Antarctica, the first 72ish hours

 I have finally made it, I am officially in Antarctica. It's been a busy past few days, with landing and getting situated, some training and the first weekend spent hiking and exploring the base.

Where do I start? Antarctica is.. amazing. This place, this continent, it's almost indescribable. It is beautiful beyond words, it is huge beyond scope. I find myself starring off into the distance just floored and speechless on how vast and grand and majestic it all is. Ice sheets that go on into the horizon, mountains that peek up over it's edge, and endless sky. No photos I take and share will ever do it justice. This place is otherworldly. Antediluvian and something out of fantasy. I've been here a few days and I still -still- have a hard time comprehending where I am and that I'm here. I am eternally grateful for this experience, to see this place. It is wonderful.

The flight down from Christchurch was packed. There were 100+/- of us packed into a C-17. It was a fine and uneventful ride, even if we were packed in there in every seat, with all our ECW and our carry on in our lap. The aircrew was very nice, and the jet made a short 5ish hour flight.

Stepping out of that C-17 onto the ice was something out of a dream. We landed on the Ross Ice Sheet, a 193,000 square mile glacier bigger than then country of France. Flat, featureless, empty, edged in mountains way in the distance. Mt Erebus peaked through the clouds as we hiked a few hundred yards to a fleet of waiting vans. Red with blue stripes and huge tires, -most of us- were loaded in. Most of us. Because of course there weren't enough vans for myself and about 15 others. We had to wait in a nearby shack for some more passenger transport to show up. A square building up on stilts, heated, with big windows and several rows of seats. I think they called it the “Passenger Terminal”

Finally the vans shows up and we prepared for our drive to base, but as the C-17 was getting ready to take back off we had to wait for it to go first. It was amazing watching that big old bird lumber down the ice and lift off into the sky. The drive was about 45 minutes, and by the time we got to McMurdo the sun was starting to set. We still have a few weeks of day/night cycle right now, and the sunsets are beautiful. I spent the evening settling in and getting comfortable.

McMurdo is a very interesting place. A collection of rough and scuffed stout buildings, most clad in metal, many on stilts or pilings up off the ground. A small collection of buildings date back to the naval station here in the 1950s, and there are hundreds if not thousands of shipping containers with many being just as old. The buildings have a special charm to them. They've all seen hard living and are still going. Dinged, dented, scuffed, but sturdy and strong, charming and inviting, warm and welcoming in their own ways. The place really does feel like a mix between a college campus, a mining town, and an army base. It's the wild west. Or rather the wild south.

My dorm is in the main building, 155, and I have 1 roommate currently. This guy is a trip, kinda too high energy for me but nice enough. We've christened our room the Swamp, because of course we have both being M*A*S*H fans. I'm on the second floor, my dorm one of many in the central rooms. I have no windows, and dorms on 3 sides. It's not bad, but it always feels like night inside. Downstairs is the galley and dining hall. That place reminds me of my middle-school cafeteria. Other dorms and offices, the town shop and various lounges are also downstairs. So is the radio station and vinyl collection for the base. I haven't gotten a chance to go in there yet. There's some lounges upstairs as well, but it's mostly dorms.

I had my first day at work, the carp shop (they call us carpenters carps here, everyone has an abbreviated name. Fuelies, janos, stewies, carps, etc etc) which mostly consisted of the beginning of training, rules and reg, and picking out our handtools + setting up our basic work packs and work stations. The carp shop is amazing, I've never seen a shop so well provisioned. It's at the top of the hill at base, the hike up there is kinda mean but I'll get used to it. They have several other buildings all associated with the main shop and probably 40 shipping containers just for storage. Our lounge is considered the coolest on base, and the whole carp shop is off limits to all non carpenters.

Last night was our “Friday night” as we only have Sunday off. I checked out the two bars, which are now BYOB clubs, the library, the crafts room, poked my nose into one of the gyms (I can't find the other, it's.. somwhere) and explored the base. Today was pretty slow, more exploring, and just getting the feel of the place. I had coffee at “southren” one of the clubs and watched most of the lord of the rings, I had a killer brunch, I went for a hike out to Scott's hut/hut point and back. I've spent some time being idle in the lounge. It was nice. It's definitely a different pace and I'm kinda glad my internet is so limited. It's nice to unplug.

I'm making a lot of friends here, despite the fact that I can't remember half of their names, nore they mine. It's very easy to run into a face you know and get invited to tag along to go get coffee, or play darts, or just look through junk in the dorms Skua (a closet where unwanted but perfectly usable stuff goes up for grabs. I've already grabbed a silly hat) Not everything is fully open or de-winterized yet, so there's still going to be more to explore.

And what about the cold I hear you asking. Yes. It is cold. But its the strangest cold I've ever experienced. It's so dang dry here that the cold doesn't chill you to your bone like the wet cold back home. It's been below zero since I got here with windchill minimums below -20. And it's not terrible. Exposed skin starts to sting and burn pretty quickly, I can feel the hair in my nose freeze as soon as I go outside. But I don't hate it. I'm pretty comfortable -moooost- of the time, but there's still been several instances of “This is Real friggen Cold!!” Over all, I rather deal with this cold than the cold back home. I'm sure all my layers help. So far so good! Tomorrow starts my first full proper work week! It's going to be a lot of training, and I'm looking forward to it.

My first few moments on Ice.

The view from up on top in front of the Carp Shop