[photo by Jon Berry, click for more!]
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. 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. Her photo at left was released by NSF in 1999. Oh, here is what is left of my original 1999 coverage of her story.
From 3-5 June 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. More coming here soon on that, including the phone call with Pole.
The Jake Speed fundraising effort is ramping up, with incredible support on the ice and elsewhere. But he has a long way ahead of him. Please have a look at the fundraising page which includes lots of photos of the Jake we know. I added another page of pictures on 14 June. And Steffen Richter, while traveling through Iran, has shared things as well with this excellent version. Oh...Steff's travel story is quite something else that is well worth following! Meanwhile, Jake (photo at left below) is recovering from more surgery that removed both of his lower legs below the knee...at the recommendation of his doctors in Sacramento.
Hometown boy makes the papers...well, in this case it is Boulder native and 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!
Since this isn't the season for people to travel to the ice, it is a time for meetings. The big one was the Antarctic Treaty consultative meeting, otherwise known as ATCM XXXII, which happened in Baltimore between 6 and 17 April, 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. There really isn't anything much about the meeting yet on the official Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) site, but this is where all of the findings and reports will eventually be published. The sponsoring country site is here; the meeting is 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.
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 will be posted as well.
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...so now the real backroom bidding, arm twisting, negotiating, and "best and final" offering is about to begin. 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 will be a shortage of fresh eggs this winter...by the beginning of May the last one was gone. Gulp. But elsewhere, the design team has passed judgment on the Logistics Facility...conditional occupancy should allow the cargoids to start thinking about moving in. 
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....Snowwcrete 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). 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 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, 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 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 are going through the final number crunching before the bids are 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 further down on this page. By now everyone who was going to show up has 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 has been underway uphill from Scott Base, the "wind farm" (right, conceptual photo). There will 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 will continue through the winter and the turbines themselves will be erected next summer. This project is being spearheaded by the NZ program, although the USAP will do 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 is this newspaper ad from the 15 December Dominion Post newspaper (Wellington NZ) looking for people to work on the project this 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 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 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 today, 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 this week. More coverage of this season's pedestrian traffic is further down this page.
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 just 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. By the way, I do have a bit more information on our satellite systems further down this page.
A couple of other serious disasters hampered national programs in other parts of the continent in October... 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 an News 24 (SA) news article and a brief AP story.
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 .
Pole update...at the beginning of September 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. The graph at left, created last year when the temperatures got below -100°F for about 10 minutes (!) indicatedthe declining probability of us hitting the three digit mark before the end of winter.
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.
CONUS update...the "presolicitation conference" for the Antarctic support contract was held 26-28 August...NSF posted the notice and agenda here, along with the list of attending companies. While the individual attendees aren't named, there are more than 40 organizations on the list--some familiar, some new, some surprises. The official FBO bid site now includes the NSF presentations made at the conference. I've got more historical info on the contract rebidding is below and on this page...
Back in July 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 a couple months ago 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).
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 are actually going rether quietly...the logistics facility construction is going well, in May 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. Last week 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 last month, 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 the 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 a planning document (1.5 MB pdf file) 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 diary entry) 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! And be sure to check out the other great panoramas and early-season aerial photos he's put up.
Some older items of interest (other old news is in the archive):
WIRED magazine has a feature article on Jerry Marty, Carlton Walker, and the station construction in the July 2002 issue. Read about the settlement problems...why the place wasn't considered fit for occupancy for the 2002 winter.
Pole land cargo traverses in the works...in October 2002 NSF flew a specially equipped D8 from Christchurch to McMurdo aboard a C17...this equipment was be used to prepare a road south towards the Leverett Glacier, eventually hopefully to Pole. This is to augment the LC-130 flights for station construction cargo as well as for ICE CUBE and forthcoming science projects. More information...
Another new science project...yet another telescope is planned, a 10-meter submillimeter telescope (up from 8 meters!) that will search for new galaxy clusters and study dark energy. Current plans are to attach it to the DSL (dark sector lab) University of Chicago press release. It will have a ground shield that is larger than the Dome (it is being built by Temcor, the same company that built the dome...).
On 8/13/02 NSF had a meeting with potential contractors and suppliers for a possible fiber optic cable to Dome C. Yes, you read that right (news article). Since Pole is way below the horizon for the commercial geosynchronous satellites, one option is to run a cable about 1050 miles to the newly constructed French/Italian Concordia Station at Dome C. (This station is scheduled for full-time occupancy next winter.) The project calls for several years of studies and trials, with the actual stuff involving traverses to get the cable to Pole and Dome C as well as along the route.
Back in mid March 2002 two other iceberg events happened. First, there was another piece of the Thwaites Ice Tongue (75°S-108°W) about 2100 square miles (NATICE which got designated B22. And then there was the collapse of another hunk of the Larsen ice shelf east of the Antarctic Peninsula. The Larsen Ice Shelf B disintegrated within the past couple of months, as evidenced by photos and animations from the NSIDC in Boulder, which also has links to other coverage. The BBC has an excellent article about both events.
Check out the amazing panorama of the inside of the dome by Marc Hellwig--seen here on Dana Hrubes' April 2001 page--warning it may make you dizzy!
The venerable New South Polar Times mailing list moved to a home on Yahoo, thanks to 2001 w/o science tech Andrea Grant. Join the discussion...
Why is one venerable structure (which I helped build out once upon a time) known as the Cheese Palace? Because it's the summer office of Jerry Marty, the NSF construction manager for the new station (and Wisconsin native and hardcore Green Bay Packers fan)... The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel sent a reporter on the ice, and the result is several detailed articles about Jerry, the construction project, and the station.
Pole area manager Katy Jensen posted diary entries from the 00-01 summer here.
The American Society of Civil Engineers has a major feature on the Pole construction in the December 2000 magazine, including articles by Frank Brier and Jerry Marty, and some (sorry, low rez) aerial photos, not to mention all of the gory details of foundation design, snow drift studies, etc.
Here is the link to my 1999 Doc Jerri medevac coverage. The spectacular April 2001 medevac flight to Pole is covered here. And my archive of other news, links to press releases, and older media coverage is here.
Thepoles.com is operated by Thomas and Tina Sjogren, the "Wearable" expedition folks that trekked to Pole in 2001-02. They are up to date on all the Pole NGA ventures as well as Vinson, Everest, the North Pole, and other similar attractions, and they have an excellent guide for planning your own stroll to Pole.
The 70 South News features Antarctic and related news from everywhere, updated daily by anyone, yes, you too.
The Spanish word of the day--yes, insulator foreman Richard "Chico" Perales was back at McMurdo providing a whimsical view of events on the ice for the 2003-04 summer. Archives are here.
The news page of the Antarctic Connection is updated at least twice weekly with current news from and about Antarctica.
The Antarctic Sun is now up in a new format for the 2007-08 austral summer, archives run back to 1996-97, the final year when the McMurdo newspaper was a Navy publication, the Antarctic Sun Times. Before then in the old days it went by other names....here is the story.
NZ Antarctic Philately pages by Steven McLachlan . The news page features many current events, including many pictures from the various private expeditions at Pole this past summer. He also has information on the 99-00 cruises of the Polar Duke south of NZ in support of German and Italian science projects, 98-99 construction of the new base at Dome C...
The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) published biweekly newsletters on NGA (private) expeditions, cruises and tourist events. Unfortunately this was discontinued in May 2003, but the archives are still available. They also feature a separate news page for the official Australian program.
The NSF Office of Polar Programs (OPP) page contains links and a search engine. Most recent press releases are also here, scroll to the bottom.
The rest of the story... can be read offline in the print newsletter of the Antarctican Society. Highly recommended, here's a recent Antarctic Sun article about how you can join up.
[top] | [home](Tricks: some wind speeds are given in meters per second. One m/s is about 3.6 km/hr, 2-1/4 mph, or 2 knots. Also, they may use a Julian date, this is the sequential number from starting from 1 through 365 or so. For example, 07031 is January 31, 2007.
Well, that big Antarctic sports event, the Antarctic Marathon (and half and ultra) happened this season at PH on 20-21 December 2007, with 20 participants, including a wheelchair finisher and two runners that completed a 100k despite deteriorating weather. The winning 26.2 mile time was 4:42:32..You can do it next year for a mere $15,750 ex PA. And you can throw in a visit to Pole or Vinson at a discount. Lots of info including links to stories and video on previous events can be found here.
Not really a sports event, but they discuss such things, 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. Last year's meeting passed a measure "protecting" Pole as a Specially Managed Area. Here is a link to that adopted measure and maps.
The complete list of ventures:Here are my records of the 2007-08, 2006-07, 2005-06, 2004-05, 2003-04, 2002-03, 2001-02, 2000-01 and 1999-2000 NGA expeditions. Keep in mind that the older expedition web sites tend to disappear. The 2000-01 Russian "Millennium Expedition" (skydiving/ballooning) is covered on a separate page.
