Antarctica Blog

The original plan was to go visit another one of Jesse’s friends who is studing in Florence but Luci and I convinced him to go to Venice. Florence is nice but Venice is truely unlike anything else in the world; plus, it is a shorter drive from Milan. We left early on monday the day after hiking out from the hut. We arrived in Venice around mid-day and went straight to the major sights. We decide that the best way to see the city and the surrounding islands was to buy a 24hr ticket for the Vaporetti, the Venetian style of public transpoprtation. We took a Vaporetto out to Murano, one of the other islands in the lagoon know for its glassworks. We watched a glass blowing demonstration and strolled around this smaller scale version of Venice.
Jesse left yesterday early. We still haven’t heard from him. Hopefully his flight went well.

The drive over Passo Grand Sant Bernardo was nice. It was cloudy on the swiss side but when we crossed over to the Italian side it was beautiful. The crossing is over 2400m so there were walls of snow up to 3m high on either side of the road in places. We had the FIAT Punto convertable so we put the top down and cranked the heat.
When we arrived in Val Ferret, where the trailhead to the hut is, we were behind schedule but the weather was still holding out. The hike up was great. There wasn’t as much snow as we had expect but there we still some pretty hairy traverses. We forgot to adjust Jesse’s crampons before we left the valley and we didn’t have the tools with us. So I lead and kicked steps for him.
By the time we arrived at the hut the weather had changed. It began to snow lightly though we could see that in the valley it was still sunny (typical for the Alps). There was much less damage than in past years bu there is still 6 feet of snow on the roof which is bound to break off and slide onto the porch as the temperatures rise. We though about shoveling it off but didn’t want to risk getting swept off into the glacier. So we cranked the heater and holed up inside.
The next moring was freezing but we had a beautiful sunrise. Since I took the gutter down for the winter, the meltwater from the roof drips off onto the porch forming a glaze of ice. We spent the morning tuning up the PV system, repairing the sewer pipe and shoveling out the NW wall of the hut. We began the hike down around 11am after the ice the formed overnight melted.
Now we are off to Venice to spend the last two days pof Jesse’s stay.

What a great place! Especially great to have a friend to show us around. Better than bumbling around as a tourist with no idea where to go. Aska lives with her grandparents Constance and Claudine. They were both very interesting, super-hospitable and made us feel at home. They insisted that we have a genuine Swiss Fondue which was a highlight of our trip since I am a cheese fanatic.
We were there for three days. The weather wasn’t great but improved steadily during our stay. We spent most of the three days skating around the city. Aska is a long-boarder and Jesse used the little scooter we bought Luci to keep up with me when I brought my skate with us to Amsterdam last fall. I don’t think she even used it once. Jesse got plenty of use out of it though; in fact, he wore half the rubber off the back wheel. Geneva has perfect hills for interurban long-boarding. Not too steep but steep enough you don’t have to push everywhere. The old city is up on a hill which offers up a good 15min ride down to the lake side.
To give Jesse the brief tri-nations tour of the region where Luci and I work, we drove through the Mont-Blanc tunnel to Chamonix, France and on to Geneva Switzerland. On the drive back we plan to drive over the Grand Sant Bernardo Pass (home of the dog with the barrel collar) which will be a first for the both of us. The weather is supposed to be good and we hope to get up to Rifugio Boccalatte; Luci and my summer project.

The canoe trip didn’t work out. We made a reservation for a ‘canoe’ with a guy near Pavia who assured us that we could put it on top of the Alpha. When we got there he assured us that there was no way we would be able to transport the canoe with out a roof-rack. On top of that, he had only long Scull-type kayaks known as ‘canoa’ in Italian (I guess the open top canoes we are accustomed to are known as Canoa Canadese in Italy). Since we already had a picnic packed we decided to stay and see Pavia and the Certosa di Pavia , a monastery a few km outside of the city. A most amazing structure built under the patronage of the Svorza family in the 1500s.
We all decided that 10 days was not nearly enough to get over jet-lag. Before Luci left to go to Egypt on vacation with her parents, we looked into changing his return date. We discovered that it would be cheaper to buy a one-way return than extend the existing one. We got him a ticket on SAS that flys from Milan Linate to Newark via Copenhagen (a bit more logical that flying via Raleigh and London). He is due to fly out on wed the 9th.
When Luci and her folks left we had free reign of the house and her father’s motorcycle. We rode it around the city on Saturday and on Sunday we went up to the mountains above Bergamo to see the last leg of the Giro d’Italia (a 20day bike-tour of Italy). The last leg started in the town of Clusone and finished 144kms away in the center of Milan. At night we went to see a free concert in the Piazza del Duomo in Milan; on the motorbike of course.
At the beginning of the week we are planning to go back to Geneva to see Jesse’s friend Aska.

Back in Italy for the summer. Luci and I flew back on different flights because she got a free frequent flyer flight. She got bumped from her connection from Amsterdam to Milan and ended up flying into one of the airports way out of town. On top of it all, her luggage got left behind in Amsterdam so we got it the next day. Mine went better because I had to pay for it. Plus, it was one of the fastest trans-Atlantic flights I have ever taken: just about 5 hours from BOS to LHR.
My brother Jesse is here visiting us. It is the first time any of my family have been over to Italy to visit us in the 8 years I have been coming here regularly. His flight made Luci’s seem smooth. He bought the cheapest ticket to London with the idea of getting a cheap “no-frills” flight to Geneva to see his girlfriend and then come to Milan to see us. Not a bad idea if it had worked. The problem started when the cheapest flight to London was from NYC via Raleigh, NC (and really wasn’t much cheaper than a flight to Milan). When he arrived in Raleigh bad weather had grounded the planes. When the planes began moving again and he was able to disembark from his flight, his London Flight had already left (with his luggage). To make a long story short, he had to spend 24hrs at the airport and pay $130 to change his easyjet connection from London to Geneva.
After spending the weekend in Geneva, he took the Train here to Milan. The woman who lived in the apartment next door recently moved into an elderly home and luci’s parents managed to get it for the week while Jesse is here. It makes having 5 people here more comfortable. Today we went for a long bike ride down the Adda River. The Adda flows out of Lake Como near the town of Lecco, to the east of Milan and ultimately into the Adriatic sea after merging with Italy’s largest river, the Po. A large part of the river bank is park with miles of bike trails. We took the train up to Lecco and biked all the way back to Brugherio where Luci’s parents live.
Tomorrow we are going into the city so he can see the sights. Then, on Thursday, the idea is to rent a canoe and paddle down the Ticino river on the west side. The last time I did it, Luci and I did it on the 4th of July in it little rubber canoe (with a slow leak).
We are starting to think about the hut and have slowly begun to put things in motion to get it open. I plan to hike up in the next couple of weeks to see how the building fared the winter. We’ll start by opening on weekends in June and then open for the summer starting at the beginning of July. There is a lot more snow this year, which is a good thing as far as the climbing is concerned.

Now that we are back in Maine we have been spending most of our time around the house. Since we are car-less for the first time in I-don’t-remember-how-long we have only had a vehicle on the weekends when my mother is not working. We made one trip up to My brother Isaac’s to see our niece Hazel and the newest addition to our extended family, Asa’s daughter Abby. They are both very well behaved and fun babies to be with. Best of all, they are not mine.
My next weekend trip was up to the White Mountains to take advantage of the last remnants of snow before summer took over entirely. On May 1st, Sunday River had their annual ‘Free Day’. They surprisingly had 4 runs open. It was a scorcher though and the little snow there was, was mush by 10:30. So I jumped in the Jeep and drove over to Tuckerman Ravine for my annual pilgrimage there. The weather was still beautiful when I arrived but I spent the afternoon talking with old friends who live and work up in the ravine. The next day’s weather was not so nice but cooler so the snow stayed firm longer. I got three runs in: Left, Gully, the Chute, and the Lower Headwall. The snow was pretty dirty but it is May after all. The rain held off until late afternoon and it helped keep the majority of the weekend warriors at bay. It was nice to be back up there, albeit brief. It might be the last time I go snowboarding until we go back to Antarctica.
Yesterday we got back from a weekend in western PA. We had a memorial service for my grandfather who was born in that area. It turned out to be more of a Family Reunion than a funeral. There were about 50 people who turned up for the ceremony, most of which I was related to and had never met or not seen in a long, long time. My parents, Luci and I, Isaac and Hazel, and Joel all decide it would just be easier to fly down rather than drive since my mother had to be back to work today. It was Joel and Hazel’s first time on a plane. We rented cars and drove around the area were my father and his family were born and on Sunday we went into Pittsburgh to the Zoo together. Now that we are back we have a whole week before we even have to see a plane again.
When we arrived back here in Maine from NZ, we had an appointment for our medical screening for next season in Antarctica but I still didn’t have a job yet. I hurriedly made some phone calls and e-mails and soon had a job offer with the UTs or Utilities Mechanics. Luci already had a job with supply. Today we began the long process of PQing (Physically Qualifying). The Dr’s appointment was much easier than in past seasons. We got to do the ‘short form’ which means we only had to have blood and urine tests and TB tests. We still have the dental part to do but we wait to do that in Italy where our dentist is. Something always goes wrong though and now it is just a matter of waiting to see what it is. The first time we did the medical my EKG printout didn’t make it into the envelope and we didn’t find out until we were in Italy. Last year, the urine sample for Luci’s drug test opened in the mail (nice’ huh?). We had to go to the forensic science lab at the University of Milan to get a drug test done. Do you know hard it is to find someone who does a PCP test in Italy? This year we have a week-long buffer so hopefully everything will be in order before we leave to go back.
We leave in exactly a week to go back to Italy. Luci and her parents are going to Egypt on holiday and Jesse is coming to visit me while they are gone. He is flying in and out of Geneva. We are hoping to make it up to the hut while he is around but we’ll have to wait and see what the snow conditions are like. I bought a tiny laptop for Luci (a Sony Picturebook). It is perfect for the hut. If we manage to get the phone line working we should be updating the blog often.

We got super lucky. We got our van sold in a flooded marker. In NZ, the ownership can easily be changed right at the post office. We woke up at 8am and were at the PO in Auckland
when it opened. Luci bought a spinning wheel in Westport back in March and we mailed it general delivery to the same PO. We picked up our box, changed the ownership and went to the bank in a half hour. We were at Quantas airlines when they opened as well. We asked if we could change our ticket to an earlier flight. The lady at the counter asked, “Is 14:00 to early?” We ran back to the hotel, checked out and were on a shuttle to the airport. At the x-ray machine in the airport we ran into Marcus Gronholm and Timo Rautiainen; the driver and co-pilot of the Peugeot car
and former World Rally champs. They had just placed second in the NZ rally that we had just watched. I got them to sign the last page in my passport. At the gate we ran into our friend Adrienne from NH who also worked on the Ice. She had just flown in from CHC and was connecting to the same flight we were on. She too had just sold her van and was headed back to the states. Instead of flying back to BOS via Dallas we got on the direct flight from LAX to BOS. We had a smooth flight and we flew over the Grande Canyon and the Moab area of Utah which was nice. We are currently in Maine. Since we sold our car to my brother Jesse we are without regular transportation. I have to admit that it has been nice to not be driving everyday.

I know I have been bad about keeping our blog updated. It just got to be too difficult to find an internet place with a card reader. I lost a bunch of pictures when my disc got damaged in Wanaka (hence my last entry from there). I have gone back to older entries and updated some of the links so that you can now see more pictures.
Now, to catch up a little….
We left Wanka and drove to the West coast. Franz Josef and Fox glaciers were beautiful but the weather was bad. In fact most of the west coast was rainy but what can you expect from a temperate rainforest? Since the weather wasn’t cooperating we just kept moving north. We spent almost a week up in Golden Bay. The combination of great hiking and beautiful beaches on the Abel Tasman coast made for a good place to stop for some day hikes. Notice the giant fern trees that are the national symbol of NZ.
At the end of March we crossed on the ferry to Wellington on the north island. We were once again foiled by bad weather when we went to hike in Tongariro National Park. We did get in some good off-road driving nearby. One of the best places we found on the North Island was the Coromandel Peninsula. Once again, nice hikes and beaches. After a few days out on the peninsula, we made our way up to Auckland where we caught a rugby game. At about this time We began to seriously stress about selling our van. There were vans and cars for sale all over the city. To try and get our mind off of the van we drove all the way up to the tip of the north island to Cape Reinga. There are miles and miles of beaches and dunes that stretch far inland. On the drive up to the cape we reconnoitered the New Zealand Rally course. We met a farmer that let us stay on his land and watch the race on our way back to Auckland.
After a visit to the junk yard, the tire shop and the carwash, the van was ready to sell. We booked a room at one of the Central Backpacker hostels in Auckland and got up early to go to one of the weekend car fairs held around the city. We arrived early with high hopes. As the morning wore on it became more and more evident that selling the van was going to be difficult. There were about 30 other vans similar to ours for sale. By mid-day only one had sold and the buyers were scarce. We met some very interesting people though. There were some other Antarcticans (past, present, and future) who were all trying to sell vehicles. Some said they had been there for a week or more. By the time we left the fair, we were discussing extending our stay in order to unload the van. We parked the van right in from of the hotel where we were staying with a sign in the door. When I came down an hour later to get some signs to post inside, there was a guy standing there eying the van. By afternoon, he had agreed to buy it. The next day we were on a plane by 14:00 after a quick trip to the beach at Piha.

Mt Cook was amazing! We had great weather and did some incredible hiking. The wilderness here in NZ is astounding. We have only been able to scratch the surface. You could hike for weeks with out ever seeing another person. Since we have the van we have limited ourselves to day hikes. We have been making notes to ourselves for next year when we plan to do some multi-day treks. Mt Cook is not even over 4000m but due to the latitude and high annual snowfall it has some incredible glaciations. While at Mt Cook, I climbed Mount Kitchner. It is just over 2000m (not even as high as Boccalatte) but it felt like I was at the top of the world. The climb went up a rarely traveled buttress which makes the knife edge on Kahtadin look tame. I had initially planned to climb along the ridge and meet Luci at a hut on the other side. When I got to the summit of Kitchner the sight of the ridge I had planned to cross nearly made me pass out. It was all ragged and crumbly. I decided to take a different route down a couple hundred meters and back up to the hut. The hut (Mueller) was just built last year. It has a porch on it that gave me some good ideas for an addition to our hut in the alps. Unfortunately, I lost a bunch of the pictures due to a scratched disc.
After the hike, I saw a guy in the parking lot with an AMC Volunteer Trail Crew shirt on. As it turns out he also worked at the south pole this season. We both knew about each other via mutual friends. So, he rode with us to Wanaka where we met up with other fellow Antarcticans from NH. From Wanaka, Luci and I did another hike that took us up a Glacier carved valley to the flanks of Mt Aspiring; NZ’s largest mountain outside of the Mt. Cook area.
Though less than 100km away as the crow flies, our next destination Milford Sound in the Fjordland, is a full day’s drive away. We picked up a bunch of hitchhikers who have been helping to cover the cost of gas. Though Milford Sound itself was anticlimactic with the rows and rows of tourist busses, the drive was stupendous. It is in a temperate rainforest with 2500m glacier capped peaks that drop straight into the ocean. The streams are a crystal blue color and the trees are giants. It is one of the most pristine places I have ever been in my entire life. I went for a hike up to Gertrude Saddle which was a short but grueling hike. At the top of the saddle I had views which typify the area; steep glacier capped mountains, long white clouds, and a fjord at the bottom. We spent the night on the northern shore of Lake Te Anau where we were witness to a very colorful sunset.
We are now back in Wanaka. Luci went to Yoga class and I am getting ready for the next move. Today we plan to drive over Haast pass to the west coast. Fox and Franz Josef glaciers are next on our itinerary.

Well, the vortex has sucked us back in. We are back in CHC taking advantage of the free internet at the Antarctic Center and getting car parts. Internet places want $10 to put digital photos on a CD and these computers use 98 so working with images from a card reader is difficult.

Abel and Jimi are doing well. Jimi’s stalks are getting tough with all the movement but his leaves are getting a little yellow with the last of consistent sun exposure. Abel has been having problems. We got a used battery because the old one wasn’t holding charge. After a couple of days the new one wasn’t charging either. We brought it to a shop here in CHC and they put a new regulator in it and ever since it has been working great. We also went to a junk yard that specializes in van parts. We got all kinds of accessories that were either missing or broken to make it look a little nicer for resale.

The music festival, Destination, was OK. The weather was not great and we got stuck there because the road was muddy. It the breaks of sun we explored the area. There was some great rock climbing and spectacular views of the Southern Alps. After the festival we had plans to go hiking from Aurthur’s pass. The weather was not %100 so we opted to keep moving. We went to the west coast and then back over the mountains at Lewis Pass (lead photo. We had an amazing day of hiking before going back to the east coast. We spent a couple of days in the town of Kaikoura on the east coast where you can see fur seals up close.

We are a little behind schedule. Next we plan to go south to Mt. Cook and Wanaka to do some more hiking before the season catches up with us. Yesterday it was HOT here in CHC which was a pleasant surprise. We will be leaving CHC as soon as I am done with this.