BootsnAll Travel Network



Antarcticans Abound

Moonrise Sunset.jpg

I know I have posted a lot of moonrise photos but they just seem to get better and better. Tomorrow, Saturday, is the full moon and there is a good chance that it will be a full house as well. The past week has been extremely busy and eventful for us. It all really started on Thursday when we had an unexpected near-full house. It is rare that we fill up mid-week. Friday was relatively calm with only two climbers sleeping and eating. We finished dinner early and I was struggling to keep Luci from going to bed at 7:30 when two climbers arrived unannounced from above. They had attempted the traverse from Rifugio Torino and were force to take an escape route when an afternoon thunderstorm closed in on them. We pretty quickly discovered that they were from the UK, Rob and Steward. In the course of conversation we discovered that Rob is a fellow Antarctican who works on the British base Rothera as a Field Instructor (F-Stop as we call it at McMurdo). But, for the upcoming season, he is going to be working on a joint-nation mapping project. The area they are mapping is a costal area called Pine Island, which is actually closer to the Partiot Hills than either McMurdo or Rothera but since mostly American equipment is going to be used the project is going to launch from McMurdo. This means that he is going to deploy from Christchurch, possibly on the same flight that Luci and I are on. After they arrive in MacTown the project will spend a month training before they go into the field to begin surveying. Given the strange coincidence we spent a good part of that night and most of the next day sharing Antarctica stories and telling Rob what to expect at McMurdo.
The eventful part of the week really began on Sunday when I hiked out to do the shopping for our airlift. The airlift was actually on Wednesday but I needed to go to Chamonix to pick up a couple of friends who are here visiting. Amy and Eric are currently traveling from Antarctica, where we met them, on a ‘Round-the-world ticket with 15 stops. They arrived in Paris last week from India to see the last stage of the Tour de France as it arrived in the city. Then they took a night train to Chamonix where I met them on Monday. Since their train arrived early in the morning, I needed to spend the night in Chamonix. So I called up our friends Rob and Steward who I had agreed to meet in Chamonix where Steward has a very small apartment on the 7th floor of one of the tallest buildings in the town. Steward told me that that they recently found a trap door onto the roof ant they were in the middle of a grilling session on the roof of Chamonix. He said, “If you walk to the station and look towards the city center, on the roof of the McDonalds building you will see three clowns with a barbecue. That’s us.”
So I spent the night with them on the top of the town and met Amy and Eric at the station on Monday morning. We spent Monday hiking around Rifugio Bonatti (another hut in the valley) and stayed there that night. On Tuesday the big shopping day started. Because we did a big re-supply flight of non-perishables last fall, we still have a big inventory so the shopping was relatively light; only one bag of 500kg. Having A&E to help was nice and they had fun distracting me (about half way through the shopping I found a 5 gallon bucket of mayonnaise in the shopping cart). I was happier than ever to have Roberto, the guy with the big truck, around to transport the supplies because we were 3 people crammed into a Fiat Punto convertible like so many clowns in a car.
Having just arrived from India, A&E had no sleeping bags or warn clothes and we were experiencing a light cold spell. Despite this fact we decided to camp in the valley so that we would be close to the heliport for the 10am airlift. They figured that if they slept with all their clothes on and wrapped themselves in whatever sheets they had they would be warm enough. We all froze. In the morning I was sick. Loading the helibag was torture but the airlift was successful. The three of us flew up together and I went to bed almost immediately for 24hrs straight. I am still only about 90% but well enough to work.
It is great having Amy and Eric around. It has been relatively busy so they have been helping us with the regular chores. There have been brief periods of calm in which we have been able to go for hike/climbs around the hut and in which Eric and I have been able to perfect potato launching
from my potato gun. Tonight is Saturday night and we are overbooked. We try to avoid this but today five people wouldn’t take no for an answer. As it stands we have 5 people sleeping on the floor. It is going to be crazy but at the moment there is calm.



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One response to “Antarcticans Abound”

  1. Vicky says:

    What a fabulous photograph!