Penguins, Whales, and more Penguins

This Minke showed up as we were about to take off for the evening.

Killer Whales spy hopping to check me out on the ice edge.  This seemed to be either a female, or a young male.  I had been out with a science group to collect DNA samples from these and Menke Whales. Tissue samples were collected with a crossbow and special bolt that would take a tissue sample.  Many one these Orcas had been tagged with transmitters earlier in the week by the same methods.

Mother and calf passing by in a lead at the sea ice edge.  19 mi from McMurdo in the sound. 

Curious Emperor penguins near our sampling site.  With few natural predators, and none above the ice, they have no fear of humans.

Adelies at Cape Royds, site of Shackleton's Nimrod hut.  

Adelies swimming at the ice edge.  

Here's a compelation video our pilot Ken shot over the duration of this tagging effort.
Whale Tagging

Another Amazing Season

Hello all!  I didn't think that I could do worse than last year on the blogging, but I was wrong.  But, here to make up for it am I with an update for these pictures after nearly three months on the ice. A quick summary of the season so far, and hopefully we'll do better on the upcoming posts.

Laurel and I are both here this winter (Austral Summer) and having a good time.  We haven't taken too many pictures together, but we live together here and get out to do quite a few things together.  Laurel works in the fuels department and keeps this place running for the most part.  Her group is responsible for keeping our helos fuelled up, the fixed wing runway gased up, all the other tanks, pipelines and fuel reservoirs full, and fuel moving smoothly between them all.  She's gotten to go ice fishing, ice drilling, skiing on the ice shelf and the sea ice, ice walking to look at pressure ridges and seal watching.  She's seen penguins and skua, giant weather balloons, gone on helo rides and been to an Antarctic field camp.  So all in all, she's had a pretty good first season, and seeing quite a bit.  She hasn't taken a lot of pictures of all of these things, so you'll have to use your imagination. 

I've been having a great season, seeing and going to lots of places I haven't been before.  Some projects have been visited before, but this place is so beautiful you could keep going back.  Laurel and I ran a 5k and a 10k race together, went on a half marathon length skate ski on a beautiful sunny day, and go to yoga together 3 days a week with some other workout sessions when we can fit them in.  I've been real busy with music this year.  Open mic every other Thursday for me and my original music along with some of the folk, country, blues, and indie covers I do.  The big project has been my 80's hair band Pink Torpedo.  We've been doing covers of Motle Crue, Scorpions, Guns n' Roses, Bon Jovi et al.  Its been a pretty big hit around here as everything has a great dance beat and we get the audience to get into 80's costume with us.  Pretty fun.  Some of the show's attendances top 200 people.  Icestock will probably bring in half the station or 400-500 people.  Ive been hands on helping with science more this year.  I've been installing gps units, digging, chipping, and moving ice, helping with weather stations, catching fish, taking measurements and weights of samples, helping install communications equipment, helping to spot penguins, whales and seals, and collecting lots of rock samples and fossils from all the mt tops and hillsides we go to.I'll put captions next to the pics below for some specific info.  Feel free to hit us up with any questions, we'd love to answer them when we can.  Enjoy! Matt and Laurel

Byrd Glacier work here.  This glacier moves about a half mile per year, is 3000' thick and 20 miles across where we are in the above picture.  Here we're securing the over-winter gps and weather unit for the summer season.  Removed several batteries too due to increased solar input during long days. 

Pilot Ryan Skorecki in the background and 6 time Everest summit reaching guide Mike Roberts of New Zealand in the foreground.

Hard to believe this is the surface of a glacier when you're standing there.  Some of these features are 50 ' tall.

This crevasse was found a few feet from our helicopter and was at least 30-40' deep, and wide enough to swallow you.

This photo shows numerous "snow bridged" crevasses.  Some much larger than the helicopter.

Here's a video of Ryan coming in on the approach for the Byrd gps site. 

An emperor near Big Razorback island with the Mt. Erebus cone venting some steam in the background.

Erebus is an active volcano that occasionally emits pyroclastic bombs with crystals attached.  These "Erebus Crystals" are only found here and in one other known volcano area in the world.  There is also a lava lake in the bottom of the cone that you can see if you're lucky on a clear calm day.  I'll attach a video of the lake in another post.

These are some pics of "Step Out" training.  That's me on the skid directing traffic and "spotting" people, delivering and receiving gear from the helo to the search and rescue team.  We would possibly use this as a means to deliver search and rescue personnel and equipment in the event that we couldn't land to help someone.   

In this pic, we've come back to pick up the SAR team and the litter with a packaged patient in it.  My job is to stay in communication with the pilots and the SAR team to position the helicopter such that we can load and unload everyone in a safe manner.  I'm tethered to the inside of the helo, and am also hooked up to a comms box via my flight helmet.  We use a standardised set of commands for checking my harness and attachment, opening the door, moving to the skid, getting into position for personnel delivery, and delivering and receiving the team and gear.  Pretty fun training.

 Click here to see us install this sensor @ Butter Point, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica

Mt. Erebus (the active volcano of Ross Island) and the Royal Society Range in the far backdrop.

Atop Mt. Terror's summit at 3362 m.  Had to make the summit after the effort of dragging a 240lb repeater box a quarter mile to the saddle adjacent to the summit.  Cape Crozier and the Ross Ice Shelf visible in the backdrop.  Cape Crozier is home to the largest Adelie penguin rookerie in the world.

Laurel and I at hut point, site of Falcon Scott's Discovery hut built in 1902.  Weddell seals in the background.

Fishing for science at Cape Evans Wall with Mouse, Rich and Dan Hassumani.  What a great day!  Thanks Dan!  Reminded me of ice fishing with my gramps and pappy back home in Michigan.

Here I've caught 2 Pagothenia borchgrevinki or "Borks" on one hook.  I'll bet one tried to rob the other.  Its a harsh continent, the ocean around it probably isn't any more forgiving.  We caught 52 fish on this trip, the most the scientist taking us out had ever caught in one trip.

Weighing and measuring some of the catch to record the data.  "Bernies" and "Borks" in this view.

This is an Antarctic Toothfish or Mawsoni.  Caught at about 400-500 meters deep, it preys on fish and is a favorite food of weddell seals and killer whales.  This one is about 5 ft long and weighed about 120 lbs.  These fish have been used to progress research and understanding of cold water fishes, heart function (their hearts beat about once every 6 sec) and predator/prey relationships in Antarctic waters.

Laurel and Marshell (fellow helo tech) and I skiing on the ice road (on McMurdo Sound) with Observation Hill and Mt Erebus in the background.

To the top...

No matter where you go, no matter what you're doing, no matter who you are don't you always want to get to the top?  Better view, more vert, bigger drop, better pay, more power.  Different strokes for different folks, but seems like we're all trying to get to the top of something.  Here's a few things I've stood on top of in the last few weeks.

 The pinnacle at Mt 1882.  This one has about a 20' climb down to a saddle, a 20' climb up to the pinnacle, and a 1000' exposure off the back side.  You're looking down about 6000' down to Lake Bonney.  It can be pretty exciting
up here when the wind decides to gust.

Some more climbing around at the top of this 1882 meter tall summit revealed a significant number of ventifacts (rock formations shaped by sand and wind erosion).  Many of the pictures that follow are of various ventifacts throughout the dry valleys on the west side of McMurdo Sound. 

Its remarkable that winds blow like they do here, shape the rocks, and they stay perched on ledges, cliffs, and spires. 

                                       

On top of the Cotton Glacier taking samples from what is categorically the only river on a glacier in Antarctica.

What looks like a beach here is the river running atop a medial moraine (sand, dirt, and rock deposits) nearly in the middle, and on top of the Cotton Glacier.  Below is a video of our flight over the river, and its terminus into what are called moulins (the holes in glaciers where streams and rivers are swallowed up).

Large venefact boulders in the Miers Valley with the Miers Glacier in the background.  

Atop Friis Mt, many rock formations here, and plenty of wind. 

Probably my last post from the ice.  Hope you enjoyed it.  I've got one more theme, but we'll see, lots to do before I go.  The next posts may come from NZ.  Cheers. M

A Wonderful New Year

Happy new year to everyone.   I hope this message finds all happy, healthy, and looking forward to growth, love, and a positive outlook on this years challenges.

I had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's celebration.  What do you do for Christmas in Antarctica?  First and foremost, you extend your family since they're probably not with you.  We had a beautiful acoustic show at the waste management barn.  There was a Charley Brown Christmas play.  There was a run to the top of Ob hill, where the cross for E. Falcon Scott British explorer was erected after he failed to return from the South Pole (the original is still there after 100 plus years).  Of course, there was a grand dinner with many friends and much wassailing.  And finally, in my case, I had the privilege of ushering 7 folks, many of whom had never been on a helo flight, or ventured into the dry valleys, on what they all described as a once in a lifetime experience.  We delivered gifts and tidings of joy to all the camps in the field, saw natural wonders of glaciers, mountains, and penguin rookeries, and all in all had a great day.  It was a humbling experience joining folks who had worked hard down here for up to 18 seasons enjoying this opportunity for the first time.

The memorial cross atop Ob Hill.  White Island in the backdrop left, Black Island backdrop right.

 The runners enjoying the spoils of victory.

 View of town from the Ob Hill, looking at Winterquarters bay just past town, and McMurdo sound spanning beyond to the north.

 A look at the course.  Ob Hill viewed from town. 

At a field camp called F6 with the group and some scientists, aka: beakers (like on the muppets)

Giant 13m dish pointed at the horizon responsible for receiving and relaying most of USAP communication.  This site and the pic below are located on Black Island about 10nm from McMurdo. 

Shackleton's hut at Cape Royds.  The corner viewed here is where the legendary long lost scotch whiskey was found and returned.  So they say.

Gargoyle ridge.  Incredible ventifacs (wind carved stone).

 Have a latte at the base of your favorite glacier.

Candada Glacier at Lake Hoare.

Lunch and Christmas cookies at Marble point with Kristy, Karen, Crunch, Me, Tim, Rachel, Anita, and Lavonne.

Sleigh rides and presents with the I-169 Taylor Glacier group.

 Might as well put some of this ice back since it wasn't used for the tree.

 Ice core holes drilled deep into Taylor glacier, revealing 12,000 year old ice for research.  My research was a little different.  Goes mighty fine as a glass shaped to hold your beverage, or broken up and put into your favorite adult beverage.  Has a special snap, crackle, tinkle, and pop-fizz as it releases ancient air from super dense ice.

Swing by a 3,000 foot ice fall named VXE-6.  Makes you feel pretty small and insignificant.

Hanging out at the Adelie Penguin rookery at Cape Royds.  Several thousand penguins here with average of two chicks per mating pair.  Chicks are about 2 weeks old here, give or take.  Some eggs still being tended here too.  Skua (gull like sea bird) were occasionally seen raiding the colony to try to steal chicks.  The raids cause quite a stir in the colony. 

For the Friday before New Years, we enjoyed a hike to Castle Rock, about 6 miles round trip.  We stopped for libations, wrestling, sledding, and general tom foolery at the two emergency shelters, as well as on the top of the rock during the trip.  Its a slightly technical climb to the top as the pics below show, made no easier by the advanced level of merry-making that was taking place during the long journey to the summit.  No one accused anyone of being smart or over cautious on this trip.  But we did have fun.  Until 5:30 am.  Some of us in broken glass.  Some missing some clothing.  But it's ok, we all still had jobs on Monday.

The ascent of Castle Rock, New Years Eve Eve.

The descent, tougher than the climb; but why?

The walk home is always longer than it looks around here.

The celebration continued on  New Years Eve with Ice Stock.  Several bands played a variety of music, surrounded by spectators, chili feed competitors and booths, a fish hut converted into a coffee shop called Sawbucks.  Full set up complete with two pigs roasting on a spit, a mud pit for dancing, and plenty of drinks for everyone.  I'm front man in a few pics with my punk/rock band "Kress Vehicle Suicide".  Yeah, we rocked it hard for the new year.  I was also crowned most kissable on stage by a group of science girls we flew to the dry valleys on a regular basis.  My girlfriend wasn't as stoked about the award, but I reassured her that it was ok with the news that I only had the most kissable "cheek".

All in all, a very memorable holiday season down here on the ice.  I hope everyone else had a joyous time as well.  Take care in the new year.  Best wishes to you all.