A Sunday hike to Castle Rock

Weekend recap:

On Saturday night I attended a wine tasting party in the library. I  had a good time enjoying fine New Zealand wine, talking with friends, and listening to the acoustic entertainment. There have been four parties with bands but I really enjoyed the music at this one. There are some very talented musicians and singers here. 

This was fun especially the acoustic music.

Enjoying the music.

A map of the Ross Island Trail System. Observation Hill is at the bottom with McMurdo to the left. The antennas that I work on are the Gray and White Domes and another dome at the T-Site (High Frequency Transmission Field).

Sunday morning I was back in the gym before brunch. After a nice stack of blueberry pancakes a friend and I left the firehouse at 11:30 for a  3.5 mile hike to Castle Rock. We were on the 15 mile route that Robert Scott and the Tera Nova Expedition (1910-1913) team used to travel between their huts at Cape Evans and Hut Point (McMurdo). An interesting side-note:

During one of the South Pole preparation hikes a crew with dogs was heading back to Scott's Hut at Cape Evans. They were more than half way there when one of their dogs slid down the ice and disappeared. After spending a few hours searching for the dog (the crew was very loyal to their dogs and pony's) they continued on to Cape Evans. More than a month later the crew returned to Hut Point where they found the dog barking excitedly at the hut's door. The dog had found its way back to Hut Point and survived on the dead seals stacked outside the hut (seal blubber used for heating and cooking).  

At about noon some twilight appeared in the northeast and then it was back to darkness after 1:30. We stopped at the igloos to see how they were holding up and two of the original four still look usable. We continued on to Castle Rock where we turned around and headed back to town. The seven miles of sometimes deep snow took us three hours.

An image taken from the Landsat7 satellite that we track here. Launched in 1999. It sure looks cold.

My favorite beer here. Pronounced Spats.

This is the one that I and three others originally built. The vestibule (right front) sort of collapsed though. Access is simply cutting a door anywhere with an ice saw. Still looks good.

A small collapse but should be okay inside.

A major side collapse.

A major top collapse. I don't think after cutting into this one there would be much room inside.

It was a nice day out.

The emergency shelter (tomato) next to Castle Rock.

Sat down for about a minute before we decided it was too cold inside. That's frost on the interior.

Back in my room. After sledging about 13 miles per day the old Antarctic explorers had to pitch their tent in sometimes blizzard conditions then try to light a stove to have something warm. 100 years later this "old Antarctic explorer" goes into his heated dorm room, takes a long hot shower, then pops open an ice cold beer to relax. I wonder what the explorers in another 100 years will do?

It's a real struggle outside today - not too cold but very windy.

Forecast and Outlook

UPDATED: Tuesday, May 22, 2012

-18°C|-0.4°F Max Temperature -40°C|-40°F Min Wind Chill

Skies: Cloudy Visibility (miles): Unrestricted, periods of 1-3 in blowing snow, isolated periods of 1/4 in blowing snow Winds (knots): E 20-30 gusts to 45 becoming E-S 25-45 gusting to 65