My friend Kim and I did a little walk up to Roll Cage Mary. She is thusly named because she is a statue of the Holy Virgin, but for some reason they felt the need to protect her as if she were a racecar. The day we went out, it was sort of warm (well, like 30 degrees - it’s all relative, I guess) and you could see where the sea ice is melting, and seals come hang out here lots now.
Here’s the sun on the little channel of meltwater. That dark thing that looks like an abandoned rug is a Weddell seal. He’s just hanging out, sleeping in the sun.
This is Kim, posing at the rollcage. There was lots of fog over Ob Hill, which is in the background. It also got hella-windy once we got up to Mary.
So my adventure for December was going out to the Pressure Ridges that are on the border of the McMurdo Ice Shelf and the Sea Ice. It is the point where the ice shelf moves one way, and the sea ice moves another. Basically, they push together and make some beautiful and strange ridges in the ice. They can be fairly dangerous if you don’t stick to a flagged route, because the movement of the ice makes them change a little every day. I went through training to become a guide for the trips, which we held for a few weeks in early December.
I’ll let the pictures do the talking.
Here’s a picture from the ridges, looking back toward the Kiwi’s Scott Base. Scott is much, much smaller than McMurdo (I think only 50 people or so) and very homey. All the buildings are interconnected by passageways, so you can get where you need to go entirely indoors. Everyone has cute accents, but their ketchup is way too sweet for my tastes. The stony knob in the background, almost at the center of the picture, is Castle Rock, which is one of the few red colored rocks I’ve seen here. (Dave, explain please!)
The pictures turned out strangely dark - it was a cloudy day, so that probably had something to do with it. If I come back I’m DEFINITELY GETTING A BETTER CAMERA! These were some awesome ridges that had been weathered by wind and melting.
My friend Lou with a Poke Stick. There are cracks in the ice all along the path, some of them quite large and deep. Poke Sticks are good to have if you are walking along a place with lots of snow. The green flags mark the route we walk.
We also saw seals because they come up through the thin parts of the ice and hang out on sunny days. Unfortunately my camera battery died before I could get a good picture. But picture a massive brown slug with an amazingly cute face, and there you’ve got it.
The ridges are only open to Americans for a short time out of the year, so it was great to be able to go out a couple times and check out this dynamic Antarctic landscape.
Ok, ok, I know I’ve been slacking with posting! The month of December was CRAZY in our department. I know it’s no excuse! I also lost my camera for a while so I’m missing a period of time with pictures, unfortunately.
I’m pretty settled in the routine here - mostly kickin’ it in the office and so on. I’ve had a few fun things going on, so I’m going to put in a bunch of posts ALL AT ONCE here, so everyone can get caught up!
So sit back, relax, and enjoy my return to LAURAONICE!
