Okay, I'm a little late in posting this, but we did hear from John on Thanksgiving day - a nice treat! They are a day ahead of us (and 7 hours earlier), so it was actually Friday. However they had not celebrated their Thanksgiving yet - according to him, all holidays are observed on Sundays.
He continues to do well; at the time he said he was about to go on a hiking expedition to visit the site of the Pegasus, a Navy C121 Constellation transport plane that (according to information I gleaned elsewhere) crashed during a storm in 1970. As John put it, since no one died, it's now a popular destination for hiker. Pegasus Field at McMurdo is named for the downed aircraft.
Here's he and his cohorts climbing on the now-partially buried Pegasus:
...As you can see, many a hiker has left his or her mark on the exposed rudder.
I'm a little behind the curve here, but I just found out that a photo of John with some of his mates has gone viral. Google "Occupy Antarctica" and you'll see what I mean. That's John in the sunglasses (but you probably knew that already).
This photo even made it to a Washington Post blog, where the author describes it as "a photograph that claims to be shot in Antarctica." Dear Washington Post - trust me, it was shot in Antarctica.
The days are getting long in McMurdo. As of today, the sun rises around 4:30 AM and sets around 11:00 PM. In about ten days, the sun will no longer disappear below the horizon - it's perpetual daylight.
John's now on the morning shift which he reports is much better - he finishes his shift at 4:00 PM and has more options for activities.
The mainbody flights have started, according to the Antarctic Sun newsletter, which is when the science people and the rest of the support staff start arriving. This will bring McMurdo up to its full complement of people: around 1,200. John was part of the first group out this season (the Winfly).
While browsing around on YouTube, looking for Antarctica-related stuff, I ran across the following short (8 minute) documentary about life in McMurdo, made about a year ago. You get a pretty good idea of some aspects of life down there, as well as a chance to see the sort of folks who choose to do this.
There are several shots of the cafeteria and kitchen (where John's working), as well as shots of the grounds. Enjoy.
I talked to John a couple of time yesterday (thank you again, Google Voice).
The weather has been a bit stormy, according to him. The change of the seasons are stormy here, too, but where as we get rain, they get blizzard-like conditions. Since he spends most of his time inside, that's not a big deal. Just for fun, here's some storm footage someone shot several years back just to give a little flavor. Again - this is not what John saw.
He's been on the later shift (working the galley and washing dishes) from 10 AM to 8 PM, but is trying to get on the morning shift which ends at 4 PM, so he'll have more time to hang out with some of his buds in the evening.
There's quite a bit of programming in the evenings - lectures and what-not - that's available to anyone who's interested. I gather there's entertainment as well (movies, etc). So far he hasn't done a lot of that, but an earlier shift would make that more of a possibility.
Right now he said there's around 400 people at McMurdo. The winter crew is only about 100 people but by mid-October there will be closer to 1,200 there. Another 17 staff for the food service will be arriving as part of the Mainbody (John was part of the Winfly: the earliest group to return after winter).
In addition to his regular duties, John's been picking up a little work at the local rental shop, which is also managed by his employer, NANA Services. Since he's worked as a bartender in Toronto, he's also looking at picking up some hours behind the bar at the local watering hole.
The room he's in now is a suite (they live in dormitory-style housing). The rooms don't have internet access, but there are publicly available computers in some common area that are on the internet, although some sites are blocked - such as YouTube; this is probably a bandwidth issue. If he gets his computer scanned, he can get on the internet using it, though the blocked site would still be unavailable. Facebook must not be blocked because I see occasional updates from him there.
So that's the news from the coldest continent on earth. More when I hear it.
John called the other day from McMurdo - and it didn't cost him anything!
The week before he had me set up a Google Voice account for him (entrusting me to his gmail account) with very explicit instructions: it had to have a Denver area code. I needed to do it because Google could tell from *his* IP address that he was accessing the Google site from a non-US location and wouldn't let him do the setup. Normally when people at McMurdo make phone calls they are routed through Denver (Raytheon Polar Services' headquarters) and they use calling cards to make calls from there. By getting a Denver area code on Google Voice, the call to it is a local (non-toll) call. There is a very informative post that explains in detail how to do this, which probably documents what is tribal knowledge among everyone on the ice.
The weather is beginning to warm up as they move into spring. The highs have been above zero, (today's high was 25 degrees), which is almost bearable. Now that he's done the safety orientation, John can go out to the marked trails. He said they go sledding (I would imagine it's not hard to find lots of good sledding runs there) and he was considering getting some skis.
Work: he's been alternating between dining hall duty and washing dishes, putting in 10 hour shifts, 6 days a week. It sounds like there may be other assignments he can take on as well -- I'm waiting to hear more. One thing about John: he's never been afraid of hard work.
I got a quick email from John today- it's his one day off.
So he's been at McMurdo for five days (or six...the International Dateline plays hob with my ability to keep track). He was part of the Winfly (Winter Flight - the flights to McMurdo after the end of the winter season, before the MainBody arrives).
His work schedule is 10 AM to 8 PM, six days a week. He'll be working the dining hall (so he said) but I gather duties are flexible - people do what needs to be done. His assignments will rotate so he'll never do any one thing longer than two hours at a stretch. Once the full complement of residents arrive in October I suspect work life will develop more of a routine.
There are some established trails set up outside but one has to go through a safety lecture before being authorized to venture outside. John completed one of those one evening and is waiting for the weather to clear up a bit before venturing out.
Living accommodations are dormitory style. John has a roommate and speculates he may get another once more people start arriving. Today, on his day off, he was going to do laundry and get a hair cut.
By the way, I ran across a glossary of Antarctica slang, which looks to be a few years old. Don't know how much is current but what's there is pretty amusing.
Got up this morning at around 7 and as is my habit, grabbed my iPad to check email and Facebook. Lo and behold, John has changed his profile photo to this:
It was about midnight there but I noticed him on Google Talk and had a quick chat session with him. They landed at McMurdo around 4 PM (local time). He reports the flight was good, other than the fact that one of his new suitcases got cracked.
We didn't chat for a long time; he starts work tomorrow at 10 AM, and it sounds like they have fairly long work days. His travel day was long -- their shuttle to the airport picked them up at 3:15 AM. I'm hoping for a long email once he's got his bearings.
I suspect the next couple of days will be jarringly weird.
John continues to vacation on the company nickel in Christchurch, NZ. Unfortunately he's got to be ready for the shuttle bus at 3:15 AM each morning; the go/no-go decision is communicated to them at 2:45 AM. This obviously cramps exploring then nightlife of Christchurch.
When he does finally get the call to go, he'll be ready: he's been issued his official red parka and other Extreme Cold Weather gear.
John was scheduled to be picked up at 3:15 AM for his flight to McMurdo, but his departure has been delayed a day - his speculation is because of fog. The flight is between 5 and 6 hours (approximately 2,500 miles), and obviously there are few alternative landing places on the destination side.
Hopefully this will give him an opportunity to explore Christchurch a bit, which is supposed to be very charming, despite earthquake damage suffered in recent years.
His internet access is limited, but I'm hoping when he finally lands at McMurdo he can send some pictures. Actually I'm just hoping he takes some pictures.
Update: as of yesterday (Tuesday in the US), John was still cooling his heels in Christchurch, waiting for the weather to improve enough to fly out.
Update2 - Wednesday evening: just got an email from John that says they are still waiting on the weather in Christchurch.
Had an email from John when I awoke this morning. He's now in Christchurch.
Tomorrow (which I take to mean sometime later today - it's that International Dateline thing) they give them extreme cold weather gear, which includes red parkas, gloves and the like. Then the day after (Monday for us in North America?) they head for "the ice."
In related news, we are now a completely empty nest: youngest son Ed returned to Fairfax, VA to begin his junior year at GMU.
John's employer is NANA Services, LLC, which is a subcontractor to Raytheon Polar Services Company (the primary contractor to the National Science Foundation).
NANA provides culinary, housekeeping, recreation, and retail services. Their website has a PDF which describes the job openings for the 2011 - 2012 Summer season.
NANA website has another PDF entitled "Questions and Answers About Our Antarctica Project ," which is targeted to prospective employees. It's a good overview of what one would expect in terms of day-to-day life while on the Ice.
As a side note, NANA Services is part of the NANA Development Corporation, which is a by product of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), a legal agreement the Federal Government reached with Alaska Natives. NANA's primary shareholders are the 12,500 Iñupiat of Northwest Alaska. I guess if anyone would know cold, they would.
Talked to John earlier - he's at LAX, awaiting his flight to Auckland, New Zealand. According to my handy travel app, his flight, originally scheduled to take off at 11:40 PM, now shows a 2:40 AM departure.
Now that's brutal.
Since his flight is about 13 and a half hours, that will put him into Auckland at around 11:10 AM Sunday, local time. With any luck he'll still manage to catch his connecting flight to Christchurch.
At least he's traveling with a group of his fellow penguins - that should take a little of the sting off this 3 hour delay.
Copied and expanded on from my original post on the Ralph Art Blog.
My eldest son, John, is about to embark on a six month gig at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Among those in the know, this is referred to as being "on the ice." I set this blog up so I could send out occasional updates to friends and family on his life down under. I'll put up the odd fact or two I run across about McMurdo and/or Antarctica, too.
While there, he'll be part of the support crew, working in food service (he's worked in catering for several years while a student). He's a writer, so my guess is he'll also be gathering experiences for some future Epic Novel.
His first stop is Denver, where he has a couple of days of training. From there, after a brief layover in Los Angeles, he'll fly to New Zealand. The final leg of his journey, from Christchurch, NZ, to McMurdo, Antarctica, will be aboard a military transport plane.
McMurdo Station, on Ross Island (on the southwest corner of Ross Sea), is the operational hub and logistics center for the United States Antarctic Program, which in turn is part of the National Science Foundation. McMurdo is the largest installation on the continent and is the gateway to all other US bases.
During the active (summer) season, around 1,200 people are based there. They are just entering the spring season down there; average highs for September are -5 F, and average lows are -20 F. December is the warmest time of the year - average highs are around 30 F, with lows down to 21 F.
Today was the first day McMurdo had a sunrise since April. The sun was visible for 45 minutes before setting. Around mid-October the sun will cease to set until late February. He'll be there until March of 2012.
