Room Without a View

I've hiked to Castle Rock frequently on my one day off each week. It's just a several mile hike from the station with a climb/scramble up the rock. It's an opportunity to get a nice panaromic view of the sea ice as it turns into open water. It's also a nice chance to get away from the busy station. Here's a pic of me on top of Castle Rock with Mt. Discovery in the background.



The sun still doesn't set although it is getting lower now. As winter approaches we are moving out of our nice summer weather and back to some of the cold temperatures I experienced when I first arrived.


A few of us camped at the base of the rock and spent the night sharing stories. Like what a winter at the Pole would be like and if we would ever do it (some had). It was absolutely pristine and is still odd to look out at your tent at 2 am and have it look like noon. The red apple huts are survival structures to be used if you are stuck out in a storm. It's nice to know they are there. We skiied back which was a blast after a storm that brought with it some great snow.

Castle rock is in the background. We climbed the right side ridge that is simply a scramble with a fixed rope just out of view. Standing on top of the rock has been a good way to document the changes in the sea ice since the Icebreaker came in. Ross Island is an island after all (McMurdo sits on Ross Island). Parts of the sea ice we had been able to ski on a few months ago are now open water with Minke whales and Weddell seals all around.

The fuel vessel The Paul Buck arrived now too so the "fuelies" have been busy offloading all the fuel for the station.

Hut Point is a great place to watch the animals if you don't feel like walking far. It is where Robert Scott's first hut is still standing. It makes for a nice overlook to see the whales as they feed on krill.

Winter Quarters Bay makes a natural dock for the ships. The pier is made of ice. The area was solid sea ice not too many weeks ago.

I got to go on a "boondoggle" which is an old military term for morale trip. It's a reward for hard work and "Room With a View" is one of the more sought after trips. I was excited to get this trip last week. You take snowmobiles up to the 1400' level on Mt. Erebus where a small tent (think Amundsen's tent when he reached the South Pole) is erected in case a storm locks you in while you are there. The treat in this trip is it is an amazing vantage point to see the Erebus Glacier tongue, Black and White Islands, the Royal Society Range and to truly see the direction the explorers went with their sledges to the Pole. It started out as a beautiful day.

The fog started rolling in suddenly and the view was never realized for us. We reached the "Room Without a View" and could barely see the tent. Luckily this was not the first time this had happened so there were supplies, including frisbees inside the tent. In fact, the disc said "Trader Joes" on it. So like a true Seattle transplant I threw with a few hearty folks and we made the best of our boondoggle.

The leaders of our trip held up a strip of paper showing what our view would have looked like. You can't see the detail from here but there were lots of mountains involved!

Another great opportunity I got to be a part of was replacing the register box on the way up Ob Hill. This is the short steep hike between McMurdo and Scott Base (the NZ base). There had been a box to sign your name up there for decades. It blew down in a storm years ago and, although the post remained, the box hadn't been replaced. One of the carpenters here put his amazing talents into the project of building a new one this season. He used wood from the old Jamesways from the 1960's (arched) and then put a beautiful varnish on it. I don't know enough about woodwork to truly know how many hours he put into it but I can tell you it was the most loved register box I've ever seen.

About 8 of us went up to ceremoniously help put the new piece in its place and got to be the first to sign the book. It felt like I was leaving a little bit of me to history by signing. This group had also done several trail projects this season.

An unmanned aircraft was given some test flights this season. It was carried down in this box that seemed to describe my mindset in trying to get here these last few years. I leave for the South Pole tomorrow for one final chance to treat folks there before they close the station to incoming planes for the winter. The winter-over crew there will be a skeleton crew without the luxury of a physical therapist.