Canada Glacier at Sunset

Canada Glacier at sunset.
In photography, there is special hour called the golden hour that comes twice a day so it should really be called the golden hours, not hour. It is, loosely, the first and last hour of sunlight of each day, but could be more scientifically defined by the position of the sun on the horizon. At the equator, the golden hour is shorter than an hour because the sun spends less time near the horizon. At certain times of the year in the polar regions, the golden hour is much longer, sometimes lasting all day for the same reason.

The golden hour is important to photographers because the lighting is softer, more diffuse, and often referred to as 'warmer.' This effect is caused because the sun is near the horizon so the light has to travel though more layers of the atmosphere which reduces its intensity. Additionally, more light of certain wavelengths is scattered which changes the quality of the light reaching the photographer's subject. As a loose rule, I'd say if you could take the exact same photograph during the golden hour and another part of the day, it would be better during the golden hour.


The crack in the mountains that allows the golden hour light to pass through to Canada Glacier.
My first night at Lake Hoare, I saw the light move across Canada Glacier during the golden hour and it was one of the most breathtaking moments of my time down here. Brilliance in motion! Unfortunately, the sun comes through a crack in the mountains at the other side of the lake so it only lasted about twenty minutes. On my next night, my planned final night, I resolved to be out on the lake for a better view (click on any picture below to blow it up for your own better view).


Canada Glacier at sunset.


Canada Glacier at sunset.


Canada Glacier at sunset.


Canada Glacier at sunset.


Canada Glacier at sunset.


Canada Glacier at sunset.


Canada Glacier at sunset.


The results of Canada Glacier's calving at sunset.


Canada Glacier dwarfing the Lake Hoare field camp at sunset.


Canada Glacier dwarfing the Lake Hoare field camp at sunset.
The other amazing part about the timing of this was that as I write this the sun is up all the time, so the golden hour shouldn't happen again there until March or April. If I had come any earlier, it also would not happen because the sun wouldn't be high enough to get over the hills in the crack it shines through. I was really just so fortunate with the timing of my trip out to the Dry Valleys and the timing actually gets better . . .


Me with cold hands (don't bring your metal camera to Antarctica)!

Mt. Rae

Looking down Canada Glacier towards Lake Hoare


Becky on the way up Canada Glacier
After getting back from my hike to the defile, I sat down to finish out a slow morning. I had a quite breakfast, did some camp work, and filled in a few too many crossword puzzle answers. Then, Becky and I finally got a late start towards our climb up Mt. Rae. We weren't going to summit, just head up the backside until we didn't feel like heading up anymore.


Becky walks like an Egyptian with Lake Hoare below. I'm sharing this because it makes me giggle every time I see it.


Canada Glacier 'sliding' to the right and Lake Frixel in the distance.


Me with Lake Frixel and Andrew's Ridge in the background.
We followed the Canada Glacier up to the back side of Mt. Rae until we hit a small flat stretch. We could have crossed over the glacier to Lake Frixel where there were two unmanned field camps or keep left and head up the back side of Mt. Rae. We went left and after an hour of scree and snow climbing, we finally wrapped about to some amazing views.


Lake Frixel sits near the entrance of the Taylor Valley with Mt. Erebus looming in the distance.
Becky and I didn't make it to our goal of finding a place to see up the east side of the Taylor Valley. We didn't know if there actually was such a view without going to the very top and as we kept climbing and climbing, the view wasn't changing much. We eventually just sat down, ate a great meal, basked in the sunshine, and headed back down. I had hoped to see more, but it didn't really matter. I was still swooning about spending an extra day in such a beautiful place. Nothing to prove. Just enjoy.


A ventifact.
On the way back down the way we came, I saw three great things that I have not seen anywhere else in Antarctica. The first was a ventifact, which is a sand blown, usually pitted, rock. Since the area is so dry and windy, the sand just gets moving and wears the rock down. Sometimes, eddies form based on the rock formation which just force the sand to cycle inside them causing them to erode in curious shapes.


Big rock in the side of a glacier.
Also, on the way down I saw a rock that may have been twice the size of my head lodged in the side of the glacier. It looked so out of place and precariously perched that I could have believed someone put it there if I didn't know better. The glacier had simply picked up that rock thousands or maybe even millions of years ago and has been waiting to drop it ever since.


Mummified seal.
The final amazing thing I saw on the way down was a mummified seal. Yes, the first animal I saw and photographed this time, just like last time, was dead. The ocean isn't near by so this seal has to be hundreds (or thousands?) of years old. I saw a few others while in the valley, but none that looked this complete. It is amazing what a lack of moisture can do for preservation.


Me beside Canada Glacier.

to the Defile!

After a wonderful night of sleep, I set out for an early morning hike. The night before the camp manager and host with the most, Rae, suggested I put on STABILicers and walk down the lake's moat to the head of the Seuss Glacier and the Defile. I thought the Defile was a proper noun and had a historical reason for such a name, but it turns out that the area just meets the definition of a defile, a narrow passage or gorge.


Moat ice and the uneven center of Lake Hoare


Moat ice that has air bubbles trapped in it and snow resting on it.


I love this picture because it looks like wind blowing across water, but the wind just shapes the lake's moat ice to appear the same way over time.
The part of the lake closest to the shore is known as the moat. Each summer, it melts out forming a gap between the shore and the rest of the lake which remains semi-frozen. I haven't been there in late summer so I'm not sure how frozen the center stays. However, I do know that the ice chunks that broke free in years past protrude up, as shown a couple pictures above. The center of the lake makes for difficult walking because it is uneven and the aged ice has partly thawed and refrozen many times which makes it less stable. The moat is a flatter surface so it makes for easy walking as long as you are wearing footwear that can grip the ice.


Seuss Glacier.


Ice grass growing up from the sea floor (or lots of columns of tiny air bubbles).
The walk to the end of the lake was lovely. Great morning light. Mesmerizing ice cracks below. Large mountains above. Giant glaciers. Not a soul to be seen or noise to be heard. No smells. Just sights and tastes if I really wanted to lick up some dirt or ice.


The defile.


Seuss Glacier and Lake Hoare.
When I reached the defile, I began walking the narrow passage up and over to Mummy Lake. That was my original destination, but I had meandered a little too much getting down the lake and didn't have time to make it. That was just fine. I was taking pictures and trying to soak up as much of this magical place as possible, not see as much as possible. It is hard to describe it. It makes me think of a fall day in the woods of New England where my thoughts don't wander any farther than the next bright colored leaf drifting down from the tree tops.


The end of the Seuss Glacier.


The sandy beach in front of the Seuss Glacier just waiting for the ice to melt and small snow kids to come play.


Seuss Glacier.
I have been trying to write this blog entry for a few days and I've struggled to come up with the right words. I'm not sure any words can really describe the experience. It is like a quote that I first saw about marathoning, "For those who understand, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not understand, no explanation will ever do." I'm just going to send this out the door so I can move on to the rest of my time at Lake Hoare. Enjoy!

The Trip of a Lifetime

When I took this job as a computer tech for the scientists, I didn't think I'd get to travel outside of a single boondoggle (navy term for morale trips during your work day) and the same recreation trips I had done in past seasons. I figured that, just like the computer shop for town, the communications guys would take care of any field work and the grantees would come in from the field to have us service their equipment. So I was very surprised to learn on my second day back, that I was being sent to snow survival school two days later so that I fly out for a field camp put in eight days after being back on the ice!!!!

For the put in, I would be installing the computers at Lake Hoare in the Dry Valleys (77.6233S, 162.905E). All of my trips have been around Ross Island or the sea ice, so I was really excited to finally cross the 60 miles over the sound to the mainland. The McMurdo Dry Valleys are the largest expanse of ice-free ground in Antarctica. The area receives an average precipitation of less than 100mm and it is extremely windy which keeps the area from collecting snow and ice. So few visitors get to the Dry Valleys that they have have remained a mostly pristine environment and have retained their wilderness quality. To quote my friend Betty and make her day, the Dry Valleys are "the closest place on earth to the conditions we imagine might exist on Mars . . . the photos never really do the region justice . . . What's so special about brown rocky mountain peaks and barren valleys? Nothing, except when they're in Antarctica (98% covered by ice) and full of microscopic living organisms (the only ones on the continent!)."


Maps of Ross Island, McMurdo Sound, and the Dry Valleys. The one on the left highlights the Taylor Valley where I went.
The original plan was that I would fly out on Friday, install two computers, test them overnight, and fly out on Saturday. It was a short trip, but I was more than happy to do it for a chance to see the Dry Valleys. Due to some weather delays, my helicopter ride out was pushed to Saturday and since we don't fly on Sunday, I'd be staying until Monday!!!

Here is a time lapse of my flight out:

Narrative of flight:
0:00 Taking off from the helipad at McMurdo Station, Ross Island, Antarctica
0:25 Looking west while flying north over McMurdo Sound
1:10 The Royal Society mountain range
2:15 Ferrar Glacier
2:55 Crossing the Kukri Hills
3:48 Passing over the start of Andrew's Ridge (reference for future blog)
4:00 Lake Hoare with the Seuss Glacier at the far end sliding in from the right
4:10 Lake Hoare Camp with the calved-end of the Canada Glacier in the background

After I arrived at the field camp, I got to work installing the computers and then settled in. I just had to give the computers a solid run through before I left on Monday to ensure they were good to go for the season. When I finished up and was tucking into for the evening, I caught this bit of color over Lake Hoare as the sun was getting ready to set somewhere behind those mountains.


Lake Hoare.

Arcology?

I first learned the word arcology as the end goal of the video game SimCity 2000. Who knew that years later, I'd be living in one of the closest approximations of one . . .

"Arcology . . . is a set of architectural design principles aimed toward the design of enormous habitats (hyperstructures) of extremely high human population density. These largely hypothetical structures would contain a variety of residential and commercial facilities and minimize individual human environmental impact. They are often portrayed as self-contained or economically self-sufficient.

The McMurdo Station of the United States Antarctic Program and other scientific research stations on the continent of Antarctica may most closely approximate the popular conception of an arcology as a technologically-advanced, self-sufficient human community. Although by no means entirely self-sufficient (the U.S. Military "Operation Deep Freeze" resupply effort delivers 8 million gallons of fuel and 11 million pounds of supplies and equipment yearly) the base has a very insular character as a necessary shelter and protection from an extremely harsh environment, is geographically isolated from conventional support networks, and must avoid damage to the surrounding Antarctic ecosystem due to an international treaty. The base generates electricity with its own power plant, and grows fruits and vegetables in a hydroponic green house mainly for limited winter use when resupply is nonexistent. The base also provides a full range of living and entertainment amenities for the 3,000 or so science and support staff that visit each year." -from Wikipedia's entry on Arcology.

Thanks to Evan Jenkins for bringing this to my attention.

The sun isn't going down anymore!

McMurdo Sound under the first night of the not-so-setting sun
On October 23rd, the sun rose and it won't be going back down again until late February. To be fair, the sun hasn't been going down for me since I got here because I go to sleep early. When I was waking up in the middle of the night, I'd see crazy sunset colors, but the sun was always up.

On the first night the sun didn't officially set, my roommate, Meg, and I went out to ski at 11:15pm to celebrate her beau's teaser clip for his first(?) major ski movie, Signatures. She was bonkers excited and unable to sleep so we went out to play.

Skiing out to the runway away from town is such a treat. I've only skied out a few times, but each time I've been rewarded with the sounds of silence and huge beautiful reminders of why I'm here. It puts me at ease in ways I can't describe. I don't know how anyone could come down here and just stay in town.

Challenge: Who is singing the song in the teaser linked to above? The person who figures that out will get a souvenir from the store here. All we can figure out so far is that it is a cover of Daniel Johnston's "True Love Will Find You in the End."

Under the Sea!!

The red striped area on the left is where this clip was filmed.
Yesterday, a grantee diver uploaded some of his video footage to YouTube and I wanted to share it. It is just amazing that he is diving down there at all in the cold, let alone, the diversity of life. The footage was shot about three-quarter miles from McMurdo Station. On the map above the right orange circle is the station, just north of the left orange circle is where it was filmed.


The seaweed is always greener
In somebody else’s lake
You dream about going up there
But that is a big mistake
Just look at the world around you
Right here on the ocean floor
Such wonderful things surround you
What more is you lookin’ for?
Under the sea

New Address

I've been getting a bunch of requests for my new address:
William Brotman, RPSC
McMurdo Station
PSC 469 Box 700
APO AP 96599-1035

I might have a phone and pager too. If you want those, ask.

What to send? I don't know. I came a lot more prepared than last time. The best thing you could honestly send is a letter or e-mail letting me know how you are. A lot of people back home seem to think their life is boring in comparison to what I am doing down here, but I miss the conversations we would be having about that minutia of life if I were able to spend time with you.

Things to send (someone summed most of these as luxury items that are consumable):

• Bulk granola cereal from wholefoods or sunflower market would be fantastic.
• Trader Joe's dried fruit.
• Froodles from CO springs would be brilliant
• MyChai concentrate (made in Bend, OR)
• Reese's Pieces or Peanut Butter cups
• Energy snacks (Clif, Luna, Jelly Belly Sport, etc)
• Oregon Chai (accept no substitutes) is always good, but I have a LOT here
• 'Fancy' microwave meals like 'Tasty Bites' indian food are great (we can buy the basic ones like mac&cheese, soup, etc here)
• Music or book that you think I'll love
• Book of crosswords

I didn't add this section last year and got a ton of stuff I couldn't or just didn't use so here is a list of what not to send (because they have a ton on base or I know I won't use it and don't want you to send unnecessary goodies that you could use at home):

• PACKING PEANUTS (use newspaper or bubble wrap)
• Hot chocolate (pales compared to the OC!)
• Batteries
• Foot Warmers
• Hand Warmers
• Trinkety stuff that shouldn't be sent to the most environmentally protected place on earth
• Computer gear
• Granola bars
• Anything I'd want to keep, but is challenging to travel with or ship home
• Anything I need more than a microwave to cook
• Drugs or medicines
• Sheets or clothes

My room's view when I can't sleep

One of the nice things about adjusting to the new timezone down here is that I wake up at times I wouldn't normally be awake and see a part of day I normally wouldn't. My first couple nights, I woke up just before 4am and spent each night working backwards until 1am. Since I didn't have a clock setup yet, I didn't ever know what time it was. I just got up and looked out the window to catch some beautiful colors in the sky. My last summer here I didn't have a window so this is a real treat.


1am view from my room.


1:45am view from my room.
Our current sunrise is at 4am and sunset at 11:30pm. In just under two weeks, the sun will stop setting and I won't have another chance to see the sunrises that I love so much until late February (and no, Katie Folts, sunset isn't just as good as sunrise at a better time).

Current conditions:
Fogged in to less than a quarter mile visibility
-7F ambient
12mph winds
-26F windchill

Photos from the Journey Back

Flying to Christchurch over the Southern Alps on the South Island of western New Zealand.


A plot near the entrance to the gardens.

My favorite path at the Christchurch Botanical Gardens

Whittling away five hours on our flight to Antarctica.

Small ice chunks in the ocean below as we approach Antarctica.

Much larger ice chunks as we get closer to Antarctica.

I think that is pancake ice.

Icebergs and land (covered in ice) as we first reach the continent.

Small icy mountains.

Icy mountains.

More icy mountains.

Big ice mountains.

Even more icy mountains.

The Journey Back!

The first step is the hardest or some saying like that. After spending most of the day packing, playing my final rec league ultimate game with Shiny Happy People, and chatting too much with my roommate, I took my first steps towards my car and Antarctica. If I got in and drove to my brother's wedding in Pittsburgh instead of flying it would mean that I'd be leaving home, leaving Sabah and heading back to the Ice. They were tough steps. Denver was finally feeling like home again and the idea of leaving Sabah just sucked. It felt selfish.

Short version:

• Tuesday-Thursday, 22nd - drive to Pittsburgh, 1447 miles, 30 hours in the car
• Friday-Saturday, 24th - drive to Greensburg, PA, 40 miles, 1 hour in the car
• Sunday, 25th - drive to Wisconsin Rapids, WI, 740 miles, 11.5 hours in the car
• Wednesday, 30th - fly to Denver, 1035 miles, 10 hours door-to-door
• Friday, 2nd - fly to Phoenix, AZ. 589 miles
• Sunday, 4th - fly back to Denver, CO 589 miles, arrive 1am and bike home
• Mon, 5th - Wed 7th - fly to Christchurch, NZ, 9533 miles, 26 hours in planes and airports
• Friday, 9th - fly to McMurdo Station, Antarctica, 2415 miles, 5 hours on the plane

TOTAL: 16,388 miles, 100ish hours

My journey back.

Long Version:
The first leg of my journey was spent with Sabah and I alternating between driving, sleeping in the car, and playing at rest areas. Just after Des Moines, IA, I accelerated a bit too quickly out of the city and got pulled over. I didn't get pulled over until at least ten minutes later though. It was weird. The officer asked where I was going. I told him I was on my way to my brother's wedding. He asked to see the invitation or present. I didn't have either. I had forgot the invitation and had planned on buying a card in Pittsburgh. At this point, the officer decided I might be a smuggler because my story wasn't checking out. He asked me to open my trunk. I couldn't because a friend had used my car and the trunk hadn't really been working since then. He was skeptical, but let me go and even just gave me a warning. Just thirty short hours after I left, I pulled into Pittsburgh rush hour. Luckily, I didn't have any traffic troubles because everyone stayed home to dodge the G-20 road closures.

Kilted for my brother's wedding.

After two short days at my old haunts and friends' houses in Pittsburgh, I was off to Greensburg to see my family for my brother's wedding. For some reason, getting together with my family is never easy. This one, I'm pinning on my brother. He neglected to tell me about some of my duties as a groomsman and made me track down a grand kilt to wear for the ceremony. Once the headaches were out of the way, it was a great couple days and fun to see everyone. Sabah even managed to slide down her tallest slide yet, eight feet high. Seeing my brother off on his honeymoon at an Eat N' Park brunch also led to one of the great undiscovered ideas of my life:
Oregon Chai Tea Milkshake
Oregon® Chai tea and vanilla ice cream, topped with whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon.
Unfortunately, the end of wedding festivities meant I had to hop back in my car for another drive to my mom's place in Wisconsin. The trip was uneventful until I got to the thunder and wind storms in Wisconsin. Crazy and beautiful. At my mom's place, I got to start on three quiet days of getting Sabah acquainted to her new home. In the time it took me to toast a bagel, she was already playing with the 100+ pound Alaskan malamute. The springer spaniel wouldn't warm up to her until I left and last I heard my mom wrote, "sabah is doing well. She and princess play tag in the yard and garage." Great stuff.

My flight back to Denver was supposed to get me home in time for practice. I landed at 5pm, but public transit did not get me home until 8:30pm. I timed it about as poorly as I could have. I had just missed a bus and had to wait an hour for the next one. Ugh. Thursday, I packed and had a small goodbye gathering. Friday, I flew down to AZ for Southwest Regionals for ultimate frisbee. My team had been hoping to finish top 3, but ended up 9th. We played pretty well so I left with a smile, especially after seeing my old friend Missy from college. After getting delayed on the flight home, I got one last road ride in back to my house.

On Monday morning, it was rise and shine for one last mountain bike ride with Dave at Lair O' the Bear. Instead of doing the entire ride, we pulled up short to work on a couple technical sections. It took me about a hundred tries, but I finally got them. Such a treat since I hadn't been able to get them most of the summer. Unfortunately, all the goodness of the ride was dashed away when I went to get some gourmet grilled cheese at Chedd's and it was closed, possibly for good. It looked like it was being remodeled, but had no sign. This followed on finding out the month before that another Chedd's had closed in southwest Denver. The only one left may be in Austin!!

Chedd's, oh how I miss thee . . .

After saying goodbye to more friends, I was off to the airport. It was weird to see so many old faces. I hadn't seen some of them for eighteen months, but they were as fresh as when I left the Ice. I still had some apprehension about heading down though, but my course was set. I hopped on the first of three very long flights, watched a bunch of movies, crossed the international date line, wondered what the experience would be like, and soon found myself back in Christchurch walking in the gardens, eating out, and playing ultimate with old friends like I had never left. Playing ultimate with the Christchurch team again was a treat, even in the cold rain. Afterwards, we went to an indian restaurant and it happened to be playing my favorite Michael Franti and Spearhead album. Yum, yum.

After two quick days in Christchurch, it was time to hop on my final flight. I still had a lot of emotional backwash, but when I finally touched down, it felt right. It felt natural. I stopped questioning things and just knew that this was going to be a good season even if I don't know why.

"Wise folks count their blessings. Fools count their problems." -Spearhead