Evan's On-Ice Address

Here's my Mailing Address:

Evan Brost, RPSC
South Pole Station
PSC 468 Box 400
APO AP 96598

As in past years, US Post Office Domestic Shipping rates apply. Send X-mas presents by Halloween! This address is good through early February.

Where the Ice meets the Ice

On our way back from Cape Evan's, our group had the EXTREME pleasure of touring some ice caves in the tip of the Erebus Ice Tongue. The Erebus Ice Tongue is a glacier that flows, at a rate of one foot/day, down the slopes of Mt. Erebus and bulges and carves its way into the semi-permanent Sea Ice of the Ross Sea.

Occasionally, ice caves form at the tip of this glacier, where the ice flow meets the frozen sea. And once in a great blue moon, these caves are deemed stable by FSTOP (Field Safety and Training Operations) and opened up for recreational tours. This is a rare opportunity and I feel incredibly lucky to have toured the caves. I only wish the pictures could do it justice!

This captures where the glacier meets the Sea Ice


Here is the entrance to the Caves


Below are some pics of the formations of snow that builds up on the glacier face

This is sea ice, covered in snow, and cracking and bulging under the weight of the glacier

The entrance to the caves is a slide that leads to another world

Inside the caves

Here I am leaning against the face of the Erebus Ice Tongue

Cape Evan's

I took a trip out to Cape Evan's yesterday. Cape Evan's, located on the shores of Ross Island, north of McMurdo (which lies on the southern tip of the island) is named such after the first mate on Scott's expedition. An historic hut is situated here, and when you enter, it is as if you walked 90 years into the past. Due to low temps and low humidity, the hut is perfectly preserved: dead penguins, seal blubber, Heinz ketchup and all.

Icebergs float into the Ross Sea in summer and get frozen into the ice shelf in winter.

This is me below Mt. Erebus, the geologic structure that defines and towers over Ross Island

This is a Delta, our means of transportation over the sea ice.

Then and Now

I got a hold of some pics of McMurdo in the old days. These photos are all dated in 1957, when McMurdo was being developed by the Navy. I have uploaded the pictures that fit best into the "Then and Now" theme of this posting, but I have many more (over 250 total). So if you're interested (and you should be, they are outrageously cool), send me an email and I will try to get them on Flickr!

You'll see that in some ways, this place has changed dramatically. In other ways, it hasn't changed at all.

Ungainfully Employed, Part Deux

That's right, Part Deux. I could have written 'Part 2', but I decided use 'Deux' for a couple of reasons.
1) 'Deux' has three more characters than '2' and thus required more time to type. As I am ungainfully employed, anything to pass the time is a plus.
2) I had to look the word 'Deux' up in the French Dictionary to ensure I was speeling it right (no, that's not a joke . . . I actually spelled the word 'spelling' wrong) This is a bonus for the same reason as stated above.
3) Remember, "it takes deux, baby, me and you".

Yes, your old friend, chubalicious, continues to be ungainfully employed.
But there is good news!
The first two Baslar flights have left for the South Pole. That means that a good 35 summer contractors have begun the process of opening station for the main body season.

I am currently scheduled on the 6th Baslar flight - but I am not keeping my hopes up for a Baslar ride to the South Pole. My flight schedule has been switched four times already, and I expect that uncertainty will continue. Currently, my estimated departure date is officially listed as 'TBD'. The most likely scenario is that poor weather will continue to incur flight delays, and that the vast majority of us Poley's will fly south on the LC-130 sometime in early November.

I continue to go with the flow. FYI - "Go with the Flow" can be translated as "Enjoying my paid vacation in Antarctica".

Other than that, I have very little to report. My days are dominated by flight schedules, meetings, training sessions, volunteer work in the Galley, and, as always, dance parties.

Weather has been FANTASTIC. Mostly clear skies, temps in the single digits - perfect flying weather. We'll see if that holds - wishful thinking.

Things are well, my lovers are well. McMurdo is wonderful, and I'm glad NOT be working here this season. I do not think I could handle another season - the intensity of the people and the work and the living quarters grinds a sane man into the ground. I suppose that is why people who are a little 'off' tend to congregate here.

Despite the fact that I am quite content to never work McMurdo again, I continue to be thrilled to be 'on continent' and outrageously excited to be going to the South Pole. I fully expect to be blown away and to have the time of my life! I get the seaking suspicion that smaller communities will become the rule of thumb for me in the future.

Here are some random pics. Below, from top to bottom, is Scott Base (the kiwi Base); Castle Rock nestled below the ever-churning Mt. Erebus; and some 'Happy Campers' being dropped off for a night 'on the ice'.

Glad to be here

Plane schedules continue to shift.

The Basler is currently hopping across the continent from South America.
We hope for its arrival in McMurdo tomorrow, and for flights to the Amundsen - Scott South Pole Station to begin the following day, on Friday the 24th of October.

We're crossing our fingers, but we know better . . .

. . . so for the time being, we are simply glad to be here

Ungainfully employed

We are all here.
We are all ready.
The temperature at Pole is -56F, warm enough to fly Basler's and nearly warm enough to fly the LC-130's (Herc's).
Flights are scheduled this week.
Only one glitch - no planes.
In years past, weather conditions have delayed the opening of the South Pole Station by weeks.
As a result, it appears as though the the Program was in no rush to bring the planes in that fly the inter-continental missions. The Basler is still in South America and god knows where the Herc's are.
As the weather has warmed though, this is becoming a problem.
Inevitably, the rule of thumb here is that if one thing goes right, another must go wrong.
I am now scheduled to fly on the 29th on a Basler - I am not holding my breath. I am planning to celebrate Halloween at McMurdo for the 3rd consecutive year.

It sure doesn't suck to be me . . . I remind myself

Quick Update, Friends!

Originally, I was scheduled on a Basler flight on the 29th of October.
Now the Basler flights have been pushed back, and I've been switched to an LC-130 (Hercules) flight on the 4th of November.
Stay tuned, I guarantee this will change six or seven more times in the next six or seven days. Bureaucrats are frantically organizing, inputting, and color-coding schedules that will inevitably change by the time they print them out.
You learn to 'be flexible' - corporate virtue #1.

The temperature today at South Pole was -69 F.
We will not fly until the temperature warms to -50F.
Until then, I will remain in McMurdo, laboring to say busy, but effectively unemployed, for at least two more weeks.
We are all itching to go south, but I am trying to keep in mind, that there are certainly worse places to be stranded and well-paid.

Spinning

I've returned to McMurdo.

These are some sweet pics form the plane ride.

The temperature upon arrival to McMurdo was a balmy 17 below, with bright sun, clear, open vistas, and minimal wind. I am instantaneously reminded of that feeling that incessantly and mysteriously draws me back, that feeling that I cannot quite pin down, that sense of adventure, escape, beauty, that sense of the bizarre and surreal, that sense that you are now completely removed from the ordinary.
And yet, one day into my stay at McMurdo, I am reminded of just how rote, boring, and absolutely ordinary this place can be.
It seems we search for something here that is elusive: this place, that is so foreign to human survival, feels so familiar.
McMurdo Station is an unending series of hyprocies and contradictions.
And we all seem to Love it . . . and Hate it.

My head is spinning. Retention rate for employees was 77% this year - unusually high. As a result, I find myself afloat in friends, many of whom I had no expectation of ever seeing again. Its been a whirlwind reunion over the last 24 hours.
Basically, I am overwhelmed; pulled outside of myself by a week of flights, bus rides, talking heads, drinking, new friends, and old lovers. Its been a lot, and it can spiral you out of control, if you don't keep a clear head.

But its all good in the McNeighborhood. I will spend two weeks here, training and screwing around. On October 29th, I am scheduled to fly to Pole. My excitement is growing.

Ferocious Lovers

I departed Milwaukee at 10:40 am on Tuesday, the 7th of October, 2008, to a tearful mother. I spent two weeks counting down the days to the deployment, but my last day in Wisconsin was marked not by anticipation, but the sorrow of leaving home. My excitement for my third season on the ice is matched in ferocity only by the sadness of leaving my family. I arrived in Denver via Dallas-Fort Worth in the late afternoon and was shuttled to my hotel. I was greeted at the Staybridge Inn and Suites by an open bar and my distant, but ferocious lovers from my first year on the ice, Isaac Bean and Rachel Edie, whom had driven down from Boulder to see me. These two were later named 'my parentheses', as they remained tight on each side of me for the remainder of the night. We ripped into the open bar and then mosied downtown in search of boos and music. We succeeded fabulously on both accounts - we sucked down a Bathtub Margarita at a jazz club in Downtown Denver.

A half an hour into communal bathtub of boos, we realized that despite our best best efforts, we were not making a dent in the volume of our Margarita. So we redoubled our efforts and another half hour later, found ourselves on the dance floor. We managed to embarrass ourselves just enough to receive a larger applause from the audience than the musicians themselves. The night got foggy from there, with middle eastern cuisine and hookahs.

We crashed late in the hotel room, only to wake three hours later for a chem lab and a full day of Human Resources Orientation, respectively. It was not going to be a good day.
After orientation, I napped from 3:30 pm until after 11pm. I would not be able to sleep the rest of the night. I guess I began my transition to NZ time a little early.
That next day, we completed orientation (safety training - yeah!) and boarded a bus for Denver International Airport. That commenced the beginning of two bus rides, three flights, and 36 hours of travel.
I arrived in CHC at 11am on the morning of Saturday, the 11th of October. It was in the am, NZ time, but I hadn't seen a bed for 48 hours.
Nevertheless, I was light and bouncy: the effects of being in NZ. The sun shining, a new adventure beginning, and I was in my favorite country on Earth with many of my favorite people on Earth!
Well, ladi-da, Evan, why don't you just give yourself a gold-star.