Byrd Glacier

Its been an exciting few weeks.  We've all flown hundreds and hundreds of nautical miles in the last few weeks and supported the opening of several camps that will support scores of scientists over the course of the season.

I've flown Mt. Erebus again on an even better day this time.  Less steam and calm conditions made for incredible viewing of the lava lake and observation into the caldera.  We were flying two communications workers to repeater sites, and one gentleman has worked here for 14 seasons but has never looked into the volcano.  It was my second time viewing it that day.  This is truly a privileged  position.

The helo here is our sister ship that had been stranded on the glacier for 5 hours waiting for us to arrive with mechanics.  They were considering busting out the survival bags for the night, but we were able to make it with parts and pros to get them turning again.  The area was heavily crevassed, so the flags were used to show a safe route.  This is where one of my coworkers was slightly injured in a crevasse fall.  You'll notice we land right in the skid marks of the helo that that person had been on.  Didn't want to stray far from the bird at all.

One of the more notable experiences from last week and the week before were trips to Byrd Glacier.  This massive body of ice is the second largest glacier in the world.  Near the bottom where it Meets with the Ross ice shelf it is nearly 30 miles wide and 3000 feet thick.  At the head (top)  I've got no idea how wide it is, but it is measured at 3000 m thick.  4000' of the glacier is below sea level as the weight of the ice on the continent has depressed the land mass.  This scope and magnitude of this massive dynamic body is hard to grasp even when you are looking at it.  It completely dwarfs the Grand Canyon.  And all this ice moves at a rate of at least 800m per year.

You're looking nearly 100 miles.  The glacier is more than 30 miles wide at the opening in the valley you see here.  Some days its possible to see 150 miles or more.  The irregular surface of the glacier are ice chunks more than 2 stories high here, with holes and crevasses large enough to land the 212 in.

Confirming that the crevasse extends underneath the helo.  Im standing on the skid taking the pic, pilot's side.

This pic above is a 1' wide, who knows how deep, crevasse we exposed that the helo landed on.  We never knew it was there till my co worker plunged into it.  Yeah, watch yer step.

The reason for the trips to this place more than 250 nautical miles away is to study its movement.  With two helicopters, two mountaineers who, two PHD students, and dozens of gps and seismic units we head for Byrd to establish three stationary gps sites on bedrock on the north and south side of the glacier, and numerous sites on the ever shifting and treacherous glacial mass.  Just to make it to Byrd one way he have to stop to refuel. Refuel means that 400 lb fuel drums need to be dug out of snow (in condition 2 weather in this instance) and transferred one at a time with a electric pump, opening and closing the the two plug barrels by hand.  After each barrel is emptied, another is opened, the pump exchanged, and the empty secured at the site as loose barrels end up miles away or lost on the ice shelf in winds up to 80 knts.  This process is repeated until you have what you need.  If you're lucky you may only have to do this one more time during the day, or not at all.  Not at all would be unlikely.

Roads end fuel cache, nearly 200 nm South of McMurdo.

The glacier is quite dangerous.  High winds, slick ice, and difficult flying resulted in a close call for one of our ships and crew at one site.  The helicopter began to slide towards a crevasse due to slope and high wind. As the pilot attempted to reposition the helo, the lack of weight on the skids increased the speed of the slide towards the crevasse.  After an attempt or two the bird was running out of rotor real estate, but one more all balls effort with the cyclic buried to the knee with a lot of power got the ship off the ice, and into the air with little margin for error.  All's well that ends well.  For this project we've landed on this crevasse ridden hulk dozens of times.  Three folks fell into crevasses those few weeks with only one minor injury, even after professional mountaineers probed all around our work site.  I was glad not to be one of them since I and one other tech visited the glacier more than any of our co-workers.

R3 GPS site, south side Byrd Glacier on 400 million year old exposed limestone.  A rift in the tectonic plate exists near the middle of the glacier.  The rock found on the south side differs from that found on the south.

At the rock sites (the stationary sites along the north and south of the valley), we were afforded lots of time to shoot pics, look at 400 million year old cambrian rock where you could find exposed fossils in sedimentary limestone and enjoy the scenes as time and weather allowed.  In all cases, it was safe to say I was treading ground that no other human has ever set foot.  These are powerful and thought provoking experiences.  The next piece is nearly done and was from a great set of flights right after our time on Byrd.  Hope everyone is well.  I've turned 34 out here on Nov 21.  One of the more memorable Ive had in a while.  Chipping 2000 yr old glacier ice into your birthday scotch makes for a special drink.  Cheers and enjoy the pics and vid.