Teenage WAISland

Hello from the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) divide!

 

I arrived here, finally, after 5 days of weather delays in McMurdo.  It was pretty weird having such a sense of limbo, and getting up super early in the morning at McMurdo, to take an airfield taxi 17 miles out onto the runway on the Ross Ice Shelf, only to spend the entire day in the airport galley on weather delay.  Rinse and repeat for 5 days.  Luckily I had a good book.

 

Anyway, I’ve arrived!  Actually I arrived a week ago on Friday, but haven’t posted until now.  I’m on a field camp rotation at the WAIS field camp, 800 miles from McMurdo in West Antarctica.  We’re right below South Africa, I’m told.  I’m the camp GA, which means I shovel, melt water, schlep gear around, fuck around with cargo straps for 15 minutes at a time then angrily stomp to the carp shed for some WD-40, help with galley stuff, etc.  I also drive a snomobile a lot, which never loses its charm.  I can see why rednecks in Idaho like to do it, though I will never agree with it.  It seems too lazy to do for recreation.  Occasionally I shuttle visitors to and fro the Arch, which is the building housing the massive ice core drill that has just come up with a core from 15,700 years ago.  Part of our morning meetings is the lead ice-handler briefing the camp on our little version of “This Day in History”, except it’s “the ice we brought up this morning is from the time when humans were crossing Beringia from Asia to North America.”  Pretty stunning.

 

A little more about WAIS, from my friend Erika who is a GA for the Carpenter’s shop in McMurdo and who came out here for the camp put-in.  This is from her blog, www.erikainantarctica.blogspot.com. She does a nice job of summing it up:

 

WAIS Divide (West Antarctic Ice Sheet) is about 800 miles from McMurdo, about 6000 feet in elevation, and is the location for the drilling of a 10,000 foot ice core. We are here to support the scientists for this specific project along with other scientific research that is being done in and around this area. The idea for this specific ice core project began in 2000 with testing beginning in Greenland in 2005, which Eric was a part of. The actual drilling here began in 2007 and will continue for the next few of years. In studying the ice, the scientists want to learn about past climate conditions dating back 100,000 years ago and see how it has changed.

 

At night I sleep in an Arctic Oven, which is a massive, really warm tent that I have all to myself.  I have a flattened triwall cardboard box for padding on the ground which is super comfy.  (Why yes, it does make me sound like a hobo, thank you very much.) My tent is of the many tents in “Tent City”, about ¼ mile from “town”.  Maybe less than ¼ mile but it sure feels that far when I stumble from my tent, bleary-eyed and yawning, and have to trudge through snow and wind with only green flags to mark my way back to camp since I can’t really see the buildings.  Camp life is incredibly awesome though.  It’s what you would think of when you think of Antarctica: the camp is made up of big semipermanent tents, we ride snomobiles to work, wear huge boots, skate ski all the time, etc. etc.  There are only 40 something of us here, so we all share housework, camp maintenance, snow melting, and all that stuff that you’d think of when you thought of a camp. 

 

Well, I’ve gotta get myself off to bed.  Going to bed is quite an affair, as I have to change my clothes, brush teeth, bundle up, trudge out to tent city, shovel out the tent, arrange my clothes and stuff, and arrange my sleeping bag and mat, which takes longer than you’d think when you have to wrap yourself so tightly that only your nose shows…