A Quarter Million Penguins
November 17, 2008
A group of five communications guys helicoptered out to Cape Crozier this morning, while sun poked through freezing fog, and set up satellite wireless internet at our hut on the ice. At the end of the earth, we have high-speed internet access. Technology, these days – face it and embrace it!
Meanwhile, I got my first real taste of the Crozier Adelie Penguin colony. To reach the colony, it’s a 45-minute march down the sloping face of a glacier from our hut. This requires crampons (pointed metal spikes on the bottom of your boot) to grip the sheet of solid ice underfoot.
At the lower end of the austere glacier, over a ridge crest, as suddenly as unexpectedly, more than three hundred thousand Adelie Penguins are spread in a broad valley by the ocean’s edge. They flap their flippers, croak, stare, squirt green projectiles of defecation, sleep, nip each other, mate, and defend their nests in a broad conglomerate of life. Mats, lines, and piles of penguins extend to the horizon. In one of the harshest environments imaginable, this must be one of the great bird spectacles on earth.
I was glad for the hike, since it got the blood flowing. Temperatures today were around 13 degrees F (-11C), actually relatively warm. Add some sunshine and quiet winds, and it was a nice afternoon. I spent the time learning my assigned study area and reading numbers of tagged birds (metal bands on the left flipper help track individual birds).
After training me on resighting bands, Michelle hiked out to work on another project, while Kirsten helped the comms guys back at the hut, leaving me essentially alone in the valley of penguins. If far removed from human civilization, I was in a metropolis, but a giant among its 3-foot-tall inhabitants. The penguins have no fear of humans, just curiosity. One deliberately waddled up and tugged on my pant leg, as if to ask a question. I can only wonder what it was wondering.
The Valley Of Penguins
Penguins On Their Nests
Adelie Penguin Carefully Incubating An Egg
Home On The Ice
November 15, 2008
This morning, I stripped the linens off my bed, stuffed all my belongings in two orange canvas bags, and headed to the helicopter pad at McMurdo Station with Michelle and Kirsten: the penguin crew. The flight to Cape Crozier, our summer field camp, was scheduled for 3:25pm.
We were lucky – good weather! Boxes of food and bags of gear went into the aircraft, leaving just room enough for the three of us to squeeze in past thick cargo nets in the back. It was my first trip in a helicopter, and lived up to expectations. Actually, the flight was smoother than I thought it might be. Maybe that was because the infamous Antarctic winds were calm today.
On arrival at Cape Crozier, we jumped out onto frozen lava rocks, and, with rotors spinning, briskly unloaded the helicopter with a human chain. A quick radio call back to McMurdo Station confirmed that Crozier had established ground communication, and, as the pilot revved for liftoff, we lay flat, face down across our pile of unloaded gear to make sure none of it blew away across the snow.
Three of us will live here, at Cape Crozier, until the end of January. We have a small, heated, wooden hut, with a makeshift kitchen but no shower. It took us an hour and a half to dig platforms in the snow and set up three Scott tents within a hundred yards of the hut, which will serve as sleeping quarters. More on living arrangements later – it’s time for a good night’s sleep!
Noah At McMurdo Station
Noah, Michelle, and Kirsten at McMurdo Station
Loading Helicopter
Noah, Michelle, and Kirsten in the Air
Helicopter Shadow On Antarctica
Looking Down On Glacier Crevasses
Arrival At Cape Crozier
Small People on a Vast Landscape
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!
Helicopter In The Shop
Snow Survival School
November 12, 2008
I survived!
I spent the last two days in an outdoor Snowcraft I class (also called Snow School or, around here, Happy Camper), which is a rite of passage for all US Antarctic Program participants en route to field camps. 20 of us learned essential survival skills, including how to set up a camp stove, use HF and VHF radios to communicate, put on a helicopter seat belt, put up Scott and Mountain tents, make a dead man’s anchor to secure a tent, and – most important – how to make a shelter in the snow with just a shovel and saw.
The class was structured as if our helicopter had crashed into the Ross Ice Shelf and we had to set up an emergency overnight camp. Thus, we were turned loose in a barren snow plain (with nowhere to warm up) with a few tents, freeze-dried food and camp stoves, shovels, snow saws, and extreme cold weather clothing. Once the instructors had showed us a few things, they left us alone and went to sleep in a warm hut about a quarter mile away. Meanwhile, we put up the tents, made snow bricks to construct wind barrier walls, cooked the food, and tried to stay warm. Since the temperature was about 3 degrees F (-15C), the last part was a constant battle. A few students have gone home with frostbite this season.
I kept a water bottle inside my jacket, and it still froze solid within a couple hours. My camera batteries, fully charged, were dead in the morning. Condensation from my breath fogged my sunglasses then froze, forming a layer of ice. You have to be extra careful of stove fuel, since if it spills on exposed skin, the quick evaporation will freeze fingers instantly (known as “contact frostbite”).
When the instructor demonstrated an optional technique for digging your own snow shelter, I was hooked. Who ever gets the chance to spend the night in a trench in an Antarctic glacier, with just your sleeping bag to protect you?
Only four of us (out of 20) made the attempt. It took me about three hours with a saw and a shovel to excavate a coffin-shaped hole down into the compacted snow surface, about four feet deep (enough to sit straight up inside), three feet wide, and 10 feet long. Then, I widened the bottom of the trench so I could lay flat and roll side to side a bit. Finally, I carved large bricks of snow from a designated quarry and laid them flat across the top, turning my “grave” into more of an egyptian tomb. I could barely crawl down the entrance at one end to arrange my pad, sleeping bag, and extra clothing down inside. With temperatures almost 30 degrees below freezing, I wormed into my snow cave, wriggled and contorted into my sleeping bag, ate a chocolate bar, and got an excellent night’s sleep.
Snow Camp
Cutting Blocks of Packed Snow
Snowmobiles To Drop Us Off
Nick Explaining a Whisperlite Camp Stove
Happy Campers
Mount Erebus View From Camp
Instructor Demonstrating A Trench Shelter
I Dug And Slept In This Snow Shelter In -15 Degrees C!
Noah In Camp
Gearing Up
November 10, 2008
I spent the day boxing penguin bands and procuring and sorting gear in the lab at McMurdo. We will put a couple thousand little numbered metal tags on penguins this season, and just keeping track of which band numbers go where can hurt your brain!
Our crew took a helicopter from McMurdo Station to the penguin colony at Cape Royds today to search for banded birds and write down which ones have returned this year to nest. I couldn’t go on the heli trip because I haven’t completed the “Snow Craft I” two-day outdoor survival training yet. Ah, well, next time…
This morning, I soaked in an 8am environmental training, 9am waste management training, and 10am light vehicle training walkthrough. Antarctica has a very particular way of life, and small things like where to put your garbage get magnified. For instance, the contents of our outhouse (basically a bucket sitting on the snow) will get shipped all the way back to Washington state for disposal after the season is over.
Tomorrow morning, I start the two-day snow craft class, also called Snow School or, with a smile, Happy Campers. I’ll learn how to survive an overnight stay on the ice without a tent. From the rumors I’ve heard, you either build an igloo, dig a cave, or bury yourself in a snow coffin. And it’s really, really cold to sleep like that (like, students have woken up with frostbite). Better than freezing to death, though.
I’ll be out in the elements for the next two days. Hope the sunny weather holds!
USAP Logo On The Side Of A Truck
McMurdo Station
November 9, 2008
I spent today at McMurdo Station, getting gear ready for departure to Cape Crozier in a few days.
In the morning, Katie, Michelle, Kirsten and I hiked up Obs Hill, overlooking “town”. A wooden cross on top of the hill was erected in 1913 in memory of Captain Scott’s failed South Pole expedition the previous year; it marks the spot where his men looked and hoped for his return. The cross is a little weathered but still stands strong, almost 100 years later.
The hilltop also affords an excellent view of McMurdo Station, Mount Erebus, and the frozen-over Ross Sea backed by white mountain peaks of mainland Antarctica.
From a distance, McMurdo looks like a western mining town, with heavy equipment and utilitarian buildings strewn between frozen, muddy streets. Walk inside any building, though, hang your big red jacket in the coat room, and the station morphs into a campus-like, cozy place. Carpeted floors, cushiony chairs, and art hung on the walls make you forget the bleak outdoors.
I spent the afternoon completing a light vehicle training course, organizing and weighing field gear to be packed for the helicopter, sitting in on a project meeting to confirm our field season objectives, checking off food on a 15-page grocery list to supply us for three months, and moving to a new dorm room.
McMurdo Station
Cross In Memory Of Captain Scott
Sea Ice Safety
November 8, 2008
For my first full day in Antarctica, I was enrolled in a “Sea Ice Safety” training. Nine of us took a Hagglund (tracked vehicle) about 20 miles out on the frozen surface on McMurdo Sound and drilled holes in the ice to measure depth, looked at cracks in the ice, and evaluated the safety of ice travel. Along the way, we did some sightseeing.
The sea ice was about six feet thick, more than enough to land a jet (much less walk around). It tasted salty. A couple of old icebergs, broken off nearby glaciers, were frozen in place on the ocean’s surface, looming above the flat icy plain. Cracks form around obstructions like icebergs and islands, so it’s best to be careful poking around them. A few years ago, some Australians sunk their vehicle when it broke through. The water beneath is a chilly 28 degrees F.
Some seals basked by openwater cracks, and a couple South Polar Skuas flew by. Then, I spotted a speck in the distance, which grew closer and closer as we drilled a hole. Soon, it was identifiable as an Adelie Penguin – my first one! The penguin, miles from any open water, came toward us at a waddling run, evidently curious. As it approached, we stopped work. The penguin stopped about 10 feet away, stared at us for a while, then lay on its belly and took a short snooze. Soon, though, it was moving on, wandering away and lost among a field of pressure ridges.
Nearby, a crew from the BBC were busy diving underneath the sea ice to film for the TV show, Planet Earth. Their little dive huts looked uncomfortable.
In the evening, a showing of movies from the Banff Film Festival commenced after dinner at McMurdo Station. The short adventure films showcasing mountaineering, biking, skiing, speedflying, and rock climbing were popular among this crowd. Afterward, at 11pm, the sun shone outside as bright as ever.
A front is predicted to come in later this week. Our helicopter flight to Cape Crozier is scheduled for Saturday (a week from now), but weather might keep us in McMurdo a little longer than that.
Noah Next To An Icebound Iceberg
Gretel The Hagglund Vehicle
Hagglund Tracks and Mount Erebus
Sea Ice Safety Class
Pressure Ridges and Mount Erebus
Ice Drill And A Curious Adelie Penguin
Entrance To A Glacial Ice Cave
Inside An Ice Cave
Noah In An Ice Cave
Antarctica Arrival
November 7, 2008
I am now writing from the frozen continent…
This morning, we got up at 4am, were shuttled to the airport in Christchurch, New Zealand, and loaded onto a military cargo jet. The flight was about 5 hours long. The plane landed directly on the frozen sea ice of McMurdo Sound, and we disembarked to a beautiful, sunny day, with little wind, and temperatures around negative five degrees F. A tracked vehicle took us a couple miles across the ice to McMurdo Station, and, after a debriefing lecture, I checked into my dorm room here.
An active, smoking volcano named Mount Erebus stands next to the station. No matter what the time is, it feels like noon (the sun won’t set for three months). I haven’t seen a penguin yet, but I’m getting closer. Tomorrow, I will have a “sea ice safety” training class all day.
Noah's First Steps In Antarctica
Cargo Plane On The Sea Ice Runway
Noah In The Airport, New Zealand
Inside The Cargo Plane
Noah In The Cargo Plane
Kirsten And Katie On The Plane
US Reserve Pilot
Flying Over Antarctica
Extreme Cold Weather Gear Issue
November 6, 2008
I leave for Antarctica early tomorrow morning!
Full day in Christchurch, New Zealand. A shuttle picked us up this afternoon from the Windsor B&B and delivered us to a warehouse full of Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) clothing. I now possess 22 pounds of new (used) US Antarctic Program clothing, including long underwear, shirts, pants, boots, socks, gloves, mittens, liners, goggles, hats, a windbreaker, and an enormous red down jacket that would keep Will Smith warm in Siberia.
After trying on clothes to get the right fit, we sorted luggage. I have five separate bags: two checked suitcases (under the 75lb total weight limit), one carry-on bag, one to leave in New Zealand, and a “boomerang bag” with a change of clothes in case the airplane turns around mid-flight due to inclement weather. Our laptops were screened (Skype is not allowed and anti-virus software must be installed) and everyone got flu shots. I have a particular phobia of needles and must lie down flat to avoid fainting, so was glad when that part was over.
So, tomorrow morning I will see the frozen continent for the first time. If the weather doesn’t turn us back en route. Can’t wait!
Extreme Cold Weather Gear Warehouse
Michelle, David, Katie, Me, and Kirsten in Christchurch, NZ
New Zealand
November 5, 2008
I’m in New Zealand, one stop away from Antarctica! My flight from Oregon to San Francisco was delayed, my flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles was delayed, the flight from Los Angeles to Auckland was 12 hours long, and the flight from Auckland to Christchurch went smoothly. After 24 hours en route, I’m settled in my hotel in New Zealand.
I met Katie Dugger and Kirsten Lindquist in LA, just in time to catch our trans-Pacific flight. I will be working with Kirsten at the Cape Crozier antarctic camp for the next three months, while Katie will be stationed at a different penguin colony and will only stay six weeks.
Raytheon Polar Services set me up with my own room at the Windsor B&B in Christchurch (NZ) for the next two days. My next-door room neighbors, Leath and Gus, are headed to the South Pole Station (both general laborers), and we’re on the same flight to McMurdo Station on November 7.
A guy came up to me at the Christchurch airport, and, reading my Oregon State Tennis T-shirt, asked if I played there, then explained that he played for the University of Washington team a few years ago. Small world, I guess.
While others crashed at the hotel, I headed out to wander around Christchurch. It’s the height of spring here, flowers blooming everywhere, birds singing, trees full of green leaves, mostly sunny, not too hot. Very much like spring in Oregon, except six months different.
The Windsor B&B
Downtown Christchurch, NZ
Trolley Car
Cathedral in Cathedral Square
Center of Cathedral Square
Christchurch Art Gallery
New Zealanders call themselves Kiwis, talk like Australians, drive on the wrong side of the road, walk on the wrong side of the sidewalk, and are unbelievably friendly. There are a lot of blonde people here. What else can I say?
Of course, never having visited New Zealand, I set out to find some local birds. Christchurch has a large park only a couple blocks from the Windsor B&B that offers excellent birding. In about an hour there, I saw more kinds of birds than I will see in three months in Antarctica. A pair of Paradise Shelducks marked the 1,600th bird species I have seen in my life.
Paradise Shelduck (Male)
Song Thrush
Chaffinch
Silvereye
New Zealand Pigeon
Blackbird
Packed And Ready To Fly!
November 2, 2008
After sitting on the suitcase, zipping it, weighing it, reopening it, taking out ten more pounds, deciding to check two bags instead of one, shifting the ziploc of chocolate to carry-on, and discarding all but one pair of jeans (with no laundry for three months), I’m about ready to fly to New Zealand tomorrow, and on to Antarctica on Thursday!
I’m traveling light. Key items include travel scrabble and cribbage sets, two packs of cards, an assortment of DVDs, literature on real estate investment and french verb conjugation, a mysterious box from my girlfriend, and something from my parents labeled “do not open until Christmas”. Right, and three pairs of long underwear, four pairs of sunglasses and goggles, layers of synthetic/wool/cotton/down innerwear/outerwear, and my trusty iPod. And a pack of biofriendly baby wipes. What else could a man need?
This Has Gotta Fit In My Suitcase
2 Days Until Departure
November 1, 2008
I haven’t packed anything yet. I’m actually un-packing from a 5-day dash to visit my girlfriend in Chicago this week (143 babe!). I flew from Hawaii to Oregon on Friday, Oregon to Chicago on Saturday, and Chicago back to Oregon on Thursday; I leave for New Zealand on Monday, then to McMurdo Station on Nov 7. By the time I reach the field camp at Cape Crozier, I will have taken 15 separate flights in less than 2 weeks. A three-month isolation from all forms of transportation will be nice!
All my antarctic gear is in boxes and heaps around my parent’s house here in Oregon, ready to be tucked, crammed, and shoved into suitcases for the trip. Tomorrow is packing time!
Adelie Penguin Print by Noah Strycker
14 Days Until Departure
October 20, 2008
I leave for Antarctica in two weeks. The past months have been a sludge of paperwork, planning, and packing, but it’s almost time to go!
Maybe I should explain a bit, by way of introduction. From November through February I will be working at Cape Crozier, Antarctica, on a research project focused on population dynamics of Adelie Penguins. Antarctica is earth’s coldest, windiest, most southern, least populated, and driest continent, which few people ever experience firsthand.
I will live in a 12×20′ hut on the ice with two other field crew members. We can’t leave for three months, and will have few to no visitors. There will be no shower. Severe windstorms may keep us pinned inside the hut for days at a time. I will spend up to 8 hours each day reading penguin band numbers through binoculars. There will be no days off.
I applied for this internship last spring and was hired out of more than 100 applicants. Since then, it’s been something of a process to get all my penguins in a row before deploying south. Two months ago, I had a full physical, blood test, tetanus shot, and dental x-rays taken (quite a feat on short notice in Hawaii, where I am working this summer, and which has a shortage of health services), and was “personally qualified” for the program. I have signed, faxed, and mailed enough paperwork to build a papier-mache ice-breaker ship. And I’ve been shopping: Mountaineering boots, hiking socks, chocolate, long underwear, glacier glasses, max sunblock, waterproof gloves, rechargeable batteries, goggles, travel scrabble, baby wipes, headlamp, towel. I bought an extra 20D camera body to pack as a backup to my regular optic gear. Today’s addition was a Leatherman tool, which we will need for field work.
With two weeks until departure, it was nice to finally get my plane tickets issued from Raytheon Polar Services just a couple days ago. I depart Eugene, Oregon, in the afternoon on November 3 and arrive in Christchurch, New Zealand, on the morning of November 5. I’ll spend a couple days in New Zealand getting issued with cold-weather gear before deploying to McMurdo Station via military cargo jet. McMurdo Station is a “city” of 1,200 people during the southern summer, and ninety percent of people who visit Antarctica pass through McMurdo at least briefly. There, I’ll spend a week training in “snow school” and “ice safety” classes before loading gear onto helicopters and shipping out to our little hut at the Cape Crozier field camp.
I am so excited–14 days is short, yet so long to wait before heading south! I am writing now from the Big Island of Hawaii, where I have spent the last four months working with endangered Hawaiian birds at the Keauhou Bird Conservation Center (another story). Within spitting distance of palm trees and tropicbirds, it’s difficult to imagine the change to ice and penguins. Today marks my first blog posting (thanks Dad for your help setting it up!). I will keep this blog current throughout my Antarctic experience. I look forward to icy adventures ahead.
Noah in Hawaii, Fall 2008