The Santa Trip

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Early this morning, Lynn and I made our way down to
the Helo Hanger where we were issued cool helmets (in
addition to our Santa/Elf hats) and we joined our four
fellow elves and Santa for our trip to seven awesome
places that we hadn't been to before...delivering gifts
to each stop and bringing Christmas cheer!


It was a really foggy morning on part of the ice shelf headed
out of town, but we managed to skirt it and after about 15
minutes we were at Black Island.

Black Island holds the communication equipment that makes

it possible for us to stay in touch with the outside world. If you

get a phone call from me, it goes through Black Island and the

equipment held here. It was originally built because the satellite

equipment on Ross Island was blocked by Mount Erebus and

Black Island was far enough away to get a clear signal.

The camp manager, Tony, has been coming down here since

the 80's and he's a really nice guy. I've known him for a few

years and he's always pleasant to me and has good stories.

From Black Island, you can see Mount Erebus in the

distance. At the very bottom of Erebus is a small

set of darker hills. That's where McMurdo is located.

It's fun after all these years seeing McMurdo from

Black Island instead of the other way around.

This is my favorite photo of the day. It's my "artistic"

photo of our fellow "elf" Katie, as we're entering the

Dry Valleys.

This is one of the many glaciers we flew over or past

as we flew up into the valleys.

Our first camp that we visited was F6. It's a tiny camp

and the scientists there seemed very happy to see us.

In all the places we visited, no one lived in the main

building or buildings. They were just central gathering

spots and a place to eat. Everyone sleeps in tents.

Here they're making studies around this stream. We were

told that the night before, it was much higher and they weren't

even able to cross it.

Our next stop was the Lake Fryxell Camp.

Yes...that's a boat!

The Lake Fryxell Camp is larger, but still pretty small.

It's in a beautiful location, surrounded by the lake and

towering mountains.

I really liked their galley tent.

We landed the helicopter directly on the beach.

Our next stop was Lake Hoare Camp. Lynn's friend Rae

is the camp manager here and they shared some knitting

stories. Rae is a wonderful knitter that Lynn really looks

up to.

They had a cool little logistics/bunk room in the main

building.

This helo landing spot was a little more precarious than

the others.

Rae showed us a mummified seal that had traveled miles and

miles up the valley from the ocean. This happens occasionally

and scientists are trying to figure out why.

Then we were showed this Penguin skeleton. The same

thing happened here too as the Penguin wandered up

the valley to die.

This is a huge glacier that is right next to the camp.

I asked Rae if this water was drinkable and she told

me that it is the source for their drinking water. It

comes from the top of the glacier. Back home, even

mountain water must be filtered because of giardia.

When we got back into the helicopter, we saw some fantastic

scenery that included glaciers and glacial lakes of beautiful

blue coloring.

We crossed over Blood Falls. There is a iron ore deposit

under this glacier near Lake Bonney that drains with the

melt water and looks like blood.

Our next stop was the Taylor Glacier Camp. It was very

isolated, but probably the prettiest place we visited all day!

The scientists have estimated that Taylor Glacier is about

1000 feet in depth and the area where the camp is located

is over 50,000 years old.

The mountains surrounding the camp and the glacier

were absolutely stunning!

The scientists dug really deep holes into the glacier for their

experiments. This hole was 70 meters deep! That's over

200 feet! When we would drop chunks of ice into it, it made

a really loud ping pong sound and air would blow up into our

faces. It was a lot of fun!

The scientists at this camp were really proud of their work

and they spent our entire time there showing us their

experiments.

When we left Taylor Glacier, we took a different, scenic

route over the mountains to Marble Point.

I especially liked this glacier since it looks like a big

waterfall of ice, headed over a cliff.

Parts of the Dry Valleys truly live up to their name. This

is one of the driest places in the world.

We landed at Marble Point after about a 20 minute flight

and I was lucky enough to have a window seat. Marble Point

is essentially a refueling station. It is the perfect location for

a much larger Antarctic station and it was actually considered

as a replacement for McMurdo at one time, complete with a

dry land runway.

The facilities are a little larger than other locations, but still

fairly spartan.

It's nice to see that the folks here have a good sense of humor,

complete with couch, grill and foilage.

Our friend Bodie is the camp manager and it was really great to

see him. He visited us in Grand Junction during the summer.

Now we got to visit him!

These tanks hold the fuel that makes Marble Point so

important.

While headed to our last stop of the day, we flew by a

place called Bay of Sails, where lots of icebergs are "trapped"

Our pilot, Jack, who I've known for years, flew all the way

around one of them, just above the water line. Then he

asked if any of us have ever landed on top of an iceberg.

No one raised their hand, and the next thing we knew, we

were touching down on the top of the iceberg! WOW!

Then we flew over the Ice Breaker Khlebnikov. It's in

the area, showing paying tourists the local sites. Jack

congratulated us. He said that the folks on the ship were

paying up to $50,000 each to see what we were seeing today!

Our last stop of the day was Cape Royds. Occasionally

folks from McMurdo get to visit here, but not often as

it's usally a trip given to people as a reward. Exactly why

we were here today!

Cape Royds is about 19 miles north of McMurdo, and home

to a really large Adelie Penguin rookery. There are thousands

of penguins in various stages of nesting. It reminded me of a

crowded beach of people on a summer day at Lake Michigan.

I'd seen lots of Adelies a few years ago at Hut Point at

McMurdo, but this was probably 100 fold the amount

we saw there.

We even saw a few scampering across the ice.

This Skua though was giving us the evil eye the entire

time we were watching the Penguins. He was probably

thinking we were moving in on his territory. One of the

main things that skuas like to eat are penguin eggs and

chicks.

There is a small, historic hut here that was built by Ernest

Shackleton, during his 1907-09 expedition. I can't imagine

spending a long time here as it seems very desolate.

We didn't get to spend as much time exploring the hut as

I would have liked, but it was great to finally see it in person.

The day was spent enjoying all the physical beauty, but it was

really nice finishing it amongst a site of such historical significance.

This day is definitely in my top ten of all days I've spent on this

earth. I've now been to everywhere in Antarctica that I've

really wanted to go. If I get to go to other places, it will be icing

on the cake.