Off the ice

Toto, I think we're not in Kansas anymore

Conditions:  Temperature 70° (70° with wind chill).  Sunny.

Population=381,500

 Well, we got off the ice.  The trip proved somewhat harrowing and prolonged but we are now blissfully ensconced in the Crowne Plaza in Christchurch, heading back home tomorrow.

Antarctica is shutting down for the winter. The Pole will close to all transportation in about two weeks just as the sun begins to set, leaving only the 40-50 person overwinter crew behind to face the brutally cold and dark winter.  McMurdo will close more slowly and, for the first time, will actually have winter flights to facilitate the new base construction.  Usually, about 150 people would be left in McMurdo by mid-February.  This year with all the new base construction underway, they expect to winnow down the current 1100 people to about 400in the next 10 days and and then to 300 or so at the end of April and 150 in June.

The whole medical crew.  Front:  Ariel (PA, South Pole), Chris (MD, South Pole), Shawn (RN McMurdo)
Row 2:  Nita (Visiting radiologist to do gallbladder ultrasounds for over winter crew), Amy (aerospace medicine resident), Maria (USAF flight nurse).  Row 3:  Bob (dentist), Kim (USANG flight surgeon).  Row 4: Heather (visiting PA), Dean (back of head), Row 5:  Colin (incoming winter MD), Mel (incoming winter PA), Cheryl (short term MD), me.  Missing are Marisa (flight nurse) and Tiffany (USAF flight medic) who came later.

 

The night before we left, the medical crew threw a going-away party. We have a huge group at the clinic right now with the new winter people coming in, some visiting people to help with the PQ process--ie., the health screening to be able to overwinter--and the Pole people heading out. 
We met at the coffee house--my favorite social spot on the base and a building to be torn down this year--had a few drinks and pizzas and then six of us left to "bag drag".  We had to bring our 85 pounds per person of luggage up to the transport building, wearing our extreme cold weather gear and carrying our passports so that we and the luggage could be weighed for the C17 in the morning.

Before the party, Dean and I had gone on a hike around Ob Hill (my favorite short hike).  The trail has some steep drop-offs on the side.  The wind was so strong (Dean estimate that it gusted to 40 knots) that I worried I would be blown off the side.  I actually lay down at one point, anxious about being blasted off the edge.  Dean was not sympathetic to my fit of hysterics and marched doggedly (or sealedly) on, predicting that we were about to enter the lee of Ob Hill where the wind would disappear.  He was--as always--correct that things would be better within yards but, in my experience, logic rarely trumps fear.  But it truly ended up being just fine.

We had heard that bad weather was coming and that our plane might canceled (see last blog).  Although the sky was blue the wind was worrisome. The NSF clearly decided to try to outrun the incoming storm by doing a quick turnaround in Christchurch with the prior C17 flight.  I don't think of myself as a terribly fearful person (ignore the paragraph above), but flying in bad weather because the powers that be have scheduling problems is not a recipe for inducing confidence.  That I had just visited the site of a storm-induced plane crash and that the C17 we were flying on had just been out of commission for a broken engine  contributed just a smidgen to my general uncertainty about this mission.

The Kress--our vehicle to Phoenix airfield-in December.

In the morning, at 8:15, we dutifully headed to the departure vehicle, the Kress pictured above.  About 60 of us, including 20 Italians, packed in the Kress and 30 others voyaged out to the ice shelf on Ivan the Terra Bus (see my arrival vehicle in September).

The inside of the Kress.

Although the weather had been a bit blowy when we left the base, things deteriorated in the one hour shlep to Phoenix Airfield.  There, we were struck by a veritable blizzard.  With wind and snow churning outside the open door, we sat for two hours in the unheated Kress waiting for the C17 to arrive, be unloaded and loaded with our luggage.  When I stepped outside to use the outhouse, my ski hat blew off my head.   Airfield flags flapped and cracked as if they were going to break off their bamboo poles.  Oh, joy!  Just how I like to fly!

Getting ready to load.  Red pants are Italians.

Finally, we loaded the plane.  Then we sat.  And sat.  And sat.   We waitied for five hours on that plane waiting for the weather to clear.  Dean could see out the open plane door and would occasionally murmur:  "It's Con 2 out there" or "I can't see the flags anymore".   But with my back aching in those uncomfortable seats, I no longer feared flying.  I just feared sitting.  How many saddle PE's were formed on that damn plane we'll never know.

Does this look like a happy crew?  And we still had 4 hours and 45 minutes left of sitting.

Finally, I think the crew just said, "screw it, we're going". And took off.  They were required to have 3 miles of visibility to go but they decided, I think, to waive that rule and took off, rocketing at a steep angle to get over the weather.  All good.

We arrived at the airport 9:30 PM to the smell of rain and glimpses of a full moon shining through the clouds in a dark sky.  This morning, we awoke to songbirds chirping and headed out to a breakfast with arugula, asparagus and delicious coffee.  Our phones work, we have wifi and the pictures for this blog uploaded in a flash.

Were we really in Antarctica or did we just dream it?