Ready to go

It's going to be hard to leave this
For this:
This is one of the vehicles I will be driving down there.

A fresh dusting of snow fell on Ward Mountain and the Como Peaks last week, making them appear much taller somehow. Seventy-nine green tomatoes grow obliviously in the garden. It is the perfect weather for hiking – clear, sunny, and 70 degrees. Ah, I love this time of year! Just when I have finally made friends with the fat brown garden spider who guards the entrance to our tiny garden, when we have finally found the elusive Gleason Lake way up in the hills behind the house, and when Elizabeth and Ben are all settled in at the University of Montana in Missoula and such fun to hang out with, it is time to go.

This past weekend the kids came home and we all jammed to Boston, the Cars, and other groups on Ben’s new computer game, Rock Band. Every person gets an instrument and I got to sing "More Than a Feeling." Somehow I hit those high notes - I closed my eyes and she slipped awaaaaAAAAAaAYYYYYYY - although I think I heard the neighbor’s dogs howl. Scott's favorite to sing was "Psycho Killer" - fa fa fa fa fa fa far better....run, run, run away! What a riot – better than karaoke! We’ll all be back together in March, but there is still a feeling of saying goodbye to the kids and beautiful Montana for a long time.
We’ll go from seeing this:

To seeing this:

Scott will probably be seeing something more like this:

This Saturday, October 4th, I fly to Denver for two days of orientation, then I fly to L.A., then to Sydney, Australia (15 hour flight!), then on to Christchurch, New Zealand for two days to get outfitted in extreme weather gear, then finally, on October 10th, I’ll get to McMurdo. Works starts on the 11th! I’m going to be exhausted and jet-lagged, but still super-excited! Yeehaw!

Scott follows about 10 days later and it turns out that there’s a good chance we might be able to room together for a time, since he’ll be in McMurdo for several weeks palletizing supplies. Then he continues to the South Pole to acclimatize for about a week before going on to AGAP field camp way out on the ice sheet. The altitude will be 15,000 ft (physiologically speaking), with average temps around -30 degrees. 40 other men will all be sleeping in Quonset huts. No showers, no washing machines, no privacy, no amenities. He was told to bring handy-wipes in lieu of showering. Glad I took the driving job!

We’ll be apart for at least 2.5 months though. Sigh. Scott finishes 3 weeks before I do and is planning on touring around New Zealand with his sister, Kathy, and maybe his niece, Jess, for a bit before I get there.

Scott is going to be on a project which will be mapping the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountain range (see map below). He is second-in-command at the camp, and has just returned from two weeks of intense medical and meteorological training in Colorado.



Here are just a few interesting facts to entertain you all before I actually have any stories to tell:

Antarctica is the highest, driest, coldest, windiest, and emptiest place on the planet.

Less than 200,000 people have ever been there. My Dad has been there twice with the Coast Guard in the 60’s, and even won a trip to the South Pole by getting a hundred on a trivia contest! The slide shows he put on for us as kids partly inspired me to go.

The ice is 3 miles thick in some parts.

Antarctica holds 90% of the world’s ice and 70% of the fresh water.

Temperatures in McMurdo will be around zero when I get there, but will warm up to 30’s. Scott will be a lot chillier than me.

There is one long day and one long night there, which works out well for me because I will be doing the night shift for about 6 weeks. The ever-present sunshine will help me adjust…I hope.

Everyone down there works at least 54 hours a week. I’ll be working five 12-hour days. Whew.

No one owns Antarctica. 46 countries have signed the Antarctic Treaty which ensures the continued peaceful pursuit of scientific research.

Antarctica is about 1.5 times as big as the United States.

From McMurdo to Washington, D.C. is about 9,920 miles. Antarctica is between 16-18 hours ahead of the U.S.

The first person to walk on Antarctica was in 1895.

OK, so call me crazy, but I think the continent of Antarctica looks a little like a Who from Whoville in Dr. Seuss's Grinch story. Work with me here. If you look at the continent, the peninsula at 10 o'clock is the nose of a Who and Ross Sea is the mouth. Can't you hear it singing "Fah who for-aze, Dah who dor-aze, welcome, welcome, Christmas day!" OK, so I have a vivid imagination that causes me to personify continents ;-)

The little tooth on the bottom is McMurdo Station where I will be.








I’ve spent the last three months reading books about and by the great explorers trying to reach the Pole, or traversing the continent, and let me tell you, I have had my fill of hearing about people eating their beloved dogs and how they had to shoot the ship’s cat, all the ponies, and cute little puppies to lessen the number of mouths to feed. I don’t want to read anything else about having scurvy so bad your teeth fall out, frostbite so severe you can peel off your entire outer ear, and starvation so terrible that seal meat tastes delicious. McMurdo is basically a resort compared to all of that, but let’s hope Scott doesn’t end up having skin fall off his ear or any other part out there at AGAP.

3,000 people worked at U.S. stations last year, and they came from 48 states (with Colorado, Alaska, and California sending the most people). Wonder which states aren’t represented? I'm going to try to find out discreetly, collecting where people are from like some people collect the quarters from all the states. Stay tuned.

1,100 people will be at McMurdo during the Austral summer. 34% are female.

So, after background checks, physicals, blood tests, drug tests, dental exams, flu shots, etc. we’re ready to roll. My plan is to tell entertaining stories in this blog and provide pictures as well. I will occasionally be able to talk with Scott via an Iridium satellite phone, so I will pass along his stories too. Email me if you have any specific questions or you want me to relay a message to Scott.

Here is a goofy picture of the family I’m going to miss so much! Elizabeth had us all go to a thrift store and pick out the ugliest clothes for a photo shoot last Christmas. Aren’t they precious ;-)

It looks like we all just took a valium, doesn't it?

Check out this amazing time lapse video on Antarctica that Scott found on the web:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TemK6CF6lF0