Field team moved camp / McMurdo Resupply all set!

A quick news update:  G097 field team have moved camp from Bird Bluff to Mt Avers.  The search for the buried fuel cache continues.  The lack of posts to the blog since that move is an indication that geology work is happening, in reasonable weather!!  Mike Brown and Christine Siddoway arrived in McM on Monday, set to work on cargo management  and completed required trainings, and presently are scheduled for a Basler flight to Fosdick Mtns on Monday.  However, there may be perturbations:  a "Blue Ribbon Panel" is here for an assessment visit to MCM, South Pole and other sites (requiring dedicated flights and staff support), and the Ice Runway will close on Friday, with operations to be shifted entirely to Pegasus Field that is one hour away.  Understandably, this is an enormous task that disrupts normal flight operations somewhat.  Watch for future posts to learn where things stand in another day!

Art of Science

Graphs are a scientist's canvas. Two graphs are shown above that depict relationships that are
most important to us in the Fosdick Mtns: geology and tea.
The left hand graph demonstrates an inverse exponential relationship
between the quantity of tea consumed by five persons and weather
adjacent to Bird Bluff in the Fosdick Mountains, expressed by the following
equation: C = (L+EG)/2.6 x e^(p-t+(2xws)) where C = tea consunption, L =
herbal tea quantity, EG = Posh tea quantity, p = barometric pressure in
inches of Hg, t = dew point temperature in degree kelvin, and ws = wind
shear in m/s. The line is a significant statistical fit of the
mathematical model with an r-squared value of 0.98 and Monte Carlo
analysis of the residuals indicates a gaussian distribution over >99.99%
of the data points.
The graph on the right is a summary of the data collected from the rock
face shown in 'The Pursuit of Knowledge' post and shows the amount of
dark rock to light rock. It is also exponential.
Inferences from these models can be drawn as follows: there is more dark
rock than light rock and the impending storm forecast for tomorrow will
result in an increase in tea consumption...

The Pursuit of Knowledge...

Science in action! Prof. Kakymchukky is measuring the thickness and
spacing of light-coloured layers in the rock face that represent
formerly molten rock which he finds really really interesting. The red
tape is marked and annotated for individual layers. A blue safety line
was placed to provide security and aesthetics for the otherwise dull
rock colours and to complement the red tape...

Bird Bluff Camp

Photos seem to be working - we have a new toy!

Here is a photo of our current location - sneaked up nice and close to
the windward side of the mountain a little East of Bird Bluff. In the
photo the team is driving away from camp off on their daily commute. The
line of little dots across the centre of the photo are the tents and
behind we have a big face of rock with 60ft ice cliffs towering above. A
very scenic spot we think, although not as scenic as the next campsite...

What people from Canadia do best...

Could someone comment on the last post if the photo posted and you could
see it? We'll get the comment here and then we know it's good :-)

If so, just in case it's working (we have time on our hands today and
that last one took almost 15 minutes to send!) here's another of
Professor C. Kakymchukky doing his Canadian thing - travelling to the
rock on his ice skates.

Photo! Kakymchukky Crag of Doom

Well, it's time to put our satellite phone modem to the test. Time to
try and send a VERY TINY photo that should post on the blog. As it's so
small you'll have to work a little with the description here...
Danny The Brave walks across the Bird Bluff ice skating lake towards the
Kakymchukky Crag of Doom in the background, with the big phat wind scoop
on the left of the photo. It was a beautiful, blue sky windless day.
Today is nothing like that at all.

A Propane Holiday

This morning a moderate wind whips the flags outside the cooktent as I
write. The wind is a constant sound in the Fosdicks and Antarctica.
Perhaps because we've enjoyed so many near-windless, bluesky days, the
fates have decided it is our time to get blown around a bit. As Tim
mentioned in his previous post, we've been waiting for a big storm that
was forecasted, but hasn't yet appeared. The weather isn't good enough
to move camp, and not good enough to work, but it feels a little guilty
not being totally pinned down by a "proper storm," as Mountain Tim would
say (Tim Burton that is, as opposed to "Science Tim," who is Tim Ivanic,
the geologist) and just have a wee bit of wind. That said, with our
binoculars I can see the 10 miles across the Belchen Glacier, on which
we are camped, to the Phillips range, and there are large clouds of
blowing snow, which means there are high winds in the area.

So back to the topic of guilty pleasures, yesterday was the traditional
American day to celebrate Thanksgiving, and that we did, to the best of
our ability in our meager camp. Our feast last night was orchestrated by
Chez Tim (Mountain Tim), hmmm, how to describe such delights...

It all began with a raid of the "baja" box, code language here for
booze. We began with gin and tonics with "Jesus Ice," which is ice from
a local glacier, termed Jesus Ice because the ice might be 2000 years
old. Yummmy yum yum! Then we moved on to Sparkling White (not Champagne
which science Tim reminds us must be from the Champagne region in
France). In the background DJ Phat D was blaring a variety of tunes
including JBizzle (James Brown) and Professor Chris Kakymchukky's fav,
Katy Perry. We have frequent inpromptu dance parties here, but as the
8x16 kitchen tent has little extra room for dancing, we usually dance in
place, or "in situ." Plenty of space for shakin the hips.

The first proper course was a group appetizer, "tim's special spicy
shrimpy nubbins," which was served in a fry pan on a rox box and we all
ate collectively with forks. I just learned last night that in fact we
british Americans (or North Americans, I should correct myself to
include Prof Kak in this count) use our utensils improperly while
eating. The British, who apparently do everything with a bit more class
and charm than us, do not shovel food into their mouths with an upturned
fork, but rather turn it upside down and place carefully picked bits of
food onto their delicate and sophisticated palates with their left hand.
What a caveman I've been my whole life! That story reminds me that our
trip is as much a cultural exchange as it is a science expedition since
we have one American living in the US of A (me), one American living in
Australia (the illustrious Dr. Fawna "Rock Hammer" Korhonen), one Brit
living in Australia (resident artist Dr. Tim Ivanic), one Brit living in
Britain with a French girlfriend (Timmy B), and one Canadian living in
Maryland, near Disneyland). Displaced peoples we are.

The next course, of course, was the main course, which in traditional
American style, was a bunch of things heaped on to one plate. Chez Tim
baked us each two rosemary and sundried tomato whole wheat rolls, from
scratch, which we used to slop up the homemade Cornish Game Hen gravy,
which Tim (of course) made from the drippings of the Cornish Game Hens,
which were baked in one of our TWO metal box stove top ovens. All of
this was accompanied with boiled mixed veg, Gratin Dauphinoise (cheesy
garlicky taters...) from-the-box stuffing, and freshly opened canned
cranberry jelly. Lets just say that Chris and I (the basler boys) had to
play the "big spoon" game at the end, in which each person has a big
spoon and must eat up anything remaining. Neither of us could move off
our respective asses to help with dishes, as our stomachs were
completely full and it would have been dangerous to move.

In perfect fashion, the next two courses were red wine, which a tipsy
Fawna excitedly produced after her mid-meal voyage to the poop tent,
where we keep all booze, of course. I'm not sure if she went to make
more room for dessert or just to get booze, but in the end we all got
more of the vino, so thats all that mattered.

Earlier in the eve, I made the short journey to the freezer box,
unburied it, and removed the pint-sized milk carton of completely frozen
"eggs". I proceeded to hacksaw, woodsaw, and hammer a portion of the
frozen yellow stuff into submission so that Chez Timmy could thaw them
for necessary inclusion in his "Goat Cake" (a reference to a sad cake
made last year at Simple Doom that unfortunately tasted like Goat).
Fortunately it tasted like it should, blueberry and topped with homemade
cream cheese, lime juice and sugar frosting.

The rest was history. We got more drunk, played some cards, shook some
tailfeather, and went to bed good and early in tradional fashion.

I'm still not hungry.