101 days

Here we are, the Twotter Boys, sitting in a hotel room in New Zealand with the window open, the lush green trees swaying outside in the warm wind wondering what the hell happened.  You thought it was all over, well it is now.  101 days since arriving in McMurdo we arrived back in real civilisation a little dazed and confused from a crazy last few days. 

 

Our Private LC130 and the Twotter Boyz sitting in the first class cabin (i.e. the cockpit)

After our arrival and celebration on Saturday, we spent Sunday afternoon unpacking the pallet of cargo and trying to locate the rest, which was tracked down the next morning.  Monday and Tuesday were spent cleaning, sorting and returning the masses of equipment and organising shipment of rocks back to the States.  It all happened so quickly. 

The Beard (suffering from a nasty case of Gingeritis)

An afternoon of thank you’s and goodbyes to all the people in McMurdo that have made this season possible then some wine in the bar (to help us sleep…) before being taken to the plane after midnight for a 3am night flight departure.  5 hours of sleeping fits and nodding heads later we arrived in Christchurch and it was all over. 

Feeling at home in the rain

Today we went up to Arthurs Pass for a walk in the warm rain.  As we come from Canadia (near Alaska) and Englandshire (near London) this made us feel at home.  Tomorrow Chris leaves for Hawaii and Tim stays for a few days before heading to Patagonia. 

So this is the last post before we have all gone our separate ways. A few numbers for your consideration…

7 people

98 Rock Samples

101 days

47kg cheese

1768 tea bags

14kg fresh coffee

1724km mileage on the skidoos

9 flights

19 landings

73 hours of satellite phone calls

3 beards removed (Chris, Mike & Tim I)

1 beard trimmed (Tim – Fawna, you’d be proud!)

1 “beard” removed (Danny)

1 very satisfied G097 team

A massive thank you to everyone involved - from NSF who made it possible, to the folk at McMurdo who made it happen.  We are very grateful to you all.  And now let’s get the rocks to the lab and start working it all out…

Private Jets

We are pretty fortunate really, to have our own private twin otter for a
week. Crazy when you think about it. The weather did permit for the
last two days and we got two brilliant geology days in visiting 10
sites. Some fantastic flying and landing sites and some interesting
geology (including what we have called some igneous conglomerate....)
And we only broke one cable on the skis which was good :-)

On saturday, our private twin otter left us and our own private LC130
arrived to whisk us back to the sprawling metropolis which is McMurdo.
A quick pack up of the tent and some goodbyes to Drew and Silver who
have been BRILLIANT hosts over the last 18 days at Siple Dome. Thanks
Guys!!

And so to town. Showers, beds, dark rooms at night, lashings of food
and a large dose of saturday night Gin and Tonic. Chris has shaved the
monster off his face but Tim's is still lingering for the moment. Now
they don't look like Twotter boys any more, it's more like a schoolchild
who hangs around with an old tramp.

Season's end and Art update

The only sign we have of the remaining team members in Antarctica is the flicker of activity on a (famous social network) website. Therefore we think we have detected a sign of Kakymchukky with internet access, and hence infer their location as McMurdo! We are awaiting news of 'culture' shock and rock cargo updates.

In Australia we have already had our lovely rock samples safely delivered. No small feat given the quarantine regulations for our large island. We are also writing our abstracts for the International Geological Congress in Brisbane (to take place in August) which will be the next G097 face-to-face meeting after the Lockhart camp changeover.

In the meantime Tim I has been creating some physical artwork (each about 90 cm wide) from his sketches: see progress below:

The Final Day....weather permitting

Today marked the final science day of an epic season that started Nov. 5
and lasted a total of 72 days! We managed to visit 4 sites today,
including the Saunders Mountains that has eluded pilots in previous
seasons. Thank you to the KBA pilots Phil and Tim who went above and
beyond to get us to more sites than we thought possible in two days!

The Twotter boys are scheduled on a Herc to McMurdo station tomorrow and
plan to sort cargo, return uneaten food, and as always drink lots of
tea...weather permitting.

Big Day

Wow, what a brilliant day. Gorgeous weather, 6 site visits, lots and
lots of rocks and the forecast for tomorrow is good as well. Hopefully
we'll be able to get most of our other sites done and then get on an
LC130 back to town on Saturday. Weather permitting of course. And the
last site today was under a peak called the Billboard, a 600m+ vertical
granite mammoth in the sarnoff range. Wow all over again. Another hard
day at the office.

Love The Twotter Boyz.

Scott Centenary

"Polar Exploration is at once the best way of having a bad time ever
devised"

This is the very memorable opening line to "The Worst Journey in the
World", a book by Apsley Cheery Garrard about Captain Scott's fateful
South Pole expedition(and the winter journey that the title talks about)

Today, the 17th of January, marks the 100th anniversary of when Captain
Robert Falcon Scott and his team reached the South Pole - only to find
that he'd been beaten to it by the Norweigan Roald Amundsen and his dog
team. It is still difficult to imagine how he must have felt. He never
made it back, dying from starvation in a storm only 11 miles from their
last depot of food.

We sit here at 82 degrees South (about 500 miles from the Pole) in a
heated hut, enjoying freshly baked bread and a cold beer imported from
Scott's English homeland. How things change.

The magnificent feat of reaching the South Pole is something that still
only a few explorers have accomplished, but we feel too feel like
pioneers. We believe that we, at 82 degrees south, have eaten more
cheese per day per person than any previous expedition on the continent.
Even the French. And that is something of which to be proud.

Oh, and we had a little bit of OK weather today and sneaked in a quick
flight to one location to geologise! YAY! Good to get out and get
somewhere... hopefully more on the way.

Ground-no-fog day

The plane arrived yesterday and we flew out to the Fosdicks briefly to
collect cargo from the campsite that was left when the dig team got
pulled out (they finally left last thursday, 17 days after being put in,
poor souls!!) and to recce some landing sites for today but no time for
geologising unfortunately.

Anyway, the last post was about groundhog day - where fog stops play and
the plane can't come/we can't go anywhere.

Today we have invented a new term. Ground-No-Fog Day.

Definition: When it is a gorgeous day at Siple Dome but the forecast is
for fog to arrive and it NEVER ARRIVES!!

No Fog. No Wind. No Clouds. No Flight.

Very frustrating all round (the pilots hate sitting around more than we
do) We looked at another option to return to Byrd Camp but the weather
there is pants.

More reading, more running, more eating, more tea. MORE CHEESE :-)

And every finger crossed for tomorrow. Tick Tock, Tick Tock

Weather Permitting...

The phrase that rules our life down here in the freezer.

We believed and believed and finally the fog cleared!! Well, it's
always nice on a Sunday when planes don't fly here, but today, Monday,
is also nice and there's a plane on it's way to us as I type.

It will get here and then fly to the fosdicks to collect some of the
cargo and hopefully we'll persuade them to drop us off somewhere to
collect rocks on the way, then tomorrow, weather permitting, we will fly
back again and should get a massive 5 hours on the rock! (with 5 hours
of flying) All in the pursuit of knowledge.

3 more days of that, weather permitting, and then we're scheduled,
weather permitting, on an LC130 back to the sprawling metropolis that is
McMurdo on Saturday. Cargo sort, shower and reality check and then out
to the green and pleasant land of NZ the following Wednesday.

Weather permitting...

The Ping Pong Ball Effect

Yes, as predicted, it's groundfog day - foggy and cancelled once again.
Poopoo. Anyway...

The best description of white out conditions I've heard is that of being
inside a ping pong ball. When you're in fog on a flat white expanse of
snow and you can't tell which was is up, down, forward or back. It is
actually possible to get motion sickness in these conditions unless you
have something to aim for. Running on the skiway here for the last few
days is mostly like this, with a little line of flags every 130m or so
to make sure you don't get lost (you can see 200m) and that you don't
get seasick.

It's an unusual feeling and one that reminds me of the start to a
strange, surreal film. Siple Dome, you can check out but you can't leave...

But the most amusing thing about it is that, after not shaving for
almost 3 months and not cutting my hair for more than 5, it gives me a
little indication of what I might look like when I'm a totally grey,
crazed, hairy old man. (All of this is already correct apart from the
TOTALLY grey bit...) Freezing fog sticks to anything and everything.
Photo attached for your amusement.

GroundFog Day

Life here at Siple Dome reminds us of that classic Bill Murray film,
Groundhog Day. It is a different season but with a gentle reminder of
last year. We're on the schedule, we're smothered in a layer of ground
fog, and understandably we're cancelled. As Peter Pan would say, "you
have to believe!" And we do, and while we wait we continue our routine
of reading, watching films, taking windy walks and runs on the skiway,
baking and eating. Not to forget drinking tea of course, which we do in
great quantities.

We actually lost our plane on Monday, well, it's not like it got buried
in the snow and we couldn't find it, it's just as the weather was bad
here and also where we wanted to go, it flew off to the South Pole. As
you do. Today we were scheduled another twin otter to support our away
days for the next week or so which is great, but the fog had other
ideas. We're on the schedule again for tomorrow but we'll have to wait
and see. We're ready and packed to go - maybe that's the problem.
People say that the only way to guarantee a plane is to be unprepared
and get drunk the night before. All the cargo is ready and we have both
just had a nice cup of tea. Hmmmmm, perhaps we need to change tactics?

A tribute to Siple Dome - RPSC staff

This is Siple Dome camp.  It is upon and surrounded by the vast, white West Antarctic ice sheet.

This is an early-season photo of the 2011-12 camp staff: Silver and Drew. At the moment this photo was taken, they were the sole occupants of Siple Dome camp.  They have now been joined by members of G-097.

This is a late-season photo of the 2010-11 camp staff, after they have been subjected to the company of G-097 members for one month (an eventuality that was not in the plan for the season!).  Credit:  Kevin Emery photo.

We leave it to our dear readers to draw their own conclusions.

Mentally Fat

Definition:"Where a person with skinny genes feels guilt and discomfort as their
balance between consumption and burning off tips heavily towards
consumption"

For those of us with Skinny Genes (and I don't mean tight denim for
those with spelling issues out there) this is a term that I have
developed and can be used by everyone. I use it when sitting around in
poor weather for days on end eating through hunger and boredom but
unable to do any reasonable exercise because of the conditions outside
(or laziness of course...) As I am unable, it seems, to get physically
fat, I become "Mentally Fat."
My dad, bless his cotton socks, makes me look like Arnold Swarzenegger -
the severity of this comment will only be evident to those of you who
know me or have seen photos. I am a lean bean and he is leaner. I
have inherited his Genes, and this means that I do not yet have the
pleasure of joining many of my friends in their middle aged spread and
that I have been the same weight for the last 18yrs (and will probably
still be the same in 18yrs...)

Slender Tim

Example of Gourmet Meal prepared by Tim

Example of high calorie food that has no 

detectable effect on Tim

As an unfortunate consequence of this I am, as Chris will testify, a
FEEDER. This means I love cooking and eating and encourage those around
me to do the same, expecting each person present to "do their duty" and
eat a portion similar to, if not larger than mine. Chris excels at this,
and our food waste bin has suffered accordingly.
So as we arrive at Siple Dome for the...er...near future (and beyond?)
then I am in recovery - after a week of standby in poor weather, only
managing a few laps of camp a day to keep mobile, I had become mentally
fat and am now determined to repent. I went running for the first time
in months today, something I do a lot at home, and it was good. VERY
GOOD. And should we get stuck here on standby, for a change, there will
be plenty more I am sure.
Mentally Fat? Not any more.

Tim (just so there's no confusion)
       With photo-documentation added by Christine (for illustration purposes!)

Escape from Fosditraz...

Peter Pan (Solomon) believed and believed and believed some more, but
his flight was cancelled. The Twotter boys believed and hoped, with a
little light scepticism thrown in for good measure, and then the plane
came. And it DID land. So perhaps we have to retract our last post of
scepticism...

After a morning of digging and organising to follow Solomon's enthusiasm
and positive mental attitude, the weather got a little worse. And then
it got a little better and then we weren't sure what it was going to do
but the pilot thought he'd have a go anyway and took on enough fuel to
get back to Siple Dome in case it was a no go.

After expecting it never to happen, it was a change of mood in camp.
Strange as we had to get our stuff packed, tent down, organise our cargo
and mark an airstrip in case the surface contrast was poor. And we had
a little over two hours to do all of this.

The other thing that was a little strange was that the D team was
cancelled and would stay there waiting for who knows how long for their
plane. Very frustrating and annoying for them I'm sure. Sorry guys
(but perhaps you can give weather obs for our close support days over
the next week!?!? ;-)

We marked out a safe strip in the valley with empty drums and a "come
and have a go if you think you're good enough" strip with rock boxes a
few hundred metres from camp and waited with baited breath to see what
happened. A little after 4pm an otter sneaked through the gap between
Mt Bitgood and Lockhart, pinched between the cloud a hundred feet above
it and the mountain a hundred below. Then it did a pass of the far
strip and one of the close. It turned out again and then lined up for
the close one. Brilliant. This saved us taking the fuel and cargo
2.5km from camp!

A swift refuel, load and strap down and a strange goodbye - we should
have been the last to leave really but we leave, two months to the day
almost, and the D Team wave goodbye, wondering whether they will ever
make it back to town. They have been cancelled today and it's Sunday
tomorrow so no flying there. Poor sods. We're very grateful for their
digging skills, card playing brilliance and their concerted effort to
help us finish the remaining cheese.

And so to Siple Dome, the place we spent 37 days last season on standby
for a season that never happened. Interesting memories and strange here
today, after our close support is cancelled from weather (groundhog day
begins) with only the two of us and not the team. We wish that Fawna,
Christine, Kevin and Mike were here for old times sake. Although I know
they would NOT agree.

So re-organising cargo, reading, running on the skiway and sitting
around, waiting for the weather to play ball so we can go back to the
Ford Ranges and complete the final stage of the project. We need 5 days
out and about to complete the science for the season, fingers crossed
we're gonna get them...

Peter Pan

"Believe, you just have to believe!!" Solomon says this morning as
we're drinking tea in the tent. He, one of the dig team, is now known
as Peter Pan. For two days now has woken up at 6am intent on digging
out the tents because he believes, he really believes, he really really
believes an aircraft will come and take us away from the Fosdicks. Today
he woke us up at 6am after seeing a sun patch dancing across the glacier
like tinkerbell - this must mean that the plane will come!! "Hoorah
Hoorah", we call gayly from our sleeping bags, jumping up and dressing
for digging with excitement in our eyes. We Dig, we smile, we give
weather observations, tinkerbell dances across the glacier some more. We
drink tea, laugh jovially and pack things up in great expectations of
the riches that will be found at the end of our flights to Neverland.

We realise that Neverland is actually missing a space.

Never Land. And it doesn't, ever.

Same Same but different it seems. We have currently had the Basler,
piloted by Captain Hook, cancelled today, and the second, for the
twotter boys, is on the longest weather delay in history. The pilot,
Mark, seems positive still and says as we're only two hours away so we
should keep on giving weather obs and see what happens. The broken
cloud is fixing itself, the scattered cloud is regrouping, the fair
contrast is getting ugly, the poor horizontal definition is still
lacking funds, tinkerbell is getting fainter by the minute, and the snow
has started to fall...

For Danny

Thanks for posting the extra photos on the blog to spice up our posts
out here in the heebygeebies Danny, much appreciated.
In return: here is a little photo of Danny's favourite pancake that I created for
him earlier this season, to remind him of what he was missing out here
in the field.

Most will be able to recognize this, but.... this is a Skidoo (note the front ski and track; wind screen) with a rider -- Danny, no doubt! -- who appears to be brandishing a chain saw.  The chain saw is a reference to the Buried Cache (see posts from 12/11 and 12/29).

Yes, at home he has a parrot with a beak, a handlebar
moustache, big ears, a mohawk and some scary lookin' eyes, crazy yank...

Still here by the way...
Love the Twotter Boys

Fosdick Penitentiary

Have you ever had the feeling you are in a prison? (And we're not
talking about marriage...) We sure do. The last few days in the Fosdicks
have brought ugly weather to the point that for most of the day we are
confined to our tents.

A usual day consists of waking up to the call of
the weather observer (eg. Warden) indicating our flights have been
cancelled. We then move like zombies to the kitchen tent (mess hall) for
food. Then staying in that confined space until the weather breaks and
we enjoy 15-30 minutes of outdoor recreation (the yard) before howling
winds (eg. the jailor) force us to return to our confined space in the
kitchen tent. During our time where 5 of us are crammed into the main
tent we play cards, chat about our plans after we've done our time, and
try to avoid being shived (stabbed) by the other inmates whilst they
prepare dinner.
Some other similarities to prison include: (1) we wear the same clothes
every day, (2) we share rooms with foul smelling inmates, (3)
reputations are made and lost at the card table, (4) We bathe only when
absolutely necessary, (5) we smuggle things to and fro under our
clothes, (6) There is no escape...
Nonetheless, we are all in good spirits and are catching up on our
reading, data entry, and sleeping. Hopefully the weather breaks soon and
we will each be set free from 'the pen', although for Tim and Chris it
is merley a transfer to a higher security instutution where your
sentence is always extended...Siple Dome.

The Menu

Tim and Chris remain in the internet-free world of the Antarctic deep field. Here are some photos from Icefall camp to help illustrate what our beloved chaps are up to this moment.

Tim has gone cross-eyed

Chris has read the same book four times

Tim does his best impression of a geologist

"You did what with the Tabasco?"

The entire 2011-2012 Fosdicks team, together for a brief 10 minutes. Left to right: Dr. Mike Brown, Timothy Charles Burton, Professor Christopher "Slapshot" Yakymchucky, Dr. Christine Smith Siddoway, Dr. Fawna Korhonen, Dr. Tim Ivanic, and Danny Uhlmann

Food is scarce on the frozen continent. There is very little if any

Cordiorite and garnet bread dough about to be baked

sustinance to support life and teams are forced to bring all the food to
last them a season with them by hauling it, sledging it, or for those of
us that are lucky enough, having it flown in.

Christine ponders the eternal question: "which tea is right for me?"

Each team member brought their own variety of cooking skills to the
field and the result was an eclectic mix of foods ranging from bland
peasant food to the spiciest curries from the orient. Even those of us
that do not regularily cook found themselves making elaborate feasts for
the team after a hard day of work.

Sometimes the gas situation got out of hand

We brough in approximately 2330 pounds of food and are leaving with
about 200. The difference was turned into energy, gas, and poop. We
estimate the amount of natural gas produced by G097 in the two months
here is enough to power 6 average American homes for an entire year. Our
proudest feat is that we managed to consume 103 pounds (or 47kg for
those civilised nations... ;-) of cheese in 52 days. Wisconsin would be
proud!

Tim Burton's famous Fosdicks homemade hamburgers on homebaked bread on its way to my stomach

Tim wonders, "Oh bloody hell! Where will I put the other seven courses whilst we are eating?!"

Here is the dinner menu from the 2010/2011 Fosdick Mountain season. Bon
apetit:
11/5 Beans and rice with tomato sauce
11/6 Fajitas
11/7 Dehy and Bagels :(
11/8 Shrimp curry with Basmati Rice
11/9 Steak, asparagus, rice and vin rouge
11/10 Tortellini, Italian vegetable mix, tomato sauce
11/11 Salmon, green beans, mashed potatoes
11/12 Beef Chili and green beans
11/13 Pesto-champignon pasta with sun-dried tomatoes
11/14 Pork Chops, brocolli, mashed potatoes
11/15 Steak, rice, tater tots and fresh rolls
11/16 Chicken with mushroom sauce, asparagus and cous-cous
11/17 Falafel, hummus, pita and quinoea
11/18 Pad thai scallop-halibut-shrimp curry
11/19 Tortilla, beans, beef, guacomole
11/20 Chicken stuffed with cheese and pesto, pasta
11/21 Dal Bhat (rice and lentil soup) with curried vegetables
11/22 Chili relenos, refriend beans, tortilla, and roasted bell peppers
11/23 Chicken linguine with fresh garlic bread
11/24 -THANKSGIVING- Roast cornish game hens, scalloped potatoes,
stuffing, cranberry sauce, mixed vegetables, fresh rosemary-sun dried
tomato bread, and cake!
11/25 Chicken fried rice
11/26 Pork chops, green beans, tortellini, fresh cranberry-honey bread
11/27 Mac & Cheese, fresh bread bowls and Chili
11/28 Maple glazed salmon, broccoli and cous-cous
11/29 Chicken tortellini with mixed vegetables
11/30 Pork stir fry, double chocolate cake
12/1 Vermicelli and brocolli
12/2 Tortillas, pork, rice, guacomole
12/3 Thai shrimp appetizer, fresh scones, steak, peas, mashed potatoes
12/4 Pasta with cream sauce and fresh foccacia
12/5 Spaghetti bolognese and broccoli
12/6 Fresh Skua steak with braised lichen and snow petrel omlettes
12/7 Chili relenos, spanish rice,
12/8 Chicken curry
12/9 Spicy beef spaghetti
12/10 Salmon, fresh potatoes, peas, carrots and tomatos
12/11 Thai shrimp starter, tortellini with chicken
12/12 Poutine starter, pepper steak, garlic mashed potatoes, asparagus
and chocolate pudding
12/13 South American Gumbo, rice and tortillas
12/14 Fresh scones and chili-lentil jambalaya
12/15 Salmon, mashed potatoes, peas and carrots
12/16 Shrimp curry with lentils and rice
12/17 Chicken Kiev, pesto tortellini, roasted pecans and vegetables
12/18 Pad thai with halibut
12/19 Lime beef, vegetables, rice and beans
12/20 Shrimp chili with brocolli and rice
12/21 Hamburgers, roasted herb potatoes, and spinach
12/22 Lime-cilantro halibut, mashed potatoes, peas, seared asparagus
12/23 Spaghetti with spinach and kidney beans
12/24 Coconut curry shrimp, raman noodles, chicken stir fry
12/25 -CHRISTMAS- Shrimp teryaki amuse bouche, teryaki beef appetizer,
herb roasted cornish game hens, stuffing, fresh whole wheat bread, mixed
vegetable medley, cranberry sauce, and gratin dauphoinoise with a
dessert of extra creamy brie and summer fruits pudding with custard
12/26 Salmon and halibut, mashed potatoes and ,ixed vegetables
12/27 Beef teryaki, lentils with vegetables, green beans, rice, fresh
rosemary whole wheat rolls
12/28 Hummus started, toretelli with honey-mustard cream sauce and
sun-dried tomatoes, green beans, and butter chicken
12/29 Tortillas, beef, refried beans, beans and rice, and more beans
12/30 Falafel, cous-cous with spinach, hummus and pita
12/31 Beef wellington, mixed vegetables, and mashed potatoes
1/1 Tortellini with mozerella, scallops and asparagus
1/2 Philly cheese-steak, mac & cheese, spinach with sunflower seeds
1/3 Tim's special Burgers, fresh pepper and basil baps, rice and asparagus
So, Captain Scott would have been proud of us. Or perhaps more likely
to have turned in his grave... God Bless the American Taxpayer...

Quinine Poisoning in the Fosdicks...

No poisoning in the end - the D team dug out two bottles of whisky
(which left the rest of the gin & Tonic for me...) and a good time was
had all round. And since then it's all gone to plan, as always. We all
left on monday in gorgeous weather and the D team are revelling in the
heroic glory of surviving a week here and the Twotter Boys are sunning
themselves at the Siple Dome Spa Resort.

As they say in America, according to Borat anyway,

NOT.

We are all still here and haven't left camp more than a few hundred
metres since Thursday's ascent of Columbo. Weather socked in and it's
been cloudy, foggy, windy, snowy and everything inbetween since. But
all is good - we've been playing lots of 500 (a great card game) and
this culminated in Corey making an Open Misere hand, spanking Tim and
Ken in one swoop. Anyway, if you don't know 500, that means nothing. It
means a lot here...

So, NYE in the Fosdicks - it went a little something like this: We had
a lye in, wandered around camp a little, made some reasonably elaborate
food - Beef wellington (my first field pastry - merci Cathy pour le
recette!!) and drunk the tent dry. Although with our stash that wasn't
really much. We lasted til around 2 and then drifted off into 2012. The
years pass quick these days...

New Years Day was a brunch of French Toast (which Emilie informs me is
NOT French - but she likes it anyway) and the afternoon was spent "pre
digging" - this means moving excess snow and beating off the ice from
the tent valences (of which there was generally 3 inches) to make pack
up swifter as and when it comes. After a few hours of this, more cards
ensued and more food of course - our last bag of scallops. It's such a
hardship eating out here.

And so the D team flight was cancelled yesterday and today because of
the weather but tomorrow there's two flights on the schedule for all of
us. We have fingers crossed (but will phone for a forecast anyway) If
it goes, we'll be on to our last stage of the season, if not we'll play
more cards. Could be worse.

Watch this space...