2 December 2008 Another Long Day

Journal

I went to Heald Island today. I was excited to go back to this amazing place and I didn't even mind that it would be a lot of hard work. It's interesting how your priorities change. I haven't had a chance to do laundry or take a shower in over a week. At home I would never be alright with wearing dirty socks or having dirty hair. Here, I don't even notice. The main thing is that I have enough warm clothes on, whether they are clean or dirty. As we were walking to the helicopter, I noticed that another helicopter was taking off and it had some cargo attached. They use helicopters to deliver supplies to the field camps.

A helicopter taking off with cargo. — They use helicopters to deliver much needed supplies to remote field camps.

On the ride out to Heald Island I sat by the window with my camera. The landscape is amazing. There are volcanoes, both active and extinct.

A view from the helicopter. — The view includes mountains covered in snow and others that have been blown clean.

Then after a little while the surface is relatively flat. It is ice with these raised areas that are covered with snow. It is quite lovely.

Another view throught the window of the helicopter. — There are areas of the ice that are a lovely blue-green and it has mounds of snow in some areas.

During the helicopter ride, the helo tech noticed some clouds and verified that we had an Iridium phone. He didn't think the clouds would be a problem but he wanted to be on the safe side. As I got off the helicopter I noticed what he meant.

A cloudy view. — When we landed the area back towards McMurdo Station appeared to be covered in clouds.

When we arrived at the field camp we went right to work. The team split into two groups. My group consisted of Stacy and myself. It was our responsibility to put up the new tent. During the four days that we were unable to go to Heald Island, there was Condition 1 weather and the Arctic Oven was destroyed. The poles were bent and several were blown yards away and the fabric part of the tent was all torn. We had another type of tent called a Kiva tent. It is very different from the Arctic Oven. It is about one third of the size and it doesn't have a floor. The Kiva tent has one pole in the middle and the fabric part has five corners that you secure in the ice with ice screws. It was a big step down but we managed.

A Kiva tent. — This is the second tent we had set up on Heald Island. It is quite a bit smaller than the first.

The other team consisted of Francois and Scott. They were responsible for getting SCINI ready. Francois found it necessary to operate on SCINI and thankfully the operation was a success.

Francois is operating on SCINI. — Sometimes it is necessary to make adjustments to SCINI in the field.

After SCINI was deployed, Stacy asked me to fix some lunch. The directions for the hummus called for some water. Francois told me that the freshest water in the world was just steps away and he took me to a hole that we had drilled.

A source of drinking water? — Francois said that the layer of fresh water on top of the salt water was drinkable.

I scooped out some water and then decided that I better try it myself.

I decided to try the fresh water. — This hole contained some delicious fresh water. I had a big cup full.

Francois was right. It was delicious.

After lunch I decided to take a walk. I wanted to see just how far land was. I planned to walk for an hour and then turn around unless it was not too much farther.

The view for my walk. — I walked towards the continent but it was just too far.

As I was walking I couldn't get over how beautiful the terrain was. There were areas where the ice had exploded upwards and it looked like a volcano. Other areas looked like a sheet of ice with mini icebergs floating in the middle.

The surface was covered in ice. — Some areas looked like mini icebergs sitting in the middle of the ice.

After an hour I realized that land was at least two more hours away and I turned back. I found an easier path back to the camp and it took me a lot less time. Maybe next time I will take the easier path and hope it goes all the way to land.

When I returned it was time to retrieve SCINI. The next step was to drill some more ice holes. I didn't want to drill because earlier when I had been drilling with Stacy, she had accidentally hit me in the head with the drill. The boys offered to do the drilling and decided to show off and use two drill flights attached together. I couldn't even reach the drill. They were right though, it was a whole lot faster.

The guys use two drill flights at one time. — It was tall but it was also faster. The guys finished drilling the hole in a lot less time.

It was 9:45pm and the helicopter was due any minute. At 10:00pm Stacy called and they told her that they would be at least an hour late. At about 11:30pm the helicopter arrived. We were very happy to see it. The thought of spending the night in the Kiva tent was not very attractive.

The helicopter finally returns to pick us up. — The weather was poor in McMurdo Station so the helicopter was late picking us up.

When we returned to McMurdo Station Bob told us that he had been very worried about us because it had been snowing and they had declared a Condition 2 at the station. You really have to prepare for anything because the weather can change drastically within minutes.

Another day at Heald Island is over. It was a very long day but a very productive day. Hopefully tomorrow will be just as good.

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