Friday, October 17, 2014

Camp Life... in Con 1

Well, so I have much to write about in regards to the last month or so.  I owe a story of my time in Rocky Mountain National Park, and of course the at times overwhelming process of getting to Antarctica: the preparation, trainings, clothes, gear, cold, the outhouses... experiences with seals and snowmobiles,
 Kirstie distracting a seal mom as Katie and Michael tag the pup.

moments of geological violence and moments literally frozen in time.  The juxtaposition of the volcano and frozen moment are curious, for the later literally lies at the formers feet.  Normally we think of volcanoes as slow gradual build ups of pressure, as something existing on the geologic timescale and not effecting our day to day, but Mt. Erebus is actively erupting above our heads right now, changing the geologic future and perhaps man's future on Ross Island.

Mt. Erebus

And the instance put on ice...   At the base of Mt Erebus is a hut and within its walls takes place a moment that should have been a cursory and frantic few minutes of action and escape and then nothing; but instead, Antarctica's environment has captured and preserved the moment that Shackleton's men abandoned the hut, their home for over two years.  The moment is still ongoing, their absence is so peculiar that you half expect them to walk through the door to retrieve their things: pictures, food, bags, blankets, chairs pushed hurridly to the side, even an ill-fated dog tied up out back are all still there, just as the men left them that lucky day when a ship finally and unbelievably came into view a little less than 100 years ago...

Alasdair (our sea ice instructor) opening the hut
The anchor that broke, leaving Shackleton's food supply crew stranded for two years.
Pictures the men left behind in the hurry
Kitchen table

 Ok, fine yeah, here's a pic of Emperor Penguins. We get to see these guys every now and then.  It's awesome!
 Seal Team 6... see what I did there?
Eric, Katie, Kirstie, Terrill, Michael and me...
(we're standing over a pile of frozen seal blood.  Yeah sounds intense, but bites and squabbles are day to day in the seal world.  They have such wonderfully insulating fat layers that even deep looking cuts, while they may bleed a bunch aren't serious at all.  We get to play in all sorts of seal fluids... more on that later...)

So anyway there are so many things to write about but before I do, I simply wanted to share a short video I shot today that gives an idea of life here in camp when the weather is less than, let's say Florida-like.  No claims of an awesome video by the way, simply good music to go with it.  We're currently at Con 1 (condition 1) which means visibility, winds and cold are at dangerous levels.  Currently our temperature is not too low (in the single digits to negative single digits) but the wind is extreme and the visibility is at times less than 20 yards.  So... that means we stay inside.  We relax, tidy up the place, drink tea, read a book, maybe temp one another to run outside in our underwear - no pics... - listen to music, the wind and one another.  So anyway, enjoy a small glimpse at the wonderfully strange life we're living at the moment.  By the way, the black building in the video named Center of Excellence, is our most important building... the outhouse.  The other containers are our kitchen (the yellow building) two sleepers (the center two containers) and our gear shed/boss's sleeping quarters (I don't envy him his own place since that's where all of our seal soiled garments hang and dry - or rather thaw.  Doesn't smell very nice in there...).  Hope you enjoy!

j

(At the time of posting this, the weather has intensified from what the video shows... simply imagine more snow, wind and way less visibility.  we now run from building to building instead of walk :) enjoy!)

4 comments:

  1. Who is that on tenor, Jon? It's very nice, very calming & smooth -- just like your images (NOT!)! :] I love your Blog. I was hoping you'd author one! How about some music? If you send me your email address, I could put some nice stuff on Dropbox for you!

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  2. It's Cannonball Adderly on alto actually, off his Cannonball with Strings album. That entire album is awesome! I'll send ya my email soon. that'd be great! glad you're enjoying the blog.

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  3. Can't believe you've already been there for nearly a month! Have you named any of the seals yet?

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    1. I know the time has been flying by! Haven't named any yet but man they're cute!

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