Thursday, December 22, 2005

This was a night flight, I think. We all got to the site, and set up, and then everyone scattered to find their own space on a rock. I found this lovely little rock and took the opportunity to bask in the warm sun. The weather was perfectly calm. No wind. I remember lying on this rock and listening to the ice shelf crack. It’s a fascinating sound, like a muffled snap, only deep and powerful. There are so many amazing features in this place, so many sounds, smells, colors, textures. It’s like an enormous playground for all of your senses. I distinctly remember the feeling of sitting on that rock, the warm sun, the cool crisp air, the immense ice shelf cracking in the distance. I love Antarctica.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Fun in the field

We conduct what is called a “footprint” survey at many of the sties we visit. This involves putting out several receivers within a close proximity to the main mark. These sites are occupied for an hour, and will show if the main site is unstable. When we get to a site that is being footprinted, we set the equipment up, and then while the receivers record data for an hour, we have time to look at the local geology, explore, or in most cases, goof around and have fun. Everyone in the group likes to explore, but Paul, one of the pilots, is my favorite person to run around and play with. He is like a mountain goat, always dashing around everywhere and thinking of fun things to do. At this site, Paul noticed a peak of snow and decided to run up it (which is so much fun at 8-10,000 ft. elevation in 20 pounds of clothing…it’s an incredible feeling to get to the top of a hill or cliff and be totally out of breath and exhausted, especially in Antarctica…the fresh cold air filling your lungs…you just feel so alive and happy!) At any rate, I saw Paul at the top of this hill, diving on his belly and sliding all over the place, and I thought to myself “What an extraordinary idea!!!” So, of course, I ran up and joined in the fun. The snow is the perfect consistency for sliding. It’s not ice, but rather packed snow that’s been sheared smooth by the wind. We found intermittent patches of this smooth snow to slide on, all the way back down to the bottom of the hill. The peak in this photo was a beauty, nice and steep. Mike Starbuck saw us sliding down it and decided to come join in the fun. How could you not?!? He was the one that ended up taking this photo. Thanks Mike! The photo shows Paul standing with his legs apart, and me sliding down the hill on my belly right before I went through Paul’s legs. Outstanding fun!

Another favorite activity while waiting for the footprint to finish is rock bowling. This involves pushing precariously placed boulders over the edges of cliffs. Or, in some cases, this involves smashing, shoving, and coaxing quite happily placed boulders into submission, which means, again, getting them over the edge of a cliff. Here is a photo of Mark and I trying to push a massive boulder over the edge.

And…success! The bounder is jarred loose. It’s amazing the noise these beasts make when the go over. It’s stunning. Sometimes you can get a good 5 or 6 second free-fall.

Here is a shot to give you some idea of the cliff scale. This doesn’t even come close to showing the whole thing, but you get the point! In this photo, you can see us standing in our big red parkas at the top of the cliff. Imagine throwing a boulder over that puppy…now that’s some fun bowling!