Hut Guide

Several years ago, I volunteered as a Hut Guide. Being a Hut Guide involves a fairly small amount of actual training, but a larger amount of knowledge about the historic huts themselves. In the Ross Sea, there are historic huts located at Hut Point, Cape Evans and Cape Royds. I'll be certified again this season to lead tours of all three.  Because of ice conditions, we probably won't be headed to Cape Evans or Cape Royds, which is disappointing. I've been inside the Hut Point Hut and Cape Evans. During my Santa Ride, we saw the outside of the hut at Cape Royds, but it was closed. I'm looking forward to leading a tour. More people who come here should know more about the history of the area.

Moving Away

The Ice Pier continues on it's merry way, slowly creeping
toward Hut Point. It's hoped that it will float far enough
away so that a new Ice Pier can be built this winter.

Culverts

Way back in the day, the founding fathers of McMurdo
had a bit of foresight and built a series of culverts,
draining the mudhole that McMurdo can become. It would
be a far more mucky place than it is with the amount of
runoff that we experience each year. A GA named Steve
actually put together a guide this season to the 25 or
so culverts and I have him to thank for this information.


My favorite culvert (if someone can have a favorite
culvert) is Culvert #1. This is the one that runs
under the road to Hut Point and without it, a large
part of town near the fuel pumps would be a swamp.


I've seen huge amounts of water go through this thing.
This is a relative trickle.


This would be a great place for a kayaker to shoot the
rapids...and a great splashdown at the bottom as it
drops into Winter Quarters Bay!

Adélies

After work today, I ran into my friend Melanie,
and she told me that she had just been to Hut Point
and had seen quite a few Adélie Penguins. Now I
had seen a couple hundred Adélies in 2007, but it
had been awhile since I had seen penguins of any
kind, so I figured it was definitely worth my
time. It was fun to see them running around the
ice and interesting to see how they moved when
a helicopter flew over. They moved almost like
a herd of wildebeests like you see on nature shows
but also like a rather large swarm of flying
starlings. Hard to describe, but it was almost
as if they moved as one. Anyway, for a few minutes
I had the entire point to myself and I could hear
them chattering back and forth to themselves.
They were communing with each other, while I was
communing with nature.

A Really Big Rock

Distance and Light (or lack of sometimes) can really play
tricks on your mind of how big something is or how far away
things are down here. Our friend Brody took this photo of
Castle Rock the other day and the photo's depth and scale
do a good justice of how big it really is. Surprisingly,
I had never been to Castle Rock until this winter and I was
pretty amazed by its size...especially since it practically
springs from the glacier it's located on and is the only non
snow or ice object for quite a distance. It was formed about
1.2 million years ago as a volcanic vent (plug) and is one of
a dozen or so of these vents that extend all the way down the
Hut Point Peninsula from Mt. Erebus to Observation Hill. At
1355 feet tall, it is theorized that it actually formed under
the Ross Ice Shelf when the shelf was 1350 feet higher than
it is today. So at one time, I would have been taller above
the surrounding terrain than Castle Rock was. However, time
changes, Ice Shelves erode and Volcanic Plugs tend to remain.
In many ways, it's similar to one of my favorite places,
Shiprock, in New Mexico. I'm looking forward to visiting both
again in the near future.

Getting Better All The Time

Our friend Brody took this photo today at lunchtime from
Hut Point. Although this would still seem very dark to
most folks, to those of us that haven't seen any daylight
at all in months, it's quite refreshing. Some have told
me that their spirits are lifting already. However...with
the light, also comes the cold. The other day it reached
all the way down to -37 Fahrenheit without the wind. Not
beach weather by any means.

Blue Moon Run

I don't have a runner's body but I was able to help
today as a volunteer for the Blue Moon Run. It's
a 1.5 mile run from the Gerbil Gym (the gym that
holds the aerorbic exercise equipment) to Scott's Hut
and back. Plus, by helping out, I got a free race
t-shirt.


Instead of running, I was a driver of one of the mobile
warming huts...in other words, a van. My station was out
near Hut Point near the Ice Pier Tower of Power. No
sooner than I got parked, the first runners were running
past me toward the Hut. I got to play cheerleader to
everyone that ran by as I was the only race volunteer
that far from the starting line. Walkers were also welcome
to participate and they gradually made it by, going both
ways. As the last walked by, that was my cue to return
to the starting line and I almost got stuck in the snow
but shifted into a lower gear and made it. That would
have been embarrasing!



Some of the runners were really fast! Our friend Nathan
won the race with a time of just over 8 minutes, followed
by Alex and Martin. Almost as quickly as it started, it
was over. The weather was absolutely fantastic. Last
year, people got frotbite while running this race, but
this year, with the full moon, no wind and not-so-cold
temps, people hung out outside after the race.