Getting Ready To Find An Ice Wife

I'll try to get pictures up soon, but I've had some issues with it. Well the last few days haven't been as exciting, but I still love this place. On Saturday I got paid to drive around all day and GPS the roads. This involved driving a Mac Track on all the local roads and trails and pushing a button at each turn in the road. Since the roads (and trails) are on glaciers, they move from year to year. To help out the SAR (Search and Rescue) team, each year the roads are updated on the computer. I use to think the O'Briens had a steep driveway, however after driving down the trail from Castle Rock, I'll never think twice about their drive again. The pictures don't do it justice, but it was one heck of a ride down tilted to the side and going down a very steep hill. When you hit the breaks, the back tracks would slide out forcing you to keep going. Plus the bottom of the hill was marked by a huge crevasse where you get funneled over a snow bridge they made with a snow cat.

Saturday night was fun, they had the Banff Mountain Movie Festival in the Galley. It was really cool watching the short movies on extreme and adventurous activities. I loved the climbing and skiing movies and can't wait to do some more of it when I get back home.

Sunday was my "day of rest" and I was able (after a few tries) to call home and talk to Big Skip. I wanted to tell him about my up coming trip. As I have told some of you, sometime this week or next, I will be flown out to WAIS (West Antarctic Ice Sheet) to help open (dig out) a remote field camp. Because of the nature of the field camp I won't be able to update my blog for the two weeks I'm there. I don't know when I'm headed, but I should be gone by the middle of next week depending on the weather. While at WAIS, I'll be sleeping in a tent trying to stay warm as temps drop to -40F. Sounds a little chilly to me, but this is why I came.

I hope I don't leave for WAIS until after this Saturday. This Saturday is the famous McM Halloween party. This is the night where single workers find their "ice wifes." I'm not joking about this. Girlfriends here are considered ice wifes and if you don't find one by Halloween, your next chance is at Xmas when the labor pool flops and night workers go to days and day workers go to nights. I thought it was worth sharing this interesting fact with you all and keep your fingers crossed for me.

On Monday I did food pull for the galley. Picture how much food it takes to feed 1,100 people for a week. That is how much food I handled. Now picture how much food it takes to feed 1,100 people for 6 months and 200 people for 6 months, that is how much food is in the warehouse. I didn't get any pictures of it, but I'll try to get back and get some. I had to do things like pull out 220lbs of pork, and 180lbs of chicken... I saw more dead animals than I ever thought existed. Not to mention seeing tofu in 10lb blocks, or 75lb boxes of beef, or hundreds of half gallon cartons of eggs. It was so cool. (sorry Diddy, I pulled this from the email I sent you)

Weather on Monday was Condition 1 everywhere except on Station and at the Ice Runway. This means that traveling anywhere besides right in town was forbidden. In town it was condition two which is a little breezy, but the temp was warm. However, the wind piled snow up on all the steps I just shoveled. I guess being a snow shoveler in Antarctica has some job security.

Tuesday wasn't as much fun as I was hoping it was going to be. I was suppose to go out on snowmobiles to map cracks on the sea ice. However the weather was still a little iffy so instead I was inside all day helping clean up the gear room for the SAR team.

I hope every one is doing well. If there are any questions people have please email me (although it may take a while for me to get back to you). Some things I plan to cover in the future are pictures of Mt. Erebus (the active volcano, peeing on the yellow flag, and life on station. Alison, when I get back from WAIS, I plan on walking the town and take a bunch of pictures of the "everyday" type things to better fill you in on how life works. I also plan on putting together a "day in the life of a GA" post. One of the posts I'm going to get a kick out of is funny signs on station. This one may not be fully appropriate for younger viewers, but everyone else will get a real kick out of it. Go Sox!