Back to the McMurdo Daily Grind

So its about time we got all those photos up, yeah?


Dave and Chelsea get close on the ice (Mt. Erebus smoking in the background)

To take you back...oh about four months... Dave and I were on the Ice, at McMurdo Station, until February 17th.

We were down there as support for the scientific research going on. I was a shuttle driver, meaning I drove large and small vehicles from McMurdo Station out to the airstrip- a glorified taxi/bus driver.


me and Ivan the Terrabus

Dave worked as a cargo handler, meaning he built pallets of boxes and equipment destined for "elsewhere" (often the south pole).


typical pallet

These pallets were then carted around on Cargo Deltas, between McMurdo Station and the airstrip.


pallets on cargo deltas, out on the permanent ice shelf

And finally, they were loaded on planes, such as this C-17 destined for New Zealand.


loading a plane- Dave would drive the forks

One of the more treacherous things we had to deal with was the melting of the Transition- the place where we drove off the volcanic Ross Island and onto the permanent ice shelf. Fleet Ops worked around the clock to keep this passable, and often it was no big deal- just a little bumpy. But there were some times when we were really happy to be driving large vehicles with huge tires!


slushy transition, but the cargo delta made it!

Driving on the ice wasn't particularily difficult, although it was occassionally frustrating because you could only go about 15mph, which made for a really long 5 miles between the Transition and the airstrip! There were colored flags everywhere to help guide you when there were whiteouts, or if there were burried dangers like crevases or fuel lines.


flags marking safe snowmobile passage over a fuel line

One of the best things about the jobs we had was that we were outside a lot, soaking up the gorgeous view...and occasionally the horrible cold and wind!


a peak at the mountains between sticks of dunnage

All together, working in McMurdo was a wonderful experience, but I think both Dave and I were happy when our C-17 touched down to take us back to New Zealand. When I mentally prepared myself to work in Antarctica, I definitely thought about 4 months only. Some of our friends took winter-over contracts once they were already down for the summer- meaning they extended their stay from 4 months to almost a full year! Intense!


happy together!