On the Road

Three miles due north of McMurdo Station is a superb rock feature called Castle Rock. On Sunday with no wind predicted, Martina, Dan and I plan an ascent. We first check out at the firehouse, collect our radio and leave our itinerary with Firehouse Annie. We transit the pumice roads of McMurdo Station past the Vehicle Maintenance Facility (big truck fix-it shop), up the hill past the explosive storage and “T-site” where all the antennas are (see “McMurdo Sunday” below–Castle Rock is directly in front of Mt. Erebus). On our left are two huge spheres: the NASA tracking facility and the New Zealand equivalent. A right turn puts us on the snowfields of Hut Penninsula where we find our first emergency shelter (called Apple One). Another mile and a half takes us across a sweeping expanse with Castle Rock dominating the skyline in front of Mt. Erebus. A short 20 minute scramble brings me to the summit–fixed ropes protect the last exposed section 870+ feet above the Ross Sea. For more information on this route or others in the Ross Island area, click here.

Dr. Linnea Avallone, atmospheric scientist from CU in Boulder, Colorado invites me out on the ice to look for ozone in the snow. This is a big place and ozone exists only 15 parts per billion which sounds like our current national debt. To make their job easier, her students Lars Kalnajs and Sean Davis have designed and built a big box that sits on the snow and measures ozone. Sometimes the ozone disappears entirely and no one knows why so that’s why we’re here–to find the missing ozone. Very little physics has been conducted on snow here and the results of Lars’ experiments may help shed light (bad pun) on the the ozone hole above us. Stay tuned…..

It’s a sunny McMurdo Sunday and a brisk walk up Observation Hill is in order after our 10am brunch. All Raytheon employees here work six day weeks, 9 hours a day so Sundays are precious–especially ones when the wind doesn’t blow. We’ve just passed the Spring equinox and are gaining about 2 hours of light a week. “Ob Hill” is about 700 feet above the base and an easy 1/2 hour hike from our dining hall. This is the first day we don’t have to check out at the firehouse for such a climb. As I climb upward, Mt. Erebus can be seen about 20 miles north of us with a beautiful plume drifting to the SW. It is in a state of continuous low grade eruption and can be seen here.