winter wonderland

i recently became a trained leader for the mcmurdo station outing
club, and on christmas eve we took our first outing club trip! we
held the trip out at snow mound city, a site out on the sea ice shelf
located on 40 meters of snow, suspended above 80 meters of ocean.



in this first photo was taken from the top of the castle rock loop trail. this steep steep slop is called the "kiwi ski hill" and leads down to snow mound city. the little black spots out in the distance are two huts that mark our camping
spot. i took a piston bully (basically a mini tracked truck) with all
of our group gear and met the campers who came on foot. the weather
was absolutely beautiful, with afternoon temperatures in the mid 20's
and absolutely no wind.



snow mound city is also the training grounds for our "happy camper
school" so in many ways in resembles stumbling upon an ancient site
where primitive antarctians lived! ironically, most of the "primitive
sites" were built within the past month but with harsh winds the snow
block walls get blown away.



the four leaders, which included my
friends matt, erin, richard and i all spent the first hour taking
photos and playing in the snow. i have found the doing head stands in
the snow has to be one of my favorite snow activities.



after all the campers congregated, we checked in with mcmurdo's
firehouse via VMF radios to inform town that we were all accounted
for.



then, we made tea and settled in to our sleeping quarters. i
made a nest in a quinsy (basically a snow formed igloo) shaped like a
large turtle. with looming mt erebus in the background and petrified
snow letters that spelled out "hi mom" and "hi dad" (all of which are
illustrated in the second to last photo)..i thought this was the
perfect place to spend xmas eve and christmas morning!



no need to dream about a white wonderland... *grin* i was in one!

it was a fabulous and magical night. revealing the silence possible
in the world, *grin* and the vast expanse that we rarely experience.

heavy shop holiday party

if there is one thing folks at mcmurdo know how to do, *grin* it's throw a party. the parties here are, without question, some of the best!

these lovely photos are from our holiday party held over at the VMF-vehicle maintanence facility; basically we partied down in our autoshop! leave it to ice folks to make a party in the most unexpected places!



our christmas choir sang for a few hours and then the party turned to swing dancing! even the most terrible dancers hit the floor-some quite literally.



each department was required to build chirstmas decorations. the most impressive was the leg lamp from "the christmas story". unfortunately, i forgot to take a photo.

however, i did get some shots with santa on the antarctic skidoo! i am accompanied by my roommates: elizabeth and krista, and santa is an electrician!



my department, ATO-antarctic terminal operations-all posed for a photo too! most of the shuttlies are missing, but these are many of the faces i see every day!

stellar axis

on the solstice i participated in the first ever conceptual art performance piece to be funded by the NSF.



created by Lita Albequerque, an artist based out of LA, this work maps the constellations locatated above this particular location, nearly at the bottom of the earth.

lita worked with an astronomer and a GPS cordinating system to plot 99 fiberglass cobalt blue balls on the sea ice so that they mirror the brightest 99 stars in the southern hemisphere. lita was interested in visually representing the light emitted from these stars in on the longest and brightest day of the year.



then, i drove IVAN the Terra Bus, out to her sight with 58 people. together, coordinated with helocopter pilots and a cinematographer, we walked to create a moving spiral within these ploted stars.







here at mcmurdo, we commonly refered to lita's project as "the blue balls", which made me one of the blue ball handlers.

happy camper

last night i spent my first evening sleeping on snow in snow.
i went to happy camper!



happy camper is an over night school that teaches the basic in skills needed to survive out during harsh polar storms.

we learned how to read the weather, put up scott tents, which are designed based on the traditional tents used by first antarctic explorers...



create strudy anchors for glacier/mountaineering tents,



and build a cozy little camp compound (a phrase. i ironically adapted from africa). i most enjoyed building the wind walls for our compound. using hand saws, we cut 4 feet down into the packed snow and pulled up perfectly square blocks.



then, with banana sleds, we transported the blocks to build a four foot wall that "blocked the harsh southernly winds that were starting to make it's way to our camp".



*grin* really, the night was calm and the storm slow--we just pretended for the sake of practice that we had harsh winds. my friend matt (one of the co-instructors) even went so far as to act like the wind, picking up things that we carelessly set down and stealing them for the night.



lastly, we learned how to build quinzy's: basically bonified snow forts. the experience was collaborative...and using the right techniques they become very strong!! and, to my surprize, they were warm. i slept all night without a peep.

the most noteworthy skill i learned in happy camper is to be physically proactive. to anticipate my bodily needs.

in order to prevent hypothermia, all people in the field have to consider their physical needs first and always think ahead. personally, i think most acedemic's are physically hypothermic. *laughter* but that is another story!



somehow all of this seems crucial to my art. that is beautiful and serene.