Images of

THE ARCTIC

Around the Camp

Photos © 2005 Seth White

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I'm sitting on a 767 right now, going back to Denver from Chicago. Much, much quieter than the LC-130, but believe it or not, the ride isn't quite as smooth. Another thing about the 130 that impresses me is the way it shudders under its own wash when the pilots rev up the engines right before takeoff. On a paved runway, they will sit there for a few seconds with the brakes on and engines at full throttle, and for this moment the whole airplane seems like a nervous animal clawing at its cage. I dig that sensation. Here is a photo of the plane, right after we arrived at Summit.

After a snowmobile taxi to the Big House, Toby gave us all a short briefing. Here is a high-energy action shot of Jim taking off his boots. I was struck at how different the camp looked compared to last August...but the point of this picture is that the Big House was still the same cozy place. We took some vital signs with the instruments sitting on the table here (pulse, blood pressure, blood oxygen), and then it was off to work. The crew was about ready to begin disassembling the Green House, so our task was to get the instrument properly uninstalled so they could proceed. So we got right to it...our plane was literally still on the ground taking on cargo and passengers when we started our series of calibration scans.

I had heard our plane going back and forth along the skiway five times trying to take off, and so eventually I figured they might fire the JATO bottles to get airborne. On the sixth try, I grabbed my camera and headed out in hopes of catching the takeoff. The skiway is much closer to the camp than it was last summer, so I thought I might get a good picture. Turns out I was about 15 seconds too late. When I walked out of the Green House, all I saw was this: a giant cloud of exhaust. Back at Kangerlussuaq, I had seen an impressive closeup photo of the JATO bottles firing on a takeoff...but I'll have to wait until some other time to see this. Oh well. The exhaust cloud actually ended up drifting across the clean air sector of camp, where air samples are taken in order to measure the true background levels of various gases, far away from any sources of pollution. The camp crew takes pains not to operate machinery within a certain area when the wind is blowing toward the clean air sector, and personnel access is also restricted. But now and then stuff like this is inevitable...

So this is how the Green House looked on our first evening at Summit. The camp was beseiged by one storm after another this winter, and there was a LOT of accumulation. Looking around the camp, giant mountains of snow had been bulldozed up as the crew did their archaeological work this spring in digging out the buildings. The presence of these snow mountains, the fact that the Green House and Big House were completely under the surrounding snow level, and the new location of the Berthing Module all made it a little disorienting when walking around the camp. It was easy to walk right by the Big House, once the most obvious thing for hundreds of miles in all directions but now obscured down in a hole in the snow.

This is Jim again, starting another calibration scan.

So Jim and I arrived on Wednesday, and got the system calibrated and uninstalled in exactly 24 hours after we arrived. This was a lot faster than I anticipated, and in fact we could have left Thursday night. But some heavy fog rolled into Summit while the plane was on its way and they didn't land. Which was fine with me, since I had another evening on station. Honestly, this trip was a vacation for me. Granted there was a lot of travel involved, and most of the time on station was spent working, but to me it was a nice break in the action compared to the work I've been putting in this year. So I was perfectly content to stay another day, and I would not have been disappointed if we got socked in for another week. Staying Thursday night meant that we had the chance to make some coyote ice cream, so here's a pic of that going on.

Here, Jack has added another slug of LN2 to the mix. The top of Tom's head in this picture is a bonus feature - I won't charge you extra for that. By the way, this stuff turned out WELL. My only task was to add the proper amount of cayenne pepper to the mix. Turns out, 3/4 teaspoon of powder is just about right for 2 quarts of ice cream.

Earlier this evening, I had gone out to wait for a plane to come in. They didn't land due to fog, and so I ended up standing around with a few other people for about an hour. Near the fuel pit there is a giant mound of snow. This gives you an idea of just how much snow these guys had to move around this spring to excavate the camp. The Tucker Sno-Cat is sitting nearby here.

This is the Berthing Module, which the crew had already moved this by the time we arrived. The Green House is going to be moved nearby and an 8' vestibule is going to connect the two buildings. One of the guys at Summit this summer is the legendary Jake Speed. His real name isn't Jake, but in retrospect I don't think I ever heard anyone call him anything other than Jake. Anyhow, I had heard of this guy who spent 5 winters in a row at South Pole, but had never met him until now. Hard core for sure, and I hear he's headed back for another one this year.

On Friday morning, our flight was scheduled to arrive around 10:30. The sun was out and I spent some time walking around camp taking pictures. This trench is part of the new sewage outfall for the Berthing Module in its new location. There is also a brand-new outhouse nearby, which to me is preferable to using the flush toilets for the sole reason that you DON'T have to put your used TP in a trash can when you use the outhouse. Just drop it down the hole. I said it before, and it's still true: I just can't get used to the TP trash cans they have in the indoor toilets here (TP clogs the sewer system so there is no other choice). The cold, the perpetual sunlight, the altitude, the isolation...I get used to that. The TP disposal is a whole other matter. Hmmm...the laptop battery is almost dead...guess I'll finish this page when I get home.

Sunday morning, back home. Time to spend the day doing as close to nothing as possible. Coffee and "Breakfast with the Beatles" on 99.5 FM is a good start. Sunday morning for me is usually bluegrass on KCUV 1510 AM, but not today. By the way, radio in Denver has gone up a notch in the past couple years with 99.5 and 1510 changing their formats. These are two excellent stations that do radio the way it should be. They have competent on-air hosts and they'll play just about anything. To me, these two and KUVO 89.3 FM are really the only three music outlets in Denver worth listening to. I used to like 97.3 KBCO, but that station has degenerated significantly in the past few years after being assimilated by the Borg. Either that or I'm just getting crustier as I get older. Except for our smooth jazz outlet (104.3 FM), their on-air personalities are the most smarmy bunch out there. Their playlist of approved songs from officially sanctioned "world class artists" seems to be shrinking, and there is this subtle pretense that pervades their broadcasts, events, advertisements, and everything else associated with KBCO. I mean, there is nothing special about KBCO anymore. Not one thing...except maybe Blues from the Red Rooster Lounge. Pardon the rant, but radio means a lot to me. And in recent years it had gotten to the point where I couldn't stand listening to the manufactured, generic, corporate radio scene in Denver...the adult contemporary outlet (100.3), the smooth jazz outlet (104.3), the modern rock outlet (93.3, which USED to be a great independent station), the hard rock outlet (106.7), the female-oriented outlet (105.9), the oldies outlet (105.1), the ultra-homogenous classic rock outlet (103.5)....and I won't even mention the modern country, Mexican Polka, and top-40 crap. Another aside: this "modern country" is astonishingly bad. Anyone who believes that modern country music has any more musical integrity than top-40, or is any less manufactured than Jessica Simpson is delusional! Anyhow, KUVO truly was the only station I could respect in this whole city...and so 99.5 FM and 1510 AM (and 1190 AM) have really been a breath of fresh air. The DJ's have the liberty to play a wide variety of music, and they seem to know a little bit about the music itself. Real music fans spinning the platters and doing good radio...imagine that! I almost think it's too good to last, and that their lease on life is just about over, i.e. time to play "musical formats" again with these frequencies. Well anyhow, this picture is just another one of the Green House with a little better light.

I figured we'd be sleeping out in Tent City, but since we were only going to be on station a couple days, Toby put Jim and I in the Swiss Weatherport for our berthing. This is the fabric structure which is nearby the Swiss Tower and is used by, you guessed it, the Swiss when they're on station. But they weren't here this week so we got this deluxe (read: heated) accomodation for our stay.

While waiting for our flight to arrive, I also tagged along with Katie on her Science Tech rounds. Part of this is to climb up the Swiss Tower a little ways and knock the snow off the anemometers etc. on the tower. This is a picture looking back toward the camp from about 1/4 the way up the Swiss Tower. From left to right: recreation weatherport, tent city, Big House (only radome is visible), RAMAS installation and weatherport, giant mound of snow, berthing module, generators, Green House (not visible), another snow mound, Swiss weatherport, and shop building (barely visible).

A few pictures of the Big House here, this one is from atop a mountain of snow.

If there is fog on station and the horizon becomes indistinct, it's easy to walk right by the Big House since it's below the surface except for the radome...which blends into the background.

One more of the Big House. This building is designed to be jacked up on posts, so they won't have to change its location.

Some pretty hoar frost on a rope line. There has been so much digging here that at various points around the camp they have put up flags and ropes so that you don't inadvertently walk off a 15 foot cliff.

Before a plane comes in, one of the crew will go out and knock snow off the skiway flags. Today it was Katie and so I tagged along for this too. At the end of the skiway, however, the snowmobile overheated, stalled, and wouldn't even turn over. Directly behind me, about 1/2 mile away, is a scale model of the new station design from the architecture students who were on station with us. We were going to swing by this on the way back to camp, but instead had to radio back for a tow.

While we were waiting for Jason and Al to arrive, the plane appeared.

Usually, the pilots do a flyover of the camp before landing.

So Jason and Al came out to tow the snowmobile back. Al's initial theory was that perhaps it got fueled up with the wrong kind of gas...which will cause overheating of the two-stroke engine. Hopefully it was nothing irreparable.

We were driving back to the camp when the plane landed off to our right on the skiway. Here is a photo of the plane going into "reverse" by changing the pitch of the propellers - these planes really can stop on a dime. This kicks up a lot of snow, which I thought was pretty cool. Even Al, who has probably seen just about everything on the ice, agreed that it was neat to be driving the skiway when they did this.

We arrived back at camp from our harrowing near-death experience just about the same time the plane was pulling into the fuel pit area. So here is a picture.

And another picture. Did I mention these things are pretty cool? During this year's military base reorganization, the guys at Scotia were concerned that Stratton ANG Base might be on the hit list. It was among the candidates for closure, but in the end they did not get the axe and so they'll be around at that location for a few more years. However, they did lose their 4 wheeled C-130's, which will be reallocated in the next year or two and fitted for combat duty. I learned this from Mike, an ANG supply guy working at Kangerlussuaq for a few weeks. It turns out he was the guy sitting in the valley behind Black Ridge about 100 yards from me watching the musk oxen graze. I caught up with him while riding back and so we bullshitted for a few minutes. Also, it turns out that NSF actually owns 4 of the ski-equipped LC-130's. Three of these were salvaged from the aircraft boneyard (somewhere in Arizona?), and a lot of money was put into restoring them to good operating condition.

Here is a picture of us loitering around the KISS building after we got back to Kangerlussuaq. The ANG had a "rotator" flight going back to Scotia on Friday, and Robin was able to convince them to delay it a couple hours so that the passengers coming out from Summit could get on board and get back to the states that same day. So we landed in Kangerlussuaq, went back to the KISS building where we changed out of our cold weather gear while the VECO guys sorted out the baggage from our pallet. About a half hour later we were on board another LC-130 and took off for home. This worked out great since we were able to get home earlier than planned, but 8 hours of flying on a LC-130 is a LOT of loud droning for one day, even with earplugs. On the way back from Summit to Kangerlussuaq, one of the flight crew was this fellow Carmelo that Jim and I met last year while sitting on the KISS building porch and soaking up some suds. Cool guy, and if we had ended up staying in Kangerlussuaq that night it would have been nice to hang out with him some more. The 109th Airlift Wing of the ANG is a varied group. You have guys like Carmelo who are in their 40's, mellow, and have been around a while. There are also the younger guys who can't be more than 22, and you just know that they are looking to party and pick up local girls wherever they go. There are also a few women, including an astonishingly attractive blonde who, unfortunately, was not part of our flight crew. Then there are the guys who are obviously in charge, and it seems clear to me which ones are liked and which ones are disliked by the men. Overall though, it seems the guys think this is a pretty good gig, which I'm sure it is. Their mission does not involve combat and they get to fly to places that most people never see. Of course it can be a demanding job, but it could be a lot worse. Anyhow, we got to our hotel in Albany that evening, had dinner and a beer with Mark and Joe from VECO, collapsed in our beds from exhaustion, and flew home on Saturday. No fuss, no muss, except for the fact that United lost one of my bags in Chicago. They did find it though, and I'm sitting here at my place (still listening to Breakfast with the Beatles) waiting for it to be delivered. I was pretty worried for a while there, since this bag contained my red pillow. Anyone who knows me knows that this is my favorite thing in the world...and so to lose it would have been catastrophic! Stupid of me to put it in my checked bag and not carry-on, but that'll be the last time I make that mistake...