Scott Base

November 13, 2008

For the next couple days, I will be helping our team pack and sort out gear in McMurdo Station, ready to load on helicopters for the trip to our penguin camp at Cape Crozier. If all goes well, and the weather is good, we should fly on Saturday.

McMurdo Station, a “city” of 1,200 people during the summer months, is the main American base of operations in Antarctica. Though no nation owns any part of this continent, a handful of countries maintain significant stations here. The Italian base, for instance, is about 100 miles down the coast. The Russian station is up in the mountains. And the New Zealand version, called Scott Base, is less than a mile from McMurdo.

Since we have a Kiwi (New Zealander) working at one of our field sites this season, I got the chance to visit Scott Base this afternoon to help move some of his equipment over to the helo pad at McMurdo. Katie and I drove over the ridge and down to the cluster of identically-painted green buildings that the Kiwis call home. Their station is an order of magnitude smaller than McMurdo; it holds fewer than 100 people. However, Scott Base is self-sustaining, and Americans aren’t allowed to visit except by invitation or during “American Night” at the bar on Thursday evenings.

I was there just briefly, to pick up a truckload of food and supplies, but the place seemed nice. I hear the Kiwis have civilized, sit-down dinners (far from the clamorous cafeteria of McMurdo Station), use enclosed hallways to move between buildings, and have full-time personal toe-clipping assistants. But that may just be the infamous McMurdo rumor mill. Who knows? No grass grows on the other side of the ridge, but the buildings are greener, anyway.

On the way back from Scott Base, a helicopter zipped overhead dangling a sling loaded with tents and waste buckets. Later, over dinner, a helicopter tech confirmed that those were our tents and buckets headed for Cape Crozier, but that the helicopter had turned around because winds were too strong. It usually takes 50mph winds to dissuade a flight. Four helicopters are used at McMurdo Station, but one is in the shop right now with a broken O-ring, bringing the fleet down to three, and our Saturday departure might get pushed back. It pays to be flexible in Antarctica!