Evening Tea at Scott Base

It's always a pleasure to receive an invitation to a
meal at Scott Base. Especially when it's their evening
meal. While our food has been pretty good at McMurdo
this year, the Kiwis don't have to cook for 1100 people,
so it has a lot more of a personal touch. Our counterparts
and friends from Scott Base, David and Gid, invited the
day shift ATO office workers over for the evening. They
must have planned the meal in advance, because we had
real hamburgers and chips for dinner. Really delicious.
Like you would make at home, and not institutional.
Afterwards, I was able to practice my barista skills on
their espresso maker. After doing this for several years
now, it never has gotten easier to foam milk made from
powder! Everyone had an enjoyable time and far too soon
it was time to come home. I'm looking forward to our
next visit to our friendly Kiwi neighbors.

Lynn's Crew

Here's a photo of some of the folks that work with
Lynn on her night shift. I have warm feelings for
most of these folks because I started out working
with them before mid-season when everyone switched
shifts and I stayed on the day shift. A really good
group of people.

Lynn's in New Zealand

After spending two days in Denver to go through orientation,
Lynn left last night for New Zealand. She'll be there about two
weeks, taking a U.S. Air Force Loadplanning Class with other
folks from ATO going down to the Ice this season. She's
understandably nervous because of the recent earthquake
and aftershocks that have struck Christchurch and Canterbury.
She and her group were greeted at the airport today by our
friend, Leighton, who is the head of the Travel department.
He gave them the skinny on what the status was of the city
and what they could expect. Thank you for doing that Leighton.
Lynn will learn a lot in the next few weeks and I'll be joining her
in about ten days. I'm looking forward to it!

Back in The World

The highlight of my first day back in the real world was visiting
my friend Leighton at his house for an ATO cookout and get
together. Leighton is the manager of the Christchurch Travel
Office for the US Antarctic Program. He and his wife have a
wonderful house a few miles north of downtown in Northlands
and there was certainly a good crowd. Lots of folks from both
the Ice and from the office in Christchurch. Leighton and his
wife of course were very gracious hosts and served up great
food and beverages.


One of the entrees though I can definitely live without in the
future was Whitebait. Yes, I tried it and yes, the Kiwis love it.
However...I did not. It's funny that it has to be covered up in
kind of a hash brown-type substance to even make it close to
palatable. Picture udon noodles with eyes. That's what it looks
like...and actually tastes a bit like as well. Ugh.


Before I left, Leighton was proud to show us his garage. I have to
say, this is the only garage I've ever seen that is carpeted. Yes,
carpeted! Someone asked what he would do if his car leaked oil
and he exclaimed that Chevrolets never leak oil. Hmm...they must
have different Chevys in New Zealand than they do in the States!

Off The Ice...With Perks!

Today I completed my 10th season on the Ice! Ten seasons of a
very different lifestyle, yet one I enjoy. There were only six of us
ATO folks leaving today. Because we're in ATO and we're in charge
of the bags being loaded onto the plane, our bags got to go on top
of the baggage pallet. More about this later. Usually all ATO employees
get to go out on our own separate transport, but because there were
only six of us, and three were working the plane, loading and unloading
cargo, only Amy, Melanie and I were riding out to Pegasus Airfield.
Supply Melanie though was nice enough to reserve us our own seats
at the front of Ivan, so we got a special ride anyway. When we got
out to Pegasus, we milled with the other folks on our plane (99 in all)
and waited to board. Then, unexpectedly, Bear called our names on
the radio and we got to board the C-17 first, getting the seats we
wanted. In that case, Melanie and I wanted a seat on the side with
a outlet to plug our electronics into. The ride back to Christchurch
was pretty uneventful and five hours later we were in 75 degree weather
and sunny skies. Because our bags were on top of the baggage pallet,
they were amongst the first onto to conveyer belt and for the first
time ever, I was the first one from our plane through customs! I
believe this is Karma since a few years ago, I was pulled aside on a
random search and spent 45 minutes telling someone what everything
in my bag was. So we walked over to the CDC (Clothing Distribution
Center) which is always good since we've been sitting for the last
five hours. I turned in all my gear, got my hotel reservations and
again, all six of us ATO folks were on the first shuttle leaving the
building! My room at the Hotel So is very pleasant but we were hungry
Amy, Melanie and I went to Bailie's. Bailie's isn't my usual hangout
but it's a traditional watering hole for Ice folks. We got food and
was surprised when Susie appeared! She was on her way home and
saw us go into the Bar. She bought me a drink in thanks for my work
the last day, closing out Air Services for the season. We joined other
Ice folks and then I called it a night. A long day, but very satisfying.
Another season completed,

Almost Time to Go

It has been very gray for over a week, and everyone that
is not wintering has either left, or is in the process of it.
Today, my friends Dave and Kelly and friend and co-worker,
Susie left. Over 160 people are now in Christchurch that
were formerly McMurdoans. There are three ATO folks
staying in McMurdo until a special flight leaves on March
5th, taking mostly Fuelies out. These folks are involved in
wrapping up the fuel lines leading to Pegasus Airfield.
Otherwise, there are 99 people leaving tomorrow. Six of
those folks will be from ATO. Amy and I will be working
our own transport and the remaining Cargo Handlers will
be loading their own plane. It has been a good season,
but we are all ready to leave "The Rock".

Where My Stuff Will Be

Today, my boss, Susie was kind enough to give me some
time off to move the rest of my stuff to storage. And what I
mean by storage is not anything like what you would find in
the real world. ATO supplies it's folks with a Milvan. A Milvan
is a metal box. The kind you see on trains or cargo ships.
All of my things that can freeze, are in this Milvan for the
winter. We also get to keep our DNF (Do Not Freeze) items
in a small room inside Building 140. It's a very generous
storage policy and I feel grateful for it.

Cargo

The largest part of my department, ATO, handles cargo.
Receiving and Sending cargo makes this place run.
Granted, we get a huge amount of cargo each year on
the vessel, which will be here next week, but the day
to day operations of cargo transport via airplanes
is handled by ATO. As you can see from the photo,
all of the items are tightly strapped onto large,
flat pallets, called Air Force Pallets that slide
easily onto either a LC-130 or C-17 and covered for
protection from the elements. These particular
pallets are headed for Christchurch.


Once the cargo is ready to go, it receives a PID, or
Pallet Identification Card. There are two of these on
each loaded pallet...on the Aft and Left side, so they
can be seen on the plane by the Loadmaster.
It is HVY (heavy). It is Do Not Freeze (DNF).
It is Fragile (FRG). It should be Kept Upright (KU).
It should be Kept Dry (KD). This particular pallet
is 100 inches high, weighs 4200 pounds, is going to
Christchurch (CHC) and is the 172nd pallet going to
Christchurch this season (C172). If it were going to
South Pole, it would have a "P" designation instead of
a "C" designation. Also, this PID is yellow. This
means that it should either be kept DNF or KF. If it
was white, it would be neither DNF or KF.


The process of keeping track of what is on each pallet,
where it is going and where it will be placed on an
airplane is the job of the Load Planner. If the
load of pallets and cargo (this includes passengers)
is not balanced correctly, the plane wouldn't be
able to safely fly to its destination. They use
a program called AALPS to help them with this task.

So there you go...a very very brief synopsis of how
cargo works here in ATO. Of course there are lots more
stages of the process that I don't or probably will never
know, but this makes sense to me now, and hopefully to
those reading this, it will to you too. Thanks to
Loadplanners Melanie and Matt for their help with this
post.

Friday The 13th

We're starting to have pretty bad weather,
so that seems appropriate, being Friday the
13th. We did get two planes out of here going
north, early this morning, but everything else
has been cancelled for the day. I can't
remember seeing this much red on the flight
scroll in some time. The weather is supposed
to get even worse, so it looks like a few
slow days ahead for ATO.

Channel 7

One of our jobs in Air Services is to keep the
community informed of what time flights are
arriving, departing and where they are going
to and coming from. We have a dedicated
computer in our office in which we have to
change the information on a PowerPoint
spreadsheet. This then appears on Channel 7
on the local television network and hopefully
people read it and are informed.

Air Service Reps

Pictured left to right:
Mia, Amy, Susie, me, Kaska, Billy T, Kristin

Last year, when Lynn was in New Zealand, she sent me
a bottle of champagne that I should share with my
small group of co-workers at the end of the year, in
celebration of a successful season. Well, we never had
time to open it and it sat in a drawer all winter long.
Tonight was the beginning of the season ATO party.
A chance to get everyone in the department together
for one last relaxing time before we go onto 12 hour
shifts and things get really busy. As it turns out, all
of the Air Service Reps are back on station for another
season. Kristin is now working with Science Cargo
and we're joined by Mia this year. Amy will be working
with Mia on the night shift and Kaska and I will be
working on the day shift. Susie is our Supervisor and
Billy T is our Department Manager. It was a good chance
for everyone to get together, and we finally enjoyed our
champagne.

Safety Stand-Down

The weather has been rather odd the past few days.
Yesterday, we were surrounded by pogonip and it
continued through this morning. However, around
lunchtime, the wind started to pick up and it got
really nasty out. One of those days where you don't
know if it's easier to walk with the wind or against it.
Condition 1 (the worst weather category) was called
for everywhere but McMurdo and the weather here was
iffy at best. Visibility was ok, but the gusts were bad.
It was starting to get dangerous for the cargo handlers
to be outside since pieces of wood were flying about
from the waste dump. Since much of our department
does work outside, my boss's boss, Pete, called for
a safety stand-down. Everyone was gathered in the
front of the building and we talked about what to do
during bad weather, what we should and should not
do during this particular storm and what we should
do tomorrow if the storm worsens. Then he sent
us all home. Even those of us that work inside. No
sense taking chances with people's safety when you
don't have to. All of the flights today were cancelled
because of the weather so we had spent most of the
afternoon training and going over expectations for
the upcoming season, so we didn't have any air traffic
to track anyway. As far as I could tell, we were the
only department to be let loose early. That's one of
the things I like about ATO and keeps me coming
back. Not the fact that we got time off. That our
supervisors care enough to say, Hey...it's not so
important that someone gets hurt. Step away from it
and be safe. It's lip service to some, but I feel my
supervisors actually mean it.

Another Trip to Pegasus

My boss, Susie, is trying to get me out of
the office as much as possible over the next
few days as I'll pretty much be chained to
the desk for most of the season. This means
that I got to drive back out to Pegasus
Runway again today. This time, to take
people out, going north, instead of picking
people up that just arrived. I drove an
Airporter (pictured) and my friend and
roommate, Jed, got to ride shotgun!


It was a beautiful afternoon and there
were only 12 folks from McMurdo and 4
people from Scott Base headed north.
The same plane brought 107 people in
just a few minutes before my people
headed to the plane.


When you're out at the runway, you also get
to see the other side of ATO (Cargo) work.
They bring large quanties of items out, but
it seems like there are usually more things
to remove from the plane and bring into town.


This photo gives you a good idea just how big
the cargo pallettes are and how big the vehicles
that they work with are. The Cargo Handlers
climb all over these things like monkeys! They're
very agile.


As big as the loaders and cargo are, they are
still dwarfed by the C-17 itself!


I had to wait with the Airporter until the plane
actually took off; just in case the plane didn't
leave, I would have to return the passengers to
town. Since the plane did leave, I roMcMurdo, de back to
McMurdo all by myself. It's a pretty drive and
the scenery is wonderful! This is a view of
the south tip of Ross Island (where McMurdo is
located) and Observation Hill, Arrival Heights
and Castle Rock are predominant.

ACH003

I had "training" this morning on how to
drive vehicles. Of course I've driven
vehicles many times down here before, but
for some reason, we have to be re-trained
each year. So I drove an Airporter (kind of
a rental car-type van over to Scott Base and
was now "trained". Later in the afternoon,
Flight ACH003 was headed down from Christchurch
and because Ivan (the big Terra Bus that holds
the most people) was broken, I was asked to
drive a passenger van out to Pegasus Runway to
pick folks up. On this flight were my friends,
Carrie, Nathan, Tad and many others. The winds
were really whipping and the roads were
drifting heavily on the way out and we got there
just as the plane was ready to land.


I love watching the C-17 come in to park after
landing. It's huge! Plus, it was fun to be
out at the runway with the other ATO folks
(my department) including Shuttles and Cargo.


Bob...one of the shuttle drivers who was driving
one of the large passenger vehicles called a
Delta, saw me taking photos of the plane coming
in and asked if I wanted a photo of myself with
the plane. Sure...it would be good to send to
Lynn I thought...so here it is!


Driving back to town was just as windy and
mushy (road wise) due to the blowing snow,
but was fun because I now had 10 passengers
in the back of the van. That smoking mountain
in the back of the photo is Mount Erebus, the
very active volcano. There's a good chance
I'll be driving out to Pegasus later this week
so I'll hopefully take some more photos then.

Back In NZ

On Thursday, I finally left my ninth season on the
Ice behind. I definitely can't say that I was sad to
go, but I left a few good friends behind and I wish
them a good Winterover. The nicest part of leaving,
(other than anticipating seeing Lynn after a absence
of three months of course) was the chance to ride
in the Airbus. It was leased by USAP from the
Australian Antarctic Programme and was definitely
a unique experience. I had a "reserved" seat because
I work in ATO so I got to sit in business class. what
a nice perk and really comfortable. This was the
first time I'd flown in anything either to or from the
Ice in a plane besides a military transport. I even got
an excellent view of Ross Island from the window. It
was also interesting to have a flight with actual Flight
Attendants and how they transformed from their cold
weather gear into...well...Flight Attendants, with
a snack and beverage cart! A great flight overall and
we were back in Christchurch by 6:30pm and home
by 8:00pm. It's great to be back with Lynn in NZ!

A Good Day

There haven't been a lot of good days lately, so
when one does come along, it's certainly worth
noting. I got up this morning and received a
call from our friend Deb, that lives in Vermont.
She was my first boss on the Ice and she's having
her 60th birthday party in March and wanted to
invite Lynn (it's an all-girls party). She
can't go since we'll be in NZ, but it was nice
to hear her voice. Next, I talked to my Mom back
in Indiana. Although it's been a miserably bad
winter weather-wise, it was 50 degrees Fahrenheit
when I talked to her. Always fun to talk to Mom!
Then I talked to Lynn for a while. Less than 2
weeks til I'm in Christchurch! Yay! For someone
who doesn't like to talk on the phone...I sure
did a lot of it. After helping Kaska with the
first big transport of the season...about a 100
people leaving...I started walking down the hill
toward home. I hear this rumbling coming up the
road and it's my friend Tony driving in a Pisten
Bully. It's a small enclosed snow-cat sort of
vehicle. He's the head of the MEC which is
responsible for all of the equipment that the
scientists use while they're here. He had to
go to Castle Rock to move some snow around so
he asked if I wanted to hop in and go. Sure,
I said and off we went.


I had never been to Castle Rock during the day.
Only last winter I went there in a Tucker
(another track-type vehicle), so it was a treat
of sorts...kind of a mini-boondoggle. I'm way
to lazy to walk the 7 mile Castle Rock Loop so
getting a ride there is definitely the best
option. The first half mile though was hellish
since most of the snow in that part of the trail
had melted and big ruts formed the trail.
Picture a ski mogul run without the snow.
However, soon we were on the path and were
climbing to the top of the trail. The view from
Castle Rock is pretty amazing. Even if it was
a cloudy day, you can easily see for a hundred
miles. Tony even drove around where we could
see open water just north of Cape Evans and
All of the islands in the area. The view
looking the other way is just as amazing as
you can see the Trans-Antarctic Mountains and
the cluster of buildings that makes up Williams
Field. The way down is really steep and I'm
glad that I was in a vehicle and not walking it.
We saw the Kiwi A-Frame from above...which I've
also never seen in the daylight and got a good
view of the Kiwi Ski Hill.
When I got home, I was just in time for "John
Simonson Appreciation Day". John is a longtime
ATO cargo guy and several folks in the department
felt he has never gotten the recognition he
deserves. Lots of Sushi made by Sam and Molly,
BBQ Scallops wrapped in bacon by Hooch and a
good time had by all. A great wrap up to a good
day!

President Schuster

I'm not a science geek, so I don't get to meet
some of the more famous people that come down
here. However, I am in ATO so I do get to see
some folks traveling north or south. Today, I
got to meet the former President of Slovakia,
Rudolf Schuster. He's a very nice man and I
even got to use my smattering of Polish with
him since he's fluent in six languages and
functional in several others.

Christchurch Envy

I'm suffering from a major dose of Christchurch Envy.
Lynn has been enjoying Christchurch for almost 5 weeks now,
spending time with our friends Anna and Chris and earlier with
Christine and Antz....and now Kaska is there! Kaska was supposed to
be flying back to McMurdo today after an unexpected trip to Europe to
be with family, but today's flight was cancelled. The good part of that
is that she will be bringing a lot of goodies to us ATO folk that Lynn
purchased in NZ. The bad part is that she and Lynn are going out to
New Brighton tomorrow to go to the beach! Then they're going to
spend New Year's Eve on the square. All this topped by lunch today at
a new Indian restaurant on North Colombo. The green-eyed monster
called jealousy is alive and well and living in my brain!

Yum

Last night, I joined a large group of people, including
my ATO co-workers as possibly the last people in the world
to eat Thanksgiving Dinner. Not only did we have to wait
until Saturday to celebrate Thanksgiving, we had to wait
until Midnight to do so. It was worth the wait as our
happy little ATO family got together and ate our brains
out in the Galley. To be honest, I pretty much behaved
myself and even took my dessert home for later since I
was full. We topped it out with a quiet evening (morning)
at the Coffee House, relaxing. Overall a really pleasant
day. Ugh...now back to work tonight.

Day Bar

I don't think the Southern Exposure bar has ever been
this bright, but this is where I wound up this morning
as ATO held a "Roll Call" for it's night shift employees
with Bear and Jeff putting money on the bar. I'm not
much of a bar person and definitely not a smoky bar
person but it was a good time. I went for a beer and
I'm pretty sure that everyone on our shift attended and
we had a nice visit from our department manager, Billy T
who thank all of us for our hard work. I needed a shower
after I left to get rid of the 10 pounds of nicotine I
added to my body but it was a good time.