Turf in Antarctica?: A week of a few firsts!

Hello again, so this week has been a week of a few firsts, I hiked OB hill for the first time, went out to the Pegasus plane crash site, went out to the pressure ridges by Scott Base, built my first T-2 pallet, and got to look around the new Kress Vehicles.

This past week was a rough one from the stand point that the night crew has been putting together cargo for outbound flights in large amounts even though for 4 days last week no flights left. Once air operations resumed it was amazing just how fast all the pallet we had built the week before left the yard and were headed to the desired field camps. While that cargo was out bound the amount coming in from field camps, the South Pole and Christchurch we has both a full cargo yard and cargo bay of cargo to sort though, receive and deliver, put on other outbound pallets and just plain deal with any down time was much enjoyed. Originally on Wednesday night my team was scheduled to work the airfield, well I didn't spend much time there since I was tasked to come back into town to help build pallets. Once in town I found out that myself and my team mate Lisa were tasked to handle over 15,000 pounds of cargo to WAIS (West Antarctic Ice Shelf) Divide by ourselves. In the end we were able to get 11,600 pounds of cargo onto the first T-2 pallet I have really been involved with building. I also got the chance to pick the pallet up from the staging area and load it onto the Delta truck for delivery and deliver it to the airfield myself. Needless to say picking up a pallet at 11,600 with a loader capacity of 12,600 it was a bit nerve racking making sure the pallet got onto the truck safely. In the end I got the pallet to the airfield safely and offloaded. I don't know if the pallet made it to WAIS Divide or not, I assume it did.

After a hard worked Wednesday night, Thursday was my day off I and was able to hike up OB-Hill for the first time of the year. From town it doesn't look like it is that hard of a hike but wow were my legs burning, the views were worth the pain. My battery died before I got to many pictures taken, I have been playing with a newly discovered feature on my camera (time-lapse video) and the battery drained before I could get some shots from the top. I hope to get up to the top again soon so I can get some more photos before the sea ice breaks up. Here is hoping for a nice night Thursday again.

Today I went on two tours, one to see the pressure ridges outside Scott Base and one to the Pegasus Plane that crashed in the 1971. I worked last night and knew that today was going to be a long but enjoyable day with the planned tours. The pressure ridges are where the sea ice is lifted up along the shore line from the ice growing bigger and being pushed inland. I got a-lot of photos of them unfortunately we had an overcast sky the whole time we were at the pressure ridges and there was not a whole lot of contrast to show them off. I hope that can go again on a sunnier day before the sea ice breaks out. Where the sun wasn't out for the pressure ridge tour it was out for the Pegasus plane crash tour. I was a bit of a odd feeling seeing a crashed almost still intact out in the middle of the ice shelf. It is a great reminder though to not take advantage of the weather down here. The way the wind was blowing while we were out at the plane and to see how full of snow the fuselage is, you remember just where you are real quick.

I was also able to look around the Kress vehicles. The Kress vehicle is a new vehicle that came down last year on the cargo resupply ship to help out with both the transportation of cargo to and from the airfield and passengers to and from. Well lets just say the design on paper did not take into account the actual conditions here and modifications to both the vehicles and the roads around here have has to change to make the work. Each vehicle is pulled by a Caterpillar tow vehicle which is based off of a Caterpillar dump truck platform and a trailer, for a total length of 98 feet. There are 2 of these vehicles. I heard from my shift supervisor that we would start using these vehicles to get cargo to and from the Pegasus airfield now that the sea ice runway is closed. I told my team leader that I would be okay driving one of them, so here is hoping I get the chance. Just looking at one of them and I am eager for a new learning opportunity and chance to do something different.

I hope that this finds everyone in good health and enjoying the Holiday season. Till next week.

Tim