The cold earth sleeps below, above the cold sky shines

Billboard in Christchurch on arrival.  'Nuff said.

I'm sitting in IAH, waiting for the plane to leave for New Zealand (Aukland non-stop and then Christ Church).  I thought I'd introduce everyone to the medical team heading to Antarctica.  From left to right: Dean . Lead Physician at McMurdo .  The lead physician is responsible for the health care at all three US bases and at the various field camps.  He is the interface between the Polar Medical Program (run by Univ. Texas Medical Branch) and the National Science Foundation which runs the entire US Antarctic Program.  He also runs the training programs (mass casualty training, for example) and is responsible for the public health of the base and for food safety.  Dean spent one month in McMurdo ten years ago. Joe.    Physical Therapist at McMurdo.  This is Joe's third tour in Antarctica, once over winter.  Laidback and funny.  He's arriving in October when the summer crew starts to trickle in. He has two kids in the military, o...

Dr. Koff teaching us how to use equipment and do an exam Evacuation from Antarctica can be extremely expensive: millions of dollars last year for a single, heroic, winter evacuation from the South Pole.  In the summer season, a critical care evacuation can cost upwards of a million dollars.  The most common reason for evacuation, however, is pretty mundane.  It's teeth.  Dental problems are incredibly common.  Fortunately, however, they are rarely urgent so no added flights or equipment are required; evacuation just entails hopping on one of the relatively frequent Air Force flights from McMurdo to New Zealand. Nevertheless, the Antarctic Program likes to avoid evacuations because the loss of essential personnel can be quite challenging in and of itself. Because teeth are a substantial concern, over the last two days, our afternoons have been spent learning emergency dental care.  The goals are: 1) to prevent evacuation, and  2) to tide people o...

Dean and I have been in Galveston for the last three days, getting "trained" for our Antarctica trip.  My experience at this orientation has induced me to make this blog private.  Without doubt, this is the most disorganized training program I've ever experienced--so bad that it makes me fearful about actual survival on the ice. We're asked to arrive for meetings and then we sit and wait for over an hour doing nothing.  Benefits office never showed up at all. The big boss tells us that we are doing the work on a dime, with inadequate resources and staff. There are insufficient resources to permit the usual "perks" of spending 6 months on the ice.  To me, this probably means no trip to the South Pole. Noisy construction will be going on 24 hours a day on the base. Major members of the supervisory team retired in the last month and no replacements have been identified. The orientation is poorly prepared: lectures are tedious, redundant, and don't ...