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...

The D Team

It is HOT here at the moment. The snow is melting. The rivers are
flowing (as they tend to do when it gets warm...) and the clothes are
getting removed more and more as the temperature soars. On the
Wednesday flight that took out Christine, Mike and Danny was a team of 3
highly trained individuals.

This wasn't the A team, as there was only 3 of them and they all wanted
to get on a plane (a joke for the 80's kids out there...) This was the D
team. The Dig Team. Their mission, should they choose to accept it,
was to dig out the depot (mentioned in an earlier post) The hole they
dig will self destruct during the next storm so the clock was ticking.
(That and they were hoping to get back to McMurdo for the new years
weekend for Icestock, drinking, dancing and visits to the Chapel/dorm
lounge/sauna)

On arrival at the site, all evidence of the previous Digging a la G097
had disappeared. The last storm had buried it and the warm temperatures
had set the snow hard. The D Team got straight into it - Solomon, Ken
and Cory dived straight in with shovels and sledge and got to the cave
that afternoon. The next day was the day of what is known in McMurdo as
"hot blocking" - the weather is too warm to cut snow fully clothed so
you take your clothes off, wield your weapon of choice (photo attached
of unnamed dig team "member") and cut & remove snow blocks. The plan
worked and after that day they had 80% done. By 2pm on Day 3 everything
was out. Phew. If only there was a massage therapist on the team. They
spent the afternoon doing runs back to camp with all the stuff and
finished around 7pm before the weather could close the hole again. Phew
and a big fat well done all round.

The sting in the tail though was that after three days of absolutely
gorgeous, sunny, warm, and still weather they were ready to fly back to
town, ready to tell heroic stories of hardship and endeavour and to show
off their new beards to get lucky with the girls in town. But. When
Chris awoke at 4am this morning to give the first weather ob the cloud
had arrived, and it proceeded to get lower and lower until the chance of
a flight was off. Instead of spending NYE in town with all the luxuries
and women and booze, the 3 guys will be spending it with the Twotter
boys, 1/6th of a bottle of Gin, 7 beers and 37 cans of tonic. Watch out
for the next post, "Quinnine Poisoning in the Fosdicks" and a very Happy
New Year to all.

PS The unnamed "member" of the D team in the photo (who has years of
Antarctic Digging Experience) says he has seen many holes in his time,
but nothing this big.

The first pitch

The final major peak in the Fosdick Mountains in our programme that has
eluded geologists for many seasons is Mount Colombo. Like a sharp dagger
sticking out of a endless sea of white, the trecherous mountain has
taunted us since our put-in at Bird Bluff Camp. Yesterday was the day to
tame the beast.

With pervasive blue sky, calm winds, and armed with copious quantites of
cheese, the Twotter boys began their ascent at the north-east end of the
mountain by crossing a series of house swallowing crevasses over pencil
narrow snow bridges until reaching the outcrop. The first portion of the
ascent went smoothly until they reached the infamous Kakymchukky step,
named for its similarity to the Hillary step on Mount Everest. After
conquering this glacier carved step, the ascent continued past
knife-edge ridges and wet snow until the boys were abruptly stopped by a
trecherous edge unseen from the ground. They proceeded to put on
crampons and tie each other up with climbing rope and skirted a massive
wind scoop that was presumed innocent until they found a slot near the
top. Proceeding with absolute caution, they found their way back on the
rock and enjoyed a gentle scramble to the summit...or so they thought.

Once at the presumed top of the mountain, they then caught a glimpse of
a yet higher section of Colombo towards the South. They paused to
reflect, cry, and then enjoyed some cheese and bagels. After the energy
from the special climbing cheese was assimilated into their systems,
they proceeded towards the final climb - the summit push. Feet
throbbing, joints aching (especially old Tim), and sweat pouring from
their brows, the Twotter boys marched up a wind carved snow ramp and
reached the true summit of Mount Colombo. A spectacular view of the
entire Fosdick Mountain range and the adjacent Sarnoff Mountains to the
South welcomed the boys at the top. Then in true British mountaineering
fashion they enjoyed a nice cup of tea.

After tea, the boys slowly made their way down the mountain ridge
sampling rock and taking measurements. Loaded with 50 lbs. of rocks on
each of their backs and the energy from the cheese wearing thin, they
stumbled down to the skidoos, had a second cup of tea and began the 1
hour drive back to camp. Mission accomplished - all in the pursuit of
knowledge...