I went to a presentation last night given by an Englishman who spent 2 years driving a dog sledge around Antarctica supporting the science projects of Great Britain. During a summer they would cover as much as 1500 miles in a season. In the beginning he had to learn the dogs and they him. He in effect had to become the “alpha dog”. He said the dogs didn’t give in without a fight. The dogs loved to fight one another but if another team got too close they banded together to fight as a team. The dogs survived on canned meat brought in by ship and when that ran out they were fed the meat and fat of seals that were killed along the way. He was in Antarctica in 1969 and 1970. Not long after that modernization in the form of powered sledges,snowmobiles and airplanes replaced the dogs. Today no dogs remain on the continent. The dogs (after the initial group) were all born on the continent and ended their days here. Because of the heavy loads they pulled (over 1000 pounds) after about 8 years they developed curvature of the spine or hip problems. For a time they would send them back to the “real world” for retirement but sadly they didn’t survive long. That’s when they begin euthanizing them here on the continent. Because of the close ties the men and dogs developed it was always the new crew coming in that put the dogs down. That must have been very difficult to do. It was just one more interesting chapter in the story of this continent.

17 January 1912:
Scott’s party of five- Capt. Oates, Dr. Wilson, ‘Birdie’ Bowers and Petty Officer Evans- find the remains of a Norwegian camp on 16 January. They reach the Pole the next day:
“Great God! This is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward of priority”
-Scott
“It is sad that we have been forestalled by the Norwegians, but I am glad that we have done it by good British man-haulage.”
-Bowers

I went to the science lecture last night. The presenter was very happy to be there as he’d spent most of the day (it was quite cold) at the happy camper school. When they asked him to come present the lecture he gladly accepted. He is a specialist on Mars and is here on the continent (actually on the ice shelf) with his team collecting meteorites. Deni was telling me that that’s what the team was doing in the movie “Eight Down Under”. He says in a good year they collect over 2000 and of those only 1 in 20 is from Mars. He was a very interesting person to listen to a great speaker with a fun sense of humor. Although he took his science very seriously he didn’t take himself nearly so. We learned many things about life of lack of it on Mars, about water or lack of it on Mars and he talked about many of the theories that have been put forward about the planet. He said he came here from a meeting of scientists who are developing the experiments that will go on the next Mars explorer. At the end of the lecture he was saying that one of the things they are interested in is some methane they discovered recently on Mars. Apparently it is one of the gases that indicate life. I can tell you I was having a methane issue myself right about then. Why does it always seem to arise when you are in a crowd of people with no place to inconspicuously escape to to dispense with the problem? Happily his methane issue and mine both happened at the end of the lecture. (I know TMI)

I am currently in the laundry room waiting for the washer to finish its work. People have told me that the detergent is very harsh but I can now report that I haven’t had any problems with it.

The other night on my last midnight shift I talked to a Russian helicopter that was flying tourists in from the ship to Scott Base (that’s the New Zealand base just a few miles from here). Happily for me he spoke quite good English although we didn’t chat much.

I checked out a book from the library last night. It is a series of 1st hand accounts of several expeditions in Antarctica. So far it has been very fascinating. The first expedition in the book occurred in the late 1780’s. These folks didn’t actually make it to the continent but the log book was interesting to read as they described the awful conditions they found themselves in and the various maneuvers they had to perform to avoid ice flows and ice bergs. It was an interesting glimpse into the life of an early maritime explorer. Speaking of which here is the quote of the day (great segue huh?)


1 January 1912:
Scott’s men are 170 miles from the Pole. Teddy Evan’s support party returns to base 150 miles from the Pole and Scott takes one of his men, ‘Birdie’ Bowers, increasing the Polar party to five:
“Evans’ party going ahead on foot. We followed on ski. Very stupidly we had not seen to our ski shoes beforehand, and it took a good half-hour to get them right…when we did get away, to our surprise the sledge pulled very easily, and we made fine progress, rapidly gaining on the foot-haulers.”

!st picture Our only stop sign in town, 2nd inside coffee house, 3rd snow and ice melting in town

Beauty
It was a truly spectacular weather day today. All I can say is that the scenery was breathtaking.

It seems you can get a cruise that will allow you to actually set foot on the continent. It is handled through Russia and apparently is VERY expensive. That’s all I know about it other than to say that the control room I work in is one of the locations the tour gets to visit (go figure).

I have just downloaded some pictures from the local web page. I think you’ll like them (even though I didn’t take them)

Quote:

16 December 1911:
Scott and his men climb the Beardmore Glacier, about 350 miles from the Pole:
“Our fuel only just does it, but that is all we want, and we have a bit in hand for the summit”
-Scott

Picture 1 Adele Penguins, #2 Barne Glacier #3 Eroded Stone Dry Valley

MSNBC

We had an MSNBC reporter and his photographer arrive on station today. He sent his first report early this afternoon. I think you might get a “kick” out of reading it. Compare it with my description of the same events. (Glass half empty half full comes to mind). He is not well liked already. You can find his report at MSNBC.com under title “Tough start to Antarctic adventure”.

It snowed really heavy tonight on the mid shift. So much so that it almost appeared dark outside. It was the great big fluffy kind of flakes. It put me very much in the Christmas spirit. I am also listening to Christmas music on the Ipod while I work out each day. I hope all of you are getting in the holiday spirit as well.

9 December 1911:
Scott’s party at ‘Shambles Camp’, two miles from the bottom of Beardmore Glacier, at the foot of the Transantarctic Mountains. They shoot the ponies and all the dogs are taken back on 11 December, 360 miles from the Pole:
“Thank God the horses are now all done with and we begin the heavier work ourselves”
-Wilson

The first picture is Helo operations, Picture 2 is the library, Picture 3 in the Post Office

We had our first landing of the season at Pegasus airport. Logistically it presents a problem because its 12 miles away over some pretty rough roads. Usually nobody goes over there until an airplane is inbound and then the send the Crash Crew and fuel and support personnel to offload the airplane. I’m on the second of 4 midnight shifts. The days go by pretty fast as I work 12 hours go to the dorm to sleep awhile then workout eat dinner and then back to work for another 12 hours. The only reason I mention it is because I have very little time to interact with people during this 4 days. Sunday we have the first rehearsal of the Christmas choir, I’m looking forward to that. I’ll attach some more of the pictures I took this week following the journal entry.

3 December 1911:
Scott at Camp 29 face difficult weather conditions on the Ross Ice Shelf:
“The changes of conditions are inconveniently rapid, perfectly bewildering…we have managed to get 11 ½ miles south and to this camp at 7 p.m. – the conditions of marching simply horrible.”
-Scott

The first picture is one of the Dorms. The second is carts people load their equipment on to be loaded on a helicopter. The last picture is near the front door of the Hospital.