Supporting Science
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Supporting science. That has been the name of the game this week. On Wednesday our first group of scientist arrived: I-205. They are studying the movement of the continental ice sheet and, more specifically, the effect of the tides on the movement of glaciers that spill out onto the Ross Ice Shelf. We had been lead to believe that they would arrive here and immediately go out deeper into the field and set up a smaller camp. But as it has turned out they will be based here for three weeks; flying out to their study sites with a Twin Otter. So, our numbers have jumped from three to ten. Tomorrow another group is scheduled to arrive on a Herc: I-345. This could push our numbers up to nineteen.
Needless to say, the three of us camp crew have been quite busy. Day before yesterday, was a LONG day. We got up early to start observations for a proposed 1000 departure from McMurdo. One Twin Otter and a Herc with fuel to fill our fuel bladder. They were both delayed which meant we got up early for nothing. We spent the day shoveling out from a couple of days of bad weather. Don and I were four feet down in a pit digging out our fuel bladder when Luci called us to say that she overheard on the radio that two Hercs might be diverting here for fuel from South Pole and WAIS Divide. Apparently the weather at McMurdo had gotten bad and they were planning to try and wait it out here and see if there was any improvement. So we quickly got the fueling system started and in an hour we had two Hercs roaring away in the fuel pits. To make matters noisier, one of them was having engine issues and had to leave all engines on a high idle. And then the pilot came out and tried to strike up a conversation. The engineer on the second Herc kept complaining about how slowly our pump pumped. I kindly explained that THEY were supposed to be giving US fuel rather than vice-versa.
After they left we were 6000 gallons of fuel lighter and the top of our bladder was four feet deeper in the hole. We spent the next four hours before the next flight trying to get to the point we were before we gave away all our fuel. We tried to use our grooming equipment to dig it out but it simply wasn’t designed for digging. So we dug by hand and groomed the pile of snow out of the way. Around dinner time the Twin Otter arrived with three crew and the science group leader. The Herc tanker didn’t arrive until 1am. They dropped of three palettes of stuff and gave us 3000 gallons of fuel.
It has been getting warm here. Standing snow is melting and the ground is getting kind of slushy. Today, on our theoretical day off, Luci and I finished filling the snow cave with the frozen food that was still sitting out on the surface so that it won’t thaw on us. Since the Twin Otter crew is using the Polar Haven as their dorm, there’ll be no shower today. Tonight I’m going to fire up the grill.
Luke