans were to be at Plateau for 5-6 days drilling a 90m ice core. Well, it turns out they broke down a few miles away, but they still discovered the station only buried up to the roof...and the met tower. By the way, these folks have a great historic page about Plateau, with photos including one of that met tower. This traverse will also investigate some of those subglacial lakes which have become a big thing of late.
Would there there be a 300 Club in the 2007 winter? Well, no. Earlier this spring temps dropped briefly below -100°F a couple of times, but not long enough for anyone to gear up. Global warming?? Here's Heidi Lim's view of the scroll the first time the magic number popped up. So far in the 50+ years that folks have been at Pole, the only other winter that it didn't make it into 3 digits was 1964. And here were the dwindling odds that it might have happened (graph courtesy of the NOAA guys).
Before the sun came up, in early September the cardboard came off the windows (left, photo from Laura Rip), and the visible astronomical displays are gone. But not before the 28 August lunar eclipse got watched by me in Nevada and documented by Robert Schwarz (right) at Pole (scroll down to August). Otherwise things have been rather quiet of late, in part because satellite antenna problems have cut back on internet visibility. You may have noticed (if you noticed the site of the midwinter picture) that the old garage/gym/bar whatever along with the power plant are no more. Winfly has happened, and MacTown is swarming with early summer folks, including one Nicholas Johnson, so surely McM is not a big dead place. As reported there, the Tax Court has ruled yet again that American USAP folks have to pay taxes. Lots more folks got caught, you can read their unsuccessful strategies here (search this page with your browser for "Antarctica"). The moral is, don't try it.
Yes, happy Midwinters Day, whenever and wherever you are and may celebrate it. Nowadays this celebration is a huge event (well, based on the size of the winterover crew vs the old days) and you now can check out the extensive documentation of things on some of the winterover web sites. 30 years ago things were more modest, here is how we celebrated in 1977.
The third annual BF5K was held at the end of April, here's a link to Jason Stauch's blog entry on this ingenious event. Yes, I participated in the first version, and based on my lousy finishing time I should have worn a costume. Other serious runners and exercisers are somewhere on the way to MacTown (virtually) as the Race to McMurdo was underway again, hot and heavy, this documentation by Heidi Lim. I must confess that I made it to Mactown and almost back to Pole (Papa) 3 in the 2005 version. On the temporary facilities side, note that the smokers have found a temporary warm place to indulge, "the 2.0 Lounge" which has been parked outside of Destination Alpha for the winter. Those of you who were around back then (2000-01) will recognize this structure as the former "SPARCLE Palace" which is described and depicted here, then and now. Butt...all is not good news for smokers. It has recently been announced that as of 2010 there will no longer be any indoor smoking facilities at any USAP stations....
Tony Meunier, one of the 1974 USGS winterovers, recently revealed to me that his publication U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Activities in the Exploration of Antarctica: 1946-2006... is now available online here. This 15mb PDF document (which actually has a much longer title) documents all USGS events, visitors, winterers, cachets, etc., between Highjump and the present.
Northern hemisphere events of note...this boreal spring and summer...first was the American Polar Society symposium at the OSU Byrd Center in Columbus, OH, 25-27...the eclectic program features speakers from the IGY era (including Dick Bowers, builder of the IGY Pole Station) and folks addressing IPY and current concerns. I was there and it was great to get together with old Polie and other friends. Two weeks later in Corpus Christi, TX, the Antarctic Deep Freeze Association (ADFA) met on 8-11 May. This group is composed primarily of the folks who WERE THERE during IGY, unfortunately I didn't make that one, which featured a videoconference with Pole. And last but perhaps not least, we of the 1977 Pole Souls had our second reunion in Boulder, CO, 16-17 June. Unlike the first one in 2000, a few folks didn't make this time...one guy who won't is Alex Zaitsev, whose presence is a victim of the current poor USA-Russia relations, meaning he didn't get a visa in time, although he did visit some of us in August.
So what's with all this stuff about folks driving to Pole? No recent or hard detail on the team website, although this International Herald Tribune article is pretty good. The team has applied for the appropriate permits...the only thing is that they have to get their vehicles and alternative fuels to McMurdo in December, which is before the shipping season begins. Hmmm. This may incorporate the previously announced trip by Steve Wozniak, and they may be using Hummers...well, we will see. USAP did three round trips to Pole in the 2006-07 summer, according to some of the news articles.
The thirtieth Antarctic Treaty meeting in New Delhi happened 30 April through 11 May. Not a lot of newsmaking issues this time, but new management plans for both Pole and Palmer were addressed.
Sadly, yet another unfortunate news event--the tragic shooting of 32 people at Virginia Tech--prompted the lowering of the Dome flag to half mast on 19 March 2007. At right is a picture of this event...here are a couple more photos with additional information and credits.
Yes, the dome demo crew has been back at work. After spending a bit of time gutting the old garage, they attacked the science building in earnest. At left, upper berthing is history, stacked up to ship back up north (Brien Barnett photo). By now (late April) they've finished with the old UB/science building structure, gone back out to the garage arch to wipe out the old garage/carp shop/gym except for the floor, and gone back into the dome to remove the old UB/science floor. Cold temps have hampered equipment operations...but the plan is next to remove the old garage floor next, followed by the old comms floor. After the food gets moved. Again.
Happy sunset...20 March is the official equinox date in most of the world, but as usual the sun was visible for a few more days. The station bid the daylight farewell with the sunset dinner on 24 March. Another one of those great events...here's a picture of the 11 women on station this winter. Preceding this was the official 1 March inauguration of the International Polar Year...a 24-month modern version of the IGY that spawned the reason for the original Pole Station and the first of what is now 51 winterover crews (NSF press release on IPY, which includes a link to the IPY launch webcast).
Yup...after a day's delay, the station closed with the final 3 flights on Sunday 18 February 2007, leaving 54 souls....All about the last day of flights was not uneventful. The last week of summer included lots of last-minute work by the "soft close" SPT team. While they didn't get to stay quite as long as they'd planned, their efforts resulted in a successful first light on Jupiter on 16 February (Eurekalert and SPT group press releases, as well as the NSF press release with videos). The photo at right by Jeff McMahon shows ironworker Brian Hardin celebrating the successful installation. 
Meanwhile, the IceCube data acquisition team also frantically worked to get those new detectors up and running. The final tally on flight operations: there were 359 flights vs the planned 372...but since the aircraft cargo loads were higher than expected, more cargo and fuel was moved than had been planned. The last C-17 out of Mactown happened on Saturday 24 February, leaving behind only 119 w/o's there, the smallest crowd in years. And there is discussion that the program downsizing may continue next season...along with the continued stretching out of the completion of the MacTown power plant upgrade....as those ancient 399's that were supposed to go away by now are still chugging away.
On the waterfront...the shipping season is over. At left, the cargo ship American Tern is seen departing on 10 February; this unique view is from the wharf control tower. Here is what the Tern looked like full of cargo instead of garbage, when it showed up on 4 February (the Tern photos are all by McM w/o Tom Hamman). At right, the tanker Paul Buck, arrived on 31 January with help from the Polar Sea (Antarctic Sun photo by Peter Rejcek). In the background is the NSF research icebreaker N. B. Palmer which had docked earlier to swap out scientists and cargo...and then headed east to PA on a long science cruise. The Buck wasn't around long...after discharging nearly 7 million gallons of fuel, it departed to make way for the cargo ship.
And at Pole, IceCube finished the season with 13 strings completed on 29 January, and firn hole #14 completed with the new firn drill. This year the drill camp (Seasonal Equipment Site/SES) was staged for the winter at the next drilling location rather than being towed back to the berms. And the permanent IceCube lab had its official dedication. And the SP Telescope is now assembled (at least the big pieces) in all its glory 
(left, USAP photo library shot by Scot Jackson). Some of the SPT crew were to hang around past the official 17 February closing date for a "soft close" as late as the 23rd, but that didn't happen, they left on the 18th like everyone else. Late summer official Pole visitors included the design team, on site to sign off on new cryo and look at the SPT building...and on Friday 19 January, Helen Clark, PM of NZ showed up for a tour of the place.
Here are the 2006-2007 expedition, last-degree and other similar events I've watched:
It was helicopter week! FOUR arrived on Sunday 7 January (photo at right by Cynthia Chiang). The two military-looking ones are Russian MI-8 helicopters on an official expedition led by Artur Chilingarov--yes, the guy who was involved in the Antonov-3T adventures earlier in this decade. Here's an Interfax press release. One of the pax gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a phone call from comms. Meanwhile, that Polar First helicopter team had been at Fowler (71°S-71°W) but since they had good weather then they headed on 1200 miles south via PH and showed up as well in two red Bell helos--the team has been accompanied by a backup 407 piloted by two Bell Helicopter employees. It is not that often that four aircraft park at Pole...the only other time I know of was on 16 November 1976...but those were fixed-wing aircraft.
In the past couple of years, the big icebergs threatened to disrupt the annual sea resupply. Not so this year. The Coast Guard's aging but still powerful Polar Sea is almost to McMurdo as of 4 January. And NSF arranged for more help. At left, the Swedish breaker Oden (photo by summer Polie NOAA researcher Andrew Seaman) is seen breaking ice. This vessel first did a science cruise (a Swedish/Chilean/NSF joint venture) departing PA on 12 December for the Ross Sea. Then somewhere west of Cape Evans, the science team was flown to Mactown by helo, and Oden began its icebreaking effort. Here is more info on this unique science cruise from PolarTREC, a new teachers-in-Antarctica program.
Christmas holidays brought the usual events--the Race Around the World...fancy dinner...HF radio caroling, and other stuff that can be only done during a 2 day weekend. Here's a good page of holiday photos and video from veteran IceCube guy Darryn Schneider. But the day after Christmas saw a strange power failure caused by some DDC problems which precipitated a glycol leak in the power plant...all is well now. Outside...the British RAF team called off their trip on Christmas Eve due to medical problems 101 miles from Pole, they were evacuated to PA by ALE. Meanwhile, 2 members of the 6-person "last-97-miles" trek (starting from Shackleton's furthest south) led by veterans Mike and Fiona Thornwill--including Mike--had food poisoning before leaving PA...Mike continued but the other group member had to cancel out. Meanwile, the 4-man Royal Navy team arrived on the 27th, and Hannah McKeand completed the fastest trek ever, 40 days, on the 29th.
Once upon a time before the ski-equipped LC-130 Hercules, all of the construction material for the original IGY station was airdropped by a large Air Force transport aircraft known as a C-124 Globemaster. Well, in a twist of history, NSF had the Air Force try it again on 20 December--a proof-of-concept airdrop using a C-17 Globemaster III (right)...it was a complete success...delivering around 70,000 lbs of, er, flour and similar dry food. Here's the full story with pictures (and video).
The second week in December was a good one for IceCube...first, the visiting design team inspected the new permanent lab several times and finally granted conditional occupancy on 8 December. At left is a view of the place just before the last major construction task--installing the cable tray bridge from the east tower to the second floor of the lab (these photos from IceCube which published weekly reports with photos throuth the summer). The team immediately frantically started moving in equipment and pulling cables. Meanhile, the drillers completed the first hole of the season on 14 December, eventually there would be 13.
Meanwhile nearby at DSL, the South Pole Telescope (SPT) was put together by teams of scientists, ironworkers, electricians, and, well, lots of people. The RPSC folks erected the structure and did the heavy lifts (right), while the science team from Chicago assembled the telescope components. The mirror supports were put together inside a large but unheated tent. The summer team were rather prolific bloggers as well, here is the main team blog with links to others. With photos of course. The two SPT pics here were taken by Jerry Marty and Bill Johnson on 8 December (USAP photo library)
A bit of history renewed...since the days of the original IGY station (which we may know as Old Pole) ham radio has played an important part in communications with folks and family back home. Perhaps a bit less important now that Polies have IP phones in their rooms, but it is still around. And to mark the transition from the dome to the new elevated station we have a transition from the old dome QSL card to this fresh new one.
After over a week of delays, the first Hercs landed at Pole on 31 October 2006...the first flight was designated as the commemorative flight for the first landing at Pole 50 years earlier to the day, in 1956, by Navy VX-6 pilot Gus Shinn. The anniversary was marked in Gus's home town of Pensacola with a special meeting of the Gulf Coast members of the Old Antarctic Explorers Association...an event which was favorably covered by the Pensacola News-Journal. NSF rep Dave Bresnahan attended and presented Gus with a commemorative plaque (left, News-Journal photo).
As is a tradition in recent years, Kenn Borek Air transits the continent from Rothera to McMurdo via Pole a few days before official station opening...using Twin Otters and similar light aircraft chartered to support NSF and Italian field operations. This year one of these aircraft was a Basler Turbo 67...a massively converted and upgraded DC-3, the same aircraft model as the Navy R4D "Que Sera Sera" that first landed at Pole 50 years ago (almost), on 31 October 1957. The flight landed at 1050 on 20 October and spent an hour refueling (right, photo by Ethan Dicks) before heading on to MacTown...taking two winterovers along for the ride.
The dome demo moved forward, at left is a view of the second floor of comms turning into history (thanks Neal Sheibe). By now the first floor is gone as well, except for the deck which will remain for now to support shelving.
Palmer Team 77 had a successful reunion at the end of September 2006, in Newport, Oregon...with 100% attendance from the surviving winterovers, as well as a few hangers-on like me! Hmmm, must be something about 1977, a very good year on the ice. Stay tuned for photos.
The current and future power demands have been the subject of continuing discussion and study over the last few months...years...most recently the science community, NSF, RPSC, and RSA Engineering put heads together during the 2006 Pole winter to see if there is enough power available to put the SPT online and still keep the lights on in the gym (studies and findings). Hmmm. Well, do YOU have any suggestions? There will be both astronomy and basketball this winter, but there were also two fuel bladders (remember those?) installed in and atop the biomed arch to ensure enough fuel is on hand for everything. Postponed to 2007-08 along with the dedication--the new logistics facility, perhaps the end of the dome building demolition, the rest of the siding, and perhaps (if it doesn't slip yet another year) the demo of the dome itself. This structure is still planned to be shipped back to Port Hueneme where it may yet grace the Oxnard skyline.
Winfly ended successfully; the last of the four C-17 flights to McMurdo was completed over the weekend of 26 August, despite some dicey weather. This time of year also means that the sky over Pole is brightening fast...late August was time for the last nighttime Hash House Harriers "run" of the season. The construction crew is headed back into the dome to continue demo work on what used to be comms. And as the news media once again tries to figure out what is happening to the ozone hole, so is the Polie NOAA team (the NOAA Pole ozone page with current data, animations, and background info).
Reunion updates...the Old Antarctic Explorers Association had a gathering in Warwick, RI (the site of Davisville and Quonset Point, the departure point for my first trip to the ice in 1972) on 17-19 August 2006. I was there, it was great time seeing folks from the old and not so old days. Meanwhile, we 1977 Pole Souls were making preliminary plans for our second reunion which happened in Boulder in June 2007, and Palmer Team 77 was planning to get together in September 2006 aboard the Hero in Newport, Oregon.
The Antarctic treaty meeting happened in June 2006, here is the report on the Hallett Station cleanup).
Dome demo update...the crew has returned from work in the dark sector and cryo, the next targets are the gutting of comms and upper berthing. Meanwhile up north in NZ, folks are concerned that the US Coast Guard icebreakers may not be up to the task of getting the cargo ships into Winter Quarters Bay (TV NZ article), especially since the Polar Star has now been placed in caretaker status (Seattle P-I article).
Okay...midwinters week is now history, and the hijinks were in full swing. One of the main features was the WHIFF (winterover halfway film festival). The videos cropped up on Google video, or there are links in other places including Patrick McClure's pages. Meanwhile, some folks worked hard on that infamous Polie calendar (thanks to Jeff De Rosa) while others were preparing for some more serious hamming on the 24-25 June...KC4AAA was on the air for the event, but propagation was no help (update with photo).
As the first major bit of winter dome demo...the annex is history (left). The rest of the dome buildings are now cold...(well, as usual with dark construction photos, I've cranked up the lighting a bit on this one so things can be seen. Here is the original version, with thanks to John Neame. The rest of the demo pics will soon be up in the construction photo section).
NSF has been studying the alternatives for icebreaking and cargo handling for awhile...most recently on 4 May they posted an information request for a "package deal," looking for an organization that could both break ice and deliver cargo (6.5 million gallons of JP-5 and AN-8, 250,000 gallons of mogas, 600 TEU of container cargo (a TEU is equivalent to a 20-foot milvan) and 1.5 million pounds of breakbulk). Not to mention retro. Got any spare ice-strengthened vessels in your back yard?
About 1150 statute miles north of Pole, veteran marine tech Joshua Spillane was presumed dead on Wednesday 19 April, 2 days after he had last been seen on the Laurence M Gould (LMG) as the ship made its way north from Palmsr Station to PA. Joshua had been employed for more than 10 years and 40 cruises. He was last seen on deck around 0500 Monday morning, and was noticed missing 6 hours later. After an onboard search, the LMG turned around and conducted a grid search. Argentina and Chile also assisted in the search effort. Conditions were harsh--20-40 knot winds, 20-foot seas with rain and snow, and 43°F water temperature. Here's a link to a couple of usap.gov news articles.NSF Polar Programs director Karl Erb released a press statement of condolences on 21 April; an earlier press release was issued on 18 April before the death was confirmed. Several other folks have died aboard Antarctic research vessels, but it seems that Joshua's tragedy is the first that did not occur while the vessel was securely berthed in a South American port.
When it was nearly dark outside (6 April) it went dark inside for awhile, in one of the more serious power outage situations in station history. It lasted for several hours (no, not one continuous outage) and was exacerbated by the failure of the power feed to the fuel arch, which, of course, fills up the fuel daytanks in the power plant and boiler mechanical rooms to keep everything running. It took a couple days to get things back to normal...in the meantime serious power conservation was conducted and stuff was moved to the B1 emergency pod just in case.
Fall featured continued dark sector construction on the SPT building, IceCube and elsewhere. In the new station, the gym was finished out except for the final floor and some of the stuff at the south end. And the dome demo began again...the annex was one of the first structures to bite the dust.
Antarctica has been a big deal in the news media in the last few weeks...with two major research reports in Science on that old familiar subject of global warming. The first, published 24 March, addressed the fact that both the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets appear to be melting much faster than expected. See this NSF press release for more information. The second article appeared in the 31 March issue and discussed an observed 0.5°C warming per decade of the troposphere (pressure altitude of 500 hPa, 500 mb or 14.7" of mercury) based on recently compiled radiosonde data from nine stations including Pole. More information is available in this BAS press release and this BBC report.
In late March, C-16 headed north away from Ross Island towards the Drygalski Ice Tongue, which it hit on 29 March, breaking off a small bit of the tongue which was later named C-25. At right is a 14 April image from UW showing both bergs well north of the ice tongue.Watch the icebergs....Earlier, cargo and fueling operations did finish successfully, despite the iceberg action. There was enough open water west of the iceberg for the cargo ship and tanker to head north safely. The Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Star showed up on 14 February (press release), took on fuel, and did some channel grooming (in hopes of improving conditions for next season) before heading back north on the 16th. Here's a 10 February NSF press release with additional information and photos. The 9 February satellite photo (right, annotated by MODIS to show the movement) shows it squeezed between Ross and Beaufort Island The original shipping channel was just west of the Cape Bird coast, cut through ice which has now moved out. For reference, here's a 7 February bathymetric plot of the area from IGNS; here's January's chart of the shipping channel; and here's a NOAA sat photo of the area from 9 January 2006.
Pole closed on 21 February 2006 as the day's flights suddenly became the last ones. It was an incredibly successful season for airplanes, as there were a total of 377 flights, and unofficially just short of 10 million pounds of cargo, 16% more than planned, and a record, as stuff for next year's construction of the cargo building was shipped in, among other things. So...there are 64 folks left, I'm homesick, if anyone else is you must watch the summer video slide show that Patrick McClure has put up. Other recent stuff...while daylight lasted, construction in the dark sector continued on the SPT addition to DSL, as well as the counting house. And under the dome, the last upper berthing room party went off , while the erstwhile arch gym/exercise room has gained its last lease on life as the smoking bar. Dodgy Bastard...
The tanker Lawrence H. Gianella replaced the American Tern at the pier, and fuel offload happened between 9 and 11 February. The tanker left with assistance from both Krasin and Polar Star. The cargo ship (left) had reached the pier on 2 February with the help of Krasin. Seems that the Tern bumped the ice pier a bit harder than expected but no harm no foul. Meanwhile, the other Russian icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov which was supposed to stay around and help, bailed and headed north on 1 February. Earlier, Krasin helped the NB Palmer make it to the pier for a brief port call on 28 January...Polies here note that Henry Malmgren disembarked and promptly flew south to consult on a Pole server he'd built.
This was to be the first year since Deep Freeze started that no US Coast Guard (or Navy) icebreaker would tend to the McMurdo sea lane. NSF arranged for the Russian icebreaker Krasin to do primary duty without help from a US vessel. But...now it seems that Krasin lost one of the blades from the starboard screw. She worked with her other two shafts at 110% power, but more work needed doing and the tanker Gianella was hanging back. And on 19 January NSF decided to get more help. Polar Star headed south from Seattle on 20 January...she is expected to reach the area about 20 February (USCG departure press release and return press release with photo link). McM divers had a look at Krasin but the prop was beyond repair with available material. Hopefully by mid February everybody will be out of McMurdo. Meanwhile, the third annual South Pole International Film Festival (SPIFF) was held on the weekend of 21 February...a great success.
Up north, the income tax case that many Polies have been watching has been resolved...the answer is, pay your taxes (!) Here's the 25 January decision and an accountant's commentary.
Across the skiway...the two new telescopes have been taking shape. At left (28 December, Carlton Walker) is the foundation for the massive 10-meter telescope, otherwise known as the South Pole Telescope (SPT; more information)...this massive structure will have a shield larger than the dome if it were inverted. It will be connected to DSL (seen behind it) with a walkway and lab space. At right atop DSL is the shield for BICEP (16 December photo by Yuki Takahashi)...on the ground to the right is the insulating boot that will support the telescope inside the shield. If you've been here awhile you'll notice that the DSL penthouse has been removed to make way for this new project, scheduled to go on line this season (more BICEP info here and here). The crane mount (yellow post) has been relocated from the roof to the second level, and the stairways and platforms are also scheduled for an upgrade. Meanwhile, the massive IceCube operation continued successfully...as of 29 January it finished the drilling season with EIGHT new holes, for a total of 9. This year the IceCube folks have been publishing excellent weekly reports on their progress, although the older reports are no longer available.
At left (Peter Rejcek, 22 December) is the north end of the new B4 gym (first floor) and exercise room/weight room (balcony)...almost done here. The design team wa on site in late Janurary 2006 to inspect and grant conditional occupancy to the last 3 wings of the new elevated station. And at 0100 26 December the transition to the new comms room, well, called the Station Operations Center (SOC) for now at least was completed (right, Peter Rejcek, 23 December). The room on the northwest corner of B3 overlooks the dark sector and the skiway...there is supposedly room for a couch but this place is a bit more business oriented, unlike the old room in the Dome which Neil Conant shut down and saw go quiet and empty. The dart board is just outside the door.
Outside...the first "South Pole Traverse" to make it all the way pulled into Pole on 23 December after 45 days on the trail. The train of equipment included a new dozer and snow haul dump trailer, visible at left in this photo (Peter Rejcek; this and the previous 4 photos are from the USAP Antarctic Photo Library). The team stayed around for 5 days before heading back to McMurdo, arriving on 14 January. The cargo included a "snow trailer" (tracked belly dump trailer) visible in the photo at left, as well as the D-8 "Mary Lou" (right; here's a shot of Mary Lou in action a couple days later). This 1 January 2006 Antarctic Sun article and this this 7 February 2006 NSF press release have more information.
Construction has continued at a fast pace on the elevated station and elswhere...as the first half of the summer saw the cargo office moved closer to the skiway...all the remaining science projects (and musical instruments) were moved out of Skylab so the place could be shut down...the old Biomed arch and front entrance were excavated in preparation for raising the arch for the new storage facility...BICEP telescope installation is proceeding on the second floor of DSL...the 10-meter telescope foundation is being assembled in a hole behind it, the beginning of the siding installation on the elevated station (see photo at left)...and in mid December the place suffered from a heat wave. 
The temperature soared to +7°F/-13.9°C, less than a degree shy of the all-time record. And the British "Numis Polar Challenge" showed up on 14 January after a 200-mile trek in authentic Scott-era polar garb and equipment (photo from ThePoles.com).
The first of the summer NGA visitors included that tricked 6x6 Ford Van, which showed up from PH on 13 December (photo at right, here's more info and photos), as well as veteran polar trekkers Borge Ousland and Rune Gjeldnes.
Yes folks, I finally left Pole on 21 November, four weeks after station opening, one of the last 2 winterovers to leave...Before I left, the VIPER telescope, (this year running the ACBAR project) was shut down for the last time. A bit earlier, the 10-year AST/RO project also came to an end...
It was over...the first LC-130 touched down at 1743 Friday 21 October 2005... bringing fresh folks as well as big money to Clayton Cornia who won the "skis down" pool (left, the aircraft approaches the waiting winterovers whose shadows can be seen here). Soon the second flight landed, and after a few folks left, the population was already up to 157. The third flight didn't land, as the temperatures had drifted below the theoretical -58°F limit. 
The day before we'd been visited by three Twin Otters transiting from Rothera to McMurdo (right, the first aircraft turns off the skiway, while the second is in the distance about to land).
The folks in Denver unleashed the new www.usap.gov Antarctic portal web site...some new looks for old stuff, and new features as well. Have a look.... Most of the Raytheon-related content including employment information is on a separate RPSC site, while the Antarctic Sun is here. The change to usap.gov also affected all of our computers on the ice...more fun for the IT folks.
The September 2005 issue of Popular Mechanics has an excellent article on the new station by the Jeff Rubin, the Antarctic editor of the Polar Times. Oh, Jeff is also the author of the new edition of the Lonely Planet guide to Antarctica. I've seen it, and you can too.
The icebergs that pestered McMurdo during the 2004-05 summer season seem to have moved out of the way, but not before B15A brushed a 3x3 square mile chunk off the Drygalski Ice Tongue (watch them!) Still, NSF made provisions for the Russian icebreaker Krasin to show up again in January 2006, this time in a primary role, with the Coast Guard as backup. Related news--in August 2005 a NSF committee released a significant report on Antarctic logistics--in addition to a discussion on icebreaker support, other recommendations include continuing development of the "road to Pole" traverse (which reached Pole this summer), development of a runway for heavy wheeled aircraft at Pole (something that's been studied and tried since the 1950s), and consideration of lighter-than-air craft for cargo delivery. Have a read for yourself (revised version).
As of mid September the construction continued to move along at a great pace--the gym and adjacent rooms were being framed out and sheetrocked, while elsewhere the final wall covering was being put up in the berthing rooms and corridors (left, more of those colored wall tiles in the main B3 hallway just outside the new communications and office area). Outside the approaching sunrise drowned out the stars and brightened up our rooms--as of 7 September we could remove the covering from our windows since the light-sensitive astronomy experiments had been shut down.
We were blessed (?) with a chilly morning on 2 August--it happened to make it down to -110.7°F when I arose and decided to grab this picture (right). Opportunity for a few more folks to join the 300 club. Meanwhile, a Scott tent has been pitched near the Pole for those who desire the ultimate winter camping experience. No thanks...I stuck to looking at photos and guidebooks of New Zealand and Australia like many others are doing.
Late June brought the traditional Midwinters Day celebrations and greetings--here's our w/o photo greeting and celebration announcement...and here's how we partied!
The first week in May 2005 brought the Antarctic Deep Freeze Association (ADFA) reunion in Biloxi, MS. This group consists of folks who came down during IGY, and this reunion marks the 50th anniversary of the original Operation Deep Freeze in 1955. One highlight of these gatherings is a telephone call to South Pole...this was the third such phone call I've been involved with, but this time I was at the Pole end of the line. Above left is a photo of winter manager Bill Henriksen talking to the group on the Iridium phone...and here's more info and pictures.
Oh, the weekend also brought the belated Cinco de Mayo celebration, complete with the first annual "BF5K"--an indoor running event complete with sponsors and appropriate libations for all...and Saturday evening marked the debut of "Al Dente" (concert poster) in the B-1 Lounge.
Okay...was Bill Spindler having too much fun at Pole to keep this page updated? Well...not exactly, but since my job involved taking pictures and writing about them every day, sometimes I, well.... There were other things going on, like slushies, Robert Schwarz's astronomy lectures, the Hash House Harriers (the southernmost drinking club with a running problem), and lots of special dinners for any occasion or none...meanwhile the construction crew made short work of the galley demolition (left), and biomed is gone as well (right).
"Astronomy on Ice" is the reason many researchers visit Pole nowadays, but Martin Pomerantz's new book with that title is the chronicle of his efforts, beginning in McMurdo in 1959 and at Pole in 1964, to establish the place as one of the world's finest astronomy sites. And a cosmic ray observatory. And a CMBR observing post. And a locus for long-term balloon flights.... Here's a 1 March press release about the book, which you can obtain from your favorite bookstore unless you happen to be wintering :( And here are a few more pages of information about Marty...
Okay, speaking of Pole history books, one with a more recent outlook has just been published by 2004 w/o Nick Johnson--with excellent reviews from the likes of the New York Times. Is Antarctica really a big dead place? Make up your own mind...
After some poor weather caused a number of cancelled and boomeranged flights, the final LC-130's showed up on 15 February (left, passengers board the closing passenger flight). Some added fuel flights came later in the day. But the flying season didn't end until Friday 18 February when 4 Twin Otter finally were able to set out for Rothera and the next leg of their trip back to Canada (right, the second of the four aircraft is airborne, while the third is in the fuel pits). Left behind are 86 winterovers in the largest station ever (or at least for now, until the winter demolition of some of the domed station buildings begins). The winter crew includes 24 women and a large construction crew working to finish out the interior of B3 (the admin/comms/control portion of the station, the end closest to the skiway), and berthing wing A4 (behind the computer room).
The 2006 annual Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting ended on 23 June in Edinburgh, Scotland...and the detailed discussion stuff as now been made public in the "Final Report" section on the meeting home page. Unlike last year there is no dramatic Pole content. Some folks were unhappy that stronger action wasn't taken to limit tourism. But there was discussion about global warming (!) and complaints about the "road to Pole" traverse (Cape Argus news article). Another item discussed was the Hallett Station cleanup...the bulk fuel tank was demo'd, cleaned up and mostly removed in January 2006 (my copy of the report, which includes a map and some Hallett history).
After Adventure Networks' (ANI) sudden departure from the NGA travel business in 2003-04, operations returned to normal in 2004-05. For 2006-07 ANI again offered their full program including those $33,500 flights to Pole, trips to Mt. Vinson, and a variety of other stuff. Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions (ALE) is the arm of the organization operating in PA and on the ice. Meanwhile, Cerpolex/PolarCircle hasn't announced anything new; in fact their old web site that discussed Snow Buggy trips among other things, seems to have faded away.
Meanwhile, the second Ice Marathon and 100k were held on 13-16 December 2006 at PH with sixteen competitors. Weather conditions for the marathon were clear at first with later low cloud cover, light winds and 14°F/-10°C. The marathon winning time was 5:08:17; the 100k--12:55:06. The latter race was won by Richard Donovan. The first of these events was held in January 2006...a successor to the original South Pole Marathon that actually ended up at Pole in January 2002, with controversy. Entry fee for this year's event was $25,000 including transportation to the starting line. There will be another next year.
The Ice Marathon was held at Patriot Hills on 7 January 2006...there were nine marathon participants, with times ranging from 5:09 to 7:10, and race director Richard Donovan did a 100k in 15:43, the first such documented ultra event. Sounds like this turned out much better than the controversial South Pole Marathon of January 2002 (Sports Illustrated coverage and Brent Weigner's diary of the earlier event, which covered the last 26.2 miles to Pole). The 2006-07 event trip is scheduled for 10-18 December (ANI site) so it is not too early to start training.
Another interesting 2005-06 tour option--Travelquest again successfully completed their tour in conjunction with Sky and Telescope magazine. It featured a visit to the Patuxent Range meteorite collection area as well as an overnight stay at Pole.
The list of adventures for 2005-06 included some rather unusual ones. Now we know what actually happened: [check out the poles.com for more detail than I can keep up with]The 2005 Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (28 ATCM, 6-17 June 2005) in Stockholm included further extensive discussions on tourism activity in Antarctica, including possible restrictions on the construction of permanent infrastructure to support land-based tourism, and preparation of site guidelines for visitors to popular spots. Here's the treaty secretariat home page, the final report page, and document page which includes links to other meeting papers. Specific documents that may be of interest to folks here include recognition of Amundsen's buried tent at Pole as a protected Antarctic historic site; the draft environmental evaluation for the new BAS station at Halley; a graphical report on tourism activities prepared by the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Commission (ASOC); liability for environmental emergencies; the management plan for Scott's Discovery Hut at McMurdo (the plan, Map A, and Map B); the 2004-05 Chinese Dome A expedition (and medevac to Pole); the Russian recovery of the Antonov-3T aircraft from Pole, and the proposal for Pole to be a "Specially Managed Area" (maps 1, 2, 3 and 4).
The big summer construction milestone on 30 January 2005 was the granting of conditional occupancy of wings B1 and B2 just in time for the winterovers to move into B1, and the met office to become the first occupant of the new science lab B2.
The first IceCube drill hole was successfully completed on 25 January, after the first attempt had to be abandoned after reaching 949m. Additional delays resulted from an unfortunate injury to veteran Swedish driller Sven Lidström, requiring his urgent medevac. The successful hole was moved 8m away from the first attempt. Later in the week, further drilling was suspended for the season, so as to insure enough time for drill camp winterization.
At left, a milestone. On 19 January the last steel was erected on the new elevated station (caption/credits and more photos). And a couple weeks later the design team granted conditional occupancy to B1 and B2 wings...the mattresses and pillows are now in the new berthing rooms, and now that winter has begun, the w/o's are living in them too.
Meanwhile, the iceberg demolition derby continued. Ice around B-15A was breaking up rapidly. As for the ships...on Friday 21 January 2005, Krasin met up with the Polar Star at the ice edge . On the 23rd she was escorting the tanker Paul Buck. On the 23rd there were 4 ships visible from Arrival Heights--these two plus the Polar Star and the Nathaniel B Palmer. The icebreakers enlarged the channel, the NBP was at the pier on the 25th, and the tanker tied up the next day and offloaded, departing Saturday 29 January...only to have engine problems on the way north. The American Tern reached McMurdo on 2 February and began offload the next morning.
Krasin (left, seen parked off McM early on 29 January 2005, I took this photo while waiting for transportation for my flight to Pole) is 442 feet long with a full load displacement of 20,190 (long) tons, slightly larger than the Coast Guard's Healy. It is electrically powered using 9 diesel engines, total rated at 36,000 shp, with 3 screws, a maximum open-water speed of 19.5 knots, and an icebreaking capability of 6 feet. (By comparison, the Polar Star stats: 399 feet long, 13,190 tons, 3 screws, 75,000 shp with gas turbines (18,000 shp with diesel electric power), 18 knots, 21' ice; and the Healy: 420 feet long, 16,000 tons, 30,000 shp, twin screws, 17 knots, 8' ice.) More information and stats on the Krasin are available on the FESCO shipping company web site (Polar Star stats) (Healy stats).
Meanwhile, the Polar Star blasted through about 82 nautical miles of ice to reach Hut Point on 30 December 2004. That work so far was in the old channel--7-8 foot first and second year ice. Mother Nature recently helped with warm temps and a lot of volcanic dust to help absorb solar radiation; more recently the fast ice west of B15A seems to be breaking up, helped by the B-15A's bumping and grinding. A lot of 20+ foot multi-year stuff had to be cleared to provide the full channel for the cargo ships. At left is the track into McMurdo, north of Cape Bird, threading between C-16 and B-15K. And at right is a clip from the 19 January NASA MODIS image (more)--the most extensive site I've found--that clearly shows the ice conditions. The Polar Star was sidelined at the ice wharf in early January with hydraulic oil leaks on the port and starboard shaft hubs. Divers worked to retorque the bolts on all 3 hubs, they finished on the 20th, and the breaker went back at work (at reduced power due to turbine problems). She may yet see some yard time for some more repairs on the screw hubs. By the way, the tourist icebreaker Khlebnikov was sighted hanging around near Cape Royds the first week in January. That's no slouch of an icebreaker either (Khlebnikov stats), 
but unfortunately the tourists on that trip couldn't make it in to visit McMurdo or Scott Base. She came down again the last week in January and landing conditions were more successful. NSF is taking a look at utilizing her in future years.
Coincidentally with the Krasin arrangement, a second Russian team went to Pole to recover the Antonov-3T aircraft that was stranded in 2001-02. This is considered by NSF to be an official Russian Antarctic Program activity. An Ilyushin-76 aircraft arrived in Christchurch 21 December 2004 from Darwin with 35 on board, including mechanics, engineers, a film crew, and a replacement engine. The aircraft left for McMurdo at 1000 Monday 27 December, arriving at the Pegasus runway about 1530 (above left). 
The engineering team continued to Pole on an LC-130. Their ambitious schedule called for a test flight on 4 January, return to McM for disassembly on 5 January, and departure to ChCh with the AN-3T inside the Ilyushin on 6 January. They were ahead of schedule--the replacement engine was been installed, run-up, and given multiple successful test flights beginning on 3 January. But the flight to McMurdo was delayed until 11 January, held up by bad weather there. Finally the AN-3T left Pole around noon on the 11th, arriving at McMurdo at 1910 (left). Meanwhile, the Ilyushin had arrived from Christchurch earlier in the day. The AN-3T was disassembled and put aboard the Ilyushin, which arrived back in Christchurch at 2030 on Wednesday the 12th. Here is complete coverage with photos. Above right is one of Seth White's photos of the AN-3 taken in January 2004 (more photos). The Russians were fortunate...not too long after these photos were taken, the fog rolled in...
And the icebergs,...watch them for yourself...if you can figure out what they're going to do, you have your Wisconsin PhD all sewed up. Here are the links: NASA MODIS; UW SSEC; RPSC; and NOAA National Ice Center. NASA thought B-15A would crunch the Drygalski Ice Tongue by 15 January, but the big crunch didn't happen until April, and that was more of a nuzzle. In late December B-15A suddenly moved much closer to the Drygalski Ice Tongue, 10 miles away. After almost stopping, it moved again to less than 4 miles away, where it stopped again. Here is a 19 January NASA news feature with crystal-clear images and an animated time lapse sequence of the midsummer lurches. Crunch time. Was there any danger to folks? No, according to this 16 December 2004 NSF press release. But it was worried that the ice conditions might wipe out much of the penguin breeding activity on Ross Island.
The berg (left) is 80 miles long by 20 wide--much smaller than it started out when it broke off the Ross Ice Shelf in March 2000, but still quite big enough to keep things interesting. Since this web site tries to keep things in a historical perspective, have a look at what happened in December 1965 when iceberg met icebreaker...
At the end of November 2004 the north end of B-15A (or B-15, or, well, the big one) was firmly grounded. Still there was concern expressed by researcher Doug MacAyeal in a detailed interview in the 28 November Antarctic Sun. At that time Doug felt the real problem would not arise until 2005. But that was then. In January B-15A started to move north quickly toward the ice tongue and rotate a bit counterclockwise. Doug's iceberg page includes daily visible and infrared photos with commentary...also Denver posts satellite images daily.
As the weather warmed up, outside work started up in earnest--one of the first projects was a large new radome to cover the SP MARISAT-GOES antenna (right, more photos). Meanwhile, 12 December saw the new Counting House successfully towed from its El Dorm location to the new site amidst the IceCube array. And later in the month the steel for A4 went up.
The last weekend in November 2004 brought two tragically linked anniversaries...the first being the 75th year after Byrd's historic flight over Pole on 28-29 November 1929; the second being the tragic crash of the New Zealand DC-10 into Mt. Erebus on 28 November 1979 (timeline link to photos/information). The latter event was commemorated with a 28 November visit to the crash site by NZ dignitaries, and a 29 November 2004 ceremony at Scott base which included Sir Edmund Hillary. Ed also spoke to a crowd of over 250 folks in Building 155. Earlier that week, Hillary had spoken out against the "road to Pole" traverse calling it "terrible" (BBC news article). The Air Force made the official Byrd commemorative flight to Pole a couple weeks early on the 17th (photo at left from Darryn Schneider); this event was featured in a major NSF news release and special report.
Speaking of the traverse, after negotiating some soft snow and crevasse fields at the south end of the Ross Ice Shelf, they quickly made it to the top of the Leverett Glacier the first week in January. At last report they'd gotten about 200 miles from Pole before turning around and heading back to McMurdo....(map and archived story).
The first two LC-130 flights came in as planned on Friday, 22 October 2004 (at right, the opening flight, photo from Dana Hrubes). This was a day ahead of the original schedule, in -68°F weather. A third flight on Saturday brought the population up to 176! By 3 November 32 flights had been completed--probably a record. Unfortunately the cold weather had restricted cargo to single-pallet loads, which left out all of those IceCube drill camp modules. A total of 326 flights had been planned for the 2004-05 season, and things remained on schedule until early January when bad weather put things way behind. By the way, many of the early summer folks--old w/o's and new arrivals--suffered with severe flu-like illnesses for a bit...
Winter construction finished up ahead of schedule, with B1 (science) and B2 (berthing/emergency facilities) were virtually complete except for some flooring, furniture, and punch list items. The additional berthing (38 rooms in B1) is important as el dorm was gutted and moved for IceCube, and other Dome berthing in the annex and biomed is unavailable this winter. Summer activity also included the first phase of a new cryogenic facility to improve the winter storage of helium, as well as the massive crew and camp for the first phase of IceCube.
Remember all those Florida hurricanes? Pensacola was hard hit, and one of the casualties was Que Sera Sera, that VX-6 aircraft that was the first to land at Pole on 31 October 1956. The R4D, which was parked in back of the Naval Aviation Museum, lost a wing in the storm...Joe Hawkins has the damage documented with NOAA photos. As of July 2006 no repairs had been made. Here's some photos of Que Sera Sera in better days...
In addition to the webcam, the NOAA CMDL group has made significant upgrades to the main web site, including improved science links and some excellent photo galleries from the last few years, including those Jon Berry postcards. And elsewhere, the Canadian online comic strip "userfriendly" ventured to Pole featuring 2004 w/o's Sara Kaye, Henry Malmgren and Ethan Dicks...here's Sara's collection with links to all the strips.
In other national program news, Chile's 12-member Army/Navy/Air Force scientific traverse from PH to Pole (and back) arrived at Pole 1 December. They had been scheduled to depart for the return trip on the weekend. The project has support from 2 Chilean Air Force C-130's as well as ANI; the military set up a temporary support base at PH. Projects include deep ice coring and other climate/global warming studies. Support equipment includes a crane-equipped Swedish Berco TL-6 "snow cat" as well as a Twin Otter (MercoPress news article).
The Chinese national program successfully completed a traverse from their Zhongshan Station on the coast (69°S-76°E, about 60 miles southwest of Davis) to Argus Dome (81°S-77°E, also known as Dome A), which at an altitude of 13,250 feet (4,039m) (altitude according to the Chinese who made the first ascent) is the highest point on the icecap. The team arrived on 18 January (Explorersweb news article and a report by the Chinese delegation at the June 2005 Antarctic Treaty meeting (ATCM); but the trip was not without difficulty. Engineer Gai Junxian suffered chest pains from the extreme altitude (11 January Peoples Daily article), and was medevaced to Pole on 8 January by Twin Otter. Pole physician Christian Otto made the trip to Argus Dome along with South Dakota researcher Jihong Cole-Dai who acted as translator (NSF press release with photos and Chinese report from the ATCM); the patient had to stay a few days at Pole due to bad weather before he could be flown north to McM and Christchurch. The Chinese are considering a permanent station on the site by 2010 (China Daily news article); accordingly a delegation from the Chinese national program visited Pole on 2 February to have a look at the new elevated station. Meanwhile, the traverse returned to Zhongshan Station, arriving on 7 February (Peoples Daily article).
The 2004-05 expedition list...another fairly successful year, but with some surprising postponements and cancellations...
The Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM, 23 May-4 June 2004) in Cape Town resulted in plans for stricter rules on private travel, to include insurance and emergency contingency plans; some of the regulations were imposed for the 2004-05. Here's the treaty secretariat home page, and the meeting/final report page, which includes links to the meeting papers including tourism measures among the other meeting decisions. Also note this news story from South Africa.
After Adventure Networks' (ANI) sudden departure from the NGA travel business in 2003, things settled back in under the new ownership structure, and for 2004-05 ANI was again offering their full program including those $33,000 flights to Pole, trips to Mt. Vinson, and a variety of other stuff. Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions (ALE) is the arm of the organization operating in PA and on the ice. Meanwhile, Cerpolex/PolarCircle didn't announce anything new about the previously proposed recovery of the Antonov-3 aircraft (which they were not involved with), but they did announce a slate of offered ventures that didn't happen, including a 3-day drive to Pole in some updated 8x8 Snow Buggies.
One interesting specialty tour for 2004-05 was being offered by Travelquest featuring a visit to the Patuxent Range meteorite collection area as well as Pole. Didn't see them either...
The Norwegians are upgrading Troll Station for year-round operations, with a winter crew of 7, beginning in 2005 after a February dedication visit by Queen Sonja. There are future plans for a 10,000-foot blue ice runway.
2004-05 was the last season that C-141 aircraft were used for ChC-McM flights (USAF press release). Meanwhile, winfly (C-17 flights) happened successfully beginning on 20 August 2004--here are some pictures. Meanwhile, the late August 2004 weekends at Pole brought the art show, another band performance, twilight, lousy weather (but no records), some clowning around, and running out of helium...
Tim Coffey, age 45, died on 28 July 2004 after a 70' fall from a radar tower he was working on near Nain, Labrador (on the north coast). Tim was the 1996 site manager; more recently he returned for work on the SPRESSO project. He's also been to Summit. Here's his obituary from the Concord, NH Monitor newspaper.
The cyberterrorism redux continues. A bit more commentary published on the Register on 19 August 2004...seems that the DASI servers got broken into two months before the much publicized May 2003 Romanian exploit. And the folks at Slashdot had fun with it. This all started with politics...the U. S. Justice Department issued a report revealing new details, outlined in a 14 July Newsweek online article. Hmmm. This web site will stay out of the political debate, but I wonder how much money those Romanians could have gotten for all that AMANDA data. Oh yes, the original FBI report and the news article by thepoles.com are still around.
July 2004 was the coldest one on record--the average was -88.4°F/-66.9°C, beating the old record by more than half a degree F. This was the second coldest month ever, dipping below -100°F nine times (and the barometric pressure almost set a new record low as well). The coldest was -107.9°F/-77.7°C on the 21st (right). This provided ample opportunity for the 300 club, which had about 35 partakers (thanks to Kris and Dana for the data).
Jerry Marty was interviewed by Jeff Rubin for an article appearing in the June 2004 Polar Times. Jerry reaffirmed that the construction project remained on schedule and successful, including a head start on the last 2 wings. And additional funding and design tweaking means that the completed station will have not 110, not 150, but 154 beds! 2004-05 will see erection completion and enclosure of A4 and B4, and 2005 will probably be the last winter that people live in the dome. What of the dome? Representatives of the dome vendor and the Seabees will visit next season to evaluate the return of at least part of the dome for the Seabee museum. By the way, in addition to being the Antarctic editor of the Polar Times, Jeff Rubin is also the author of that Lonely Planet guidebook to Antarctica...
Midwinters Day 2004 brought the traditional greeting and a group photo in the old station. Old station? Well, plans are still being discussed to bring a piece of the dome back, with perhaps even an ATCO building or two that we can use for reunion photos. Hmmm. Glen K has collected this page of invitations and greetings from around the continent. And the Antarctic Sun published its first midwinter edition which just so happens to feature our holiday message from 1977...
NSF has significantly enhanced and updated its home page and web site...for example, they've made a good collection of multimedia available on one page (but some of the items that were here earlier can no longer be found). The list includes content from all divisions of NSF; one item still here is this video on Antarctic logistics which includes mid-90s seismo vault footage and a balloon launch from the old BIT...
Things remained quiet and smooth before midwinters day...construction was smoothly on schedule, the temperature dipped below that magic -73.3°C for the first time...and Ronald Reagan's death in California brings a commemoration. Meanwhile, the food growth chamber (greenhouse) is starting to be green. Here's hoping, since it is one of the more visible bits of station construction, close to the store.
On 16 May 2004, McMurdo was hit with the worst storm in perhaps 30 years. One example of the damage at the Chalet is seen at right. Since folks keep sending pictures and information I haven't seen elsewhere, I've added 2 pages of pictures and coverage.
Scientists from a Hamilton College-led team announced the discovery of a new undersea volcano just east of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Here's more information and links.
In early April 2004 there was a fast McMurdo medevac with multiple medical cases. This time the aircraft of choice was a USAF C-141 out of March Air Reserve Base. It arrived in Christchurch Friday 10 April in the morning (local time) and made the round trip to the Pegasus ice runway on Saturday. Weather conditions there were clear with a temperature of -13°F. The aircraft returned to ChCh at 1930 with 3 medical cases on board. The RNZAF had a C-130 on standby for backup. The three patients were given oxygen and IV's during the flight, and are now being treated in Christchurch hospitals, while the aircraft has returned to California. The most serious ailment involves stomach problems. Not many more details which is the norm of late, but it is interesting to note that two replacement w/o's went south on the aircraft. Here is the 8 April NSF press release. A 10 April 2004 article from the Age (Melbourne) has additional detail.
Why the medevac subject was brought up here...the Navy (which contracts for aviation technical services) has been soliciting proposals for new runway lights for such an eventuality at Pole. They must be quickly deployable and provide standard VFR conditions for a Twin Otter at -100°F. Hmmm, whatever happened to all those Coleman lanterns? And back in Greeley, Colorado, the British balloonist David Hempleman-Adams (who has previously walked to Pole) bagged the open balloon high altitude record at 42,000 feet on 23 March. Afterwards, after dealing with the FAA--seems he may not have had a proper US pilot license or flight plan, he said he was considering a flight over Antarctica (David then went out for beer, and the FAA later declined to press charges or penalties).
Pole is turning into a cultural center! The 2003 winter brought a major art show and Oktoberfest (check out Robert Schwarz's photo gallery!) and the 2003-04 summer saw the first annual film festival, with some serious works. Turns out that Tyler Regan's short "Surf's Up" got shown at the Arts Centre in ChCh. What's next, the opera? Tyler and Brad Halter, thanks for the poster!
The station closed on 15 February 2004 as planned. There had been 332 flights scheduled...and after the last flight departed there had been a record 329--essentially a successful flight season for a change, and a record (3 more flights than the previous record). Unlike 2003, the ship offload was timely, so fresh supplies (and beer) got delivered. The summer population averaged around 240. Now there are 75 w/o's...yet another record.
The bigdeadplace site has a detailed interview, by an unnamed Polie, with Jon Johanson, the Australian pilot who overflew Pole in December. Here are my details and pictures of his venture.
Ruth Siple, wife of the late Paul Siple (veteran of two Byrd expeditions and the first Pole SSL) died on 23 January in Virginia. Ruth was the long-time writer and editor of the Antarctican Society newsletters (more information and photo).
And Virginia Fiennes, wife of Ranulph who led the 1981 Transglobe Expedition visit to Pole, died in England. Virginia wintered with the team close to the coast near Sanae; she ran comms for the 3-man team that crossed the continent. In November 2003 Ranulph ran 7 marathons in 7 days on, er, 6+ continents (the scheduled Antarctic run was relocated to the Falklands due to bad weather). She was diagnosed with cancer the day after Ran returned from the marathon venture.
The strange aviation events didn't end for a few days after closing. Gus McLeod flew south again, landing at Marambio Sunday 15 February SP time. He then took off for Pole but turned around and landed after weight and icing problems. After waiting a few more days, he returned north on 19 February. Gus's web site now has the details and info on his flights north. On his first trip south he left Ushuaia on 7 February SP time for a round trip overflight of Pole. After some strong winds and icing problems he landed at Rothera...and then went back north. After trying unsuccessfully to go back to his original plan--a crossing of the continent with refueling stops at Marambio and McMurdo, he tried to do the round trip overflight of Pole, with a possible refueling stop at Marambio and return to Ushuaia. He had deleted formerly planned stops at Diego Garcia and Thule, which, like McMurdo, I can attest are hard to get landing permission for. Here's a CNN article about his start. Polly Vacher stated she wouldn't sell him fuel unless he had official landing rights at McMurdo. Gus first headed south from College Park, MD in December 2003. After engine repairs in Florida and more problems in Latin America, he continued south to Ushuaia. He, like Jon Johanson, has a kit-built aircraft, a modified Velocity with a canard wing design and a single push-prop.
Pole construction continued hot and heavy and on schedule to the end of the season. Wing B1, one of the back wings on the second pod, was topped out on 20 January (photo at left). This will house more berthing and the emergency power plant. And wing B3, the last wing in the main east-west "leading edge" was topped out in December. 
This will house admin, comms, and some science, as well as the main entrance since it is close to the taxiway. B1, B2, and B3 are scheduled for completion next summer. A design team was on site at the end of January to inspect A3, the new medical and computer facility, (which was officially open for occupancy on 29 January) as well as A1 and A2 which were occupied last March. Also this summer the freshie shack and weight room in the dome were demo'd...next summer the old biomed building in the arch will go away. Here's the schedule map and lots of construction photos. Science-related work included the relocation of the AASTO module and telescope mount from the dark sector to the clean air sector near ARO for a new project to search for extrasolar planet. Oh yes, the webcam got moved too and is back online. Planning and cargo shipments for ICECUBE, the "super-AMANDA" happened. And another neat science project was Tumbleweed, that set loose a 2m "beach ball" with prototype instrumentation inside; it was propelled by the wind for 40 miles (project web site and NSF press release). And someone stole the 2003 Pole marker...
The "Polar First" helicopter that visited Pole on Wednesday 12/17/03 (Pole photos and more info here) crashed 120 miles north of PH at 1400 Pole time (0100Z) Saturday 20 December. Both crew members were injured, they were flown back to PH by ALE and were flown on to Punta Arenas later the same day, where they are now recuperating. Here's their current web site. June 2004 update...Jennifer and Colin flew to the RAF base in Kinloss, Scotland to meet the rescue coordinators Antarctic Connection story).
Other Antarctic transportation news from December: One Korean was killed when Zodiacs capsized in bad weather on Sunday 7 December 2003. The first boat with three men capsized while returning to base (King Sejong station near the south east end of King George Island) after seeing colleagues off at the Marsh runway. The three made it to a nearby island in their own vessel and were rescued by a Chilean helicopter. But a second boatload of 5 rescuers also overturned, and one of them died. The other four swam to shore and made it to a temporary shelter hut, where they were rescued by a Russian patrol. Here's a Korean English language news article. At Rothera, Polly Vacher, departed for Marambio on the 19th and flew on to Ushuaia the next day. She had to turn her Piper Dakota around earlier this month due to excessive headwinds on the way to McMurdo. She cancelled her transpolar flight and continued to NZ via the US. She arrived in Auckland around 30 January 2004. She let Jon Johanson use some of her fuel cached at Scott Base.
The LC-130 that collapsed a nose ski on 5 December 2003 while taking off from a Ford Range (77°14'S. 142°24'W) field site was repaired and flown back to town on 12/14. They had just left a fuel cache for a climatology field party. The aircraft in Christchurch from which repair parts have been borrowed has also been repaired. And a helo suffered a "hard landing" near the Beardmore. NSF press release.
The 2003 USAP traverses: the science traverse that left Pole Thanksgiving weekend made it to AGO4 and Taylor Valley as planned. This was a continuation of the multiyear ITASE traverse which started at Byrd in November 1999.
Meanwhile, the Pole "proof of concept" venture ran into heavy soft snow and very slow going. They turned around on 16 January, 430 miles from the starting point, short of the planned destination at the Leverett Glacier. They made it back to McMurdo on 24 January.
The trekkers...first Ilyushin flight to PH took some of them in on 11/30...the first tourist flight showed up at Pole dropping off some trekkers heading north. Adventure Networks (ANI)'s Antarctic operations have been sold to the new PH operator. What did this mean for the tourists, trekkers, and charity events that showed up at Pole? Actually, things worked well.
October 2003 opening flights were almost on schedule...the first two LC-130's showed up on the afternoon of Saturday 10/25, after a day's weather delay. Meanwhile, 4 Twin Otters had arrived the previous day on their way to McMurdo for summer support of field camps. This year a total of seven Twin Otters transited Pole on their way to support USAP field projects as well as Italian/French operations at Concordia (Dome C). And there were 332 LC-130 flights scheduled for Pole--329 actually made it!
Expeditions for 2003-04...it actually turned out to be a fairly successful year for NGA's and tourists, although some treks were announced with fanfare but didn't happen. ANI (Adventure Networks International) announced on July 24 that they were canceling all Antarctic operations for the 2003-04 season. This was from the departing former owner and operator Anne Kershaw, who has since dropped out of sight. This disrupted plans of this year's tourists and adventurers.
After the demise of ANI's operations, two organizations stepped into the breach, struggling to line up aircraft, environmental permits, employees, and customers. Antarctica Logistics and Expeditions LTD comprised of many ANI veterans (August 15 press release, a MS Word document), and Cerpolex (Polar Circle). Cerpolex has previously supported nongovernmental and program activity including activities at Borneo (the floating camp near the North Pole) and the original abortive 2002 Antonov-3 flight to Pole (the 2002 Antonov-3 story from Scott Smith). In September 2003, Cerpolex announced that they had been tasked by the Russians to recover that aircraft in 2003-04, along with support of skiing and climbing expeditions. They were to use an updated model of the Snow Buggies. In mid-October Cerpolex announced they were pulling out of the business for this season, so the aircraft will spend another season on the berm where it has been since January 2002. Here are details of their 2004-05 plans including tourist support, the aircraft recovery, and more info on the Snow Buggies.
AL&E, meanwhile had a busy schedule of climbers and skiers. On 13 November 2003 they announced the purchase of the Antarctic support assets, equipment, and logistics operations of ANI from Grand Expeditions (press release). AL&E opened Patriot Hills with two Twin Otters in mid November, but their first Ilyushin-76 flight to PH wasn't scheduled until November 25, (and didn't make it until the 30th). This was later than some of the trekkers had originally planned start their journeys. AL&E has retained the ANI name and web site, which has been freshly updated with the 2004-05 program as well as a roster of all customers they've ever taken to Pole or the Vinson Massif.
The big iceberg B-15 north of Ross Island has broken in two...but as of midwinter the pieces just seem to be sitting there. Have a look for yourself from the best source--the Raytheon directory of iceberg satellite images which is updated at least once a week. Other news and details are available from the NOAA ice center press release and the AMRC site at U. Wisconsin.
The medevac was successful...after leaving Pole Sunday 9/21, 51-year-old Barry McCue, came forward to tell his story after successful gall bladder surgery 9/25. The full story is here, with pictures.
The first 2003 McMurdo winfly flight for 2003-04 was delayed for one day by bad weather at McMurdo but finally took place on Thursday 8/21 when the C17 Globemaster piloted by Lieutenant Paul Groven of the 62nd Airlift Wing transported 137 passengers and 33,000 lbs of cargo to McMurdo and safely returned. Two C-17's and four C-141's participated. Main body flights followed on 9/30.
The 2003 ozone hole was one of the biggest ever (9/12 ABC News article). Here are the 2003 and historical NOAA reports on ozone or lack of it, thanks to folks like Andy Clarke and Loreen Lock.
The winter was a quiet one--perhaps too quiet, as a series of hack attacks silenced internet communications for a bit. As a result the official Pole web site may remain unavailable. Meanwhile, the residents of the elevated station continued to deal with new-home quirks and glitches such as freezer problems (the wine in the freshie shack froze and the food in the new galley freezer won't).
Midwinters Day 2003 was a success as it must be. Fortunately this one fell over a weekend, allowing for the max in festivities. These included mini-soccer, a luau, radio darts with other stations, and a Hash House Harriers run in, around, and under the station. Of course there were midwinters greetings shared around the continent, here is the one from Pole, with thanks to Joy Culbertson and Karina Leppik!
Ulp...2002 was another year of significant medical news. At least this time it wasn't life threatening...but on 7/5/02 Dr. Tim Pollard performed surgery to repair meteorologist Dar Gibson's knee tendon. The event featured the latest version of "telemedicine" or assistance from up north via radio, phone and satellite. Here is NSF's press release with Jon Berry's photos, and here is the geek version from IT guy Henry Malmgren as seen on Slashdot!
The station closed on schedule on 15 February 2003...at 1427 local time the last flight left, leaving behind 58 folks to face the winter in an utterly new environment. There were 293 flights out of an originally scheduled 350 (later revised to a planned 323). The construction efforts focused on the punchlist for the first phase of the elevated station. The summer plan was to achieve conditional occupancy of A1 and A2, but fire system problems uncovered just before station closing caused a "slight" delay (including lots of hard work, plus the callback of the fire system reps who were awaiting a McM-ChC flight). Fortunately, the problem was resolved, and the next event occurred on 4 March as official occupancy was declared. The first night in the new station rooms, scheduled to be occupied by about 40 of the wo's, was 5 March. About the same time, the galley equipment and supplies were moved/unpacked/cleaned and readied for the first meal upstairs. 
Cookie Jon presided over the "Last Supper" in the galley in the dome on 6 March... After breakfast and lunch the in the old galley the next day, the first meal (sandwiches) happened in the new galley (right). Work continued, the "official" first meal in the new galley, beef Wellington, was served up on 15 March. What of the old galley? For the short term, the dome bar is still open...and some of the gym equipment from summer camp has been moved into the old galley. Sooner or later the structure will be demo'd, that is part of the tight construction and shipping schedule. Meanwhile the structural for the first level of B3, 
the next pod, has been erected. The plans were to complete erection and enclosure, but some of the steel was damaged and has to be replaced. So it will be enclosed until next season, meanwhile foundation work on B1 was done instead (left, these 2 photos from Jerry Marty). The last issue of the Antarctic Sun for the season contained a major feature article on the new station.
From McMurdo...despite the presence of 2 icebreakers, the tanker MV Richard G Matthiesen wasn't able to reach the wharf; instead offloaded via hoses strung across the ice (NSF press release)...something that has been required more than once in the past. This evolution delayed the closing flights from McMurdo (originally scheduled for 2/22) until 10 March, when the last 50 folks left McMurdo via a RNZAF C-130 aircraft. Meanwhile, the American Tern cargo ship arrived with difficulty about midnight 2/9, and departed with much more difficulty with help from the crippled Polar Sea on 2/17. NSF called in a second icebreaker (the Healy, which arrived 2/7) (NSF press release) after the Polar Sea broke one of its three screws in late January. And near Lake Fryxell in the Dry Valleys, one of the PHI Bell 212 helos crashed (NSF press release) with the two occupants injured. They were medevaced to ChCh in stable condition.
The Russians are coming!! Somewhere, but not Pole. Despite this December 2002 Pravda article, the expeditioners from Russia (the International Mountaineering Club) planned multiple climbs in Dronning Maud Land. They brought two "snow bugs" (those 6-wheel vehicles that came to Pole a couple years ago) but apparently no balloons or parachutes. While the climbers did do their thing, both of the snow bugs broke down requiring an air evacuation by the Russians at Novolazarevskaya. Meanwhile, that Russian Antonov-3 aircraft that showed up last year will not be recovered for now....
The ITASE traverse arrived and completed all of their objectives, despite having to return to Byrd for wider tracks on one of their tractors and a better fuel sled borrowed from the Kiwis. They even did a mini-traverse towards the Pole of Inaccessability before parking their equipment on the berm for a future continuation in 2 years.
Earlier in the summer the jacking operations were completed. 
The new station got a lift, as it were. Last year it became quite obvious that there was major and unplanned differential settlement between the elevated structure and the beer can (and other buried parts of the station). The station design includes provisions for jacking up the columns to level the structure as well as to raise it above drifts--it just hadn't been planned for this early in the life of the place. 
. At left you see the columns exposed to facilitate the jacking operations (caption/credit). About half of the columns were jacked, and future plans and budgets have been adjusted to provide for some leveling every year. More details are in this 8 December Antarctic Sun article. Meanwhile, borings were taken and extensive measurements made...in the future additional spread footings will be installed under the columns starting with new pod B3. At right is a view of the B2 foundation installed last season (credit).
Science construction included more work on the SPRESSO seismo vault which was started last season; this is 5 miles south of the dome near the old Pomerantz Land site. It is now taking data. And a new 5-mile antenna for the Stanford VLF project has been erected.
The MARISAT antenna platform got a major upgrade to support comms through the GOES satellite. It may get get a radome next season to reduce ice buildup (left) (January 2002 NSF photo by Nicolas Powell), seems that icing has degraded its performance. Other science projects included a new VLF antenna for Stanford to transmit towards Palmer, and the start of a new solar observatory.
Flying kites!!! Teacher Eric Muhs spent early December at Pole working with the AMANDA and SPASE projects. This is part of the Rice "Teachers Experiencing Antarctica" project. He updated a diary daily on their site, as well as posting lots of panoramas and multimedia stuff around the station. He flew kites with w/o's Robert Swartz and Steffen Richter around the station, and sent live presentations back to his classrooms. Check it all out starting with his TEA (Rice University/Armada) page.
1977 and frequent Polie Brad Halter spent the first part of the summer at Pole, and finished the season at Dome C (Concordia, the joint French and Italian station in Antarctica) making validation measurements for the NASA Atmospheric Infrared Sounder on the Aqua satellite. Dome C is a happening place, this past year major construction continued on the future year-round station, and the Australians got their AASTINO research module up and running.
Originally the first 3 flights of the 2002-03 season were scheduled for 10/23, but after several false starts due to weather, and an emergency landing, the first two flights didn't arrive until Saturday 10/26. There were three medevacs on the opening flights. One of them was RPSC science tech Deborah (DJ) Williams, who twisted her knee on some loose ice back in March. The injury has gotten worse, recently she's been having traction treatments as well as consultations (via all the state-of-the-art medical/teleconferencing equipment now on station) with doctors at Duke University.
What the NGA expeditions were for 2002-03:Climate change on the Peninsula...the first week in April 2002 saw a major NSF-sponsored conference on this topic at Hamilton College in upstate New York. The meeting was planned many months before the recent iceberg incidents including the recent collapse of the Larsen B on the east side of the Peninsula. Here is the NSF press release. The workshop web site features abstracts from the presentations as well as streaming audio archives of the keynote speeches. And the expedition web site includes journal entries from their 2001-02 expedition as well as later trips.
The last flights of the 2001-02 season happened on 15 and 16 February...taking the remaining summer folks out and bringing in...steel beams for next summer (while leaving the mail and beer behind). The station summer season wound down after successful "topping out" and exterior closure of the next two sections of the new elevated station, A3 and B2, which will house science and medical facilities. Flight and cargo delays, as well as differential settlement problems, prevented the planned completion and winter occupancy of the new berthing and galley facilities which were first enclosed a year ago, so the winter population is 51, with some folks living in the suburbs of summer camp. What's happening right now?? The NOAA CMDL webcam gives excellent views of the new station, but you can't see much after dark. Here is the AASTO webcam. And for someplace a bit more brightly lit, try this interactive real-time webcam at McMurdo.
The South Pole Marathon, sponsored by ANI, finally happened on 21 January after weather and scheduling delays, with 5 runners completing half, full, or ultramarathon courses. It was won by Richard Donovan from Ireland, but second place finisher Dean Karnazes of San Francisco is complaining. He gave up his snowshoes and did the race in running shoes. Now the FBI and the State Department are involved. Richard hasn't gotten the promised prize money, and Dean is threatening a lawsuit. The details from Sports Illustrated. The 70South News has Richard's personal account of the race and the aftermath. This was only the beginning...on 5 April Richard ran a marathon at the North Pole...all alone, in two segments, in atrocious conditions...-76°F wind chill and 40 mph winds. A new one for the record books, 2 first Polar marathons in 3 months. More details on Richard's efforts to do ultramarathons on all continents this year are on his web site. But Richard was NOT the first person to finish a marathon at Pole. Station doctor Chuck Huss did the 26.2 miles on Boston Marathon day, 20 April 1981...more info and training photo here.
On 8 January a small Russian AN-3 single-engined biplane arrived crammed with 14 folks including the vice-president of the Russian Duma (state parliament). Because he and other DV's were aboard, NSF granted them official status...and fuel...and later, bed space in the library and gym after their aircraft refused to start. Eventually after 2 days the DVs were flown out to McM/NZ on an LC-130, while the tourists with lesser status were picked up and taken to Patriot Hills by ANI. The aircraft was towed away to be parked for the winter, perhaps to be repaired next season. Scott Smith has photos and the story on Steven McLachlan's site.
Meanwhile the construction work paused briefly during the week of 6 January to allow the installation of the official Time Capsule in one of the foundation beams. I have the exclusive story and photos from Katy Jensen. The event was witnessed by a DV group of congressional staffers, who also got to stay overnight because of bad weather (fortunately some new and comfy library couches had just been received). However, it seems that some of the time capsule contents were delayed in the mail...the capsule was quietly opened a week later to add some stuff sent from Washington, then the grade beam was welded up on 11 January. Meanwhile there was a fire, hoped by all to be the only "real" one of the season. A welder's sparks ignited some wood in the carpenter shop, resulting in 8' flames, fortunately put out with a dry chemical extinguisher. A good test of the fire teams. Oh yes, the temperature actually got up to +5°F, only 1 degree short of the 1978 record.
Antarctic guide Doug Stoup returned to Pole in December, where he discussed last season's discovery of a 1937 Hershey "Ration Bar" with Katy Jensen. Did he really find it at Pole as was so widely reported by the media? Exclusive story here!
I was interviewed by Kristan Hutchison of the Antarctic Sun for a special feature which appeared in the 25 November 2001 issue, on the past and future of the Dome. Therefore I've further updated the pages on building the dome. It's been known for awhile that the Dome will not be part of the new station. It must be removed from the continent in accordance with the Madrid Protocol. The exact method of removal was announced in December 2000--Chain Saws! Past efforts to save it and rebuild it in the US did not elicit the funding required for a more delicate demolition. Anyway, here is that excellent savethedome.com web site by 2001 w/o Jeff Kietzmann...a whimsical look at the past and future of this landmark structure. More recently, here is a commentary from the Antarctican news site.
The station opened on 24 October 2001 with 348 scheduled flights, but the schedule slipped as it does every year. Lots of flights need to be used to bring in fuel, as the place can go through 6000 gallons per week nowadays. Movement of cargo to Pole improved because the Pegasus runway was readied for all-season use by wheeled C-130's, and an additional Air Force squadron from Little Rock, Arkansas was brought in to move cargo from ChCh to McM. During the early summer the new and old power plants were the subject of a massive gremlin hunt after a number of outages. The new plant was down for a fair percentage of the time early in the summer before a successful repair/redesign effort.
"Frozen Under:" National Geographic has major coverage on the Antarctic in the December 2001 issue. In addition to this feature on life in Antarctica (this site includes a few more of those 360° panoramas from Pole and elswhere) there is a second article covering the visit to the Ross Sea icebergs in 2000-01. For the full story and pictures you'll need to consult the hard copy, if it never made it to your mailbox, check it out in at the library, well worth it!
NSF's construction plans for the 2001-02 season included construction of the new seismic facility (SPRESSO) 5 miles from the dome...the next stage in quiet seismo vaults....close to the old Pomerantz Land site. Here's the NSF press release on the 2001-02 science, and the USA Today version.
All of the groups who did private expeditions to Pole in 2001-02:From Washington...a Congressional conference report suggests that $15 million will be appropriated for preliminary costs of the Ice Cube project, the 1 cubic km next version of the AMANDA neutron detector. This is a $250 million, 8-year project. And NSF's overall budget for 202 was increased by Congress by 8.4% to $4,789 million. This includes $300 million for "polar research and operations support," of which the "U.S. Antarctic Logistical Support" budget was increased 9.3% to $68.1 million.
Science special...the 2001 w/o's completed a research project to reconfirm that the Earth does indeed rotate on its axis. A Foucault pendulum was installed in the future elevator shaft of the beer can. Yes, it did indeed change its plane of swing as the Earth rotated. The 33m stair tower offered a much better place to do this than the 16m dome where we tried the same thing in 1977. Here are details from physicist R. Allan Baker...
On 28 September 2001 a major fire destroyed the biolab at Rothera, the large British Antarctic station at the southern end of Adelaide Island off the Antarctic Peninsula. The Bonner Laboratory was a new building completed in 1996-97...fortunately the alarms sounded early and there were no injuries to the 21 w/o's. However, weather conditions prevented fighting the fire. Details and photos from the British Antarctic Survey. The lab has since been rebuilt.
On 12 September 2001 the w/o's learned of the tragedy unfolding in New York and Washington...and Jeff Kietzmann and Dave McDonald went up on the dome to put the flag at half staff. Here is the picture and story from manager Jerry Macala, and here is how USA Today covered it. (The flag was returned to full staff on Sunday, 26 September.)
Palmer w/o painter Thomas Leipart died on 5 September from head injuries after a 1 September fall down the stairs aboard the R/V Lawrence Gould. He hod just arrived in PA after a crossing from Palmer. Thomas' wife Cindy from Arizona flew down to be with him before his death. He had planned to w/o next year at McMurdo.
The NOAA folks at Pole have updated their CMDL home page with live links to ozone data, as well as tours of ARO and the station, historical information, and photos. Well worth a look.
Pole MEDEVAC...Dr. Ron Shemenski, after suffering from a bout of pancreatitis, was successfully medevaced in a twin otter aircraft which arrived from Rothera at noon 25 April 2001 (Pole time) with OAE replacement doctor Betty Carlisle on board. Ron headed north the next day. The full story with photos and links is featured HERE. Oh yes, the aircraft was also carrying about 100 lbs of table salt...it seems that this vital commodity had already run short.
The McMurdo medevac (NSF press release) also happened successfully in April 2001, carrying out a total of 11 Raytheon employees. Two folks had serious medical problems which prompted the medevac--a heart condition and a possible concussion; two other less-serious medical cases also were given the advantage of the flight; seven other folks also left McM for other reasons, perhaps relating to family problems at home. Or perhaps, er, other reasons, as discussed in this 28 April NZ Herald news story. The C-130 from the RNZAF headed south Tuesday at 0525 Tuesday 24 April +12/NZ and McM time (1325 Monday EDT) after a 24-hour weather delay. It landed at Pegasus, spent about an hour on deck, and returned to ChCh at 2030. Here is a press statement from Karl Erb, NSF Polar Programs director.
Enough cargo made it to Pole during the 2000-01 summer season to support the interior buildout of the first phase of the new elevated station, which was successfully enclosed and heated. And the lights stayed on all winter. Read about the other milestones--the startup of the new power plant and the successful testing of the new earth station...(plus links to more background stuff) in the 24 January NSF press release. 2000-01 summer construction pictures of the elevated station are here thanks to Steven McLachlan and the folks at Pole.
The new MARISAT/GOES 9-meter antenna, which promised to double the broadband access time, was successfully tested on 18 January 2001, but there were major "feed" and cold weather problems which required troubleshooting through much of the 2001 winter.
Antarctica continues to break up! The iceberg C-19 is splitting up, per this May 2003 NATICE press release and photo. The icebergs continued to cause shipping problems into McMurdo Sound in January 2003, although a sudden shift (along with the presence of 2 Coast Guard icebreakers) allowed some of the late summer cruise ships to approach Ross Island. The best continually updated file of Ross Ice Shelf photos, well annotated, is in this directory on the Raytheon server in Denver, where you can see the bergs nuzzling against the east side of Ross Island. They ultimately required a second icebreaker to help with the 2002-03 shipping season (Antarctican news article). In 2002 a hunk of the Lazarev Ice Shelf (69.4°S 15.9°E) broke off into the southeastern Weddell Sea and became D-17 (6 x 20 miles). Also in May 2002, 2 more chunks of the Ross Ice Shelf broke off...as noted in these NATICE press releases on C-18 (124 x 20 miles) photographed on 6 May, and C-19 (124 x 20 miles, a bit bigger than Delaware) photographed on 11 May. In the C-18 photo you can see the beginning of the C-19 crack. Here is an NSF press release on the Ross Sea icebergs...Charles Stearns, the AWS guy from the University of Wisconsin (UWis), notes that the recent bergs take the Ross Ice Shelf back to the approximate size it was in 1911. Other photos and animations are found at the AMRC site from UWis, the automated weather station folks...YES, there are AWS's on the icebergs! During late 2001 at McMurdo, NSF thought that the two large Ross Sea icebergs may soon break each other up due to repeated collisions. Here's the press release. NSF used a second icebreaker to get the channel to McMurdo clear for the cargo and fuel shipments, but the clearing operation was successful. The icebergs B15A and C16 are north of Ross Island; this plus the weather conditions have produced much heavier sea ice than usual and they are blocking the flow of winds and currents that would normally help the ice go away. Here is additional late November 2001 news coverage from USA Today and the Antarctic Sun
Ventures to the new icebergs...In late January 2001, scientists from the U. of Chicago and U. of Wisconsin traveled via the US Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Sea to visit iceberg B-15A, a 90 x 20 mile piece of the icebergs. Here is a slide show by Antarctic Sun senior editor Josh Landis, who got to go, here is a link to NSF video, and this is a Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel article about this program. The Ice Island expedition went to study B-15 and its neighbors "above, below, and within." The venture was partially sponsored by National Geographic; it had two missions--research and filmmaking. Steven Mclachlan has a page of photos of the expedition vessel "Braveheart" before they left Lyttleton on 17 January. Unfortunately heavy pack ice kept them from getting close to any of the large bergs. Here are some early November 2000 NSF photos by Josh Landis, who got to fly over them on one of the LC-130 exploratory missions. The icebergs might actually endanger the shipping lanes to McMurdo, Charles Stearns advised at the American Polar Society meeting in Boulder. The natural movement for the Ross Sea icebergs is towards the west; if present trends continue they could block the shipping channel along the west side of Ross Island.
Stearns' Antarctic met data center (AMRC) at the University of Wisconsin continues to track and monitor the various bergs in the Ross Sea and elswhere. The newest, B-20 (renamed C-16), 30 x 11 miles, broke loose from the Ross Ice Shelf in late September 2000 and is north of Ross Island. The largest in the Ross Sea, named B-15 (170 x 25 miles) broke in half, 200 miles east of McMurdo in mid-March 2000. There are others, including one 80 x 12 miles just east of B-15, which has broken into several pieces, one of which has already made it to Cape Adare. Meanwhile there are icebergs which calved off the Ronne Ice Shelf (east of the Antarctic Peninsula) in early May 2000. The AMRC iceberg page is frequently updated with new pictures, video and information. The NOAA National Ice Center also covers these bergs. Events such as these have been the plot basis for more than one fiction thriller over the years. These were first noticed on 17 March 2000 in McM where Andy Archer, Matt Thompson and the other met folks studied these photos as well as the Terascan images, many of which appeared on the AMRC web site.
00-01 station construction pictures are here thanks to Steven McLachlan and the folks at Pole. The weather was rough on the flight schedule to deliver construction materials, but the full complement of winter construction folks were on hand to work on the interior of the first phase of the elevated structure.
More stories about 2000-01 construction plans...a Christian Science Monitor article, and several NSF press releases...the summer construction (with photos), as well as the overall plans for the 2000-01 season and the science around the rest of the continent. And here are my details about the construction project.
Radio days...National Public Radio reporter Richard Harris spent a day at Pole in 2000-01, and his report on T-shirt weather there aired on 11 December 2000. Check out the audio archive and listen along here, new stories continued to air through April.
NGA (non-governmental activity) visits to the crowded dome in the 2000-01 summer season...
Rodney Marks left Pole on one of the first flights, his body was returned to Australia for autopsy and burial. Here is a page of information, memorial links and tributes...
Rodney was the astronomer operating the AST/RO telescope, and he died from unknown natural causes on 12 May, after experiencing breathing difficulties while walking back to the dome from the dark sector. This was the third USAP death at South Pole Station, and the first during the winter. During the winter the w/o's decided to have their own funeral ceremony for him. They constructed an elaborate oak casket, and on 3 July the group gathered to load it onto a Nansen sled and transport it to a grave site. Rodney was laid to rest for the remainder of the winter, under the stars in the Australian sector about 15 feet from the Pole.
The first main body flight arrived at McMurdo on 3 October 2000. This picture from Chuck Kimball documents what it looked like from a window in Building 159.
Ozone...Pole NOAA data is online here. The surface Dobson ozone measurements have been collected since 1961; since these observations can't be taken in darkness, ozonesonde balloons have been launched weekly since 1986. Here is another "view" of the ozone hole from NASA with links to satellite data. The ozone hole was originally discovered in 1985 by Joe Farman of BAS; here is the BAS ozone page with links to additional data.
Polar Symposium in Boulder: The American Polar Society held this biennial event on 4-6 October 2000...themes included data collection, communications, and the environment. Speakers included the weather guru Charles Stearns, senior NOAA scientist Susan Solomon, IGY veteran John Behrendt, and former East Base resident Jackie Ronne. Of course, the meeting was also a BIG Antarctican reunion party. Here is the web site for the society. This organization was founded during the time of Byrd's second expedition, and has been disseminating news and information about the Antarctic and Arctic ever since.
Pole Souls Boulder 2000 reunion... Yes, we're proud to say that ALL of our 1977 winterover team gathered in Boulder, CO, the weekend before Midwinters Day. We shared stories, jokes, music, photos, videos, beer, good food, fun, and...some quiet time together. Yes, here is the photo documentation!
Raytheon Polar Services Company... (RPSC) assumed the US Antarctic Program support contract as of 1 April. Here is the new RPSC web site, (the other site is here). Here is my archive list of news about the contract award and the ongoing legal challenge to the Raytheon award. On 29 February ASA filed an appeal...
After a highly successful science and construction season, Pole "closed" on 14 February 2000 with an all-time high winter population of 50 (about the average summer population back in 76-77). Cargo flights continued until the last flight at about 2300 on the 16th.
Bicycling at Pole... this CARA-sponsored project spent the last week in January 2000 testing out fat-tire bicycles...
McMurdo fatality...John Biesiada, a Canadian contractor employee for SPAWAR (the Navy satcom/air traffic control folks) died early Saturday 8 January. Cause unknown pending an autopsy. After a Sunday memorial service in the chapel, the body was flown to ChCh the next day,and the autopsy results are here.
Fox News covered a private geology expedition "Antarctica 2000" which included former astronauts Jim Lovell and Owen Garriott. During January they traveled via Patriot Hills to the Thiel Mountains, Pole and back. They found meteorites, and they got to sleep...on the floor of the gym. Their archive stuff and photos are gone, but Steven McLachlan has a page with lots of photos of the team, their aircraft, and the station.
Sir Vivian Fuchs, leader of the 1956-58 Commonwealth Transantarctic Expedition (yes, he showed up at Pole to meet Sir Edmund Hillary in January 1958) died in Cambridge, UK on 11 November 1999 at the age of 91. Here's an obituary from SPRI.
Coverage of the various 99-00 NGA visits to Pole...PBS Millennium coverage...the New Year's feature listing and a picture of Brad Halter with the Pole survey marker...both were featured in the live coverage.
Raytheon support contract award informationThe first of the three "real" opening flights arrived at Pole at about 1215 South Pole time (+13) Monday 25 October 1999 (1815 CDT Sunday). The weather was -48°C/-55°F, winds about 10 knots.
Dr. Jerri NielsenFor better or worse, the October 1999 events focused more media attention on Pole than the place has seen for many years--perhaps since 1929 when Admiral Byrd was wearing his sweater 1500' above where it is today.
Later updates...in July 2001 ABC News reported that Jerri Nielsen would return to Antarctica with her family during the 01-02 summer as a physician on a cruise ship. Here's the story, with more details of her experience as a Polie. More recently there was news of a lawsuit by her former husband. Her book "Ice Bound: A Doctor's Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole" came out in hardcover, CD and tape versions on 18 January 2001 and hit the best-seller list. She was featured with fellow w/o's on an ABC Primetime, which first aired on 25 January 2001.
Now that Dan Rather and Jerry Bowen have turned the CBS eye away from the dome, I've moved the stuff here. I'm not sure how long the current stories and videos will still be available.
For some reason CBS considered this story "National News," ABC considered it "World News," CNN called it "Asia/Pacific," and the USA Today stuff is "Weather." Go figure.
In February 2000 came the annnouncement about her book deal
Selected NSF individual official press releases and statements
[sorry, as of September 2005 NSF started rearranging them, as of June 2009 many still are unavailable]15 October Mission successful, Jerri's in McMurdo (Rita Colwell)
13 October Planes arrive in McMurdo
9 October Planes in ChCh
7 October official photo of Dr. Jerri at the ceremonial pole earlier in the winter
5 October Time to send in the Hercs (Karl Erb)
13 July Statement on Behalf of Patient
13 July Update on South Pole Medical Air Drop
13 July Briefing on South Pole Emergency by NSF director Rita Colwell
11 July airdrop is successful.
17 June Press Statement by Dr. Karl Erb on the medical status of South Pole personnel
Background news with photos, links to other news releases and and information on the 11 July airdrop
CBS News...
