Life in the cold

In the end of Summer

2007-02-04T06:09:00.000-08:00

In the clear days of Summer, we find ourslelves living without care, in an almost ecstatic state of happiness. Long go the days, long go our plays and friendships.

Our lives seem forever, like the world around us, and but they could be, I would only ask to have the friends and family that I have gathered around me.

Cori's World

2007-01-25T05:27:00.000-08:00

This year, as many of you know, Cori signed on as an 'iron-worker' here at the Pole. The iron workers typically erect the steel backbone of any given structure. As you can probably imagine, working with cold metal when it's already 50 below out, is very challenging, tiring, freezing work. -Cori was very excited about it though.

This year's iron project happened to be the South Pole Telescope. This telescope, which I mentioned in 'expanding minds' blog, is on the very cutting edge of science. It uses microwaves to enable scientists to see further than ever into the universe. They're actually pretty sure it will take us to the very edge of our universe, and essentially see into the beginnings of it.

The main skeleton of the telescope was actually pre-built in Texas over the summer, so the Foremen could see how it would go together, and see what potential problems they would need to work out, before shipping it all to Antarctica. This did make the job easier, but of course, there were still minor set-backs, from things like delays in shipping and such.

The main frame of the telescope was put together by the iron crew, on schedule. The giant 'dish', that sits on top, had to be carefully calibrated by the scientists "beakers", before it could be mounted, which took awhile.

Once it came time to mount the dish, two cranes were used to pick it up, then the iron workers mounted it on, much to the anxious eyes of the beakers!

Now all that is left is the fine tuning that the scientists do. The telescope is scheduled to be up and running all Winter down here. Thanks to those tough iron workers, we may soon be re-writing our science books.

Through it all, Cori got to learn the finer points of rigging, cutting torches, and bolt torqueing. She also got to work with a great bunch of guys and gals, and had a lot of fun parties!

The Ice's End

2007-01-11T06:27:00.000-08:00

'A brilliant sun constantly surrounds, but not a drop of melted snow will be found. -My dreams now consist of the crashing of waves, in strange exotic bays.
-Not far away, lay our port along the way; where ice meets land, and the rest of the journey, keeps on in the sand.'

South Pole

2007-01-07T04:35:00.000-08:00

Here We Are

2007-01-07T04:19:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are, near the end of our season here. Seems kind of funny, we just got here a little while ago, but they're alresdy talking about shipping us out. For us, it seems like it's been awhile, and we're looking forward to warm beaches, and generally humid climates again. We've had a great New year, moved the pole, Cori built a telescope, and life is well....

Mid-Season Boogie!

2006-12-29T06:24:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are at the middle of our season. We got our first talk today about re-deployment, meaning they're thinking about flying us back soon. In some ways it seems like we just got here, and in others, it seems like we've been here for about 6 months! If you've ever watched 'Groundhog Day', starring Bill Murray, -you can have a glimpse of what it is like here come mid-season: you get up, go to work, have breaks, off work, sleep, repeat.... --Cori and I are still having a good time here, and we are....even thinking strongly about coming back for another round soon. For those of you wondering about Cori's world, since she doesn't post as much info as I do, I have some upcoming news......Well, maybe I'll save it for my next blog post. I will be having a 'Cori Only' blog posting on my next one in the next week, which will show many pictures of the incredible telescope they've been building down here, which is almost finished. They will be setting the 'Dish' in the next few days, and once she gets the pictures of it, I'll post it here! ---Besides that, I'm deeply involved in putting the siding on the wind-ward side of the new station, and quite frankly; if you could possibly think of having the full Antarctic experience with full exposure to all the elements it can dish,--siding is one of the greatest job markets to experience that! Cori could probably say the same about her experience. Besides those trivial tidbits, we are happy, and looking forward to seeing you all again sometime soon!

Air Mail!

2006-12-21T05:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was an exiting day here at Pole, we got to see an air drop! These aren't common round these parts, because the last time they tried, the parachutes didn't open, and all the cargo ended up smashing all over the snow! Normally, all the cargo coming into the Pole, be it construction parts, food, or mail all arrives by the c-130 cargo plane; landing, unloading, and taking off again within 20 minutes. This time, we got a big air drop by the C-17 cargo plane. These are much larger than the 130's, but they can't land at the South Pole. The reason is because of the air. It's too thin, and they wouldn't be able to take off again. So, here's what happened: The C-17 circled a few times, then came in real low, and dumped out 5 crates, all with 4 parachutes (which did open). It was real neat to see them come flying out the back with the chutes opening, and floating lightly to the ground! Afterwards, the plane came back in real low for a fly-by, and tipped its wings too us. My crew got a good view, since we were up on the roof of the station. I took a video of the drop and fly-by, but they won't upload to this page, so here's some still shots of us all watching, and the parachutes instead. We'll show you all the video when we see you all in person!

It's beginning to look a lot like X-Mas

2006-12-17T06:31:00.000-08:00

O.K., I know that we're at the South Pole, where it's always white, but that doesn't mean that we have Santa and the Elves running around us all the time. In fact, we all feel pretty far removed from the holiday season being down here. We go about our daily working routines, pretty much just focused on our one night off. So, we have to do little things to get us in the spirit. The iron workers of seasons past constructed a Christmas tree that now is annually placed out at the pole. - Blocks of snow of various shapes and sizes have been placed around the pole as well, for those artists who would like to create snow sculptures. - The main prize though, is our big 2 day weekend coming up! Christmas dinner is approaching, sign up sheets are around station so we can volunteer for potato peeling, pie baking, and one of three seatings for dinner. Being on the swing and night shifts, Cori and I have first pick for 3rd seating. Crazy antics usually ensue after the last seating, consisting of spontaneous dance parties, open mics, and dodge ball. Thus making it the best of all the seatings! Everyone on station also eagerly awaits the Christmas mail plane. The National Guard usually flies in one motherload of packages on the week before, to us stranded Polies! --We don't have much, but we make the most of what we have!

Expanding minds

2006-12-12T05:49:00.000-08:00

Well, sorry for being absent for so long. I hadn't realized it'd been 10 days since my last entry here. Another magical thing about being isolated is that time REALLY slows down. A lot of the days here are a mirror image of the one before if you browse over it. Once you dig in though, there are a lot of differences to each one. So, let's see, what's happened in these ten days? --- Cori had a birthday down here. We celebrated, drank some wine and danced. (It's really amazing how everbody down here will get out on a dance floor at any given time).
--We've also been having some interesting Science lectures. Down here, they do a lot of cutting edge science, as you may have guessed. A lot of stuff centers on the clean air and atmosphere down here, and how much pollution from the rest of the world ends up here; there are sciesmic studies happening, which look at how much this glacier we're sitting on moves during each year, and what effect, if any, global warming is playing into it, (yes, global warming is really happening). --These are all significant experiments happening, and they are all funded with millions of dollars behind them, but now, these are almost pale in comparison to some of the newer labs that are coming in now. Right now under construction here are telescopes that can read energy left over from the formation of our universe (the Big Bang). Essentially, they are becoming more capable of being able to "time travel". --What are they doing with this information?? Well, despite what some of you may think, we are not being experimented on down here. (Except possibly for the effects of exposure to lack of sleep and extreme cold exposure). --Right now, all this information is pretty much in its infancy, and they are reading it to see, where energy is coming from, how 'potent' it still is, after it's 4 million years of travelling, and to determine wether our universe is expanding or receding. -They're pretty sure, if not positive, it's still expanding at a phenomenal rate. --O.K.- I think that's enough of blowing my own mind, trying to explain for one night. Anyhow, that's a little in depth look at some of the stuff, that we are involved in supporting down here. At the end of this blog, I have some pictures of the brand new telescope that Cori is helping to build down here. This thing is slated to be the Einstein of Telescopes, and will be able to read energy from the Big Bang like it's never been seen before, and possibly redefine some science as we know it! Until next time...............

Snow

2006-12-03T06:40:00.000-08:00

The cold and emptiness encompasses us. Every effort made to control the place is taken lightly by the land. In the end, it always wins. Man and woman spend millions in dollars and hours, breaking back and sweat to create what ends up being a small dent in the ice, which is then swallowed by nothing more than the wind.

A friendly place

2006-12-01T05:52:00.000-08:00

In this place, you really get a chance to know people who you might not get to know back home in the states. Here, life really slows down in a lot of ways. I mean, we constantly work, every morning when I get out of bed, it feels like that's all we do. However, that is the only thing here we really have to worry about. There's always money going into the bank, all the bills are on auto-pay, there's no vehicle to maintain. So, besides work, you hang out with other humans. It's really nice to hang out in the galley after work, and still want to be around your coworkers, and enjoy their company. Normally, back home, I'm too preoccupied with wanting to check phone messages, check my pay, go home, watch a movie, or whatever, than sit down and chat. Here it's a very relaxing feeling to just sit back and visit, because....there's nothing else to do!

A Carpenter?

2006-11-30T06:18:00.000-08:00

This year at Pole, I got hired as a carpenter helper. I originally was hoping to get on as an electrician helper, or maintenance, but by the time Cori and I decided to come back, all those spots had been filled. Our former supervisor, who'd been begging us for the past 3 years to come back, got me on with the carpenters. I'm not a carpenter, never wanted to be, but, I thought in the back of my mind that I was enough of a well rounded individual to be able to pass myself off as a beginning carpenter. --I now laugh at that foolish notion every time I try to hammer a simple nail. Whether it's the mittens I work in, the extreme cold that makes the wood split, or the body harness that causes me to flounder around; those nails seem to keep eluding me. Not just the nails, the screws that dont seem to want to go in, or jump off the roof whenever I try to put them in. Those simple, pesky tools of the trade have humbled me to no end! --Luckily, I'm not the only one who has difficulties with our daily battle on the roof. Whenever I'm about ready to throw that hammer over with the nails, I take a look around and see someone else shaking their head, and you just have to laugh! We're at the South Pole! --I sure do miss those rocks though!

24 hours of light

2006-11-29T06:38:00.000-08:00

I think one of the hardest things to get used to at the South Pole is the round the clock sunlight. I work a swing shift, meaning I start as 2 p.m. and go till midnight. Only, it doesn't matter, because it's just as light at midnight as it is at 7 a.m. The sun is just in a different spot on the horizon. It makes it especially tough when you plan on going to bed "early". I have planned on doing so evser since I started working, but it's hard to when you know it's light out, and there's so much commotion outside. My room is pretty dark, but I can still see pinpoints where the light comes in, and almost feel that sunlight! Most people here it seems, live on about an average of 6 hours of sleep a night. A lot of light sleepers get less. Once you're up and going though, it hardly seems to matter, because that sun that seems to rob you of sleep, just seems to give you endless energy here, like the energizer bunnies, we go,go,go... Until we get back to New Zealand, where we sleep for a week!

Arrival

2006-11-28T05:46:00.000-08:00

It's an interesting thing, this South Pole adventure. For everythin from it's complete emptiness, to it's unreal temperatures; Today was -27 F (-60 windshield), and we consider this an incredible day! --It is, if you consider that just over 24 hours ago it was -50 (-78 windshield).--So what is it that attracts people like us to come here? --Not just once, but in a lot of cases, people here have made careers of it! There is some kind of strange draw to the Antarctic continent. A draw to test yourself, your will, endurance, your inner core, over and over again, every day, 24 hours a day. -I'm not kidding. For one, most of us construction folks sleep in the eqivalent of tents. Large canvas tents. The heat is constantly on, but depending on your proximaty to the furnace, this doesn't necessarily mean you'll have a completely warm room. For instance; my bed is warm, but I put a six-pack on the floor one night, to chill, and to my surprise and dissapointment the next day, it was completely frozen. -Then there was the morning the heater went out altogether. Just let me say, it wasn't too hard to get dressed that morning, knowing that my Extreme Cold Weather gear would be warmer than where I was sleeping! --Sleeping. Another challenge in itself, and a true test of your mental stamina the first week you're here. One would think that a person working outside for 9 hours in -45 weather and carrying around 30 pounds of clothing wouldn't have a problem sleeping. That would be true if said person went home to their quiet bungalow in the country afterwards. We, however, live in tents in the center of a massive construction zone. A lot has to happen here in the 4 month window mother nature allows for man to try and keep his footprint here. All the snow that blows in during the other 8 months has to be cleared from around the station and pushed about a 1/2 mile downwind. This requires a 24 hour plow operation with an army of D9 tractors, pushing that snow, right by our happy tent city. Many nights, you are awakened by the ground shaking operation happening 100 ft. from where you sleep. -Some nights however, the groan of the tractors are a distant roar, and you do get used to it, but trying to sleep while a c-130 cargo plane lands and idles for a half hour is another thing altogether! They're on a round the clock schedule as well. --Why don't we jump the next available c-130 out of this ridiculous madness? --There is just something about this challenge that you can't quit. We all owe it to ourselves to see it through, and as mad as it sounds,-- it's a really, really good time.

Test

2006-11-16T17:06:00.000-08:00

Its frickin freezing out here!