A blog from a science nut, computer geek, sometimes philosopher, and a human. Based out of Denver, with a love of Antarctica, I seem to wander the world so who knows where I'll be in 6 months.
I just finished watching Anthony Powell’s “Antarctica: A Year on the Ice” and having spent over a year on the Ice now (minus 3 weeks for a round trip home) it puts many things in perspective. It’s nearly the end of October, and my brain does finally feel like it’s returned to a nearly normal … Read more
So we have 3.2% of station touching science. The other 96.8% of the people are keeping this place from being overrun by the environment and preparing it for the wave of people at summer. It gives you an interesting perspective on how harsh this place is when you realize that your overhead has to be so high.
The most remarkable joy of my return to the Ice 7 years later is the amount of joy and laughing I’ve be apart of during these last two seasons. This last summer I started by everything being last minute and so was delivered into the Network Operations Center (NOC) without knowing any of my direct … Read more
A few days ago I went out to Pegasus preparing for flight ops to work on a troublesome weather computer exhibiting strange networking problems. Driving back from Pegasus I got caught in a Herbie and it went from Condition 2 to Condition 1 in all of 10 seconds. During the ensuing seven hours waiting, … Read more
This is my 3rd season in McMurdo, two Summers, and now a Winter. In many ways I’m still a neophyte as compared to some of the 15+ year veterans and some things are still new to me. For most of my readers, you’ve never been to the Ice, so I want to elucidate on some … Read more
This week has been all about the sun, the moon, and the stars, well after the unexpected plane that landed here on Monday. It’s been exhausting, but amazingly fun. Some of you may have read my previous post on the mechanics of final sunset, which was an interesting research project. Following that post I went … Read more
Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How, although the latter is generally tacked on. I’m the “Who,” and hopefully an older and wiser “Who” then when I started this this written journey. Having started to write again for my blog, and being more self-aware of time, feelings, motivation, and having the perspective of time, I … Read more
Last time I was down 7 years ago, I wanted to do an inventory of all the strange vehicles on station. I didn’t remember that I wanted to do that until just a few minutes ago when a friend back home asked me about the how a Pisten Bully–hereafter referred to as a PB as … Read more
For the first time in what feels like a month I feel unhindered by the feelings of lethargy, exhaustion, pain, and being brain fuzzy caused by my body’s battle with sickness. The upside is that my abs are probably in great shape from all the coughing. After getting the crud just before last flight and … Read more
Once again Andre get’s the ice scoop. Apparently the smurf shack at the Pegasus Airfield in McMurdo Antarctica decided it was tired of the cold and lit itself on fire to warm up… it’s a frustrating 30-minute ride out to the airfield, watching the flames. we’re told that the smurf shack is a total loss, but there’s … Read more