Off The Ice
February 3, 2009
I’m off the ice, and this is my last Antarctic blog entry.
In the last couple days, I spent 23 hours on planes and another 13 hours in buses. I left the ice in a cargo jet, taking off from the frozen sea surface outside McMurdo Station; then spent two days in New Zealand before working around the globe, finally reaching Oregon last night. I was actually asleep in Oregon a couple hours before leaving New Zealand, since our plane crossed the date line – it was the longest Monday ever!
The last three months, however, passed like a flash. Sitting comfortably on my bed now, I wonder if it was all a dream. Have I changed?
I know it was real: Antarctica left some tangible impressions. My parents didn’t recognize my face yesterday under a thick beard (which I shaved this morning – yeah!). I didn’t lose or gain weight, aside from the extra hair. I saved water by not bathing, but burned a lot of fuel getting south; hiked more than 100 miles up and down a mountain wearing crampon spikes; and didn’t touch a cell phone, drive a car, or see a sunset for three months. I broke up with my girlfriend, endured massive blisters, and worried about my future, with nothing but ice and rock to sympathize. My nose and cheeks are tanned while the rest of me is pasty white. I made a few thousand dollars and didn’t spend a cent. I got cold. And I need new socks.
It’s odd but reassuring to think that the penguins are still there. I can picture them, especially as I start to edit the 5,000 photos I took, and wonder if they remember me…
For the next two months, I’m looking forward to a lot of birding, skiing, tennis, and writing projects, while lining up the next adventure. It’ll take a lot to top this one, but I’ll be off again this spring. It’ll take a while to relax and line things up first.
Meanwhile, Antarctica has invaded my soul. Given the chance, I’d go back, right now. It ranks among the most meaningful times of my life, and I’m incredibly lucky. Material things may come and go, but experiences will always remain.
Special thanks and credit is due to my new friends and fellow researchers at Cape Crozier this season: Michelle Hester, Kirsten Lindquist, and David Hyrenbach; all hard workers, selfless, dedicated, easy to live with, encouraging, and helpful. Also the senior PenguinScience staff: David Ainley, Grant Ballard, and Katie Dugger, and their backing organizations: H.T. Harvey and Associates, PRBO Conservation Science, and Oregon State University. Ultimately, the National Science Foundation backs all research in Antarctica, so we are especially grateful for their support.
Thanks also to everyone who has emailed, commented, and messaged through this blog and other media. Communicating with those back home was a real highlight of being so far away! Stay in touch!
I’ll spare you the 1,000-photo slideshow. If you want to hear some stories, let’s go on an adventure, and I’ll fill you in. Or just take me out to lunch one day.
That’s it! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading along. I sure had a great time keeping up the reports. All souls present and well at check-in. If nothing further, this is Bravo-Zero-Three-One Cape Crozier on Mount Terror, out.
———-
These Buses Took Us To The Ice Runway
This Plane Arrived To Take Us Off The Ice
U.S. Airforce Cargo Jet Lands On The Ice
Michelle Hester In A Helicopter
David Hyrenbach Measuring Penguin Chicks
Kirsten Lindquist On The Ice
Noah's Beard At Its Best
Thanks Penguins! See You Again Someday!
15 Responses to 'Off The Ice'
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Well, sad to say (I’ve been loving your Antarctic updates), but welcome back stateside. It’s been an amazing journey following your amazing journey through your writing and your photographs. Nicely done, I look forward to keeping up with your Oregon doings as well as your next big trip.
And if you’re ever near Ithaca, NY, I’d be happy to buy you lunch, afternoon drinks, and dinner.
-Mike
noflickster
4 Feb 09 at 3:34 pm
Thanks Noah,
I know how you feel. I am still going back! Please pass along a hello to David. I had a hunch it might be him when you told us how to say his first name! I worked with David in the Bering Sea many years ago on the Alpha Helix.
Thanks for sharing your ice time with us. I think you will find that your experience on the ice will provide you a perspective on life that will last. I know for me I still find ways it has made who I am nearly 15 years after my first trip south. Welcome home.
John Carlson
4 Feb 09 at 3:55 pm
Will you please keep blogging about your further adventures? I have thoroughly and vicariously enjoyed your posts, and it’s one of the blogs on my feed I most look forward to reading. I worked at PRBO at the landbird station back in 1981 (I followed a girlfriend down there), which is where my love and attachment to birds and bird research began. For me the Arctic (ANWR, a shorebird research study) is the place that occupies the spot in the heart that is filled in yours by Antarctica. Polar is different. I understand.
Doug Plummer
4 Feb 09 at 4:42 pm
Thanks so much, Noah. Loved every entry. Best to you.
Paulette
4 Feb 09 at 6:56 pm
Noah, your blog has been fascinating, both for the subject matter and the way you report. I have appreciated very much your clear and descriptive writing.
Guy Scharf
4 Feb 09 at 7:56 pm
Thanks Noah. Glad you made it home safe. I look forward to hearing about your next adventure. Lunch in Boston if you make it this way.
Taylor Yeager
5 Feb 09 at 4:28 am
Thanks, Noah, for your blog–I’ve really enjoyed it. I especially appreciated your writing/blogging style/skill. I’m sure that will be continue to be part of your future. Good luck.
Helen Ostermiller
5 Feb 09 at 6:08 am
Thank you for sharing your amazing journey! Every post was wonderful. Welcome back to the States.
Carla R
5 Feb 09 at 7:29 am
Noah – Just wanted to thank you for sharing your experience. My son is Kirsten’s boyfriend and gave me the link to your blog. I have enjoyed every one of your entries and all of your photos. I only wish William (my son) had done the same with his trips to Antarctica, the last of which allowed him to meet Kirsten on their trip home last January.
Mike Rachelson
5 Feb 09 at 1:21 pm
Noah, this has been a great blog! I’ve looked at winter in Indiana a bit differently since I’ve been reading your blog. Best of luck in whatever you end up doing, and look me up if you’re ever in Indiana, or anywhere else. I myself don’t exactly know what I’ll be doing next year.
Erik
5 Feb 09 at 6:57 pm
Glad you’re home safe. Look us up at Richmond Audubon if you ever make it to Virginia. Definitely lunch, birding the Eastern Shore and CBBT, whatever fits your schedule. You have given some valuable perspective on a variety of topics. I shared your blog with the guy who taught the Ecological Concepts portion of the Virginia Master Naturalist certification classes I am taking. Decay was one of his topics….. Keep on writing. There are lots of us living vicariously when we can’t get away!
Jan
7 Feb 09 at 6:11 pm
Noah–thank you so much for this wonderful blog, which is the best I have read on any topic anywhere. Good luck in the future. If you start another blog, please let us know on Arizona Birds.
And if you ever get down to Tucson, lunch for sure!
KL
KLJR
8 Feb 09 at 3:33 am
Thanks Noah
This was very interesting. Found your blog from a tweeters link. So I am very interested in the bird info and your pictures. But the guy who takes all the garbage and your poop buckets away is a good friend of mine from Washington, so that makes it interesting too-I sent him a link to your blog earlier. The stuff doesn’t necessarily end up here in WA as the ship goes to CA. It takes him months to negotiate all the different destinations for that stuff.
Look forward to hearing about later adventures. Your accounts were well done, a good balance of the science and the general experience and great pictures. Put a note in tweeters again next time.
thanks
Phil
Phil
8 Feb 09 at 4:21 pm
Good times, I enjoyed the experience (At least hearing and watching you have the experience). No way am I offering to buy lunch, because you live way too close and might take me up on it!
Thanks for sharing,
Derek
Derek J
10 Feb 09 at 8:55 am
Something about your pictures and your adventure touched my heart…keep exploring and sharing and enjoying it all. If you’re ever in New York, I will def. buy you lunch! Just shoot me an e-mail
Alex
5 Mar 10 at 12:18 pm