New polar pics!

1) Camping out a few weeks back 2) An Adelie penguin 3) The Russian icebreaker

Penguins ahoy!

At times I feel like I am stepping into a discovery channel special when I walk out of my dorm. Tonight was one of those times. The weather was perfect, feeling like a typical winter day in the Rockies, and the sun was shining brightly off the ice. I grabbed my binoculars to head out to the peninsula to look for wildlife and watch the icebreaker head into the dock. After taking the short hike up to the hill on the top of the peninsula I was blown away. I was less than a hundred yards away from the Russian icebreaker as it crashed back and forth into the ice with all its might. As it surged forward you could hear the ice moaning and groaning like it wanted to shatter and crack, but the only ice cracking was directly in front of the bow. The ice would splinter, get pushed to either side of the bow, and then huge chunks would roll up on top of the sea ice from the sheer force of the ship. That, however, was not all. On the other side of the peninsula an adelie penguin was putting on a show about a hundred feet away! Adelies are smaller than emperors, but they love to flap their little nubby arms and waddle around. He would lay on his belly for a while, stand up, shake his nubs, and dive head-first into the water. After a short swim he'd get out and do it again. I can't believe that I have not seen one of these little guys until now, even though I seemed to just miss seeing them many times. They truly are as cool as everyone thinks. I just couldn't stop wondering how far I might be able to punt one of those little guys. Oh well, maybe I'll be able to try that out later in the season. Tonight was one of my favorite moments yet at McMurdo. As everyone else was sleeping I was getting the best show in town.

Finally...a picture of Antarctica?

Well, I hope this whole picture thing works. This is my favorite hiking route and the best view of the Mt. Erebius volcano. Castle Rock (which is climbable via the back side) is in the foreground. This hike is about an 8 mile loop from McMurdo, and skirts the narrowest part of the whole Ross Island peninsula.

We have water!

After hearing the buzz for the last month that the icebreaker ship was on the way I finally believe it. I came back from a run yesterday to find a huge ship crashing through the solid sea ice and cutting a channel. I used to work on the runway right where the ship was zig zagging and making water where there used to be land. I saw the ship on the horizon, but it is the strangest thing to actually see it here, only a few hundred yards away floating where I was driving trucks and loading Air Force jets only weeks ago. The Russian icebreaker will make more rounds to cut up the bay for the next few days, and then it will dock. In a few weeks we will get our resupply vessel. This ship is McMurdo's main way of keeping supplies running in and out for sustaining overall life on station. The plane cargo that I work with deals more with science-related material and food to sustain immediate needs. The wildlife around here should be out in full very soon. We are already spotting seals regularly, and people have seen penguins within a few hundred yards of MacTown. There is new life to McMurdo Station, the place is buzzing.

A special thanks to Miss Goff's 8th grade class!!!

Wow, today was a special day. Shortly after arriving at work headquarters this morning I was told I had gotten a huge package. The post lady was curious and said she thought it might be the biggest Christmas package they'd seen down here. Much to my surprise, I saw that the package was from an 8th grade earth science class in Madill Oklahoma. Their teacher is good friends with my girlfriend and Kelly had mentioned to her friend (also named Kelly) that she and her class could follow my adventures in my blog. I opened up the huge box to find 54 pounds (yes lbs.) of candy, food, hot chocolate, books, shirts, hats, 2 ply toilet paper, notebooks, toothpaste, shampoo, coffee, handwritten letters, and much more. I was blown away! To Miss Goff's class, thank you all! I have read many of your letters and am excited to hear about your lives there in Oklahoma. I am amazed at the time and effort you put into making it a special Christmas treat for me. I shared much of the candy with friends at work and people in my dorm (not all of it of course), and I plan to write your class letters on the paper you sent. It means a lot that you are following the blog and keeping up with my adventures here. I will compile as many of the questions as I can and try to answer them through email to Miss Goff or letter mail. You made my day today!

A white Christmas

I have been lucky enough to be in some interesting places for holidays; sitting on the sea of Galilee for Thanksgiving, hiking in Alaska for the fourth of July, walking the streets of Dublin for Halloween, and sleeping in an igloo in the Tetons for another Thanksgiving. Somehow none of those compare to Christmas in Antatctica. Not only am I a whole globe away from Santa and his crafty elves, I have a guaranteed white Christmas, it will be light on Christmas Eve night, the plane bringing our packages from New Zealand broke, and I am with people that I had never met until a few months ago. What a weird look at Christmas! I can't say it has really felt like the Christmas season, but part of that is good. There is no commercialism here, no store windows, no 1 week non-stop Christmas music on the radios, no traffic, not late runs to Wal-Mart for missing Christmas supplies, and no sweet Christmas sweaters with turtlenecks underneath. It certainly makes you do some thinking as to what our society has placed importance on. Despite being away from family and friends I am not going to sit around feeling sorry for myself. I have conjured up some cool Christmas plans for this year. It is now Christmas Eve and I am going for a hike to the Peninsula to check out the ice breaker ship that is cutting the channel to McMurdo. If the weather is good on Christmas, not horribly stormy or windy, I will grab a chair and head outside with a few buddies to chill out with my Hawaiian shirt and sandals to soak in some rays. We might freeze after two minutes, but it should be a good time. I am excited to read my cards from many of you and spend time thanking God for what amazing family and friends I have. I hope your holidays are filled with quality rest and family time. Merry Christmas to you all!

Home Sweeeeeeeet Home!

Sometimes I pinch myself expecting to wake up from this polar dream, but usually I just end up saying, "what on earth am I doing here?" This was one of those times. Suddenly I'm sitting on a comfy chair next to a stove eating a chocolate bar with my boots off...on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica on the 22nd of December. "Snap out of it!" It felt more like I was in a mountain cabin in backountry Colorado. I had wondered what the Kiwi A-frame was like and finally I got to see it. It was about an hour hike from the road to get to this cozy little nook. I walked in from the cold and was amazed to see a quaint cabin- with worn wood walls, a table for playing cards, a few books, and a small outhouse out back. What a cool little place to escape the busy life at the science station! My friend, who I had hiked in with, decided to go on a hike for a few hours and I opted to chill out in the cabin. He is dating a Kiwi so he was my connection into this place. The first thing I realized was how much it felt like home...maybe not my home, but home. You know, a place where you can kick off the boots, pull out a good book, play some cards with a friend, sit by the stove, and cook up a little sweet goodness in the kitchen- that kind of home. I have not had that feeling for months, and I miss it. It felt so right to sit around sipping tea, reading, and writing as I heard the wind whipping against the sides of the cabin. Life slowed down for a few hours as I remembered to thank God for the little blessings in life. May we never forget to grin at the little things that give our lives joy.

My contact info again

Alan Briggs,RPSC McMurdo Station PSC 469 Box 700 APO AP 96599-1035 AlanBriggsis@gmail.com

Commuting to the Suburbs

I suppose I've been living the American urban/suburban life here on the ice as of late. As many of you know, I work on the runway here in shifts of about a month loading and unloading all kinds of cargo from big and small planes with forklifts and by hand. For the last month or so I have been based on the runway each working day. The runway moved a few weeks ago from the sea ice to the ice shelf 8 miles away. So I guess that means I am living in the city and commuting to the suburbs for work each day. They moved the runway to create space for the icebreaker ship that will come in less than a month to cut a channel. Before the planes landed on wheels on hard blue sea ice, but now they land on skis on the softer snow piled on the Ross ice shelf. Due to the soft snow on the road out to the new runway we have been driving vehicles with HUGE tires described as "dinosaurs of the ice." They don't go very fast, and that has changed my work day quite a bit. Instead of taking about five minutes to get to the sea ice runway it has been taking just under an hour each way. The days feel brutal sometimes leaving at 5:30 and returning at 7:15, but the window time is nice for just enjoying the view, sleeping, or reading. I am a bit blown away that the longest commute I might ever have to work is on snow trails in Antarctica. I have enjoyed the time at the runway, but for the next month of so I am stationed mostly in town. One more change in my schedule as of late is the switch to night shift. I will be eating breakfast for dinner the rest of my time down here. While that sounds weird at first, be reminded that it is always light here so adjusting the schedule just takes pulling an all nighter and then sleeping a lot. I continue to love life down here as I take time to learn, grow, hike, and prepare for the exciting things ahead in life. There is nothing I have experienced that is as different as life in this frozen land.

Not exactly camping the back yard

Thursday evening I was checking my email for a few minutes and I found out the good news. I would finally be going on the Field Safety camping trip! I was told that I had been accepted into the program to get to do some outdoor survival training sessions, and this was supposed to be the most fun. I couldn't wait to hit the field for a few days, brave the weather for a night, and get paid for my regular work days. After getting to sleep in a bit I met the ten others and our Search and Rescue trainer that would be taking us out. We talked about a few things in the building and headed out to a field hut in a Snow Cat. The field hut was where we got our supplies, an orientation, and a hot cup of tea. The hut was cozy, even heated with a small stove, and would house our instructor for the night. We would learn a lot about building snow structures and establishing camp the first day, spend the night, and then focus on rescue techinques and other emergency procedures the next day. Getting out in the field was a dream come true! We built quinzies, igloos, snow trenches, and snow caves to sleep in. After our instructor gave us the directions we needed to survive the night we were on our own. Being the only one who had any snow shelter experience, I was able to spearhead a lot of the building and get dinner ready. Our camp was composed of a huge wind wall made of igloo blocks dug from the ground with a row of emergency mountain tents behind it. About six people decided to sleep in the tents and the other six decided to build other stuctures. I helped two others build a quinzy (a dug out mound of snow) and I built an individual snow trench. A snow trench is about three feet deep, seven feet lont, and is covered by blocks leaning in over the middle like an A-frame. After some hours of hard work our camp looked more like a village of snow. before dinner I decided to begin some domestic work and build a kitchen and dining room. About two hours later we were chilling in a small round ampitheater where we sat, cooked, and hang out. It was complete with stadium seating, cupboards and a cooking platform, and a slide down into the quinzy. There is probably nothing i love more on any camping trip than sitting around with hot drinks enjoying a hot dinner in a dining room made of snow. The weather was quite nice, for Antarctic standards at least, and the wind died down for most of the time. Even when our skies were a bit grey the sun was shining on the Mt. Erebius, Terror, and Terra Nova all all their glaciers with brillance. Although we were not more than twenty miles from McMurdo we were in a different world. Before heading into my trench for the night I made a lounge chair for myself, complete with foot stool, and sat behind the wind wall taking in the views of the mountains down the range. This trip was exactly what I pictured before coming down here. It was one of those moments when it really sunk in that I am living in Antarctica. Not many people ever get to come to this continent, and very few of those people ever get to camp out. I am a lucky guy, that's all I've gotta say.

Snowboading in Antarctica?

A buddy and I had talked about it for a few weeks. On the first beautiful Wednesday we decided on hitting the Castle Rock trail for a hike and bringing some snowboards along to try out the run. I borrowed a snowboard from the rec department here, loaded up the pack, grabbed a few sandwiches for lunch, and hit the trail. It was the most beautiful day I could imagine here. Until reaching the summit of Castle Rock there was very little wind. The sun was shimmering off the snow in a blinding and beautiful way. Castle Rock is the highest point for miles so the views from the top of the run were amazing! Icebergs stuck in the frozen sea ice, the Ross Ice Shelf, far off ice caves, and crevasses protruding from the side of Mt. Erebius were a few of the things that blew my mind. There was not another sole out there, and to our surprise, the powder was perfect. Five inches of powder, a beater snowboard, and a mile and a half slope to bomb...booyah! I was so excited about doing this and finally getting out there that I seemed to forget that I had only been on a board for about fifteen minutes before. Once I started down the hill I remembered that fact quickly. No matter how many falls I had, it was simply one of those things that you cannot believe you're doing. Those moments will be frozen in my mind for a long time. I improved quite a bit on the way down, enough to turn onto the narrow bridge over the crevasse- heads up! Once we got to the bottom it was simply too much fun to go only once. We hiked back up the slope and went for it again. As if coming to this frozen continent isn't rare enough, snowboarding here has to be one of the adventures I never would have dreamed of. It certainly made it easier to be away from the slopes in Colorado this winter.