The Big Swap

[This is Tim and Fawna writing from Mac Town]

Yesterday it all happened! Christine and Mike boarded the Basler and made the journey across the Ross Sea. Meanwhile Fawna and Tim packed their things on the most beautiful sunny day at the East Lockhart camp. Chris was readied to pass on photos, maps and ideas to the new party. Danny conducted interviews with the departing members to capture their reactions to the place, the people and the circumstance. It was a bittersweet departure for us (ah, don't feel too sorry as we are heading back home to summertime in Perth), and we are very excited to hear what the new group sees and discovers and hope the very best for the second half of the season!

Here are a few photos and sketches from the first month in the field...

Bird Bluff, site of the first traverse and the first three weeks in the Fosdicks

Chris and Fawna tackle the base of this vertical section

Blowing snow over a wind-scoop...blue ice lake to the left

Crevasse training on a windy day

Tim happy to find more chunks of the mantle

Using the tablet computer to trace photos of melt networks (yellow)

The Snow Petrels of Bird Bluff

Another windy day - this time playing cards in the Endurance cook tent

Fawna packing the last item from our Scott tent in front of the Bitgood massif

This time, last year...

...all of G097 enjoyed the hospitality, creativity, generosity, and ALL that Siple Dome Camp has to offer!!  A reminiscence is here: 

In the Jamesway with Sal Consalvi and Erick Toussaint

And at this time SIX years ago, a different project G088 was building toward the great discovery of the South Fosdick detachment system and its tectonic history.  Here's a look at the 2005 camp!

View to NNW of Marujupu Peak, with tent line on the right and cargo line on the left, on the Fosdick Neve.

Only one way to truly represent this day

... and that is by copying in the email correspondence arising from the cancellation of our put-in flight!

Mike Brown and I, with cargo, WERE scheduled to fly to Fosdick Mountains by Basler today, via Siple Dome (our old home away from Fosdicks), with an ultimate aim of Aircraft ops for the Basler to wind up at Byrd Camp at 125°W, 80°S.   Trusty old West Antarctica does not like to offer good weather at four sites on one day, so.. yep, we got cancelled!!   We'll give it the old college try again tomorrow.  There are several scenarios that could play out... but I am not going to summarize them here anew, when there has been so much email zinging back and forth about it today! Read on if you are familiar with this world, or skim it if your not.  As a final note of Fair Disclosure:  "Mr Pickles" is international mountain guide Tim Burton.

-----Original Message-----
From: Christine Smith Siddoway [mailto:CSiddoway@ColoradoCollege.edu]
Sent: Monday, December 05, 2011 2:19 PM
To: AirCoordinators
Cc: MBrown; g097fdm
Subject: G097 questions on cargo handling for the various scenarios

Hi, Friends of KBA,
You guys are full of action today!!  1/ wow, Julie, you made things
HAPPEN after I mentioned that Mr Pickles would have to do without the
Tanqueray in our Baja order -- we nearly wound up with a duplicate box!
(but drat, Dan MCMbeverages caught it and pulled one out.)  or,

2/ Is this cancellation today mainly so that the metal detector can get
into our hands and make it on a flight out to Fosdicks?? (I think I did
tell you, we are bringing more shovels out with us, ready to attack all
that accumulation and unbury the fuel drums)

but enough fun; on to business:
Thanks for giving us a run down on flight prospects for tomorrow, via
your conversation with Mike Brown this morning, that is a big help from
the planning standpoint!  A few questions arise from the various
scenarios.  OK if I lay out some of those to you, so that if need be I
can give a heads-up to the MCM workplaces that might be affected, most
principally cargo??

These plans are as described to me by Mike:

Plan A/ Tomorrow's schedule will be the same as today.
If FDM and SDM open then we will arrive there via SDM, and Basler goes
on to Byrd.  Does the cargo load remain the same, or has the equipment
that is needed at Byrd been sent on the two Hercs that went to Byrd
today? If so, is there a chance for a Basler flight direct to Fosdicks
if Fosdicks weather allows?
AND-- if Byrd is NOT open, can you allow the Basler to fly directly to
Fosdicks with us and cargo, then return to SDM to wait for weather to
improve at Byrd?

Plan B/  If FDM is closed and  SDM is open, we will still be manifested
to fly on Basler via SDM but will go with it to Byrd. Will that be WITH
our own cargo that is destined for Fosdicks?

Plan C/ Another alternative is that if FDM and SDM are both closed in
the morning,  the Basler will fly directly  to Byrd without us. Will our
cargo remain on the Basler in that case??   WE would be transported by
Herc to Byrd, where we would then get scheduled for Basler transport
from Byrd to the  Fosdicks.
In the Herc-transport-to-Byrd plan, will we have to differently organize
our resupply pallets and cargo and re-TCN it for Herc transport?  As
instructed for the Basler handling, we have TCNd our cargo as many
individual low weight and cubes items.

Just a remark on the Byrd to Fosdick option  -- I understand that one of
the Basler taskings from Byrd is to place fuel and supply caches for a
team who are doing a skidoo-traverse north FROM Byrd ... so at least
that would be somewhat in the right direction for transport of us to
Fosdicks if the jobs were to be combined.

Isn't this all good for mental agility??  I'll go talk to Brian in USAP
Cargo just for kicks,

Christine and Mike
G097

________________________________________
From: AirCoordinators
Sent: Sunday, December 04, 2011 7:23 PM
To: Christine Smith Siddoway; AirCoordinators
Cc: MBrown; g097fdm
Subject: RE: G097 questions on cargo handling for the various scenarios

Christine- glad that Pickles is going to get his booze.  I don't want a
crying pickle in the field.
As for the metal detector, today's weather in MCM does not seem
favorable for the pick-up from the helo camp. I was hoping today's cxl
might have given us the edge to get it, but....not looking good.  I've
let everyone involved know the importance, so if there is any chance of
connecting it with you before you go, we'll make it happen.
Finally, for the plan tomorrow:

The Basler will either go MCM/SDM/FOS/NBY OR  MCM/NBY - both options
include you and your gear.

As I don't want to wake you or Jules up tomorrow morning again, let me
know a good time/phone to reach you after 0630.
JAR


-----Original Message-----
From: Christine Smith Siddoway [mailto:CSiddoway@ColoradoCollege.edu]
Sent: Monday, December 05, 2011 5:02 PM
To: airCoordinators
Subject: RE: G097 questions on cargo handling for the various scenarios

oh, a trembling-lip, blubbering Pickle would be the Worst.  BTW, when
Brian USAP cargo found our 'Baja' this a.m., it had G-079 on it, rather
than G097, just to add to the intrigue!

Phone x2772 is completely GOOD for early morning phone calls  -- please
DO call x2772 between 6:30 and 7 a.m., you won't be disturbing anybody!
Jules seems to get up around 5 a.m. usually, and her buzzing around
makes ME wake up, especially if we are supposed to fly. After 7:10 a.m.
or so we'll prob be at our BFC cage hauling items out to a taxi-shuttle.

Final question for you (mainly b/c I talked to some Byrd-bound folks in
BFC, who had seen a forecast for Byrd for blowing snow tomorrow): IF FDM
and SDM are good but NBY is bad weather tomorrow,  could we go ahead and
get transport to FDM, with Basler returning to MCM or winding  up at SDM
to await good landing conditions at Byrd??
Thanks mucho,

Christine

G097
________________________________________
From: AirCoordinators
Sent: Sunday, December 04, 2011 9:08 PM
To: Christine Smith Siddoway
Subject: RE: G097 questions on cargo handling for the various scenarios

Yes, plan c is MCM-FOS-MCM

JAR


----- Forwarded Message
From: Chris Siddoway <csiddoway@coloradocollege.edu>
Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2011 17:18:43 +1300
To: AirCoordinators
Cc: Michael Brown
Subject: RE: G097 questions on cargo handling for the various scenarios

Wow, wouldn't that be something!!
Thanks, JAR,

Christine

Saints Day - auspicious, Patron saint of geologists

That is Santa Barbara, fittingly...

McMurdo: Creative and Scholarly Activities Retreat

As some of you may know, G097's field season did not go as planned (despite the fact that it was pre-planned via the ORW that went through three iterations and the SIP , followed by the RSP). Last year, our team did not achieve a field put-in at all, but rather waited, waited and waited for transport to our field site from a waypoint at Siple Dome.  After much reflection, we investigators of anatexis and crustal differentiation  set upon an alternative course of action in McMurdo station, that we suspected might bring about an on time put in / personnel exchange now at the midpoint of the season.  With the groundwork well laid by Chris Y. and Fawna , Christine and Mike worked with coauthors Mark Fanning and Rory McFadden (pictured below) to get a manuscript ready for submission so that it can ‘incubate’ (undergo peer review) while we are in the field.  The strategy has been to stay so utterly preoccupied by other matters that our put in day would arrive and take us unawares by happening at the first possible moment. Which is today.  Let’s see what happens! If there are no posts appearing here in short order... it means that we are in the field!

Here's the title of the paper, and Antarctic pics of our colleagues!

Colleague Mark Fanning in the field in Antarctica

Rory McFadden at Mt Ferranto in 2006

Hello, dear readers,

Well, that last post is puzzling, in respect to the remarks about average age of the team.  Perhaps it will be well that as the age of the G097 field team increases, so also does the experience!!  In any case, any playing of the game 'bingo' is only going to happen in Pickle-Tim's dreams ... since on any non-field days I imagine that he is more than occupied playing card games learned in his past tours on Mt Erebus (and drinking tea, of course:  see 25 November blog entry).


Bring on the OAE's!! Here they are:

Mike Brown, anatexis expert

Christine Siddoway, cordierite afficianado
- Kevin Emery photo 2010 -

A Beautiful New Campsite!

We finally performed our epic camp move after witnessing a massive ice
fall hours before our departure from Bird Bluff, and have situated
ourselves in our most spectacular camp site yet, near Mount Lockhart and
overlooking an even grander mountain range. The camp is dwarfed by the
rock and ice cliffs above us and we have been hearing the nearby ice
falls twice an evening and avoiding swooping snow petrels (think a much
cuter version of 'The Birds') The whole new area is absolutely stunning.
We had a breathtaking recce day out and about through the region
followed by two days of geology in lovely weather.

Today we had our first transportation incident...one of the team members
parked a Skidoo in a foot of water. Obviously, this is not the best
place to park a Skidoo. See the attached picture. The team member in
question noted 'I thought it was only a little bit of water on ice...'.
To our relief, the Skidoo was rescued from the water by David Hasselhoff
and returned home. We are now preparing for a mid-season team changover
that will substantially increase the average age of the team. Bring out
the Bingo cards!