Images of

ANTARCTICA

McMurdo Station

Photos © 2002 Seth White

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SW and Mike Ebel on Crary Lab roof, uninstalling an antenna. Safety is gospel at McMurdo. The safety record here is not a thing to be proud of, and a concerted effort is underway to reduce injuries. Plus, the jobs of various members of Raytheon management have hinged on reducing this year's TRIR (total recordable injury rate) numbers. So this year we have gotten the injuries down quite a bit. This is good, but is mostly a happy by-product of certain managers trying to save their jobs. But anyway, I think that while being lifted to the roof of Crary in a cherry picker, tying off to the cherry picker, and wearing the hard hat, I was the safest I have ever been in my life. The only danger here was a skua crapping on me.

Picture of Observation Hill from the top of Crary lab, taken during the daring antenna uninstallation mission.
The Coffee House...one of three bars at McMurdo, and definitely the one with the best ambiance. Problem is, they only serve wine and coffee, no beer. But it's no problem to smuggle your own beer into the bar.
Yet more of the Coffee House. By popular demand, they show "Survivor" and "Sex In The City" here every week. People at McMurdo seem to be a very bright group in general, but there are obviously some exceptions.
The Delta. A strange articulated vehicle with ridiculously large balloon tires. This was our ride to Cape Evans for a sightseeing tour. See the here for pics from Cape Evans.
Derlict Junction, or DJ. It's a taxi stop now, but back in the good ol' days when the Navy ran the US Antarctic Program, the boys used to get drunk at bars located nearby. They would stumble out, collapse, and a truck would scoop them up (or so the story goes).
Pic from sea ice training school. The field safety guys hold classes where they teach you about the sea ice. Drilling, measuring, observing cracks, and other good info about how not to die whilst traversing the annual sea ice. The class takes you north of Cape Evans to inspect the notorious Barne crack. This is a beautiful area, however, and since my particular class was held on a clear warm day, this turned out to be a very pleasant and scenic trip.
Fire Engine Number 1. McMurdo has a full service Fire Department, with a several legit engines. Kudos to them, as their quick response may have prevented the Cosmic Ray Observatory from burning down this year due to a furnace malfunction!
The NSF chalet building here is like a Swiss ski lodge. This is fitting. Anyway, each Sunday they fly flags of various nations with an Antarctic presence. These flags surround a statue of Admiral Byrd, American explorer and Antarctic pioneer. Every station on the continent seems to have some reference to a national Antarctic hero, naturally. An interesting item however, is that the United States station at South Pole is named the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, honoring the Norwegian and the Brit who were the first two reach this point. I wonder if another nation had established a station there...would it be named in honor of foreigners?
Another view of the flags.
More of the same.
Ditto.
A Hagglund, this one named Moonraker. This is a unique vehicle. Both ends of the vehicle are powered, and it flies along the snow. It even floats. They are Swedish, I belive, and have Mercedes engines. Thus, the heavy shop guys hate working on them. These things are in use all over the continent....the US ones are red, the Kiwis have green ones, and so on. $350,000 and you can have one for your very own. Be the first one on your block to own a Hagglund.
View from inside the heavy shop. This is an ancient vehicle, but the guys (and gals) in the heavy shop keep them running year after year. I have noticed that a higher percentage of jobs here such as heavy equipment operators, mechanics, techs, etc. are done by women. Not a place for shrinking violets!
A couple Pisten Bullies up on the lift. These things are very capable, but seem to be high maintenance. A little too sophisticated for their own good, I think. For example, they have heated driver side seats. And you can't transmit on hand-held radios inside the cab, else it may screw up the vehicle's computer systems. Give me a break....this is Antarctica, not suburbia.
A torturous picture, juxtaposing the complex industrial side of McMurdo station with the simple elegance of a kite. Or whatever.
This thing is a unique vehicle. I have read that there are only 20 or so other Terrabuses in the world, all of which operate somewhere in Canada to shuttle tourists around. This one was built in 1994, and is a one-off model specifically built for McMurdo. When passenger flights land at McMurdo, the first thing people see is the Ivan the Terrabus, waiting to take them into town.
Our Lady of the Snows. A statue of Mary constructed in remembrance of a Richard Williams, who was killed when his dozer fell through the sea ice many years ago. Williams Field is also named for him.
The statue overlooks McMurdo, and is quite picturesque. Commonly referred to as "Roll Cage Mary" by the proletariat.
Another pic of Mary.
One more pic.
A Fire Department, just like any other town. Fire is a big concern here, since it is so incredibly dry. Antarctica is truly a frozen desert.
Lovely McMurdo station, as seen from Crater Hill (an extinct volcano crater)
Dreamy McMurdo station, this time as seen from a helicopter over the sea ice. This place really is the ultimate vacation paradise of 78 degrees South.
Another airborne view of fabulous McMurdo Station.
This is another view of glamorous McMurdo, this time from the top of Observation Hill.
The official McMurdo Station sign. Interestingly, this sign is not placed in a position of prominence at the station. You really have to look for it. I suppose this will be a much nicer shot once a ship arrives and docks at the ice pier in the background.
I don't know when this fellow Micou died, but there is a cross erected in his honor near the chapel. Unlike Scott's cross and Vince's cross, this one is hidden in the middle of McMurdo.
A pipe junction at the new wastewater treatment plant. This year is a banner year, as the plant is coming online. Until now, the station has dumped tons of raw sewage into McMurdo sound every day for over 40 years. It is quite a polluted body of water. The divers here have some funny accounts of the areas close to the sewage outlet pipe. As you might imagine, some weird underwater sights occur there. This plant will put an end to that. Scott Base also brought a wastewater plant online this year.
More piping at the plant. This has been a big job, and the plumbing, mechanical, and electrical crews have been fighting a slew of issues to bring it online this summer.
This machine is a step in the water treatment process. It is a belt press, where the sludge is run through a series of fabric belts which squish out the liquid and keep the solid contained. The solids are then formed into blocks (using a plastic material) which are the consistency of peat moss (or so I hear). These blocks will then be shipped of the continent for disposal somewhere else on planet Earth, while the water is further purified and sent back into the sea.
Another pic of the turd press!
The observation tube is a steel/glass structure that is lowered through a hole in the ice to provide a viewing platform for underwater life. It's a legit scientific tool, and is moved around to various sea ice camps during the year for use by the science groups. At the beginning of the season, it's open to the public, so I went down there to check it out. It's claustrophobia defined, especially with two people inside. It's a very narrow and dark pipe, with a glass enclosed bottom end. The glass has cracks in it....the water pressures are not very great at that depth, but it's still unnerving. It takes a while for your eyes to adjust to the darkness, but after a while you begin to see various things floating and swimming around you. The sunlight penetrating the sea ice is also quite beautiful.
Lame picture from the inside of the observation tube.
See above.
The operator of this particular truck obviously suffered a mishap. The stupid, bulky white standard issue boots (aka Bunny Boots) are a pain in the butt. They are awkward, hot, and have no traction. When you're driving a vehicle, they also facilitate slipping of your foot from the brake to the gas pedal. Thus, while parking, someone here suddenly accelerated forward and ran over a concrete barrier. More work for the heavy shop, courtesy of the famous Bunny Boot.
A Pickle. These are military-type forklift vehicles.
Bizarre contraption, used for digging drainage trenches.
McMurdo is a windy place. This is a pic showing a typical summer storm that will blow through here regularly.
Tucker Sno Cat. This is the classic Antarctic motor vehicle. They used earlier model Sno Cats during the IGY in 1957 (this one is 1984 vintage).
Christmas Dinner at McMurdo. The galley put on a great dinner on Christmas Eve...it even topped their Thanksgiving effort.
Table with a few of my friends.
There are several servings for a holiday dinner, and you sign up for one of the times. Before each one, a line forms outside the galley doors...
...and extends around the corner.
This pic, and two more below, show the galley decked out for Christmas.


A righteous dessert spread at Christmas.
Icestock...an event held around the New Years. They set up a stage and have several 'local' bands play through the afternoon. The weather was pretty mild, and a good crowd turned out. The sound wasn't too bad either.
Another pic of the stage.
Bleacher seats at Icestock....an ancient military truck.
Hacking at Icestock. Some of these guys were pretty good.
A birthday party for my friend Kevin Bliss, held at Hut 10. Evidently, this building used to be the quarters for the station commander during the Navy days. Now, it's used as the party house, and you can reserve it for various occasions, so we got together for some dinner. And drinking. I have more pictures from this affair, but will keep them to myself but due to their embarrassing nature....
Coast Guard Dolphin helo, which flies from the icebreaker Polar Sea. Prior to the ship reaching McMurdo, the helos fly back and forth to McMurdo on various tasks. They continue working around this area until the Polar Sea departs. This aircraft gets and A for style points. But the 212's that fly out of McMurdo all season are more capable as far as transport goes.
Another pic of the bad-ass looking Coast Guard helicopter.
Stylish tail rotor of the Dolphin.
Me and Jim Raymond in the Crary Lab lounge. Jim is studying the ice-binding proteins in the ice algae which grow around here, and has been coming to Antarctica for quite a while. (photo by Dana Porrat)
Here is one of the old Stretch D8-LGP's. These machines were specifically made for use in cold, snowy environments. They are longer than the regular D8's, and had extra-wide tracks to lessen the ground pressure for use on the snow (LGP stands for Low Ground Pressure). One of the McMurdo D8 fleet, named Mary Ann, turned 50 this year. I hear they had a party for this dozer, and also had two of them on display near the NSF Chalet with a historical poster. It's amazing that they are still around, and a testament to their excellent design and suitability for work in these conditions. Unfortunately, there are very few spare parts left, and most have to be custom made. So, their days are numbered. I pulled up behind this dozer while driving a brand new Pisten Bully earlier this year, and got a serious case of vehicle envy. More pics of a Stretch D8-LGP at work during the LDB launch at Williams Field are here.
Two D8's, which were on display near the Chalet, going back to work.
Original factory Photo of the stock D8. It's shorter, with thinner tracks.
Another photo of the original D8.
Here's Robbie Liben (walking, with beard), an ace computer tech and local political activist. He and others have been at odds with Raytheon and NSF this year over various demonstrations and discussions. McMurdo station has many elements of normal US society, but Antarctica is NOT the same as the United States. Many things do not work the same here. For example, the mandatory work week is 54 hours, with no overtime paid. Another thing is free speech. NSF is a publicly funded government agency who employs Raytheon to manage its Antarctic Program. Still, Raytheon and NSF management had significant issues earlier in the season about this. But things were 'resolved' and Robbie obtained 'permission' to hold a gathering on the sea ice (so that no McMurdo buildings would be contained in the pictures) to protest the US warlike stance on Iraq. I was not thrilled with the idea of war, so I figured I'd come along while people formed a large peace symbol on the sea ice.
A ground level view of the whole thing, once we finally got into position.
The vantage point for the photographers at McMurdo wasn't that high up, so the people in front laid down, while the ones in back stood up to give a better view of the sign. I figured tie-dye was in order today.
These photographers took FOREVER to take their pics.
Some of the pictures ended up on the common drive and I got copies of them. So here is the end result...it didn't turn out too bad.
Another pic, with the Royal Society Range in the background.
McMurdo from the air again, with a bank of fog covering the hills behind the station.
Me, playing Tank Commander in the Pisten Bully.
This is Robert Upshaw, my roommate for the summer season. I took the picture right as he was headed out the door to fly back home. He wasn't caught up in the glamour and society of McMurdo Station, and was not sad to leave. He worked nights in the galley, so living arrangements were pretty good between the two of us. Here he is giving the farewell salute to McMurdo.
On the way to Cosray during offload of the American Tern, I ran across this thing. The Boss. Yes, the boss. An American Flag and a Texas flag, with THE BOSS in between. I don't even have a joke here....
McMurdo Station, as seen from Crater Hill during a short job on some communications installations there. The American Tern is in port at the ice pier.
Here's the truck that I used during the summer. The Colorado plates are courtesy of Glenn Grant, science tech of two years ago (and 6 years ago too) who brought them down with him.
Wow! McMurdo station's new COFFEE LOUNGE! Whoopee!! Our recreation department moved some furniture into this corner of the galley and declared this to be the new coffee lounge. They put up some sterile decorations, warning signs on what-not-to-do-here, and had a little contest to name the lounge. The name is Roscoe P. Coltrane coffee lounge - or something like that. No further comments here, except....
Here is the official list of do's and dont's for our new COFFEE LOUNGE. OK children, don't color outside the lines or else I'm gonna take away your new toy. Mmmmmkay?
Olivia is taking care of a pilot project looking at feasibility of several locations for wind generators. McMurdo is a windy place (duh!), but for optimal operation of wind generators the wind needs to be "just right". So automated dataloggers were hooked up to anemometers at three sites around town this year to record long-term data. She needs to go out now and then to change the batteries and swap out the memory cards. One of them is located here, at a hill above town near where the explosives magazines are. This is a view out toward Erebus showing the science tech winter truck (larger tires than the summer truck, basically), the explosives magazine, and Erebus, which is hidden in the background.
One day my friend Steve needed to go up to Crater Hill to remove an optaphone base station. The system itself is bulky, so another hand was needed. Crater Hill is pretty steep, but there is a trail going straight up the side of it. And a Pisten Bully can make it to the top. Slowly, but it gets there. Here is the PB near the hut where the optaphone lives. It was clear, windy, and COLD this day.
I noticed a little cross constructed on the hill on the way up, so I walked down to take a couple pictures. Don't know who put this up, but it's interesting. A piece of pipe, two pieces of channel, and some U-bolts. Nice.
Another picture of this cross.
Now, back down the hill with the optaphone base station on board. This picture doesn't really make it look that steep, but it is.
Another picture of the trail.
Here's me at the helm. Nice picture, because here you can see how steep this road is. Close to 45 degrees. The 'horizon' seen through the window is not actually flat...it is sloping down too. I didn't like them that much at first, but I now think Pisten Bullies are righteous vehicles. Period.
I took this picture in May as the sun was getting low. These are two dormitory buildings.
James Stephenson is the explosives handler for the winter season. He has been doing a lot of work near the Scott Base Transition (where the road turns from land to the Ross Ice Shelf). The transition areas between the land and the ice (ice shelf and sea ice) require a lot of work to keep the safe and passable. The Scott Base Transition leads to the roads to Williams Field, Pegasus, Windless Bight, Castle Rock, and other places. The transition area is on a slope, and one side of it kept eroding, making the road very thin. So they have to widen it on the uphill side. The ground here is frozen solid, so you have to blast it out. For many shots, James has been offering to let anyone who's interested to come out and push the button. I took him up on the offer one (cold) morning. All the time I worked at ARA, I had never actually pushed the button and seen the shot with my own eyes. Someone else had initiated the shot, or I had been in a bunker, or whatever, so this was a first. Here is the blast site - the road is off to the right and the charges were set in the hill to the left.
Here's James. He had a humungous beard during the summer. This is about 1/3 of the size it used to be!
Here he is hooking up the leads to the blasting machine. This is the very last step before doing the shot. Until this point, the leads going to the boreholes are kept shorted to eliminate the possibility of static buildup that could set off the charges.
Here is me, getting ready to do the honors. This was great - James did all the hard work getting the shot ready, and I just had to drive out and make it go BANG. Today's shot was 25 lbs of dynamite with 5 lbs of Pentolite initiators, in case you were wondering.
May was a very strange month, weather-wise. It seemed as though we were always in a severe storm. We had "condition 1" called several times in town, which is rare. It gets to be condition 1 out at Pegasus, Arrival Heights, and even Scott Base more often than McMurdo. But during May, we had several storms blow through here that shut the station down. My friend Steve, who has done three winters before now, said that was the worst stretch of weather he's seen. So this is a picture looking out from my friend Alia's dorm during such a storm one night. We knew that the station was going to be put under condition 1 soon, so we got a few movies and some beer for the evening. Around midnight it was really raging, so we went outside for a bit (you're not supposed to do this). Here is Alia standing outside the dorm.
Here is me at the same spot, striking a mid-80's pose. The bright light is a streetlight, and the dimmer ones are warning lights to tell people what condition we're in. Radio warnings, pages, and emails go out when the conditions change here...the warning lights are just one more way of getting the info out. They're only 150 feet away, but hardly visible.
This is a movie (.avi file) of me doing my best (worst?) walk like an egyptian routine in the storm. I put this file on a public computer file, and it was good for a few laughs on station. This storm was pretty nasty, but the video makes it look a lot worse than it was.
A pic of the snow blowing by...horizontally.
This winter, Glenn Morris decided to offer a welding class. So Alia and I signed up and learned a little bit about stick welding. Here is Alia in the welding gear, with an enigmatic look.
And me with the same gear, plus a very dumb look. Stick welding is touchy business. I think got the general idea as well as some knowledge of the techniques, but to get good takes a lot of practice. I think I'd buy a wire-feed welder if I ever wanted to do this at home!
On the weekend of the solstice, the station had a midwinter's dinner. The the dining area was decorated with lights and stars (the theme was "A Starlight Affair"), the galley made an incredible dinner, and the lower part of the dining area was turned into a dance floor for after-dinner dancing. A lot of work went into this, and it turned out very nice. Here's a picture of the dinner.
Another picture of the high-class evening.
Among the people at my table were my friends Dave Havner (left) and Steve Brownell (right).
After perfoming admirably as one of the roving wine-pourers, Christian (the station doctor) joined the table. He and Joe Petrozzo are the medical staff for the winter, and have done a good job. I have heard several tales about the doctors we have had on the ice in the past. In recent years, McMurdo and South Pole have had some real questionable people as physicians. This seems strange to me. The USAP's first priority ought to be hiring and retaining the best people we can find....but this is very far from the top of their priority list. In particular the medical staff here ought to be well-chosen, especially for the winter since it's a big deal to get somebody out of here during the winter months, and extremely dangerous to try to evacuate someone from South Pole. But, nevertheless, some of the physicians I have heard about (from people who were down here at the time) were the WRONG people to have here (this includes the legendary Jerri Nielsen). Not only their with regards to their professional abilities, but more importantly their professionalism. In some cases, these doctors were such that for various reasons, many people on-station would avoid going seeing them unless it was a serious emergency. However, Christian and Joe have done an outstanding job this season, and are very professional. I haven't heard anyone complain about them or express hesitation about seeing them (except for the few hard-core types who absolutely won't go to the doctor unless their arm has been severed....)
On July 4th, we had the biggest party of the winter. It was held at the Heavy Shop and was well-attended. You bought tickets at the door (proceeds went to charity in Christchurch), and there were a good number of booths where you could spend them....a wobbly climbing ladder, dunk tank, tarot card readings, etc. You could also pay Kraig (one of the largest guys on station) to arrest someone and put them in a jail cell, where they had to sing karaoke to get out. This smoke ring gun was put on the top of a ladder and you could shoot people with smoke rings. Very cool.
The chili cookoff was also held. Here is Deni Braun, who is working at the Berg Field Center for the winter. Her chili was pretty good, and actually won...although I liked the Heavy Shop's chili better.
A couple bands played - Sucker Hole and the all-girl band Nasty Snatch!
This is the dunk tank. After a while Eric Hobday (the station manager) got inside....and the dunking began. Here is Eric egging the crowd on...."Is that all you got? Huh?"
Up near the old water and nuclear plant buildings on Ob Hill, I found this line of vintage trucks. Except for the two newer trucks, this exact picture might have been taken 30 years ago at McMurdo.
The two-story Quonset hut which comprises the main recreational building at McMurdo was built in 1958, and as far as I know it's the second-oldest building on station. Hut 10 is the oldest, from 1957. However it had a major renovation in 1988. This building, on the other hand, is still pretty old-timey. More pics from this building are below. This is an outside corner of the building, with a cool iced-over vent.
The vent, a little closer.
Inside the building are various things - a ceramics room, a bowling alley (with short, warped lanes), an arts and crafts room, a weight room, the McMurdo Historical Society room, and this: the bouldering cave. There are a lot of people down here who are into climbing and this is a popular hangout. I hadn't been in here once all year....
...or in here. This is the weight room, also in the same building.
This is the inside of the Chapel of the Snows. It might just be the nicest, cleanest building on station.
Another pic from inside the chapel - a little room for prayer.
The chaplain at the Little America station in 1947 came up with a prayer for Antarctica. This is it, engraved on a placque hanging in the chapel.
Another placque lists all the Navy chaplains who served in Antarctic since McMurdo was founded in 1955.
A few pics of the station here from an unusually calm day in early October. The weather recently has been horrible - and has caused me to be stuck here for a week after my original scheduled departure date. This was a rare lull as I was driving back from Arrival Heights one day. It was very serene, and snowing a little. This is the station, looking down from the road which goes up past Fortress Rocks on the way to Arrival Heights. This was about 9 or 10 at night, so there weren't even the sounds of vehicles driving around, beeping when they back up. No hustle and bustle, just the dim hum of the power plant. No people running around like chickens with their heads cut off (i.e., typical summer mode at McMurdo). Nope, this was about as close as you can get to silence at McMurdo. Nice.
The same picture, taken in black and white. I really like this picture. I probably should have used B&W more often for pictures here, but I suppose I can always take my existing pictures and turn them into B&W digitally. It really is a nice effect.
Another smaller picture of the station during a calm moment.
I took this one earlier in the evening when I was walking back to Crary after a glass of wine with my friend Dave Smith. Today was yet another crappy weather day, but it has really mellowed out tonight. Hopefully this will continue into tomorrow and I can get on a northbound plane! This was the familiar view out over the sea ice as the sun was setting, with some decaying storm clouds in the view. Mt. Discovery is almost completely shrouded by fog and clouds.
Another one of pretty much the same view.
A panorama of tonight's sunset. This is what it looks like when a storm is done blowing through the area, and is dying off. There are a lot of things I'll miss about this place. This view is one of them. It's never the same twice.