Boondoggling

Boondoggle (noun): A wasteful project or activity

Boondoggling (I'd never heard of it either) has assumed further meaning in McMurdo.  As well as expending resources on an unnecessary activity, it can also imply someone is simply being lazy or wasting time.  McMurdo site staff going to snow school is an example of boondoggling in the first sense.  They don't need to learn how to build a quinzy or snow wall, but they go anyway (in this case for their own enjoyment, rather than being set the task needlessly).  Having been called a boondoggler yesterday, though, I'm pretty sure the second definition of the word was being used.

It's Thanksgiving weekend, and on Friday there was a mini festival - Freezing Man (in reference to the Burning Man festival in Nevada) - held in the big gym on site.  I went along and ended up drinking a little too much whisky and going to bed a little too late.  Seeing as almost everyone has the weekend of work apart from us out at the balloon facility there were no regular shuttles out to work.  My only option yesterday was to get a bus at 7:30am.  As I'm sure you've guessed, I missed it, slept until 11 and then boondoggled my way through the day.  Ryan (my supervisor) was not amused.  Luckily for me the weather got bad by midday, forcing everyone back to McMurdo for the afternoon, so at least I only missed a half day of work.

Condition 2: pretty windy!

Other boondoggles I've taken part in:

• Hanging out in the McMurdo "greenhouse"
  
  
• Getting Ivan The Terra-Bus to work (painfully slow ... excellent for having a nap)
  
  
• Playing MANY games of cards
• Eating too much, hanging around in the canteen to avoid boredom
• Taking photos of outhouses, just to give people an idea of the full Antarctic experience
  
  

Non-boondoggle exercises:

• Cabling up ANITA
• Going to the gym, TWICE!
• Not a whole lot else (still gets a bullet point though, makes me feel better)

Blogging in bullet point form, efficient and easy.  Blog done!

Oh, and my uncle is here!  He's in McMurdo for a few days before going up Erebus to get cold for a month.

Vertigo...

What a week since my last entry!  I've just got back from discovering a major vertigo issue - more on that later - and am sitting with legs still feeling tight from the nerves, though that could be partly due to the constricting feel of long underwear.  Luckily I'm being helped by an awesome view (see below) and a hot chocolate to calm down with, so get ready for a long post...

View across to the Royal Society Range (taken from Ob Hill)

To keep things in chronological order I'll start off with snow school, a.k.a. Happy Camper.  The whole experience was ace!  Even the sitting around in a classroom "learning" about issues of common sense, plus some pretty gruesome images of frostbite, wasn't so bad.

In my trench

After the dull class bit was over everyone was shipped out in a Delta to the ice shelf, only a couple of km from McMurdo and even close to Scott Base, but a great site for a camp.  We were lucky with pretty perfect weather and got stuck in to setting up tents, then building first a quinzy (a cross between and igloo and ice cave), a wind-breaking snow wall, and finally optional trenches to sleep in.  Or, in one guys case, an ill fated igloo which turned into mini Stonehenge at literally the 11th hour.

Stonehenge

During all this my record for personal disaster kept up good form.  First I lost my little red windbreaker jacket issued to me, panicked searches were carried out even as I had to be leaving for snow school.  I hadn't even worn the damn thing and they're bloody expensive!  Then, on the way out to the ice I managed to misplace a mitt liner.  Not a big loss until your fingers are too cold for gloves and you have to spend another 10 hours outside worrying about frostbite (chemical hand-warmers are my savior).  Finally, as I was quarrying blocks of ice for the snow wall I realised I'd lost a side sun-protector from my new glasses.  Fuck!  Although I had two days of niggling worries about where all this stuff was, I can tell you now that I left the jacket in Christchurch, the sunglasses side protector may or may not be replaceable, but isn't totally necessary and would make me look like a tool in any non-icy situation.  The mitt liner is still unaccounted for, but I'm pretty sure I'll get it back from a lost and found.  Who cares anyway, I'm just chuffed I found the jacket!

So after working out how to keep my hands warm without mitts, my eyes protected sans side protectors and my body warm without the windbreaker (easy really, Big Red was far more useful anyway, and I had a North Face jacket of my own), I went to bed.  And got cold.  I was fine for most of the night, with Big Red and two roll mats under my warm sleeping bag.  Only I fell asleep before I could be bothered to locate a little string that tightens the sleeping bag over the shoulders (in addition to the usual head one).  Result of this?  I wake up at 4 in the morning with freezing shoulders and give myself a sharp kick for being such an idiot.  Other than that, the night in the trench was awesome, if a little big of a struggle to get dressed in the next morning.

Hmm, it appears I'm still having issues with photo uploads, but anyway....

ANITA goes in the EMI tent

After a couple of relatively quiet days following the snow school (there seriously isn't much to do here), I decided to go to a prom night that had been organised at the Berg Field Centre (the gear issue centre for field camps).  Can't remember much of the night now, but I did manage to make it into work on Sunday.  This was a bad idea.  I got nothing done, not even sleep.

Ob Hill looking innocent

Then today, Monday, I decided to climb Ob Hill, which overlooks both McMurdo and Scott Base.  The views up there are incredible but the structural stability of the paths are not.  Having walked up the lower section of the path, I reach the icier, steeper section in good spirits.  The climb is only a km or so, but is pretty steep so takes a while.  For me it takes ages, I end up on my hands and knees for much of it, and even though I know the ice is not compacted much, making it halfway between ice and snow and perfectly easy to walk on for much of the route, my mind cannot get over the fact it was ice.  So I scramble up the non-icy sections, which are covered in small gravel, very loosely packed and totally shit for walking on.

Finally getting to the top, with many muttered fucks and shits and what the hell am I doing, why don't I just bloody stand ups, I meet a guy who is calm as you like.  "I saw you earlier on" he says cheerfully, "you took a bit longer than I expected".  Yes.  I fucking did.  I was being a fucking pussy.

Vertigo anyone?  McMurdo from Ob Hill

Any hopes that I might be able to head back down with him, providing both confidence and safety, quickly fade as he says his goodbyes after only a few seconds and tells me to enjoy the view.  Looking down about 5 minutes later I see he's already got a third of the way down, even though the hill must have at least a 20 degree incline and is slippery as hell.  So getting out my camera I decide to try and calm down.

Getting back down is now a bit of a blur.  Many more profanities were muttered, it is definitely harder hiking down that up.  But halfway towards the bottom I realised that I was being a twat and that walking would be much easier than my preferred mode of crab position scrambling.  After a few false starts, I finally made the last 20 metres of the hard section of the hike walking bipedal, like a human, only with stiff legs from all the prior panicking.

Now, pleased that I made it, but with a cloud of shame for being such a tit about it all, I'm still calming down.

I'm going to climb the bastard again though.

Heading out ...

Shitty blogs and their shitty inability accept image uploads.  Then the shitty image placement/movement options.  It’s very frustrating, I may have to put photos on facebook or Flickr instead…

Venting over (for now at least), on to more pleasing matters.  ANITA is being pieced together nice and quickly, though the small parts of the test data I’m supposed to be analysing are causing a few headaches.  I’m getting the complete Antarctic experience and will be heading out today onto the ice sheet for a day of snow school followed by a night in a tent, I even get altitude training.  And finally, Hereford are no longer propping up League 1 (US spellcheckers claim ‘Hereford is no longer propping up League 1’, which brings up an issue I’d like resolved; should a football team be referred to as a singular?   It sounds wrong to me, ESPN coverage of sport - ‘sports’, they’re probably right on that one - pisses me off).

The snow school thing is quite cool.  I’m doing it so I can be backup for trips out to Taylor Dome and WAIS (West Antarctic Ice Sheet).  3 other ANITA members will be making the trip out to both sites to set up pulsing antennas that ANITA will be able to see.

Delta

I’ve managed to get off base finally for a trip too, riding in a Delta out to some ice caves.  So now I can say I’ve been in a crevasse, only I went in from the side not the top.  Hopefully pictures will be up of that soon… (they now are!)

Erebus(?) with a fair amount of wind

Nothing else to say really, other than weight loss efforts have faltered after my grand start with the football.  But I’m determined not to have to cook for Jo any more than I would normally (not out of meanness, I look after my girlfriend, rather annoyance at my lack of fitness and my vanity).

Arrived!

I made it to Antarctica!!!  Turns out it’s not THAT cold.

Flying in style and comfort on a C17

Actually, I’ve been here since Friday (so 4 days), but have been pretty busy, this and the lack of a laptop have prevented me from making an entry until now.  In fact, while the internet services are surprisingly good given the location, I’m having to write this in my room, then wait till I get to work before I’m able to post it.

McMurdo dorms

What’s McMurdo and Antarctica actually like?  For starters, the town (if you can call it that) is on a rocky island, one of the few down here, called Ross Island.   It’s a bit like a mining/drilling settlement in looks – like the pictures you see of communities in northern Alaska and Canada.  The views over the ice sheet are stunning though; my photography skills are not doing them any justice.  Even better for these views though is where I’m working.  The long duration balloon sight is out at one of the airfields on the Ross Ice Sheet called Williams Field.  From it we can see Mount Erebus, which is on Ross Island about 20km from McMurdo and Willy Field., as well as other islands – White and Black Islands being the closest.

Frisbee at work, Erebus in background

Mostly over the last few days I’ve been going to briefings and settling in.  But I have also managed some work – mainly cabling of the instrument, preparing the surfaces of random RF stuff … not the most exciting, but fine to be getting on with.  Other than that, I’ve been embarrassed by Americans when playing 4 a side football, not only am I shit but also horrendously unfit.  Tomorrow (or today … time differences, writing night before posting … gargh) I’m going on a trip to ice caves.  Exciting.  Though no idea what it’ll be like.

What ANITA looks like right now

More photos will come soon; they’re clearly much more interesting than the blog, I just haven’t taken too many yet.  Get ready for a load of photos of people in sunglasses and Big Reds (the huge parka) and fun physicsy instrument photos.  Bet you can hardly wait!  No penguins though.  None.  Bastards are too small for me to see when I don’t have my glasses on, which is always when outside.  I don’t want be sunblinded for the sake of a bird that cant even fly and turns out to be way smaller than I always thought they were.  If I do see one up close then obviously my opinion will change. (Best.  Birds.  Ever.  I’m sure.)

Edit .... no photos as yet - the upload is too hefty for the server here.

Edit edit ... photos now!

Hello. Welcome to my blog. Thanks for reading my first post. I've started this blog to let people know about what I'm doing in Antarctica without sending mass emails - which I regularly delete when others send them to me but then feel guilty that I haven't taken an interest in their lives. I guess there's actually very little difference between this and the mass email, but it appeals to me more.

Ramble.

Having spoken to a couple of people who write/wrote/considered writing a blog, I've realised it can be tough talking about your life or opinions over an extended period of time without boring people to death and sounding massively self-indulgent. I bore people and am pretty self absorbed anyway though. This could be a bad thing. Oh well.

On with the blog.

I'm currently a PhD student at UCL working on ANITA (ANtarctic Transient Antenna - worse acronyms are out there, trust me). ANITA is an ultra high energy neutrino detector, it is balloon borne and will

circle the Antarctic continent for around a month, carried by seasonal winds. Basically it uses an array of horn antennas to detect radio emission from the Antarctic ice. When a UHE neutrino enters the ice it could interact and cause a cascade of particles. The idea is that these will emit strongly enough in radio frequencies. It is these very short (nanosecond) pulses that

ANITA will hopefully find.

Right now I'm in Christchurch, New Zealand. I've just been for my cold weather clothing issue, much fun pulling on and off thermal stuff, and have also had a flu shot which made me bleed. There really isn't much to write about the trip yet though, I haven't had much time to look around, only to buy some rather posh whisky (to keep me going out there when all I can get in the way of alcohol is piss beer) and some relatively OK prices Oakleys ... backup sunglasses indeed.

Now my computer is running low on battery and I don't have an adapter. Shit. So I guess I'll write again soon!