So it's that time a year again, time to put up the decorations, have parties and all other sorts of fun things. We do a few things here. The first bit of Holiday cheer was the Mcmurdo Player's present "A Charlie Brown Christmas" That's right we staged our very own production of that great Charles Schultz classic with yours truly in the role of Snoopy. It went off great (that or people are really easily amused)
Now for the not so good news. This little tidbit of info makes me think of How the Grinch Stole Christmas......Someone absconded with our Christmas dinner. That's right some low down dirty thief skulked into the kitchen and made off with a couple cases of the Christmas prime rib. So it looks like turkey roll for everyone....yay. I mean really who steals a couple hundred pounds of beef? what will they do with it? This sounds like it could be made into a made for TV xmas special.
To end things on a positive note I went out to the pressure ridges today for a tour. This is where the glacier meets the sea ice. The collision causes huge ice upheavals that look like ice mountains. It's really quite beautiful. go take a look at the photobucket site.
Clay
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
science lecture update
To answer Dick's how did water get there question. They don't have a definitive answer but there are 2 main theories.
The first is that it's a very briny saltwater from mineral leaching. This lowers the freezing point enough that it can stay liquid
the 2nd theory is a bit more interesting. When ice is compressed some of it will turn to liquid. ski's and ice skates actually glide over a microscopic layer of water produced from the weight of the skater and the friction of moving across the ice. They extrapolated that theory out in a couple of directions. they think that the weight of the ice sheet pressing down helped create a layer. that's combined with the thermal insulation provided by miles of ice (think igloos it can be -40 outside and 32 inside) and then add on geothermal heat from the earth's crust could cause liquid to form.
Hope that helps
The first is that it's a very briny saltwater from mineral leaching. This lowers the freezing point enough that it can stay liquid
the 2nd theory is a bit more interesting. When ice is compressed some of it will turn to liquid. ski's and ice skates actually glide over a microscopic layer of water produced from the weight of the skater and the friction of moving across the ice. They extrapolated that theory out in a couple of directions. they think that the weight of the ice sheet pressing down helped create a layer. that's combined with the thermal insulation provided by miles of ice (think igloos it can be -40 outside and 32 inside) and then add on geothermal heat from the earth's crust could cause liquid to form.
Hope that helps
Monday, December 8, 2008
science lecture
The latest lecture was on the Antarctic Gambustev Province, or AGAP for short. Basically what's going on in east Antarctica is they've found a mountain range completely covered by the ice sheet and are doing seismic surveys to actually map out the range. This is part of an International Polar Year project whichmust means it's a multi-national project that really costs a lot of money. East Antarctica is the least explored area of the continet and there are very few stations other than on the coast. So they're air dropping in supplies and setting up 2 basesto be used to conduct the surveys. What's fascinating is there appears to be liquid water under the ice sheet, They've already found several lakes such as Lake Vostok that were thought to be anomolies. As they condunct more research it appears that there is a whole set of lakes and rivers criscrossing the continent and are actually interconnected. No one knows what if anything might be down there and it will be years before they caneven put forth a hypothesis. Might sound a bit dry but hey I found it fascinating.
Clay
Clay
Saturday, December 6, 2008
stuff
not much going on since I've been back from field camp. Just the usual work routine. I never did get out to the ice caves,the weather has been pretty bad. About the only exciting thing is there are some Weddell seals out on the ice by the Kiwi base, unfortunately they're too far away to get a picture of.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
T-day
Well Happy T-day to everyone back stateside. We're a day ahead but didn't celebrate yestereday. Instead we have our big shindig tomorrow and the day off wheeeee 2 day weekend! I do have to say it's nice not to be wading through all the black Friday stuff. Tonight we're having "Freezing Man" the Antarctic version of Burning Man, should be umm interesting. Although I think it should perhaps be called Melting Man. The weather here really headed south (heh) Yesterday we had a nice little snow storm that dropped about 3 inches on us and the next couple of days is supposed to get much worse so it looks like there won't be much in the way of outdoor activities this weekend. It kind of stinks we have the Turkey Trot tomorrow a little 5K race around town and out onto the ice shelf. Then Sunday I'm supposed to go out to the ice caves at Cape Evans and another Scot hut but if the weather holds who knows. Anywya hope everyone is well and enjoying their calorie fest!
Clay
Clay
Friday, November 21, 2008
Back from the WAIS lands
This post may get a little long so go ahead and grab your favorite beverage kick back and hopefully enjoy the travelogue.
The trip started out with a flight on an LC-130 Hercules New York Air National Guard. These are specially built hercs that have skis attached to the landing gear so they can get into some of the more remote area of the continent. It was a 3.5 hour flight from Mactown to WAIS divide. As we were getting ready to land the left main landing gear wouldn't deploy, it had frozen up or so the indicators were telling the pilot. He went into a series of sharp turns, climbs, and banks to break the landing gear free. After all the gyrations one of the flight crew checked the gear itself and assured us it was locked down. Personally I think a cargo pilot just wnaed an excuse to do something other than fly the airforce equivalent of a UPS truck. Nothing against the AF crew they were great, very professional and let people up to the cockpit for lookarounds etc.
Once on the ground the plane kept its engines running so they wouldn't freeze up. It dropped the cargo and took off again. We then took snowmobiles out to the tent site and set up our mountian tents. These would be home for the next 10 days. After everythign was set up we headed to the galley for a nice meal.
The next day we started camp construction. For the winter they put most of the permanent buildings up on snow berms in the hopes they won't accumulate too much snow. It's a bit of an exercise in futility but still made it easier for the tractors to haul the modules down to the summer camp site. Once there we built a RAC tent (it's kind of an improved version fo the old MASH style canvas tents) that connected to the galley module so we would have some place to sit down to eat, relax etc.
Day 3 we experienced some of the milder ANtarctic weather. Snows and 30 mph wind. It was too windy for us to do any construction so we ended up sitting in the newly constructed tent playing cribbage, reading and eating cookies...it's a harsh continent I tell you.
We had decent weather the rest of our time there and ended up building 2 multisection rac tents, 3 smaller rac tents, 3 jamesways (they're the older MASH style olive drab buildings) and 2 10-15 man tents.
Once again I had a new found appreciation for the hardships the 1st explores went through to try and reach the pole. Here we were with a nice tent set up and heaters and it was still a pretty grueling exercise, especially when you had to take your gloves off to do any sort of intricate work like tying a knot.
Now for some interesting yet disgusting facts
There are showers there but we had to build them, melt the snow to fill the water tanks and water heaters. They were up and operational the day we left. 10 days without a shower is icky
Taking care of any sort of bodily functions has to be planned in advance. it takes a bit of time to get out of all the cold weather clothing. The outhouses sit over a hole drilled in the ice and believe me there are few things less miserable than plopping your butt down on a frozen toilet seat.
On the plus side though the air is pristine. For example, when you exhale in cold weather you can see your breath right? wrong!! the reason that happens is there is some sort of particlate in the air that moisture can latch on to to create a cloud. Unless you were near a source of exhaust, say an oil stove or vehicle you never saw yoru breath.
Which brings up the next good thing no particlate in the air no boogers to generated inside the nose
The final bit if eww factor is what to do when you have to go to the bathroon and you're all nice and cozy inside your sleeping bag, 2 words...pee bottle that's right instead of losing all the trapped heat inside the bag, getting dressed and stomping to a pee flag or outhouse you just find an old nalgene bottle to use as a chamber pot. Yeah it's kind of high on the eww factor but it beats freezing.
All in all it was a great experience and I wouldn't trade the memories for anything. I was on one of the most remote ares of the continent in -30 degree weather sleeping in a tent. How many other people can say they've had that kind of opportunity?
Photos are up at the photobucket site.
Cheers
Rewarmed Clay
The trip started out with a flight on an LC-130 Hercules New York Air National Guard. These are specially built hercs that have skis attached to the landing gear so they can get into some of the more remote area of the continent. It was a 3.5 hour flight from Mactown to WAIS divide. As we were getting ready to land the left main landing gear wouldn't deploy, it had frozen up or so the indicators were telling the pilot. He went into a series of sharp turns, climbs, and banks to break the landing gear free. After all the gyrations one of the flight crew checked the gear itself and assured us it was locked down. Personally I think a cargo pilot just wnaed an excuse to do something other than fly the airforce equivalent of a UPS truck. Nothing against the AF crew they were great, very professional and let people up to the cockpit for lookarounds etc.
Once on the ground the plane kept its engines running so they wouldn't freeze up. It dropped the cargo and took off again. We then took snowmobiles out to the tent site and set up our mountian tents. These would be home for the next 10 days. After everythign was set up we headed to the galley for a nice meal.
The next day we started camp construction. For the winter they put most of the permanent buildings up on snow berms in the hopes they won't accumulate too much snow. It's a bit of an exercise in futility but still made it easier for the tractors to haul the modules down to the summer camp site. Once there we built a RAC tent (it's kind of an improved version fo the old MASH style canvas tents) that connected to the galley module so we would have some place to sit down to eat, relax etc.
Day 3 we experienced some of the milder ANtarctic weather. Snows and 30 mph wind. It was too windy for us to do any construction so we ended up sitting in the newly constructed tent playing cribbage, reading and eating cookies...it's a harsh continent I tell you.
We had decent weather the rest of our time there and ended up building 2 multisection rac tents, 3 smaller rac tents, 3 jamesways (they're the older MASH style olive drab buildings) and 2 10-15 man tents.
Once again I had a new found appreciation for the hardships the 1st explores went through to try and reach the pole. Here we were with a nice tent set up and heaters and it was still a pretty grueling exercise, especially when you had to take your gloves off to do any sort of intricate work like tying a knot.
Now for some interesting yet disgusting facts
There are showers there but we had to build them, melt the snow to fill the water tanks and water heaters. They were up and operational the day we left. 10 days without a shower is icky
Taking care of any sort of bodily functions has to be planned in advance. it takes a bit of time to get out of all the cold weather clothing. The outhouses sit over a hole drilled in the ice and believe me there are few things less miserable than plopping your butt down on a frozen toilet seat.
On the plus side though the air is pristine. For example, when you exhale in cold weather you can see your breath right? wrong!! the reason that happens is there is some sort of particlate in the air that moisture can latch on to to create a cloud. Unless you were near a source of exhaust, say an oil stove or vehicle you never saw yoru breath.
Which brings up the next good thing no particlate in the air no boogers to generated inside the nose
The final bit if eww factor is what to do when you have to go to the bathroon and you're all nice and cozy inside your sleeping bag, 2 words...pee bottle that's right instead of losing all the trapped heat inside the bag, getting dressed and stomping to a pee flag or outhouse you just find an old nalgene bottle to use as a chamber pot. Yeah it's kind of high on the eww factor but it beats freezing.
All in all it was a great experience and I wouldn't trade the memories for anything. I was on one of the most remote ares of the continent in -30 degree weather sleeping in a tent. How many other people can say they've had that kind of opportunity?
Photos are up at the photobucket site.
Cheers
Rewarmed Clay
Sunday, November 9, 2008
delays delays delays
As expected my flight out today was cancelled. It's a logistical challenge to coordinate flights between here, the pole and field camps while hoping for good weather in all 3 locations. Hopefully we'll get out tomorrow
Saturday, November 8, 2008
New Photos and stuff
Hey gang I just put up new photos on photobucket
http://photobucket.com/Sliding_South
also for any of you googlers that are interested in what I'm going to be doing for the next few weeks. I'm heading out tomorrow to the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide (WAIS) to help set up the summer camp. They're drilling ice cores there for climatological research. It's a pretty big camp once we get it up and running although going a few weeks without a shower doesn't really sound all that pleasant to me, I can't wait to get out onto the continent itself. It'll be just a bit colder -20ish F vs here where it's up to 23 today HEAT WAVE!!! I'm not even wearing a jacket.
http://photobucket.com/Sliding_South
also for any of you googlers that are interested in what I'm going to be doing for the next few weeks. I'm heading out tomorrow to the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide (WAIS) to help set up the summer camp. They're drilling ice cores there for climatological research. It's a pretty big camp once we get it up and running although going a few weeks without a shower doesn't really sound all that pleasant to me, I can't wait to get out onto the continent itself. It'll be just a bit colder -20ish F vs here where it's up to 23 today HEAT WAVE!!! I'm not even wearing a jacket.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Happy Camper reprecussions
The Happy Camper school is a prerequisite to leave base. I found out in our morning meeting today that I'll be heading out to a deep field camp about 200 miles away from the pole in the next couple of days. Basically we'll be setting up the summer camp there so they can do some ice core drilling. I'll be gone about 3 weeks but hopefully back in time for Thanksgiving. I'm not sure when I'm leaving yet but probably sometime this week. I'll be just a bit out of touch while I'm gone so sorry in advance for the lack of updates. I'll drop a line before I leave.
Cheers!
Clay
Cheers!
Clay
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Photobucket
Not sure if this will work for everyone or not but I uploaded photos to Photobucket at
http://photobucket.com/Sliding_South
Let me know if you can see them
Clay
http://photobucket.com/Sliding_South
Let me know if you can see them
Clay
Halloween
So I made it back from Happy Camper school with just the bare minimum of frostbite. It has to be the most unusual Halloween I've ever had. I mean most people just dress up like a ghost and go door to door extorting treats....not me, I go a few miles outside the 1 bit of civilization there is dig a hole in the ground, throw a sleeping bag into the hole and take a nice nap. I guess it's a good zombie impersonation. So back to the happy camper thing. It was interesting we learned how to make a wind wall out of blocks of snow, pitch a tent in high winds, and my favorite...wander around outside with buckets on our heads to simulate a white out condition. The goal was to find a lost member of our party....unfortunately we never found him and "killed" off a member of the rescue party who lost his grip on the lifeline we were attached to. So the moral of the story, don't get lost you'll die.
We finally finished up camp and made it back to town just in time for the big Halloween party, sure it was a day late NZ time but most of us are off on Sunday's so Saturday night is much more fitting, besides we can rationalize any holiday into a 2 day event. Celebrate on local time then back on US time the next day. New years must be fun here.
So the scariest costume award went to our Sarah Palin look alike.
We finally finished up camp and made it back to town just in time for the big Halloween party, sure it was a day late NZ time but most of us are off on Sunday's so Saturday night is much more fitting, besides we can rationalize any holiday into a 2 day event. Celebrate on local time then back on US time the next day. New years must be fun here.
So the scariest costume award went to our Sarah Palin look alike.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Happy Camper
I'm off to Happy Camper school tomorrow Yay! That's the 2 day survival school where we get to spend the night shivering in snow caves, tents etc to prepare us for field work. Should be fun I'll let you know.
Cheers\
Clay
Cheers\
Clay
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
The Hut
So we made it out to Scott's hut yesterday evening at Deception Point. You'll find the early explorers weren't too pleased with Antarctica and gave either royal names or negative names to land features, Mt Erebus, Mt Terror, Deception Point, Holy Shit it's cold land, stuff like that. Anyway we had a really great tour guide telling us about the history of the 1902 expedition. The crew that was marooned and had to live there abandoned everything in place once they were rescued even leaving pans on the fire still with food in them. I'm not going to attempt to recount all the details of what happened between Scott and Shackelton it's easy enough to google and will do a much better job explaining just what an awful expidition it was. Anyway it was very neat to walk around inside a building frozen in time (literally) got some great pictures of the place (yeah yeah I know) Going hiking int he mroning weather permitting will write mroe later and fight the computer once again to upload.
Cheers
Clay
Cheers
Clay
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Busy week
Hey all sorry i haven't had a chance to write much things have been really busy this week. last night i volunteered to be a duty driver for "American Night" at the New Zealand base just down the road. It's such a beautiful drive over. Very stark but absolutley stunning. Weather turned south on us today and it's been snowing since I got up this morning. I'm supposed to hike out to Scott's hut (where he set up his first field camp for an attemtp to reach the pole) Not sure if the weather will cooperate but if it does I'll write mroe about it.
Clay
Clay
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Sunday Night Science Lecture
This week's science lecture wasn't a science lecture at all. Instead it was how to shoot a nature documentary. The presenters work for the BBC and are filming their 3rd set in a trilogy of nature series called "Life" you may have heard of their first 2 projects "Blue Planet" and "Planet Earth." They spent abotu 2 hours showing clips from some of their film shoots including the snow leaopard scene and Great White Sharks going after seals scenes from Planet Earth. They're down this year to do some time lapse and landscape sets with some other people who're doing interviews with us locals. Look for "Life" in January/Feburary of 2010. They filmed the presentation If they put it up on the net I'll try and find the link and copy it.
Cheers!
Clay
Cheers!
Clay
Saturday, October 18, 2008
pictures
I don't know why I can't upload the pictures every time I try and put them into a post the computer locks up. I've tried multiple times to get some shots up and from more than 1 computer. I'll play around some more this week. If I still can't get it to work I'll set up an acct on Flickr or somethign like that and post the link. Sorry! I know everyone is looking forward to seeing them.
more cold
So after reading the loving yet mocking "haha it's 90 degrees" commets I just have to say yeah...but I haven't been bitten by a Mosquito since I left FL so nyah!!!!!
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Brrr
It got a little chilly today. the high was -9 but we had light wind that made the windchill -54 it's amazing how well the parkas can keep you warm. it was onyl miserable if the wind found any exposed skin. I really don't enjoy doing a Rudolph impersonation with the whole shiny red nose thing. I see now the joys of a balacava. Do you have any idea how long it took me to figure out that a Balacalva isn't a tasty greek dessert?
Monday, October 13, 2008
contact info
For thsoe who asked here's my regular snail mail address If anyone wants to send something please keep it light. The heavier the package the less chance that it will ever show up. Letters make it down within a few weeks though. Hope everyone is well. Things here are busy but fun
(Name), RPSC
McMurdo StationPSC 469 Box 700
APO AP 96599-1035
(Name), RPSC
McMurdo StationPSC 469 Box 700
APO AP 96599-1035
Sunday, October 12, 2008
My 1st Science Lecture
One of the great things about working here is that every Sunday evening one of the scientists doing research presents an overview of his or her project. Today's lecture was about a drilling project. Basically they are drilling core samples from the sea floor looking for what the CO2 levels where 15-30 million years ago. during this time frame Antarctica went from a temperate to a frozen climate. By studying this it can help look at what current CO2 levels may hold in store for our future climate change.
Now for the spiffy facts. At one time the sea temperature here was around 67 degrees F.
Most people assume that Antarctica drifted south when the continents broke up. Interestingly Antarctica has been in it's current position for millions of years and the other continents broke away and drifted northward.
The Northern hemisphere's dramatic loss of Arctic sea ice such as what's happening around the pole and Greenland aren't likely to be repeated on the Antarctic ice sheets because of how cold it is. We are in such a deep freeze here that raising the temperature at the pole by 5 degrees would be the equivalent of trying to defrost a freezer that's at 0 by warming it up to 10.
Neat stuff!
Now for the spiffy facts. At one time the sea temperature here was around 67 degrees F.
Most people assume that Antarctica drifted south when the continents broke up. Interestingly Antarctica has been in it's current position for millions of years and the other continents broke away and drifted northward.
The Northern hemisphere's dramatic loss of Arctic sea ice such as what's happening around the pole and Greenland aren't likely to be repeated on the Antarctic ice sheets because of how cold it is. We are in such a deep freeze here that raising the temperature at the pole by 5 degrees would be the equivalent of trying to defrost a freezer that's at 0 by warming it up to 10.
Neat stuff!
Saturday, October 11, 2008
It didn't take me very long to adapt to the cold. Yesterday morning we went for a walking tour around town and if there was a piece of skin exposed it burned. I was bundled up in "big red" the huge goose down parka, balacava, sunglasses, knit watchcap, neck gaiter, heavy insulated gloves and long undies. By the ned of the day I was jogging wearing nothing but a pair of sweats. Today is Sunday our time and it's our day off I'm off to snap pictures, go to a science lecture and hopefully someohow find out when the gators play and where I can catch the score if nothing else. You know it feels fundamentally right to have college football on sunday weird huh?
Friday, October 10, 2008
Ice Ice Baby
Well our flight made it in on the first attempt YAY!!! We were delayed an hour though thanks to ....engine trouble. I'm a bit sleep deprived and still trying to drink everything in. It's cold here (duh) but not unbearable I think it was -2 or 3 today it is quite pleasnt and "brisk" I think my coffee and soup habit may intensify though. Hopefully I'll be able to get some pictures uploaded tonight. I really haven't taken too many yet as I'm stillt rying to get the lay out of the place. Until then think warm thoughts!
clay
clay
Thursday, October 9, 2008
On my way South
So I went out to eat tonight with some of the crew headed down. It turns out our flight south was moved up to tomorrow. So if all goes well I'll be flying to the ICE tomorrow afternoon YAY!!!
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
gear issue
After a relaxing 4 hours of sleep woke up and went to the US Antarctic center for cold weather gear outfitting. Spent the morning trying on parkas gloves etc and packing. I call them the "holy fuck it's cold" clothes. Flights to the ice have been backed up for the last few weeks due to bad weather at Mcmurdo. We're the 5th flight to head down this season and so far they've only landed 1 plane. They're stacking the flights up though and right now it looks like we'll be leaving at 0600 local time Saturday morning.
Getting ready to head out to town and do the tourist thing. NZ is more beautiful than I imagined and that's just the view from my crappy next to the airport hotel room!
Getting ready to head out to town and do the tourist thing. NZ is more beautiful than I imagined and that's just the view from my crappy next to the airport hotel room!
flying 1/2way aroudn the world
Got into LAX around 7pm local Qantas flight was scheduled for 1030 that night. Of course the plane broke down and they had to fly in a part from Australia. Finally boarded the plane at 130 am. then the rather dumb young lady sitting behind me made the mistake of asking for an airsickness bag. That prickled the flight attendants radar and next thing she knows she's being kicked off the plane for not being well enough to fly. Well of course in our post9-11 world her bags now have to come off too. SO we wait for them to open the cargo hold back up and find her bags. Finally take off around 230. 14.5 hours later We arrived in Sydney Australia. It was approx 10am local time Wednesday when we landed. Unfortunately our connecting flight to Christchurch left at 8 that morning. The next flight out wasn't until 630 that night. Qantas took care of us though put us up in a hotel for the day bought us lunch and a shuttle to and from the airport.
After close to 15 hours on a plane I was just a bit exhausted and too tired/stupid to figure out how to operate an alarm clock. So of course I overslept and missed the shuttle bus. Woke up with only an hour til flight time. Somehow made it to the airport and made my flight though YAY!! 3 hours and 2 more time zones later finally got into my hotel in NZ about 1 am local time. So yeah jsut a bit of a grueling day.
After close to 15 hours on a plane I was just a bit exhausted and too tired/stupid to figure out how to operate an alarm clock. So of course I overslept and missed the shuttle bus. Woke up with only an hour til flight time. Somehow made it to the airport and made my flight though YAY!! 3 hours and 2 more time zones later finally got into my hotel in NZ about 1 am local time. So yeah jsut a bit of a grueling day.
Training and flight day 3
today was a short one training wise just the typical HR stuff. went in at 8 then caught a bus to the denver airport at noon for a 6 pm flight.
Training day 2
This day covered the general environmental concerns importance of recycling etc. Nothing too earth shattering. and flu shots wheee!
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Training Day 1
I was really surprised when we got to our first day of orientation and training. I was expecting there to be hundreds of people milling around. Instead there were only about 12 of us. Turns out because of the job I haventhere is an extra day of OSHA training required. Spent the entire day learning about fall protection, lock out tag outand other such industrial safety topics. It wasa good refresher course but man what a LONG day. Tomorrow starts the real "On Ice Orientation"
On My Way
I left for Denver on october 3rd. That was one heck of a hectic morning. The total allowable weight for the flight to the Ice is 75 pounds. That may sound like a lot but when you consider that's what you'll live on for 4-5 months it adds up quick.SO I spent the night before and the morning of the flight packing and repacking trying to get within the weight limit. I ended up ditching my 2 nice rolling suitcases for a backpack and sea bag....nothing like reliving old Navy days. I was feeling rather smug that the weight was at 72#'s then I got into Denver and was told that carry ons counted for the weight allowance too. I don't know what the heck I can do with my laptop and camera! I thinkI'll try and suck up to someone under weight limit and stow some of my stuff with them. The saga continues
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Predeployment
Getting to Antarctica is hard, you either need to be really rich or have some sort of needed skill. The rich can afford to take cruises, mainly around the Antarctic peninsula. Unfortunately I don't fall into that category so instead I went the skilled labor route.
Getting onto the ice has been a life long dream. The question was how to do it. It all starts off with applying for a job through Raytheon Polar Services Company (RPSC) I applied for 20 different positions ranging from Mechanics Helper to Logistics supervisor. The compition is fierce with doctors and lawyers taking jobs as cooks and bus boys just for a chance at the experience.
Several weeks after applying I received a call to interview as a mechanics helper. The interview went well and several weeks later I received an email and phone call from a recruiter offering me a position as a utility mechanic which was a nice upgrade.
Getting the position was just the first hurdle. Since Antarctica is so remote they have to ensure the people going there for work are healthy. The medical facilities are limited to basic primary care. If there were a serious problem a person would have at least a 12 hour wait to get to any sort of real hospital. So since dying on the ice is nastily inconvienent for all involved all candidates go through extensive medical testing. These include blood tests, an EKG, and full physical and dental exams.
After spending a few days getting to know the doctors the paperwork is sent off for RPSC to review. This is known as personnel qualification (PQ) Once the doctors review your files they then send a nice little note saying you either are or are not fit enough to work for the company.
Stay tuned for the next installment. "purchasing and packing for 5 months of frigidity"
Getting onto the ice has been a life long dream. The question was how to do it. It all starts off with applying for a job through Raytheon Polar Services Company (RPSC) I applied for 20 different positions ranging from Mechanics Helper to Logistics supervisor. The compition is fierce with doctors and lawyers taking jobs as cooks and bus boys just for a chance at the experience.
Several weeks after applying I received a call to interview as a mechanics helper. The interview went well and several weeks later I received an email and phone call from a recruiter offering me a position as a utility mechanic which was a nice upgrade.
Getting the position was just the first hurdle. Since Antarctica is so remote they have to ensure the people going there for work are healthy. The medical facilities are limited to basic primary care. If there were a serious problem a person would have at least a 12 hour wait to get to any sort of real hospital. So since dying on the ice is nastily inconvienent for all involved all candidates go through extensive medical testing. These include blood tests, an EKG, and full physical and dental exams.
After spending a few days getting to know the doctors the paperwork is sent off for RPSC to review. This is known as personnel qualification (PQ) Once the doctors review your files they then send a nice little note saying you either are or are not fit enough to work for the company.
Stay tuned for the next installment. "purchasing and packing for 5 months of frigidity"
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