Out of the Wardrobe

There is no way to describe what it is like to step out of the frozen land and back into life as I knew it. It is as if I walked into Narnia for five months and now I have left the unreal world of the ice. As soon as the door opened on the plane I smelled earth and plants and felt warmth again, things that I missed so much while I was away. My friends and I were like little kids as we walked away from the airport with our bags smelling the flowers and sitting on the grass. We probably gave the Kiwis driving past us a good laugh. It is so good to be back in New Zealand again. I have never been so amazed by little things as I am now. As we walked the streets of ChristChurch the darkness was a strange feeling. This morning I bounced out of bed as the birds woke me up- the sunrise was awesome! I took a stroll for a while in the botanical gardens and cashed out for a short nap on the grass. It is good to see pets again, have children around, and have choices about where I can go and what i can eat. New Zealand is truly an amazing place. It reminds me of a mix between Scotland, England, and Switzerland. Summer is coming to an end here, and I have never been so glad to wear shorts and sandals. I am currently travelling with one friend from the ice and we are staying with a Kiwi we met on the ice for a few days. I think we're heading to the beach in about an hour!

A farewell to the frozen land

Wow, five months walking on snow without darkness, plants, bills, or any of you. I will never forget when I stood in the back of the C-17 and the rear door on the plane lowered. It seemed like an eternity until they would let us off. The gusts of wind blew the cold air into the plane as we scrambled to put our jackets on. I did not know a single person, and I had no idea what I would experience. It has been an incredible five months- breathtaking and harsh, beautiful and daunting, lifechanging and reaffirming, isolated and connected. In some respects it seems like I have only blinked and the time has whizzed by, but in other respects it seems I have been here two years. Regardless, I am grateful for the opporunity to live on a continent that most will never dream of visiting and fewer will ever make it a reality. Thank you all for your encouragement through emails, letters, packages, and comments on this blog. Every moment here is not full of amazement as some might think. I have gotten out of bed each day, as many of y'all have, and dragged myself to work when I just felt like sleeping in. Work has been tiring and the weather has beat me up many days with no apology for the soar fingers or numb nose. Some days are full of routine, never-ending storms, or grouchy people at work, but there have been many times when I looked up to be amazed at this place. At the risk of being unoriginal I was going to give a top ten list, but I decided to go for the top 16. These are in no particular order.... - Looking down on the Transantarctic mountains from a small window in the back of the plane - Being attacked by a skua...twice - Extreme sledding! - Driving to work and seeing storm clouds cast beautiful colors on the glaciers - Being blown over by the wind in a white-out condition 1 storm - Being a part of the church community at the chapel each Sunday - Seeing three penguins...they look so awkward, like seventh grade boys - Snowboarding on fresh powder - Being the only american at dinner at the cozy little Kiwi base - Brunch on Sundays. The cinnamon rolls, oh the cinnamon rolls! - The polar plunge...after warming up - Every time I got a letter or package - Finishing the marathon- and eating a TON of food an hour later! - Grabbing some hot chocolate after coming in from the cold - Convincing myself it was warm enough one day to run 14 miles shirtless. Not a good idea. - Sitting by myself in the middle of a bright night watching the icebreaker come in Thanks for tuning in and reading all these. I will be adventuring in New Zealand for about a month and then Kauai for a week. I will try to keep you updated on crazy adventures.

By myself on skis in the Antarctic

What an amazing night! All by myself on cross country skis, the sun dropping low in the west, about five degrees with just a little wind, and the powder on the trails was untouched. I was amazed at the views (yet again) when I hit the trail. I grabbed some skis earlier today in hopes of getting a short trip in, but I began to realize that a long ski would be better tonight. Since it is getting near the end of the summer the sun is dipping very low each night as it circles around the sky. The first sunset is about a week away, the night before my departure in fact. Another amazing thing about tonight was seeing the moon. I have not seen the moon since I got here, but with its coming I am reminded of the fall and the fact that I am at the bottom of the world. There are very few things I have enjoyed here more than being by myself in the backcountry of this lonely land. Everything is just so huge, so vast, and so beautiful that is is easy to get wrapped up in it and lose track of time. What a great night of letting the time slip right through my fingers. Seeing virtual sunsets gets me excited to see the darkness again once I get to New Zealand in ten days.

Napolean Dynamite is coming to Antarctica?

No way, why we he come here? He lives in Idaho, plus his friend Pedro couldn't bring his bike down here 'cause he might break his pegs off in the ice- GOSH! I do have some sweet new pics though...

Picture #1: Some Antarctic backcountry after some folks boarded the fresh power

Picture #2: Family vans Antarctic style

Picture #3: Both ships leaving MacTown for the season

Missing the simple pleasures

Hey guys! I just wanted to update you all and let you know that I'm alive after the crazy time of the ship offload. About a week ago I was told that I'm leaving a little earlier than the original plan. Twelve days and counting until I'll be in New Zealand. After being in such a crazy place for five months I miss little things. I miss green! I have only seen a few live plants in the greenhouse here in five months. I miss darkness and stars! I have not experienced darkness at all for five months. I miss good smells of trees and flowers! Snow, ice, and rock doesn't smell like anything. I miss warmth! Although 15 degrees can seem balmy when the wind stops, I miss sitting outside and feeling the warmth of the sun and not having to bundle up and face the elements. There is no doubt that I miss other things, but the simple joys of life that I have so often taken for granted are all of a sudden things I cannot wait to get back to. So here's the question....What would you miss most (besides people) if you were in Antarctica?

The busiest time of the year

The supply ship pulled into MacTown three days ago, and the place is in full swing right now. As you can see from the picture, the Russian icebreaker cut up the channel yet again to escort the supply ship in. We have been working all season to get cargo to the South Pole on planes that was brought here by the cargo vessel last year. This ship supplies much of the cargo for the whole year at McMurdo and the South Pole. Everyone on station works twelve hour shifts and no one gets a day off until the ship has been fully unloaded and all cargo has been put away. Sorry I haven't been emailing as much lately or blogging, but the ship offload will soon be over. It is amazing to think that ships are cutting through the rock hard ice that is over six feet thick!

Antarctic explorers...and us

I do believe that the men who first explored this icy cold and forbidding continent are among the toughest men who have ever walked this earth. Some days as I work in the cold I find myself asking, "How did they do it?" I have never known cold like I do here. Some days it is fine but others seem to take your breath away when the wind blows it cuts right through you. The cold seems to be an element that has held certain places untouched for longer than others. Among the most popular of the explorers are Shackleton, Scott, and Amundsen. Shackleton is famed for his leadership and his strong leadership and ability to keep men alive through the worst of conditions. I just finished reading the book "Endurance" about his failed expedition to the South Pole which ended in the victory of keeping every one of his men alive for almost two years sleeping on drifting icebergs and frozen islands in route to their rescue at a whaling station on South Georgia Island. Alfred Lansing describes that last leg of their voyage to safety. “The sight that the Caird presented was one of the most incongruous imaginable. Here was a patched and battered 22-foot boat, daring to sail alone across the world’s most tempestuous sea, her rigging festooned with a threadbare collection of clothing and half rotten sleeping bags. Her crew consisted of six men whose faces were black with caked soot and half-hidden by matted beards, who bodies were dead white frm constant soaking in salt water. In addition, their faces, and particularly their fingers were marked with ugly round patches of missing skin where frostbites had eaten into their flesh. There legs from the knees down were chafed and raw from the countless punishing trips crawling across the rocks in the bottom. And all of them were afflicted with salt water boils on their wrists, ankles, and buttocks." On a later expedition Shackleton and his men spent months here on Ross island within twenty miles of where I live. Scott and Amundsen raced to be the first to reach the South Pole first, but Amundsen reached the Pole first. Scott died on the continent returning from the Pole. I have seen traces of where these men have walked and come to understand the elements which they stood up against. Scott has two huts close to the station, one less than a mile walk down the peninsula. I have been in this hut and seen empty food boxes, the clothes they wore, the table they made, and even the seal remains from their meals. Everything is almost exactly the way it was when these men left. About fifty years after the Scott expedition on Ross Island men were left near the McMurdo area and they made their way to his hut, surviving by eating well-preserved fifty year-old caches of food from Scott's expedition. Less than a hundred years ago men came in wooden ships, wearing wool clothing, and using primitive means of mapping in order to explore the most inhospitable place on earth. Today there are no dogs allowed here, people live in dorms, and we have heated buildings. These men amaze me and their huts are time warps that make you feel out-of-place in a common windbreaker and modern boots. These pictures have all been taken on Ross Island by my friends and I. One is Shackleton's Hut twenty miles away, one is Scott's Hut here on Ross Island, and one is the inside of Shackleton's hut. There is no Museum feeling, and these items aren't behind glass.