((:: The Antarctic Cowboy ::))

I Love Flying in Aeroplanes

2012-02-12T08:05:00.000-08:00

Instead of flying across the Pacific directly from New Zealand to Peru I chose the scenic route and did I giant circle around the Ring of Fire. Three days in planes and airports. It doesn't really matter though, I had a nice 12-hour layover in Honolulu and checked out the Sunset Beach for my very first time.

Let's see here, I left the ice on the 8th and hung out in Christchurch for two days.

Ate some Thai food.

The rockin hotel room.

At the airport pushing my two bags of life to the check-in counter.

At the gate.

Leaving New Zealand.

Flying into Sydney.

Sydney's international airport duty free mall sector.

Bye bye Australia. Good on you and keep the Vegemite.

10 hours later... Aloha Honolulu.

I rented a car and cruised to every beach on the east and north coast.

Hey sis it has your name on it.

Vibe.

Sunset Beach has killer waves.

The highway borders beaches on one side and farmland on the other.

Tummy growling... pit stop at a shrimp farm.

Back to the airport for more frequent flyer miles.

Gotta love it.

Landed in Los Angeles and did a quick turn around to San Francisco.

The Golden Gate.

From here it's a 10 hour flight to Peru. I'm too exhausted to continue, so more later on. There's a world of birds, frogs, insects and monkeys talking outside my cabana in the jungle right now, think it's time shut eye.

Departing Antarctica to the Real World

2012-02-08T03:08:00.000-08:00

I've heard rumors of Man Camp. Those rumors make me nervous each time I go to McM housing to get my key. 12 bunk beds, 24 men... ouch. Well, when I got back from WAIS at around 2 AM and went to housing I was given a packet with not a key, but a letter reading that I was bunked in Man Camp in Hotel Cal. Ouch. Too tired to argue against this decision I dragged my bags to the room and what did I find...

Not a soul. For over a week I was given the largest bedroom in Antarctica to myself. I don't want to boast about it, but I do want to thank whoever was behind this decision. It set a good vibe for my journey off the Ice.

For my stint at McMurdo I did lots of debriefing and repacking. I learned all about the contract changeover and how McMurdo is going to get a sustainable facelift in the years to come since the NSF is looking to run green. I put a few applications in to cook at other remote stations/camps for 2013... and today I was asked by the South Pole Telescope cartel, whom put together the clearest picture of the CMB that shows remnants of early universe, to go back to Pole for the 2013 winter just so they could eat my pizza bagels for breakfast. It's amazing how powerful the memories of food can be. A day before my departure I did my bag drag. That's when you drop off your checked-in bags, get weighed, pick up your travel funds and show them that you still have a passport and big red.

Most field camps have closed and reconvened at McM to do EOSs (end of season reports), evals, unpack and clean field gear.

Outside, the ice in the sound is being broken up for the cargo ship and tanker to arrive.

Plenty of whale action out there. The day I left I heard that a few penguins were in the vacinity too.

The icebreaker.

Lots of action on station. Helicopters, C-17s, LC-130s, icebreaker, semis, Ivan and soon the vessels.

The snow machines destined to get tuned up before winter.

On the eve of the snow moon, February's full moon, it snowed. It also snowed plenty up north in places like Colorado.

Night before I departed there were a number of parties. Each building had like it's own department party... so, if you wanted to see the carps go to Hotel Cal.... science support go to the science support building... FSTP team at BFC... field camps at Southern.

Next morning, off to building 140 to get on the truck to Pegasus, the C-17 runway. The same building where the post office is at and where we bag drag.

Waiting for the truck.

Sleeping on the long, bumpy ride.

Waiting to get on the plane.

Cargo.

Pax offload.

Boarding.

Pax onload.

I sat next to the helium tanks that control the cryo unit of the South Pole telescope.

5 hours later... arrival at CHCH.

Full moon in the sky at the Antarctic Centre. Lovely. Hours later, laid down in bed. Started dreaming then was abruptly woken up to a rocking bed. By the time I jumped up, grabbed my bag and opened the door the shaking stoped. I read today that it was only a 5.3, nothing big, no damage, only felt. I don't know how big is big and how big it's gonna to be so I'm gonna be out that door ASAP homies. Welcome back to the real world; where things aren't just flat white ice, pizza and sun halos.

When Amundsen Meets Tarzan

2012-02-05T22:07:00.000-08:00

No big deal... almost 20,000 miles in 48 hours. I wish I had a space shuttle, or at least a Concord.

The WAIS Take Out

2012-02-01T18:56:00.000-08:00

The WAISyde Story of 2012 has come to a close and today the last 12 people at the camp will fly back home to McMurdo Station. This season has been revered as one of the most successful and that is due to people who put it together, ran it and dug that giant borehole. We are what made WAIS what it was.

I’ve always felt that food is what ignites morale, and boy, did it ever. The WAIS cooking crew… Russ’el, Rosemary and I made miracles with only a few freshies and an ever evolving kitchen. For example, in the beginning, there was an old propane oven in our kitchen. After a few weeks the flames would go out every five minutes and Russ’el or I would be on our knees for 30 seconds trying to reignite the pilot. It was so cold near the floor of the kitchen that the turbulent air flow would blow out the pilot. The oven broke us down emotionally. Russ’eI spent many hours trying to reignite it and he, lying on the dirty kitchen floor with a lighter, almost seemed to meditate with the propane fumes. Rosemary stared at it in dismay and confusion for there would be no more Rosemary’s cookies. I wound up kicking it every morning in hope that kicking it would bring it back to life. All my hopes of baking fresh breads, pizzas, muffins, cheesecakes, brownies and cookies vanished. Can you cook a cheesecake in a water bath on a stove? I was gonna if I had too. Then the main generators came online and we were given power to the standing convection oven. What a blessing that was. For the rest of the season we had our oven needs.

The old oven, a blizzard inside my tent, a 3-month long growing snow drift that swallowed my tent and almost my digging patience, a lost turkey for Thanksgiving, scientists and NSF representatives stuck for many days due to weather delay (“Be on your best behavior” – Dean), 4 CON 1 storms in a month, each storm beginning at 10 PM on Saturday when everyone just wants to kick back, TNT detonated 24 hours a day for several days straight in the name of sonic science, snow that turned everything into soaked upon impact, a missing Bob doing laundry, someone’s neck gaiter, Trailer Park Boys 101, America’s deepest ice borehole, the PB that could, the James that would, how to hang a boxing bag in an old tent and hit it without bringing the place down, never-ending dance parties, corn, snowboarding the berms, kite surfing the owaisis, 120,000 year old ice cubes in 12-year old scotch, a bird… really?, WAIS not, want not, Mother Tucker, Drama Drama, Hollywood, Flow, Lancewa, Mega Blondie, Delish, just to name a few, outhouses of discovery dug by discoverers and the walls written on with words of what’s been discovered, brown ice. Yes, that may be volcanic ash in that core or possibly… cheeseburgers.

With that said… let me finish the last post of the WAISyde story.

WAIS is a temporary living and working space that is constructed each October and taken down each February. The only permanent structure is the Arch, where the borehole is located. That building is getting buried so deep that in a couple years it will have to be decommissioned. Everything else has to be boxed or boarded up and stacked on top the winter berms. The winter berms are manmade snow hills and by being on top the hills… the boxes and modules aren’t subject to being buried by winter snow. Barrels are also used to get the goods off the surface of the snow.

Last Saturday’s snow storm brought in a wet and fluffy species of snow that made it hard to doze it. James tried to tackle the freezer cave door and simply sunk in. The D4 is heavy and the snow was light, not a good combo.

On Monday, Dean said that we have to be out by Friday and that means get to work! In two days the majority of central camp was stripped down, put in boxes and dragged to the winter berms.

She needed help tying her boot.

Down, down, down! Tear it down!

The galley was the second to last building to be moved to the berms. On Monday, the main power generators were shut off and we were put on this 50K gen on skis.

People were hungrier than ever.

Come Tuesday it was time to make a mess of the kitchen. We had to take everything labeled ‘food stuff’ in the galley tent and find a place to put it inside the kitchen module. Then the galley tent was taken down and the wall boarded up. Three cooks in a small box, not a good idea. Rosemary was shipped out Monday, I on Wednesday and Russ’el is the last to leave today, if the weather allows.

After cooking breakfast, smoko and lunch on Wednesday I ran to my beloved abode to take it down. This is what it was before…

and this is what it was after James got to it.

Bye.

All my personal belongings and sleep kit thrown on a sled. I’m officially homeless, again.

I put my bags outside of KBA to be palletized and forked onto the plane when it arrives.

Around 4 PM there were only three structures left on the main line… the galley mod, wash mod and KBA tent.

The propane tanks and backdoor freezer were then stripped from the galley module.

I opened the backdoor and ran into this. Oh, maybe I should try the front door. Oh wait, that’s boarded up. I’ll just pee in my pee bottle.

Mark’s forker chained to the front of the kitchen.

Destination – the winter berms. Where all the other boxes and modules are relocated.

Here we come!

There we six of us in the kitchen during the pull to the berms, each holding onto something to prevent any major fallings. I held the precious radio, while watching the Simpsons. Russ’el used a sheet tray to hold the plates. Dean was manning the sink area. G… I’m not sure of… at first he had the oven and then lost focus to eating a cookie. August handed out the juice boxes. Lisa and Kat maintained the chocolate area. It felt like an earthquake.

Once we landed to the berm it was time for dinner. Russ and I quickly got to re-reorganizing the place and cooking. G of course was the first in line.

Yes James, we see your seefood.

Ah, one big happy family.

I melted the remaining 120,000-year old ice cores and if lucky, will bring the holy water back to my sisters.

One last cheesecake.

It’s been nice cookin for yal, but a drifter gots to do what a drifter does and that means I’m gonna hit the road north headin to another no man’s land. Peace.

One final shot from the kitchen… Dean sippin on a juice box and eating a loppy pizza slice. For some odd reason, when it comes to catering to station and camp managers, simple is always the best.

Berm heaven.

My ticket out of the WAISland.

The Gran Finale of WAIS 2012

2012-01-22T06:58:00.000-08:00

In three days WAIS goes offline. This will be my last post from WAIS. I return to McMurdo Station Feb. 3 and shortly after fly to New Zealand where I start another journey across the globe. We're packing up quickly. The temperature is getting colder (-40 F)and the winds are picking up. Time to get out.

Since I don’t have many photos left from my collection I’ve decided to share August Allen’s. If you wish to use his photos in this post please contact me. His art shows the smiles of the WAISide story and the experiences we’ve shared. This has been an exceptionally smooth and productive season with the drill team reaching their final ice core depth in the Arch of 3405 meters. This has been an experience none of us will ever forget. Thank you August.

Down to the Line at WAIS

2012-01-18T06:28:00.000-08:00

Two weeks left for me in this waisland. I should be on the second or third to last flight out sometime around Feb. 3. Next Wednesday a herd of carpenters arrive to dismantle the mantles. Our camp population will nearly double and given the carp appetite I’m preparing for food consumption to triple. I’m also taking on the responsibility to bake off dozens of loaves of bread, cookies, desserts and quiches so that when I’m gone Russ’el ain’t left with too many baking tasks. Earlier he said he might use all the goods for put-in next year and it’s kinda cool to know that although I won’t return to WAIS next November my sweets will still be here and in use. When the returnees shove those cookies in their mouth during the first couple weeks they just may remember that Cody kid.

Yeah, that kid below nibbling on a drumstick at a Reds game with his grandpa, Bill K, who's sporting the infamous red shirt.

Temps are slowly dropping, work is picking up and snowboard is in use more. This means only one thing… higher caloric uptake.

10 days of no eggs, sugar and butter meant homemade pizzas and bagel bars. Yesterday’s flight brought in those missing ingredients and I’m once again confident that we will fare well in the 2012 Antarctic Chef Competition. Garlic-onion, blueberry and plain bagels.

Next to a line of different cream cheeses, spreads, cheeses and fruit toppers.

This guy asked me to turn the kitchen temperature up. Ha! And look what it did. Eat that steam! You asked for it, James.

Break time to the near winter berms where there be a few nice hills to drop in on to practice surfin balance.

Boss Dean brought his board and I thank him dearly for sharing it. We would never waste boarding times at WAIS.

You can hit up the groomed hills…

or the not so groomed hills. Half the time I drop into a nice foot or two of loosely packed snow and go under.

Flip this.

Yesterday I got invited to the blue room. After a bit of cooking and boarding I hopped on a sled and was taken to Archland.

My first stop was to see E and Jayrad who were drilling a mini hole to about 70 meters.

A listing of depths they’ve hit.

It reminded me a bit of ice fishing. If you hold the line while it’s drilling you can feel how it’s drilling and any breakage of the cores. If it bites hard then it most likely means there's gonna be some crackage.

Here’s the drill core coming up out of the hole.

After leveling it out the head spins as to remove any excess snow around the core.

E pulling the core out.

Releasing the core.

Measuring its length.

We put a near-surface core next to a deeper one and saw a difference in density based on how white they were. The core to the left came from 69 meters and the one on the right was taken a few meters down from surface. Density increases with depth and as the density increases, air pockets become filled with ice and the parcel becomes clearer.

These shallow cores will be used in the same manner as the ones taken from thousands of meters down in the Arch. They will give clues to the study of ice
characteristics and atmospheric chemistry. I can’t help but give it a lick. “Mmm… tastes like there are no anthropogenic greenhouses gases in there.” Carbon dating vs. taste dating.

After a taste of the past I headed to the blue room.

A couple core handlers and I brushed away snow from plywood that is positioned around the blue room.

After the snow was off, we pulled away the boards so that sunlight can reach three snow walls. The room is rectangular with three walls exposed to sunlight,
one wall not exposed and the roof shrouded by boards and snow.

Ah, the blue room.

Why is it blue? Only the blue spectrum of the visual wavelengths of solar incident radiation can penetrate the ice several feet down. The broader wavelengths are scattered.

Checking out the layers. The room is about 7 feet in height yet only contains four years of snow pack. Winter seasons display denser, dark snow layers. Summer seasons display fragile, lighter layers. Why the difference? I’m guessing it has to do with the ice formation in different climate scenarios. Summertime has more humidity and bigger snowflakes, which results in more air pockets between the flakes. Wintertime results in a finer snow that packs more compact. It snows less in winter, but there’s more blowing snow because there’s more wind and I’m sure that as flakes travel across the ice sheet they break down due to friction and grow finer too. Maybe?

Within a one year parcel you can easily notice storms. Wind alters even layering. Below the loosely packed lighted layer near the center you will see a layer that has a mix of light and dark snow. Summer and winter snow mixed together. Was this spring? Fall?

Look at this layer ;) What caused it? Density? Shape of snow flake? Albedo? Altitude of creation? Does it's chemistry show a lag time in greenhouse gas transfer between the poles? Is the sky blue and this room blue because of the same reasons? Oh, how I scratch my head. The quasi-fathomable face of scientific queries begets even more curiosity after obtaining a single and simple fact.

January Bliss

2012-01-12T06:28:00.000-08:00

The holidays are over and WAIS is cruising into the final push for the 2011-2012 summer season. One month left before the camp is completely deserted; left in an abyss of ice and snow where it will be eventually buried by the elements until the following put-in crew arrives next October. In two weeks we begin the turnover as the carpenters arrive and scientist leave. The kitchen is anxiously awaiting a food cargo flight in... last week we ran out of all egg product, white sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar and butter. Due to the lack of ingredients I am not just pulling the powdered sugar snow decorations off of the gingerbread houses, I am attempting to recreate them with what we do have. For instance, a lobster quiche. We have no eggs, so I mixed together heavy cream, flour, salt and a hint of turmeric to give it that yellow color. We have no sugar, so I have been reducing all the fruit juice from the canned fruits and today I'm going to bring the reduction up to the brittle stage and see if I can break it up in the food processor back into it's natural sugar. Fruity sugar and coconut cream in your hazelnut coffee? Maybe?

Another lovely day...

More people are catching on to the snow wall fad. Some have had to dig their tents up and relocate entirely. If I didn't have the snow wall I think that my tent would be 6-feet under. One problem with individual snow walls is that the walls create drifts behind them as you can see in the pic below. We are taught at the snow course at McMurdo to build one giant wall around all the tent.

The WAIS emergency response team has been training lots this month. No injuries here this season. I've heard rumors of a boat catching on fire and sinking elsewhere off the coast of Antarctica sometime in the last couple days. The Ice is hard on the mind and the elements here are unforgiving, after many months in one location a person has to keep busy, in various fields, in order to not fall into a cycle of complacency. Cross-training between departments keeps the minds and bodies of camp interactive and focused.

Here's the team getting a mock unconscious victim off the snow, into the sled and then to medical for treatment.

This drill was done in a CON 2 with temps. down to -30 F and winds at 20 knots.

Fully packaged and strapped to the sled.

The ambulance driver is ready to ski.

And there they go, off to medical.

Without the key ingredients to cooking I've had to step over the whole breakfast box and broaden my appetite. We have tons of cheese.

A prune and cream cheese coffee cake. The shell is composed of a soft on the inside and hard on the out cinnamon roll dough that's been spiked with lemon zest. For the filling I spread vanilla cream cheese down then topped it with a prune, almond, brown sugar and margarine mix.

Chocolate and vanilla cheesecake.

Breakfast pizzas...

Brie and smoked salmon stuffed crust pizza... for the sauce I used a canned holandaise mix and salsa. Almost stuffed the crust with bacon.

Spinach roll. Made with New Zealand goat cheese, currants and spinach.

Country ham and sweet potato pan fried in duck fat.

Homemade bagels.

Cody's breakfast- apple cinnamon bread and a cup of coffee...

And... country fried steak, chicken and sausage gravy, homemade buttermilk biscuits and caramelized onions with peppers.

With only a few weeks left before I can start stripping down to bathing suit and flip flops I started up my kung fu-stylin' boxing boot camp workout routine as to begin the toning process.

Kung Pow! No soup for you!

Here's a lyric from one of the outhouses. The way it usually works is one person writes a short and simple sentence, then days later it progresses in different penmanship. While doing your business you can read scripture, hip hop lyrics, stories of drillers and things I can't mention here. Be sure to carry a permanent marker with you to the outhouse and leave your mark, if you know what I mean.

The Final Depth of WAIS's Hole

2012-01-01T07:04:00.000-08:00

On the eve of another full circle around the sun the POW (Prisoners of WAIS) drillers reached the final drilling depth in the main borehole: 3405.077 meters. A new record ice drilling depth for the United States of America for the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. The cool thing is that the borehole is just a few hundred yards from my sleeping bag. There is about 50 meters of ice left before the drill would hit bedrock and since no scientist is willing to undertake (yet?) the complications of environmental assessments associated with going deeper the drilling project is declared done.

Friday afternoon I grabbed a polar explorer power bar and completed my shoveling project in tank top and no time flat. Hot enough to sweat and bright enough to get a tan. I seriously thought about putting flip flops on.

Two large trenches and three walls separate the tent from the elements and after Sunday’s winds I found out that the snow walls work.

Later in the day a LC-130 flew into the backyard.

I hiked over.

I was confronted by D and J, DJ. The WAIS boss squad. Word on the ice was that another special package was on its way by KBA twin otter.

The Canadian eagle has landed.

Boxes of ice cores from another drilling site were offloaded and taken to our core holding facility, the Arch freezer.

Don the Science Don oversaw the offload.

The white boxes were put on a pallet, strapped down and hauled over to the Arch freezer by the Mother Tucker.

Time for lunch.

On Saturday, Dec. 31, I was asked if I wanted to see history made in Archland. Sure. I jumped on a sled with Don.

To Archland.

The entrance is 28 meters below the surface and many more miles beneath a sun dog. It was once right near the surface, but you know, like my yellow tent, ice swallows anything and everything here.

The ice cores that were offloaded the day prior by the Canadians.

What’s an ice core? Below is an ice core. A 5-inch diameter hunk of ice that dates back ~60,000 years ago. Why are they important? “This project will provide the best record of how changes in greenhouse gases influence climate, and will be used for decades to test and improve predictions of future climate change.” – Kendrick Taylor, WAIS Chief Scientist.

Ice cores come from the borehole in the Arch that the peeps below are eagerly looking down at.

Eagerly? Why? Because, the next hunk of ice that comes out of the hole (I’m using rough English here because they were making fun of my ‘Honey Glazed Holes’ this morning) is the deepest core that will come ever be brought to the surface here. This project has been thought about since the 80s is now, successfully, done.

Inside the control room there are monitor screens that show the depth of the drill. When this photo was taken the drill was 36.577 meters from the surface and was ascending from the target depth of 3405.077.

The spinning cable spool that raises and lowers the drill unit.

Looking down into the hole.

E, one of the lead drillers, smiling out the control room. I have never seen her so happy. The drillers have come to WAIS for many seasons and for them it’s a swell of relief and bliss to have the main borehole project complete, but another hole has to be dug in the near future eh? ;)

Rad Jayred (whose name is all out of the outhouses) touching the last core for the very first time.

Half the camp came to witness.

Once it is pulled all the way up the core is laid down horizontally on a platform where the casings/cores are split into sections.

A bit of water from the drilling friction pours out.

Two clamps drop down and grasp the encased cores.

The drillers load the canyon. They use a fancy broom handle to push the ice out of the casing and through a hole in the wall where it enters the Arch freezer.

The freezer.

Freezer temp. is held at -10 F.

When the core comes out of the hole in the wall it is handled like an egg.

It is measured.

Lining up the breaks.

Pencil markings mark the measurements.

This is what an ice core looks like without any influence from volcanic activity 10s of thousands of years ago.

And this is what an ice core looks like with volcanic ash. The yellowish-brown layers are volcanic ash layers. One inch of core length is roughly one year. The three big ash layers are separated one year apart and the likely cause of such is not a 3-yr exploding volcano, but seasonal drifting that happens the same each year.

Well, that’s the most science I will gather from WAIS Divide. One month left to go and after two months my Antarctic home has become a real snow castle.

We have another week left of easy times then we have to start the take out of WAIS. Science will trickle out and the carpenters will come back to camp to take down what they put up. Work is steady, life is good, and I’m getting my rest, preparing for what’s next.

For New Years Eve Russ and I pulled something out of our arses and made a feast. Quick and easy, like this sand cake my Aunt Mollie taught me. The Joy of Cooking Cookbook she gave me for 2006 Christmas has been something I’ve traveled the world with. I’ve made almost every recipe in that book.

Russ McRusty tweaking.

The sides.

The family table.

Later that night we did a toast and shortly after that the weather got nasty. We reached CON 2 and I volunteered to put up the emergency hand lines.

It was a lovely night.

Six of us separated into two teams. G, Storm and I took the Tent City hand lines… Twinkle Nuts, Lancealot and Augusto did the center camp lines.

Once the lines were put up we rendezvoused at the tower of power.

Then back to the party.

A few hours later I was up again to make pizza for brunch. A lovely roasted garlic pizza.

And Hawaiin pizza. Can’t wait for Hawaii! But, maybe the Amazon first? Hmm…

Three holidays executed in 6 weeks by a killer cooking crew. America’s deepest ice borehole drilled to near bedrock in Antarctica. May the peak of the summer and start of 2012 arrive in grandiose glory!

The photo above was taken by Sir August Allen in Dec. 2011. Thanks bro.

Happy Endless Day from WAIS 2012

2011-12-31T11:25:00.000-08:00

Photo by August Allen DEC 2011

The 2011 Solstice Feast

2011-12-27T07:52:00.001-08:00

Right before the summer solstice holiday weekend WAIS was hit, yet again, but another big blizzard that actually took down a tent or two.

Saturday morning, the day of the feast, the clouds began to part. WAISees stretched their muscles and minds for it was going to be a long, hard day of sunshine and shoveling topped with late night festivities.

Whether by machine or hand it is our duty to level the dunes around camp. It seems like half the job here is science; the other half is shoveling.

Reconstruction of the outdoor pee pyramid.

For lunch Chef Russ got behind the grill to burn up some burgers.

Considering that I had all my holiday feast prep finished I went ahead and began prepping for Sunday's brunch and Monday's breakfast. The rest of the camp may get the weekend off, but cooks never do. We work tirelessly and endlessly to pretty much make holidays what they are... a time to sit down together as a family and have a feast.

Cooks are the gluten in your bread, the cream in your coffee, the plate the fuels modern day civilization and it's research projects.

Skipping ahead a couple days... this is what I had planned for Monday's bfast.

Expanding waisbands? Don't blame me... I just cook the stuff... don't mean you have to eat it. But, it sure does taste good ;-)

Kho dee (Thai) = good island.

Most of the WAIS staff worked until 3 PM on Christmas Eve. After work, they put the newly groomed ski hill to use. South Pole has a giant ski hill in spring from all the summer camp dozing... Scott Base has their own private skill hill... we should do the Extreme Antarctic X Games sometime eh? Kite boarding, skiing, mountain climbing, snowmobile races, trick ski high jumps... it's all here waiting to be organized.

The g-unit galley.

A gingerbread representation of ^ I didn't make the houses, but I made the dough.

Once showerd and chilled a few goodfellas came to the kitchen to help out. "Cody, if I have to cut another carrot... " - Papa X-RAY.

"Oh, I love making sugar cookies!" - Dean.

"SUGAR!!!" - The dish girl.

Speaking of sugar, here's a candy platter Cait and I put together. Mint fudge, nutty peanut butter fudge balls, cashew brittle and Caitlin added her chocolatey peanut butter balls and apricots dipped in chocolate.

Time to get the show rolling. Oven on, flames high, knives flyin... let's do this!

Rendering the duck before finishing it in the oven and glazing it.

A mashed potato, beet and mushroom medley.

Russ'el's beef wellington.

Peach's langosta.

The apps. Baked brie, crostinis, pate platter, caramelized onion and goat cheese tarts, fruit cups, calamari with garlic aioli and a big bowl of grapes.

Salads and bread.

The meat line. Beef wellington, maple glazed duck and lobster. Aside to the mashed tators we also had roasted root veggies, braised cabbage, cranberry stuffing, a raspberry duck sauce, cranberry sauce and turkey gravy.

Pre-dinner toast.

"Yum." - Psycho

One of the newly arrived core handlers brought in 120,000 year old ice cores from a nearby glacier that were later constructed into drinking glasses.

Can't tell if it's the pink lemonade or mammoth sweat I'm tasting. Did I just drink ancient history?

This guy.

We played the white elephant gift ceremony. Everyone picks a number, start with 1 and move up, when your # comes up you can choose to steal an already opened present or open a wrapped one. Best to be a later number. I got a bottle of red wine by randomly picking a wrapped package. I don't like red wine, but I will cook with it. Should have stole the little stuffed penguin for my sister that someone had already opened.

Next day, Sunday, I put brunch out then went to tent city to do some serious digging. Looks like the weather is going to be sunny and 85 F (more like 35 F, but feels like 85 F) over the next week. Before another storm hits, I need to re-examine and re-engineer the architecture of my tent wall system. See, the deal is this, I built a giant wall but it is about 6-feet away from my tent. This leaves a 6-foot wide by 8-feet high/deep cavity that fills with snow and since it can't blow anywhere once trapped inside the wall it fills vertically putting more tension on the less supported parts of my tent. The experiment I'm working on now is to create a snow terrace, made up of 3 or more trenches and hopefully that will allow for the snow to fill in before it reaches the core. Somewhat like the inverse of a rice terrace that distributes rain down. I want to distribute snow up and out before it reaches my tent and the big tent wall around it. If only I built an igloo from day 1...

Shoveling the staircase to the watchtower.

One of the 3 outside terraced trenches completed.

At the watchtower awaiting another CON 1. Bring it on.

Preparation for a White Christmas

2011-12-21T07:47:00.000-08:00

The summer solstice was yesterday and that marks the halfway point of Antarctica's summer science operations. Early this week we completed all the scheduled logging projects in the 3300 m borehole. That was part 1. The second phase of ice research at WAIS is to dig deeper. Soon scientists will know exactly how much ice lies between the bottom of the borehole and the top of the underground surface. Pinging the rock bottom below the ice is not so easy because the bedrock has been eroded to a fine size. This makes it's hard for a sonar (aka fancy fish finder) to differentiate between fine rock and fine ice. The sand and ice at the ~3500 m bottom are roughly the same shape and size. I think that if there is any life down there it would be microscopic if living, otherwise frozen and fossilized.

Ontop the ice human life is peachy. The food is good, scientists successful, knarley weather and machines are breaking. When the generator goes out, whether by mechanical error or because dynamite is being blown for the purpose sonic ice science, I resort to nothing but propane fire and melted ice because there is no electricity. This rarely happens, but when it does I enjoy every minute of the quiet early mornin cookin session. Make do with what ya got.

Here's PB (Piston Bully) getting it's internals examined.

Inside the MECH shop where...

the mechanics fix anything.

I see every person at camp at least twice every day in the galley. By observing and listening during meal times I get the big picture of what's going on at camp. There is no privacy in the galley. If a researcher wants to discuss how the anti-freeze liquid convection currents within the borehole is causing error with ice temp. logging by depth then he/she will do so and those eating with ears open nearby will be enligthened. Likewise, when the three cooks start talking about their most embarassing times in high school during lunch, all are free to listen. Who needs TV when you have you?

While taking a leak outside in 10 knots and clouding skies I noticed some peculiar uniformly stacked white boxes with bright tags on them. They are ice core boxes. Soon to be filled and shipped by freezer plane and truck to Denver. Next to arrive at WAIS from McMurdo (and probably Denver) are the core handlers.

The ARCH drill was installed today and tomorrow the drillers should get their first ice core for the 2011-2012 season. There won't be much drilling this time around. The drillers are looking to get a couple hundred meters deeper.

On the weather channel, Kat says a big storm is coming. YES! This year has been so stormy that one of the weather gals is nicknamed 'Storm'.

The blue outlines around the green blobs indicate stormy times.

Wind picks up. Heaters roaring to keep our machines and bodies warm and in action.

At 2 AM I began work. The windows are frosting, handsoap frozen, and the galley tent is starting to shake with snow blowing in through all cracks. Folks usually don't stream in until 6 AM, so I have hours to myself to watch the storm rise and the weather board reads that it should be getting bad around 5 AM.

I throw down; my breakfast/baking table is set and I have a large list of XMAS goods to produce in 5 days.

The day before, Sunday brunch at 7 AM was this...

and on Monday I planned a steaming hot wake-up-in-yo-tent-snowed-in blizzard breakfast.

Pizza quiche.

Russ made it in after a bit of shoveling and started flippin pizzas.

Fish was fryin.

Steaming beets getting sliced. Lunch is always a party.

While he was doin his thang I was tweakin with the bread mixer getting gingerbread together for gingerbread 'house' making. Where did this gingerbread house building custom come from? Hansel and Gretel? I was going to say that it's odd to create a house and then eat it, but then again kids eat gummy worms and gummy cars and gummy monsters and bubble gum measuring tapes, so nevermind. I don't think many people eat their gingerbread houses, but an odd tradition especially since derived from the German Grimm Brothers fairy tales.

The kitchen asked the camp what they would like for the holiday dinner. Don the Science Don asked for pumpkin pie. No problem man, my favourite.

I lost track of the progession of time of when these were baked, but it all, including the pics above, went down on Monday and Tuesday. Toasted hazelnut and apple crisp pie.

Upside down cranberry cake. Since we're near the south pole, might as well as call it downside up cranberry cake.

Dougnuts.

A typical Christmas morning dried fruit and nut bread. Kuglof or something like that. Needs to be iced and sugared.

Homemade hambuger buns for today's (Thursday) hamburgers.

Smore cake. Completely made this one up,

because I found cases and cases of chocolate :)

The bakery central.

Like anywhere else on Earth we need fresh water, especially for the kitchen. All day and night, night and day, people stroll to the back of the kitchen to shovel a bucket of snow and dump it into the melter. Today I helped dump in 22 buckets. On Tuesday the blizzard was peaking and the kitchen turned into a steam room with all the melting going on. Not a bad thing really.

When I saw drifts forming near the dining tables I thought about my little yellow tent and the giant snow wall around it. Is it surving?

Dishes.

Hand lines were hung outside to help us navigate between the tents and outhouses.

Doorways were swallowed and required routine shoveling.

Looking towards the galley at 40 knots with hard hitting, wet snow.

The COMMS shack.

Our micro weather station.

In the movie Forrest Gump there's a moment when Hank is in Vietnam jungle and talks about how the rain comes from every which way in all different forms. Well, during the last three days I've seen quarter-sized giant wet flakes from BYRD that soaks you in seconds, microscopic burning ice from the west that freezes the skin easily, light fluffy snow lifting from the ground and snow that falls from the sky like frozen bullets straight to the face. There's only one thing to do, retreat back to the kitchen.

The Invasion(s)

2011-12-14T07:59:00.000-08:00

Week 6 for me at WAIS Divide and 100 years ago the Norwegians reached the South Pole for the first time. The PM of Norway Jens Stotlenberg visited the Scott-Amundsen South Pole Station on Wed. to celebrate. Here’s a link to another Antarctica blog that mentions the importance of the date: http://antarcticablog.blogspot.com/2011/12/this-week-in-antarctica-100-years-of.html. Further down in the article you will read about the giant crack at the Pine Island Glacier iceshelf and that is where the PIG traverse team is heading, which you’ll see soon. A few days ago a LC-130 attempted to land at PIG, but could not find the runway, therefore boomeranged, and the PIG traverse has yet to arrive. PIG camp is a big unknown right now. Where’s the crack? Where’s the runway? What’s going on over there?

As for WAIS camp, some days it feels like a Panamanian island resort high season, lots of action and warmth and pictures of palm trees drawn on the interior of the outhouses. Other days it's really chill and not much shaking. Christmas weekend will be our last big feast and a week after that we start discussing redeployment. Where to journey once I get off the Ice? New Zealand? Hawaii?

Before thinking too far ahead here's a synopsis of our week at WAIS. Every morning we review our flight schedule and because of weather, mechanical issues, staff limitations, etc., only about half our flights have been coming through. Despite the scheduled LC-130 flights (skier) missions being delayed we saw an influx of outsiders from BYRD, PIG traverse and elsewhere, like, how did these flamingos get here?

Last week's big storm birthed monster drifts all around and some tents were lucky since the drifts developed nicely around them. My tent was nearly swallowed up with snow as shown in the last post. Not so lucky, but fun to shovel? Yes, indeed. Sweat and snow.

I created a large snow wall around my abode to keep out the snow and so far it works. Only been sunshine and 30 F since I built it, but hey, sooner or later a CON 2 or CON 1 will roll through western Antarctica.

To the Arctic Tent master plan I added a staircase that leads to the top of the drift outside the front door...

and a side tunnel leading into the back of the tent.

Priceless.

Off work, I was shoveling and others were marshalling planes.

The pic below shows a group of scientists waiting to board and fly away back to MacTown. Some researchers are here for a month, others only for days. We also have a temporary crew that flies in from MacTown to help with janitorial and dining attendant services. They rotate every couple weeks. In addition to that, carpenters come in at the beginning and end of the season to put up and take down our camp. We also have a couple third shift dozers that rotate in-and-out depending on our snow removal needs. Since we're in the heart of the season the staff at WAIS is somewhat on cruise control, but things are always changing and that means we gotta always be on our bunny boots. WAIS in flux.

The galley makes cookies for all the pilots and I'm not sure if they actually make it to the plane.

The WAIS cargo team ready to pick up the bounty.

And this is how you get 1000s of gallons of AN8 plane gas from an LC-130. WAIS operates as a thriving gas station... planes bring in gas that's stored in fuel bladders and with that we fuel up planes when needed.

Papa X-Ray examining our fuel bladders.

Sir Dean and the bosses discussing the gas plan I presume. A shout out to Dean's mom... Dean says Hello and Happy Holidays from WAIS. It's been a great season with a great team and WAIS rocks this ice sheet.

The cargo unload.

Science has picked up in the last week. For weeks they (drillers, the Don, grantees and their assistants) have been in the Arch dropping loggers in the borehole and gathering data. They do everything from measuring a 3000 meter cable with a measuring tape by hand (it took 2 days) to blowing up and dismantling bombs outside our camp. Science is only human. The tools break, like the hot water ice drill below. The days are long and tiresome. The weather is nasty at times. But, they get it done and are excited every morning to proceed with their projects.

After a day's work they got the drill working and next thing I see is them out there a few hundred yards from tent using it for a project.

Scientists come and go. Food is brought in and eaten. Equipment is broken and parts are flown in. Janos rotate. WAIS in flux. Today we have five flights supposed to arrive. We're as much of an airport as we are anything else.

A bike ride from the camp to the Arch. The way I see it... less friction means more exercise.

One day after breakfast there was a call on the radio that the Piggies have arrived. Oink what? I went outside and met a convoy of tractors and sleds. They came from BYRD and we're working their way at 6 MPH to the Pine Island Glacier (PIG) camp. They are carrying with them science equipment, tons of fuel, tents, snowmobiles, dozers... pretty much a field camp on 5 long sleds pulled by tractors.

This is their mine detector. Haha, not really, I'm not sure what it's for... maybe to detect the PIG crack?

They came in for a night, ate breakfast and then went back on the road although I don't think there are any roads on the west Antarctic ice sheet. Adios Piggies.

Next morning I found a box in the fridge from the girlys at BYRD. The PIG traverse team carried it with them for that 100 or so miles. Thanks all. The grub was good and eaten well.

Ah, what to cook at 3 AM. Lemon poppy seed muffins sound good.

As do blueberry.

I found this recipe in a book and reproduced using homemade multi-grain bread. All you do is toast one side of the slice and lather the other side with cream cheese and bananas. Drizzle the bananas with honey and pop on the broiler rack for a couple minutes. Top with nuts.

Rustic blueberry baked ‘French’ toast.

Monster bacon breakfast burrito. MB3. The MB3C is with chorizo. Sorry, watched Star Wars the night before.

Tomato and onion tarte.

Blueberry and raspberry crisp pie. Can you tell that I found a frozen box blueberries in our cave? Blueberries all up n dis joint!

Sunday cheese platter.

The cold side of breakfast. Cheeses, candied apricots, applesauce, berries, nuts, dried fruits, hazelnut granola, tropical trail mix, cottage cheese and yogurt.

Bread time. A dried fruit and seed bread.

Dates, cranberries, apricots, bing cherries, raisins, currants, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds and flax seeds.

Banana nut loaf.

Failure. Not, bread pudding... bread crumbs... egg casserole...

Do not eat.

When yo tomato paste hosts a world of frozen micro-organisms throw it out and write a song called 'Frozen WAISland'.

Get some sun n play some frisbee golf.

Prep for the holidays.

Walked into the work one morning with maple leaves glued to the windows... smelled like Canada.

And what do you know... there was a Canadian KBA plane outside. 11 BYRDies got redirected to WAIS because their camp got whitedout when on a 3-hour science mission. 11 mo peeps for bfast, no problemo.

So there you have it... planes, tractor trains and Canadamobiles. Peace outtie till next week.

Snowed in at WAIS again

2011-12-07T11:00:00.000-08:00

Surrounding WAIS Divide is a frozen sea, but a frozen community we are not. The whiteness of the landscape reflects the solar rays allowing for a full 360 facial impact that results in red faces and pasty white bodies. When the storm breaks, the sun is warm and welcoming. We celebrate through exciting labour. May light radiate from above and within. As I told my mother the other day on the phone, before I go to sleep I eat beef jerky and a few candy bars to keep me warm throughout the night. Calories in the body produce thermal energy. Sometimes I wake at midnight in blinding daylight sweating and thus shed my covers. I watch my breath, feel the chill and kick a bit at the snow against my tent wall that my feet rest on. Soon I fall back into a deep slumber only to wake at 2:30 AM for work.

Four days ago the clouds lifted and I woke up to clarity. Inside and outside. The dreamwork that occurs down here is powerful. I sometimes attribute the powerful dreaming to the silence of Antarctica. I often dream about what and how I'm going to cook the following day. Those dreams become real and tasty. When the other cooks come in we all spell out what's in our heads and we're all, oddly, on the exact same page with the exact same ideas. This morning I was thinking that Chef Russ was going to come into work early. Sure enough he did come in 2 hours early. Anyways, back to what I was going to say, on Monday I could see for miles and when I got out of my tent I could see the generators and Arch crystal clear. The Arch is where the borehole is and where researchers drop in their loggers to record specific measurements... i.e., temperature, light and sound waves at various depths. In the pic below, the Arch is to the right and the two generator mods to the left.

Our power station that creates electricity, which powers our outside communications and this blog.

Here's our sat phone desk. Whenever the sky is clear and E.T. is calling home... this is where I be sitting.

The sat phone desk is in the wash mod and rec tent.

Inside the wash mod there is a giant water tank, water heater, two showers, two sinks, a washer and dryer and bunch of cubbies for us to store our stuff.

Before I depart the kitchen I make a pass through the wash mod as to complete my work day, then I trek to Tent City for sleep. Here's my print on the door to the wash mod. Ice is an interesting element to be surrounded by and view through a lense. Ice grows on your beard, freezes your eyelids together, hides beneath your bed, creates sun dogs in the sky and like mold in the tropics it tends to grow outside on everything that is warm and moist. It's everywhere at WAIS. I guess this is why many refer to Antarctica as the Ice.

I've shown pictures of the sun halos and dogs in the sky, but never explained how they form. I found this printed document in the galley and it explains the ice crystals interaction with sunlight: www.eos.ubc.ca/home/alumni/2011-Alumni%20Newsletter.pdf

Thank you to whoever put it there. Go to the link above for the sun dog scientific explaintion.

In through one door, out the other. A la cocina.

We keep plenty of food in the freezer cave to cook and eat happily, but now with more flights coming in the kitchen has much larger collection of food items stored in tri-walls and comparments around camp. After the last big storm our candy aisle was depleted and I decided to restock it. I grabbed a sled and headed out to the big red box and dried food tri-walls.

While pulling back to the kitchen someone asked me if I was heading to my tent with all the candy. No, I take better stuff to my tent.

The insides of cinnamon raisin and pecan sticky buns.

I'm saving this bad boy for Sunday's brunch. It's a sticky bun that weighs about 15 lbs., sits ontop a full sheet tray and the only challenge will be to invert it onto a platter in one piece.

White chocolate macademia monster cookies.

Hazelnut cookies.

Some day's breakfast line. Grilled hash, spinach and feta scramble, steak, sausage patties, french toast, maple bacon with mozo and blue cornmeal muffins, yogurt and a bunch of nuts and dried fruit. Side note: today I engineered an phyllo egg lasagna with phyllo, cooked eggs, pizza sauce, garlic white sauce and asiago cheese.

Another day. Scrambled eggs, duck fat seared sausage links, home fried kumara and potatoes, vanilla bread pudding, hard boiled eggs, cranberry muffins, apple quick bread with apple butter, and the last fresh apples and grapes we have until next freshy flight.

On Saturdays I work double fast and make a bunch of goods for Sunday morning. Cheese platter with fresh New Zealand cheeses, only the best of the best.

When in Panama last year I was the Chef at Hibiscus Garden Hotel for the Pacific high season and watched the German owners of the surfing school make their traditional homebread. I never wrote down the recipe but I remembered the process (at 85 deg F and high humidity with stone raw grains from the local farmers of Santa Catalina, Panama) and the ingredients. I recreated it with what seeds and nuts we have in our Antarctic camp kitchen and made this rustic country bread. It's packed with all the fiber, protein and carbs a WAISee needs to get the job done.

The foundation to something amazing.

I started with the Joy of Cooking's 'Danish wreath' recipe and tweaked the filling with apricots, apples, strawberries and silvered almonds reduced in strawberry and mandarin juice. Although it doesn't look uniform (why should it?) it was delish and the homemade sweet croissant dough wrapped around the filling was well worth all the work put into it.

I call it the Cody Poptart.

This my brothers and sisters is something for the gods and goddesses. A melt in your mouth 5-chocolate mocha cheesecake made with chocolates around the world, hinted with kahlua and espresso.

A couple weeks ago I watched a cargo onload to a LC-130 and I asked Dean, our station manager, if that was our food waste. He said something like, "There is no waste at WAIS." So today, when he mentioned that there are too many options for breakfast I said, "We don't waste waist bands at WAIS." We recycle all our goods at WAIS and have a variety of bins to separate our waste into. They should have a bin labeled 'diet'.

Before storm #3.

Russ recieved a package not to long ago from a continent far far away and for days he talked about the shofar that was brought to him. To breathe into the antler is part of his Jewish roots and a way to communicate his faith. To my knowledge, this is this first time a shofar has been used in Antarctica. We went outside and I listened to his call for pathways as the wind started to howl. Let it be said that when the sun dogs shine a storm is on the horizon, and we are, the riders on the storm. In search of a way he was and a way was brought to him yesterday, Palmer for winter eh? Seek and ye shall find.

Steph was out back checking the weather station.

A drop in pressure and rise in temperature meant the storm was beginning it's pass through camp. I grabbed my hand warmers and jerky and went to my tent.

Just by opening my tent door and crawling in I created a blizzard inside the Arctic oven. Not wanting to get too wet with melting snow before bed I told myself that I wouldn't leave the tent until I absolutely had to for work the following morning.

Next morning. A 4-foot snow wall at my gate and I had to dig myself out. Words don't describe the act of zipping your door down a bit to have a pile of snow, the softest snow I've ever felt, fall on your lap. Commonsense told me that if I zipped any further an avalanche may occor. Solution > zip a little and punch. Punch and kick until you get a foot of snow off the top of the wall.

With a small gap at the top I was able to place my camera out the door and film as I wiggled out the hole. I think I was born again. I had my big red on and that made things no more easy. After a couple minutes of wiggling and kicking I popped out onto a giant snow drift in 30 knot winds and whiteout. I turned around, reached in to grab my backpack and told myself I'd come back later to dig out the wall.

During break I went out into the storm to dig away the wall, which was now above my tent. If the snow builds up too much it will cause your tent to cave in, just as my Auntee Ann inquired about, and I think mine was almost there.

I got it dug down to where I could at least get in and have 6 or so hours before the door would be covered again.

Back to the kitchen to warm up in a CON 1.

Yesterday I woke to sunshine and once again, a giant snow wall at my door. That's it. Today is the day to dig deep and hard. All around station dozers and WAISees shoveled.

I took off work early to do some intense snow fort remodeling. I thought things over and drew the blueprints (do they still use those?). Mine were drawn in snow, so I guess it doesn't really matter now does it?. The only way I could fix the drifting problem was to build a giant snow wall, about 15 ft. in diameter around my tent and angle the walls in such a way as to divert the snow above and around. I'm working on an arrow-shaped drift at the windward face of the wall facing where the strongest wind comes from. Like my heart and soul, my shelter needs to be an arrow through wind and ice. Hours upon hours of digging are needed.

This is only the start of it. During the recent two-day CON CAN'T SEE strong-winded and big-drift buildling snow storm my tent was buried beneath a snow drift that stands 6- to 7-feet tall above ice level. After watching the snow blow like rivers across the ice and build on the leeward side of my tent I calculated that if I built the wall 5-feet out on the windward side at about 8-feet above ice level I would have adequate protection against blowing snow and drifting. As I was constructing the wall I could see the aerodynamics of the tent microenvironment change and snow was being redirected way off to the sides and above my tent. Success. I'm sorry if I'm boring you, but put a chef in a tent, an 'Arctic Oven' tent to say the least, on a 1000-mile wide ice sheet within three huge storms in the first month of living there and he will find a way to not wake up snowed-in when there's fresh coffee to be brewed for the early morning scientists. With that said, time for lunch and back to shoveling. Stay warm. Peace.

Week 2 at WAIS

2011-12-03T11:35:00.000-08:00

Early in the morning on November 18th we had our morning meeting and the camp manager said that the CON 2 blizzard is strengthening and looking more like a CON 1 blizzard. CON 1 is the worst. Zero visibility and strong winds. Normally CON 1 storms are also accompanied by super cold temps. but at WAIS the low pressure, windy storms bring in moisture from the sea.

The camp was advised to take note of where everything and everyone is and to not wander outside of the four large community tent facilities unless the weather conditions improved to where you could at least see a tent 20 yards in front of you.

After our meeting a team went outside and installed the emergency guide lines that connected the four main tents with the outhouses and Tent City.

When the visibility got better I trekked to my tent to see how it was holding up. Below is a pic of me at my front door. It's not a big deal shoveling out my front door from the outside every couple hours but it is a challenge to not bring the snow in with you. I sometimes wake up to this and don't have a shovel inside my tent, so I have to kick and use my hands to create a small tunnel to the outside. An avalanche always happens and litters my floor with snow. One technique I've developed to keep my bed and clothes dry is to cover them up with sheets each time I leave so that it's easy to remove the inside drifts.

Back at camp folks were keeping entertained.

The Chief tent provided a refuge for the carp crew.

Some were nestled up on the floor near the heaters in the Rec tent.

Some watched movies. Other knitted and read books. I baked some bread.

A few days later the CON 1 lifted and it was neat to see how the camp can get buried in such a short time. One can only imagine what it looked like when the first put-in team came to after camp had been dormant over winter.

The dozer crew geared up, jumped on their horses and began pushing out the drifts.

One big addition to camp was that Papa X-RAY got the big generators rolling meaning that we no longer had to rely on the small power stations on skis. Here's the galley gene getting moved.

In the kitchen...

I started cooking on my second day at WAIS and in just a few days I adapted to my new work environment. Years ago it would take me several weeks to be able to start pumping out truffles and delish breads, but habitual practice has all the recipes engrained in my brain. I'm pretty confident that you could drop me into any kitchen on Earth (or space), at any altitude and temperature, with whatever ingredients, and be able to churn up something tasty. As one Chef put it... my motto should be, "Have knife will cook." Cinnamon rolls packed with raisins and pecans, before topped with cream cheese frosting.

A crackuccino (reduced 2 large pots of coffee to 1/2 cup + heavy cream and vanilla) chocolate torte.

Strawberry and rhubarb that I made for turkey day.

Some of the pies that community made for the holiday.

One morning I saw that there leftover BBQ ribs and grits. I made a quick BBQ sauce, loaded a cast iron with puff and butter, then filled it with grits and the pulled rib meat. Engineered first here at WAIS. Fat belly mama BBQ rib and grit cast iron pie.

I had some leftover bread dough from my white loaves and created this zirgot snake bread. I filled the dough with gouda, chopped nuts and fresh strawberry jam. Rolled it, stretched it and wound it up to form a spiral.

By request from a Toolikan I worked with in the summer at Toolik... caramelized teriyaki salmon with candied walnuts, apples, pears and fresh basil.

White loaves.

Getting kinda crazy here... sugar being brought up to 300 F to create cashew brittle.

I have learned the ways of sugar at high temps through experimentation at Pole and can pretty much make any candy that you would pick up at a 7/11. If I could own any restaurant I would start up a bakery-candy-coffee shop in a tropical place and buy all my grains, sugars and coffee beans from local farmers.

One morning I walked in to a fridge loaded with freshies. A week later the 750 lbs. of freshies were gone.

We still have 20 lbs. of ginger. Big Chef Dave in CO... how'd you do your ginger ale at Camargo?

Another morning I walked in to this note. At Toolik I used to get little love letters from the science girls, but this one, I dunno what to think. "crazy a$$ chocolate lined filament... tied to a line of high steppin cabaret legs...". WTF dude.

Random shot of cocoa powder on the floor.

Russ basting the turkey day turkey. I don't view Thanksgiving as a holiday to celebrate pilgrims and the way they treated the Native Americans... I view the holiday as a means to give thanks to all the food, farmers, earth, fire, wind and water that goes into cooking. I had tons of pics from turkey day, but lost them all when transferring them from my camera to my netbook. Oh well, I had a couple from the after party and you can see that we were all having a great time.

The day after turkey day I decided to go hike out to the skiway. Most use skidoos to get around, but with 24 hours of downtime I'm going to use my 'high steppin cabaret legs' tied to big blue boots.

This is what WAIS looks like from a 1/2 mile away.

The skiway.

Papa X-RAY was out there kitesurfing with a snowboard.

At the start of last week the researchers arrived and some of the temporary put-in crew departed. The first thing we did was put up the rest of the tents in Tent City.

Here's the comm crew installing the satellite internet system.

While comms took over the communication module WAIS management had to temporarily relocate their operations to the galley. Boss Jon on the phone with MacTown.

Like every day, when my work is done I meander out to my tent in Tent City at 4 PM to catch some Zs.

This post brings us up to late November.

Week One at WAIS

2011-11-30T13:01:00.000-08:00

Let me now tell you the WAISide Story of 2011 through the eyes of a chef. I've been living in a frozen ice dessert for 20 days and it feels like I'm camping on Pluto. The chilly air and flat white ice is reminscent of my South Pole winter journey in 2010, but this experience is without a station and even further away from McMurdo and the rest of civilization. Our food is flown in frozen on LC-130s from the warehouses of McMurdo. Energy in = energy out. Food to human energy to the creation of WAIS to the pursuit of science to human waste, that my friends, is a poop shoot down the ice that is GPSed to X mark the spot for future reference. Same mind that creates just a different species of borehole, or ob tube, if you're catching my drift. Internet has been established but tis only a 56K iridium system connected to a GOES satellite meaning we only get net for 6 hours a day and it's super slow. Compliments to USAP for developing a mobile satellite server in a box for the field camps. Without this technology, I would have in fact been a blogger MIA for four months.

I spend my life here in a kitchen feeding the WAIS community and playing with the fundamentals of life... fire, water and food. I am currently focusing on the art of baking and have molecular gastronomy ingredients arriving with each cargo box. Gastronomy = science. I am in fact a scientist with a passion for art, or maybe I'm an artist with a curiosity to know more. Go deeper, go molecular. Baking is a science and I collaborate with scientists. I feed science with sugar, butter, flour, etc. It all comes down to food (and H20 and solar radiation) really. If the food is poor, the morale dips and work is not as expected, but if the food is good, smiles radiate and all are happy to get out in the field to do work and return to the galley for food. Win win. A perfect pie can be sunshine in a snowstorm.

Nov. 10th 2011 at 8 AM I boarded Ivan the Terrabus and took a slow and long ride out to the Willy Field Ice Runway near McMurdo and boarded an LC-130 with 8 other WAISies.

The 1000 mile flight was conducted miles above the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Flat white ice and snow. If the sky is blanketed with stratus clouds it's hard to tell which way is up or down.

The flight is about three hours long. Enough time to begin digesting where in fact I am going, no man's land.

When I got off the plane it was a warm -20 F and was greeted by the put-in crew and a skidoo. We all jumped on a sled behind the skidoo with our carry-on bags and went to warm shelter.

In the distance was a snow berm of tri-walls, a few modules and tents, and some machinery.

My first and perhaps final stop was at the galley module. The snow drifts were still being dug out around it and all that was hooked up to it was a few tanks of propane a small generator on skis to produce electricity for the radio and the ice melter.

I got off the sled and walked into lunch to meet Chef Russe'l Freeman. A smiley felllar he is. He tells me that he does not believe in calling folks teachers or fathers, because those names are reserved for the almighty one above, but whatever one's belief may be, I will learn from this dude, dude.

Grub was a soup and some pre-fab pastries. Nothing too exciting but energy nonetheless.

Since the galley tent wasn't put together yet the 15-person crew ate and mingled inside the kitchen. For the put-in team, the kitchen was also reserved as a place to pitch a cot and sleeping bag next to the oven overnight.

Looking outside a frosted window from inside the kitchen. Home sweet home.

When we were grocery shopping at McMurdo last month I stocked up on boxes of power bars, candy and beef jerky and boy did that box come handy. Thank you Chef Laura B. in the Arctic for giving me the heads up ;-) During the super chilly nights nothing heats you up more better than some chocolates.

Here's the little diesel generator that was hooked up to the kitchen.

Here's where we get our fresh snow to put into the ice melter to make fresh drinking water.

The ice melter, filtration system and storage tank.

Here's Russ and Rosey getting a few boxes of meat from the frozen foods cargo box that was brought in on my flight. I'm guessing that we will fly in 20,000 lbs. of food this year to WAIS. I don't want to guess how many lbs. we drop down our 'ob tubes'.

One of our freezers at the door to kitchen.

Our big freezer cave is 200 feet from the kitchen and dug 10 feet deep into the surface of WAIS. We keep all the frozen meats, fish, veggies, pre-fab pastas and breads down there. Every couple days we get some wind action that builds a drift outside the door which we gotta dig out by shovel. During Condtition 1 blizzards the door is so burried that the only way we can get to it is to call in one of the dozers.

The back of the freezer cave being cut deeper for more storage room.

Dig door out with shovel, haul food with sled, cook with fire.

A few days after I arrived the carp team began assembling the galley tent.

First, a heavy duty steal frame.

Then the overhang.

For days we cooked, ate and some slept in the same very tight spot. But, one day, Chef came out and said "tear down this wall." There were a few knocks on the other side and then there it went. The WAIS galley was born.

In went the tables and a fridge. We're moving on up.

Next day it was my time to shine at lunch.

Welcome to the OWAISIS.

No better place to hang my beach towel from Panama than right next to the kitchen.

That night I made a pumpkin and pecan tart from scratch. The jaws dropped and chewed and I was in business. Ba'am! And this was two weeks before turkey day.

With the galley and kitchen in tune WAISies could no longer sleep next to the oven. I was getting up at 5 AM to get coffee going and making a ruckus with the oven. A few lucky folks pitched tent in the shower module next store to the galley, they were allowed to stay since the showers weren't up yet. I went 14 days without a shower and that's no big deal.

There were a couple other crash pads for WAISies then.

Even with the chance to sleep next to a heater or stove in a room with a bunch of other stinky people I chose to move right into my tent on day one. If I gotta do it I'm do it, because the sooner I do it the sooner I get acclimated to it. Tent City here I come.

I put my tent up in the last row of Tent City just so that when I wake up and zip out my door I walk into a flat world of nothing but white ice.

Inside my tent it hovers around 15 F. When I first get in it's sometimes around 0 F and by the time I wake up it's around 30 F. That's my shelter. I'm typing right now on my netbook at 10 F in my Arctic oven and I wonder, at what temp. the computer freeze?

Here's our toilets. Holes in the ice.

Here's the yellow pee flag/hole.

Here's me at breakfast.

I helped put up a small country store near the kitchen so that the folks on 3rd shift cook their own instant hot meals.

A small look at what I've been making 4 breakfast. This here is what I call a Texas Skillet Grit Bake and I won't give you all the details put it involves jalapeno, onions, garlic, red peppers, butter, cream, grits and puff pastry. We have two cast iron skillets in the kitchen that I use every day.

A typical Antarctic ice bath made with snow.

A typical Kodi with a K Lee Production. That name popped up one Saturday night from someone and it stuck somehow, somewhere up there. A vanilla cheesecake.

The 8 AM station stretch.

The afternoon sundogs. Woof.

And of course, the blizzards. All those blizzards that I've experienced in the North are nothing in comparison to what I've seen on this continent. 8 ft. drifts in a night, sure. -60 F with the wind factor, sure. This is a harsh continent.

One afternoon we got an early flight in. I walked out of my tent and saw a Herc skiing down our runway. Cool. They were pushing as fast as they could to get the cargo off and back into the air seeing as a big storm was moving in.

The radio guy Skywalker talking with the pilots.

Off like Speedy Gonzalez they went 20 minutes later.

Thanks for the packages.

Machines started raving outside and it sounded like a war had started.

Gas tanks were filled and meetings revolved around what to do when the weather goes bad. Stay in and stay warm. In? Where? My tent? Yes. If the weather is so bad that you can't see two feet in front of you then you are advised to stay in your tent, live off your candy rations and pee in the pee bottle they give you at MacTown. Eventually a team of rescuers tied to lines will come to you and bring to the galley. That never happened, but I did one morning have to use my compass and flag line at 4 AM to navigate to the kitchen that was a couple hunded yards away in zero visibility.

Before the peak of the blizzard hit Russe'l and I ran to the freezer cave to stock up on frozen goods for as soon after we did the door was buried.

Even at the start of the start of the storm we had to do some digging.

Back in the galley... the winds were so strong that snow was blowing through every crack in the galley tent. Back home, in my little Arctic oven tent, I had left my ventilation flap open and snow filled the floor of my tent. It was quite the surprise on a such a chilly night and I could do nothing except crawl beneath my snow covered blankets and wake to sublimation. Thank goodness for sublimation.

Most kept to the galley and rec tent and sat near the heaters.

When not sleeping I stayed in the kitchen, which is the hottest room in every station and camp that I've worked at in the Poles. During the storm I was pulling 16 hour workdays as to not have to go out to my tent, but now, it's no big deal, I can take the cold.

Like I was saying before, a perfect pie (or cake) can be sunshine in a snowstorm. In fact, when I'm cooking I'm often thinking about the sun. The sun grew the corn, the corn became flour and I cook the flour into a tasty treat that warms the peoples of WAIS.

This was my first week at WAIS. The following week, Nov. 17-24, begins with the peak of the storm and goes through the turkey day weekend. To be continued.

Made it to WAIS

2011-11-26T11:20:00.000-08:00

The comms guys from MacTown created a connection to the GOES satellite above our heads meaning that we will have net for about 3 hours each day with very limited bandwith. Loving my job right now.

Last Post From McMurdo Station B4 WAIS

2011-11-08T23:08:00.000-08:00

It's official - I have bagdragged and am ready to go to WAIS Divide. All I have to do now is wake up at 7 AM and hop on a LC-130 and fly 1000 miles from here to our summer field camp. I have spent the last few days running around like not a chicken with it's head cut off but a chicken with two heads that doesn't know which way to go except further South since it can't go left or right and left is right, but right is the wrong way. Follow me? From the mountains of MacTown to flat white ice. South.

I arrived at McMurdo three weeks ago and volunteered in the galley, cargo, BFC, waste, IT and helped many field camps as well as taught boxing classes. I've riden on skidoos, tweaked GPS units, TCNed many tons of cargo to be flown out to field camps and the skuas have just arrived. I also have been pulling two other light jobs in the Arctic and piecing together a film project for next summer. You better believe it is going to be the bomb, because that's the only way I roll. I found a Chef down here that will assist me at a classified lodge in AK that will host the filming project. It feels like the continents just pulled into Pangea. Here's WAIS in Waste.

Here's WAIS heading to LBD to check out the long distance balloon projects for 2011 and taste what their eating out there.

At WAIS our galley dining area will look the place below, but without the NASA balloon guru giving a speech.

Fajita wednesday with cookies.

This will look very much like our kitchen and serving line, below.

Chef Natalie, a Sous at BYRD field camp and aspiring to go to Alaska after Antarctica's summer season and cook in the wild. If she survives the flat white ice she may very well be the co-star of an upcomming chef adventure TV series in AK.

So warm - 30 degrees. I could say something about me, but I ain't concerned about me. I'm just tryin to bring smiles to this world.

The OB tube.

Down the hole.

I heard seals and sang to them, but didn't see one.

I did a see bunch of neon underwater angels floating around though.

Only one way to go and that's up.

This is my last blog post until February 2012. If you get bored, start from the beginning and work your way through Antarctica, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Belize, Costa Rica, Alaska, Hawaii, Ohio, Thailand and Panama. It's been good and only gets better. Peace and love.

WAIS Divide Ice Core Website

2011-11-07T22:28:00.000-08:00

http://www.waisdivide.unh.edu/

There will be some scientific core updates uploaded to this site throughout the season. You won't hear much of anything from the staff, but recieved an email today saying that we are allowed 50 kb per any incomming/outgoing emails. Text only. Our internet will be 1/100th the speed of dial-up. Ouch. If you email my primary e-address at codyleemeyer@gmail.com it will get forwarded to my USAP field email address.

On the same note, if you would like to send a love letter or perhaps some fine chocolates for our crew you can hard mail me at:

Cody Meyer - NANA

WAIS Divide c/o McMurdo Station

PSC 469 BOX 700

APO AP 96599-1035

Remember, we are a crew of 15 lonley souls on flat white ice without TV, radio, internet, grocery stores, thunderstorms, nighttime, dogs, cats, rabbits and all of the like. Anything will be greatly appreciated and put to use. Just please don't send any animals, live plants, seeds or anything that will grow as they will be confiscated in New Zealand.

Whiteout Medical Training

2011-11-03T22:26:00.000-07:00

The condition 2 storm at McMurdo yesterday. Condition 2 blizzard = -40 deg F w/ wind chill, 40 mph winds, < 100 feet vis. and so on. Flights were halted for several days so the put-in WAIS crew never even made it to the ice runway. We're about a week behind with the put-in, but that's typical and well pre-planned. I will be flying out next Friday, give or take a couple days. Here are some photos of the blizzard...

Snow drifts.

The peak of the storm.

The 'yellow jackets' are the Aussies.

Once the storm was over I began my three days of field medical training. I am not a EMT or W-EMT or WFR, but I know a few tricks of the trade. The more you practice the more you learn ;) The most common health hazards I came across at South Pole were: altitude sickness, hypothermia, frost bite, dehydration, airborne toxins (CO2, glycol), slips, trips, falls, runover by big machines and getting toasty (loss of memory, focus, balance, sanity, etc. due to longterm low O2 levels in a remotely isolated environment with the same 47 people for 8 months). WAIS hazards are primarily hypothermia, CO2 (i.e., propane heater gas leaks) and getting running over by big machines. We are at ~5300 feet in altitude, so no biggy there and there's not a lot of landscape challenges besides strastrugi; no crevasses. We'll all be working in close proximity to the camp. No polar bears. Researchers and traverse teams may voyage far off into the flat white ice and we might therefore provide a support base camp for any SAR mission. The WAIS summer is short, sweet and sunny - no one has an excuse of going toasty there. Out of our current 15-person WAIS staff team, 5 peeps (including myself) are dedicated and well-trained medical hands. We're lucky to have a NP on board too.

Traction.

Splints and slings.

E-vac body brace.

Unraveling our backboard.

Oooh, how cute, a playboy bunny buckle on the backboard.

Half backboard and C-spine precautions.

There is no I in WAIS, there is only WAIS.

Oxygen is good to have,

But having a hyperbaric oxygen chamber is better. Depending on the situation. A side note, after doing vitals I found that my resting body temp. is 96.1 F degrees, which has always been the case for me in the polar environments. At South Pole I would wake at 94 F. I operate quite efficiently with Type 1 hypothermia. A few years ago a Doc told me that I belong to the race of 'cold cucumbers'.

The finale of today was a GPS refresher course. I learned how to establish a route of waypoints along the beaches and hiking trails of McMurdo and turn each waypoint icon into a picture of an elephant. I finished the class with a GPS map full of elephants and each time you got near one the unit beeped.

Whatever this is a diagram of do not go near. Danger.

The 2011 WAIS Team Group Pic

2011-10-31T11:33:00.000-07:00

There are a few other WAISiders that will be a part of this group.

Mucho love n peace my homies.

Discovery Hut for Halloween

2011-10-30T21:30:00.000-07:00

On Saturday McMurdo Station celebrated Halloween with a groovy fiesta in the big gym. Before all the festivities the WAIS team pulled together for one last team as a group before we separate and deploy at different times. We went to Discovery Hut, sometimes referred to as Scott's Hut at McMurdo Sound, to reflect on the spirit of explorers. We are explorers. My knife bag is mangled and slashed as much as the bloodied bed posts of the hut. My hands are as rough as theirs. We will fight the elements, we will glide on ice, we will carefully pass the time in contemplation of where it is we stand and why... why we stand where we do. < Something felt, not completely understood nor need to understand, just recognize.

The Final Push

2011-10-28T01:47:00.001-07:00

Our first flight to WAIS departs on Monday, if and only if nature allows. Before the put-in crew takes off we are finalizing our packing and taking part in many training courses. It's a relief to have the food pull done. This involved packing up 19 tri-walls (50" x 50" x 50") of frozen, do not freeze and dried goods. We banged that out in a day and I volunteered to type up the inventory just to know what we have in stock. Several locals have asked me if I ever work because they always see me running around and I laugh because they can't relate to what preparing a field camp is like. I'm a sous at WAIS, but I'm also taking on the rolls in the departments of cargo, recreation, transport, etc. before heading out.

Waking up in a crammed room in 155 with some grumpy Polies that were supposed to fly out over a week ago. The room reeks of stinky bunny boots and manmade methane.

I saw my name on the mail list and went to the post office where I picked up my box I shipped down from the Arctic. Holy duct tape.

Every morning our camp meets and we are always getting new toys and clothing. I've been given 6 extra pair of different cold weather work gloves, in addition two my 3 pair of personal and 3 ECW issued, and I think to myself... is WAIS really this extreme? Yes.

Then we all separate to pack or do whatever needs to be done. A couple days ago I picked up a mountain bikes for us. I am not sure if biking on flat white ice will work, but you never know unless you try. As a backup we could mount them on a stand and create exercise bikes.

Here's our fire training. Our fire team at WAIS is us.

How to hold, point and shoot fire extinguishers.

The big ones that we store near the air fields. Had to pull this one out of the snow. Darn drifts.

An hour later one of the dorms had smoking pouring out the door. Something to do with the boiler room. I asked if they need help, but they had it covered.

Next, sea ice survival refresher.

Success. Fire.

Success. Shelter.

Oooohhh it's a lovely day.

40 knot winds, -27 deg F, lovely.

Next, the mech shop. My new fav. shop. Ski doos, mini supertweaked 50 CC crotch rockets, solar panels...

Here's a heater that we will have at the camp. These heat the buildings and burn holes in the ice that we defecate in.

A species of generator that we'll be using. We need to know how to operate, refuel and fix. There is no I in WAIS, there is WAIS.

This is like 10% of our generator supply at Mac.

Tons of cool solar panels laying around. Science ops use these for things like communications and data loggers.

Nice to see one outside of SSC.

Another lovely, windy day.

Next, the food pull.

Easiest way to pack is to jump in.

Inventory.

Banding.

Labeling.

After work rock show at Gallager's with Chef Russ singing his heart and soul out on stage. We're rockstars.

Outside.

Back inside at the mech warehouse this morning. Snow machine training. The coolest training.

Studying the beast from the inside out.

Checking out how the belts work.

After we studied it we jumped into the back of a pick up and drove out to the ice.

We each got a machine. Primed it. Got her running. Let it run for a bit to warm up. Then went through an obstacle course. I passed, but got reprimanded for getting too much air.

For the finale we cruised about a 1/4 mile out, took a rest, then sped back at full speed to get a taste of how freezing and fricken awesome motorized skis can be.

Next, Halloween - the biggest party of the year in Antarctica.

WAIS Meteorogram

2011-10-25T18:43:00.000-07:00

Below is a graph of the meteorological data taken from the Kominko-Slade met. station, near WAIS, for Oct. 23-26. Currently -33 deg C and 15 mph winds.

ram can be found here: http://amrc.ssec.wisc.edu/data/view-data.php?action=view_image&product=surface/awsmeteorograms/21364.GIF

Source: Kominko-Slade, Space Science & Engineering Center, UW-Madison (Oct. 26 2011)

WAIS Preview

2011-10-25T11:14:00.000-07:00

A heads up as to where I'm going. The satellite pics were taken within the last two months and the last photo was taken by some WAISey in the past. Not sure who, but thanks, and thank you Sir Dean for delivering these pics to the WaisidE crew.

Tentatively, after our big food pull tomorrow and final snow machine training on Saturday, our first Basler should be heading 1000 miles westward to WAIS on Monday with a small crew. I'm supposed to fly in now on Friday on a LC-130/Herc with the bulk of our put-in goods.

A forewarning - as you can see from the pics below - internet in an ice dessert at the bottom of the world is essentialy impossible. We will have some text email and iridium satellite phone, but beyond that, there won't much, if any, regular net access until I leave in mid-February. This blog will be put on hold and I can be reached at codyleemeyer@gmail.com

WAIS Ice Breaker

2011-10-22T04:54:00.000-07:00

Seriously, penguins don't like it when you frown.

Today was another day of hauling around goods from warehouse to warehouse. At night, the WAIS crew got together at Hut 10 to celebrate with some munchies created by Rosemary, Russell and I - the imfamous WaisidE chef cartel. Here are a few shots of town from when I was transporting goods. Taking a picture gives me a second to remember exactly where I am. Totally ain't Kansas folks.

Here's the SSC building where we have our morning coffee and meetings.

After the meetings we all disperse and get to work. The majority of our tasks is training and packing. Lots of organizing. I've found quiet refuge in the library.

I was given the task this morning with the help of Russ and REC to locate and transport two guitars, a keyboard and a heavy boxing bag (!!!) to our WAIS cage for packing. Already, this summer at WAIS is looking good.

Desperado.

2-person deep field survival bags... might come handy, let's hope not.

The easiest way to compress tents (Arctic Ovens) is to lay on them. I love my job.

Once the boxes are packed and strapped they are hauled to the dock where a loader comes by and picks them up and drives them to cargo.

Then, Russ and I got rolling on the munchies for the WAIS party. Rosemary was off in the field doing her ice survival training. Chocolate-dipped strawberries seem to follow me everywhere I go. If you ever need to locate us just follow the trail of chocolate droppings...

This was my first time cooking with le Chef and I wanted to see what his flow was... with finesse, I dipped each strawberry into the molten chocolate and produced a minimal foot. When I turned my head I saw Russ geeking out with his hand covered in chocolate, dripping, and a strawberry in his fingers that had been drowned in goodness. Tubular. You know what, it doesn't really matter, the more chocolate the merrier.

Off to Hut 10.

Presidents, Prime Ministers, Princes, Princesses and Admirals have stayed in this hut (aka Eagles Nest Lodge).

Russell's bangin cheese platter.

Fruit.

Brushin the puff-wrapped brie for baked brie.

The Mac bakery was kind to donate some monkey bread.

The spread.

The start of the party. I ate half the monkey bread and mama, yours is better. No offense though to the bakery, just honesty.

Tonight is the last night the sun will set. Hola sol.

Music in the streets... must be a party.

WAISide Pack and Patch

2011-10-20T00:31:00.000-07:00

Enough about cookies, let's get packing. Supposedly we are supposed to depart around Nov. 2 to WAIS, but the way the weather works down here, we could be sticking around MacTown for quite some time.

Early morning meetings about who is who and who does what and what to do and what WAIS is all about. WAIS is all about the Westside of de Ice, boreholes, explosions and siesmic readings by loggers put into the borehole that record data representing deep ice structures. More about that next week.

After that, the WAIS team heads to a warehouse where we pick up our sleeping kits and pee bottles. I was happy to hear that we have 6 outhouses, a poo bag (or bottle) is no bueno.

We're given a cage to store our materials.

Before you issue your kit, you have to unpack it all and make sure it's doable.

Two Arctic sleeping bags, two foam sleeping pads, one thermarest, a fleece blanket, drinking bottle and pee bottle.

All crammed into a large duffle bag. It takes at least three people to zip it up.

Following our sleep kit packing fun we headed to the BFC where we tried on out our tents.

Inside the Berg Field Center are sleds, ice picks, shovels, tents, camp stoves, etc. Anything to do with the deep field ops. are in this building.

This guy on the wall died in the 1960's from a helo crash. It's a harsh continent. RIP.

Over the last 24 hours I've put together and taken down 5 tents and helped patch 4 of the snowflys.

Here's where we get the glue and patches to patch.

Mine had about 15 giant gashes at the bottom of the fly where someone shoveled a bit too hard. Reminded me of elementary art class, with Beyonce playing in the background...

We patch and glue, then let set overnight.

Back to the warehouse to visit the food store.

We divied up the shopping lists and loaded boxes full of food that must last us the first two weeks. After the first two weeks we will be getting regular LC-130 flights and plenty of resupply opportunities then, but for the first part we will have to operate light as it will take us sometime to get everything in place and built. For instance, to make freeze dried anything we will have to make water, which will mean we will need to shovel snow and turn on a generator. To turn a generator we will need to unload fuel from the plane and make sure the fuel lines are still intact. It will be cool if the generators work too. Furthermore, you need a sheltered kitchen, propane, utensils, maybe thawed ingredients, heat to keep chef hands warm and a bunch of other elements to kickstart a kitchen on flat white ice.

Gonna be some dried herbs till we get the good stuff.

The food store aisles.

This is what happens to mayo when it freezes. Look at how much oil is in mayo, mmm, check your heart.

And this is where I smiled, especially when the food store guardian said I could take as much as I wanted. Quality check? I think so.

This is the bulk of our two-week supply. Reminds me a lot of when I Cheffed for the UAF Geophysical Camp two years ago > http://www.antarcticcowboy.com/2009/06/shopping.html

The goods getting scanned then put into boxes. Then a donkey, aka me, hauls them down the steps to Russ-man where he organizes and packages them.

We write up labels for each box. The labels indicate what's inside, what are the dimensions of the box, how much it weighs, what camp it's going to and what type of plane it will be on.

All that ^ was the dry goods. Next, we go outside to the freezer where we pick up the two-week frozen food supply.

Here's Rose loading the boxes. Our crew is Russell, Rosemary and myself. Tonight at dinner we discussed who would we eat first in case of a worst case scenario. We all agreed that before we would ever come to that decision we would traverse one hundred miles to the BYRD camp and raid their food supply.

Once they got all the goods into boxes a donkey, aka me, hauled the boxes back inside to a tri-wall where the Rus-man organized and repacked them. Seeing a pattern here? Nice to not have the need to go to the gym to get those endorphines.

>>> WAISIDE <<< This is not a gang sign, this is a WAIS sign, homies.

Down to MacTown

2011-10-18T00:20:00.000-07:00

Here I go again, 3500 km south of Christchurch to McMurdo Station where I will spend the next two weeks packin, preppin and learnin about what WAIS is all about. Like all USAP Ice people we start at the USAP Clothing Distribution Centre (CDC).

You walk in, there's a bag with a tag and your name. Grab it and try the stuff on. If it fits you can leave for the first day. Next morning at umm 4:30 AM, return and really put it on.

All my new fancy clothing.

After we get dressed we grab breakfast at the tourist centre.

I decided to play instead.

Then we are hailed to the Ice terminal.

Countless times of packing and unpacking.

A little talk on what to expect over the next 5 hours.

A bus ride to the plane.

Are we taking the C-17?

Nope. The Airbus.

Several hours later the pilot says there's ice outside.

The map shows us getting near.

Near we must be..

Buckle up.

Let's go.

Hi Ice.

Then to another bus, just a tad bigger than the last one.

The wind farm is up and running.

McMurdo in the distance.

Once we get to MacTown we go to another spiel on safety.

They give me a envelope with a key and it says building 155. Not my first pick, but at least I'm here.

Tired of unpacking I stroll the kitchen to see who has returned. Only a few returnees and completely new chain of command. The food is excellent this year and already the changes put in place by the new Exec. Chef are making profound differences. The WAIS time had the opporunity to speak with him about WAIS food inventory.... foie gras, venison, bison, any herb, any vegetable, any fruit... the usual camp food right?

Walking down Highway 1 to another presentation.

Along the way a TV showed the lady from South Pole that was flown out to undergo further examination in NZ for her medical issue.

Off to Crary.
Where the researchers play.

Looks better alive.

The cool thing about WAIS is that we will be living in close quarters with the scientists and will be able to pick their brains. At McMurdo it's hard as a cook to get out and experience field science in the action.

Crary is full of instruments, acids, flammables, fish.

Upstairs in the Crary library.

The WAIS intro.

There are four camps on the western ice sheet. PIG, WAIS, BYRD and SIPOLE. Ours has the deepest borehole, so yeah, our westside connection is off the hook.

This is what will be happening at WAIS.

Not this.

And until I depart I have some business to take care of.