Alexander Tall Tower!

Our trip to Tall Tower was a big success. Both the field and science components went really well. We flew 41 UAV flights and got some great data. There are so many interesting parts to our trip that I am not sure where to start. I guess I will just start from the beginning. 

Our group met up at 8:00 am on the morning of Tuesday January 14th. We grabbed a few last minute items from McMurdo (i.e. frozen food from the freezer) and got a ride down to the Transition (the area where the Ice Shelf meets the dirt road leading to McMurdo). Our snowmobiles and packed sleds were waiting for us at the Transition. The weather was beautiful. We had a clear blue sky, warmish temps, and no wind (I mean absolutely NO wind). We couldn't have custom ordered better weather.

My snowmobile and sled at the Transition

We left the Transition at 9:40 am. We took the Pegasus snow road to the South Pole Traverse snow road. It sounds funny to say this, because those are basically the only two "roads" around. And there are definitely no street signs. 

The four snowmobiles ready to go under a clear blue sky

(Note: I was still trying to figure out how to use the GoPro at this point)

 It was pretty slow going at the beginning. We had to stop quite often to fix our loads. This involved repositioning gear and tightening the rigging. We eventually got each sled fairly well rigged and started moving a bit better.

Suz, Ben, and John on the South Pole Traverse Road

The South Pole Traverse snow road is really well marked with flags placed approximately every eighth of a mile. This was convenient, because it meant that no one needed to navigate via GPS. A few hours into our trip, we saw a 4x4 post next to one of the flags. This post marks the beginning of the Shear Zone. The Shear Zone is the region where the Ross Ice Shelf meets the McMurdo Ice Shelf. In this region, the two ice shelves move at different speeds, creating crevasses. Fortunately for us, the South Pole Traverse team had already GPR'd (ground penetrating radar) this region and filled in all of the crevasses with snow. We still took precaution through this 4 mile section, but fortunately it was pretty uneventful (just the way I like it).

After the Shear Zone we had approximately 70 miles to go. At this point, we were mostly past the topography and had a view of nothing but blue sky and white ice shelf. At around 30 mile to go, we saw something on the horizon. We had received news that the South Pole Traverse team was on their way back from the South Pole and that we might cross paths with them. Sure enough, as we got closer we saw the Traverse. This is quite an impressive system of people and heavy equipment. The team this year delivered 123,000 gallons of fuel to the South Pole. Prior to the South Pole Traverse, this fuel used to be flown into the Pole via C130's, which is more expensive and much less efficient. We stopped to say hi and then got back on the road, since we wanted to get to Tall Tower before it got too late.

Ben, John and I (on the right) with the South Pole Traverse Team

(Photo courtesy of Susan Detweiller)

We made it to Tall Tower at 8:20 pm - it took us 10 hours and 40 minutes to get from the McMurdo Transition to Tall Tower! We were all exhausted, but since we needed somewhere to eat and sleep we started putting up camp. We started by unpacking the sleds and getting the Arctic Oven (our "eating-science" tent) set up. Once this was up, Suz started making dinner and the rest of us put up our mountain tents (for sleeping) and the Scott tent (our bathroom). We eventually got to bed sometime shortly after 2:00 am. Overall, it was a long, tiring day, but definitely worth it.

 

 

Camp from left to right: 3 mountain tents, 1 Scott tent, and 1 Arctic Oven tent