cold. it's cold.

the lucky ducky sailing over the south pole

dj's room a "hypertat." one quarter the size of the room we have here.

one of the many tunnels under ground

the new south pole station. just completed a couple of weeks ago.

dj inside the dome

this photo and the one before are shots of the south pole dome. the dome is now being shut down. the entire station used to be under thee dome, which is getting more and more buried.

plans are to remove the dome to a museum somewhere in the states.

dj gets to go to south pole

so the lucky ducky gets to go to the south pole for two weeks! here are some of the pics from his trip. as a matter of fact you should check out his blog it's way more extensive than mine (he's even taken the time to spell and punctuate things correctly...whatever! like i have time for that crap!): http://cheeseloaf.blogspot.com/

more of the same

this is a drill that simulates what it is like to be outside during a condition 1. (condition 1 is a severe wind white out condition where you may not be able to see your hands in front of your face, or hear the person next to you)

in this drill we are practicing how to locate a person who is missing during a condition 1.

the wind protection wall we made

mount erebus is the southern most active volcano in the world. that's it over my shoulder. the cloud at it's peak is volcano smoke.

entrance to another tomb like structure

a really cool tomb that another camper made

my feet above the entrance.

me inside the quinzy

inside the quinzy, looking up at the ceiling. the light is sooooooo pretty inside.

me with our quinzy. the entrance is the cave-like opening at the bottom of the photo. the floor of the quinzy is at the same level as the ground around it.

when you enter the quinzy, you contort yourself down the entrance, then stand up. when standing, the floor is at chest level. you have to hoist yourself up onto the floor.

this mound of snow is the quinzy i slept in with two others

my boil in a bag dinner (it was actually good!)

our kitchen

one person slept in this tent city we made. everyone else slept out in the snow structures.

more tools

the tools we used to construct our wind breaking wall and various snow structures.

happy camper

so if you're lucky, your name gets drawn out of a hat to get to do fun things. these fun things are called "boondoggles." my name was drawn to go to "happy camper." happy camper is an overnight snow skills training course. you get info. in a class setting, then get dumped on the snow to practice of what you learned. this was a lot of fun.

our task was to build a wind wall out of blocks of snow that you saw out of the ground. we also got to build quinzys to sleep in if we wished. quinzys are made by heaping all of your bags and gear in a pile. you then bury the pile with snow and pack it down. the next step is to burrow down, below the bags, then dig upwards toward them. once you have reached the bags you start pulling them out of the hole that you made. the hollow cave left over is your cave to sleep in for the night.

i was lucky enough to use a quinzy that was already made. as a matter of fact almost everyone in my happy camper class was able to squish together into quinzy's that were already made. a couple of people dug themselves graves that had huge coffin lids that sealed them in. or just deep trenches that had open roofs.

an inside shot of the delta we took to go to "happy camper." i'm fouth in with the "just juice" box in my hand.

krasin and tern (the cargo ship)

krasin prop blade

this is the krasin. it's a russian ice-breaker ship. it arrived last month; then, two weeks ago it broke one of it's propellar blades. divers were flown down to repair it.

this really screwed up our cargo ship and fuel taker ship's off-loading times. we were supposed to be finished with the cargo ship and fuel tanker last week. we just started the cargo ship on friday and the fuel tanker won't start until next thursday.

scott's hut

scott's hut

scott's hut

scott's hut

me in scott's hut

100 year old crackers

inside hut

who wants a seal snack?

this guy is over 100 years old.

scott's hut

this is scott's discovery hut. he (and others that came after him) used it for storage and theatrical plays. they slept on the ship.

locate it from past photo of town. the dead seal in the next photo is located behind the mound of rope-ish looking stuff under the eve, to the left.

this hut was built based on the australian huts IN THE DESERT. this is why they didn't sleep in it. it was very cold and impractical for antarctica.

weddle seal on the sea ice. saw this guy on the trip to "nowhere."

walking to nowhere.

note the flags. we have to stay right next to the flags to avoid weak spots in the ice (or when not on the ice, crevasses). flags are also there for when there are white out conditions. if you can see to the next flag, you're good. if you can't see to the next flag and you're with another person, and you have a rope you can travel that way as well.

dj and i went on a rec trip to "nowhere."

the recreation department has stuff going on all of the time. this was a trip we took on the deltas (these hulking machines here). the trip went to nowhere. we just drove for about 45 minutes on the sea ice and stopped, got out, walked for a bit, took some pictures, and then got back in.

turns out "nowhere" is pretty cool.

dj at the halloween party

dj and i at the "upper crust" party. suits and ties required.

luckily, gear issue has lot's of costumes to choose from.

parties

there is a party every night here somewhere. the deck i am standing on is a popular spot. it's called "tequilla beach"

i'm sure it's way over capacity in body weight daily.

sleep at the ceiling in corvallis. sleep on the floor in antarctica.

our room is the size of our bed times two and one half. (not big)

the dorm on the left is ours. the upper hill peak is where the two aerial photos were taken from.

our place

our town
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dj in the c-130 cockpit