Anna'z Travels: 2010

Life on the Ice

In December I was given the enjoyable and lovely task of flying back to Lake Vida to take down the camp we put up in November! It was another helocopter ride through the dry valley's and a nights stay in a polar haven with a few great folks. We took the camp down to the bare bones and hooked up loads to hovering helocopters to wisk away back to McMurdo, leaving Lake Vida in it's pristine condition, for another 5 years.

The following photos encompass some outdoor trips, work and play from the season... I have gotten out into the field on some incredible helicopter flights, had some great hikes around McMurdo, enjoyedlocal skate skiing trips out on the sea ice and had the pleasure of being involved in McMurdo's up and coming music scene! The beauty of this place never fails to humble me and every time I look out across the sea to the Royal Society range I am reminded of what an awe inspiring land this is and how lucky I am to take it all in.

MAAG!

McMurdo's own Alternative art gallery! Christmas has a whole new focus here in Antarctica! Let us feast and make merry with crazy art projects and a fashion show!

ICESTOCK 2011!!!

This year I had the pleasure of playing elevtric guitar for ANNIE AND HER GUNS, my friend Annie's band! It was really really cold outside and our fingers froze but it was so much fun to play for a bunch of happy people!!! There were tons of bands and we all danced our way into the new year!

The Women's Soiree

Annie and I played a few songs at the Women's Soiree, an annual event put on by the women of McMurdo to benefit a cause for women and children in New Zealand. We played for a big crowd, and a DVD of the performance is available for 10$!

running the Thanksgiving Turket Trot with the lovely miss Angie

Out dancin with my girls, three bands, lots of swinging around, and perhaps too much tequilla :)

A day in the Dry Valley's at the Lake Hoare camp; one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. We flew in by helo and tightened down one of the Polar Havens. The camp is located right beside a massive gorgeous glacier and surrounded by beautiful jagged peaks. It was only a day trip, but the mountains beckoned. Fingers crossed, I will return in January to paint the huts!

Lake Vida

"The wind shakes the walls of the Polar Haven tent violently as the five of us lay around, waiting out the wind storm, waiting for supper. It's 7:00 pm and the wind has been blowing, gale force winds have been blowing now for hours. The winds started just as we finished the final tasks of setting up the Lake Vida camp for the summer 2010 season. We arrived on Friday morning by helocopter on a beautiful calm and sunny day..." -my journal, October 31rst 2010

The crew crammed into the helo

After a 45 minute helo ride across the Ross Sea Ice, stopping to refuel at Marble Point and then flying into the Dry Valley's we landed and exited the helo at Lake Vida. When the helo left a few more flew into the valley dropping off more cargo boxes and finally flying away, leaving us in the middle of the frozen lake surrounded by mountians, sand dunes, glaciers and boxes of cargo containing our tools, our shelter, food and scientific equioptment. We proceeded to unload our tools and set up the first and smaller of two Polar Haven tents in which we would cook out of for the next few days and a group of scientist will work out of for the next 6 weeks.

Lake Vida lies in Victoria Valley, the northernmost of the large McMurdo Dry Valleys, on the continent of Antarctica. It is isolated under year-round ice cover, and considerably more saline than seawater. It came to public attention in 2002 when microbes frozen in its ice cover for more than 2,800 years were successfully thawed and reanimated.

The Dry Valleys are so named because of their extremely low humidity and their lack of snow or ice cover. They are also dry because, in this location, the mountains are sufficiently high so that they block seaward flowing ice from the East Antarctic ice sheet from reaching the Ross Sea. At 4800 square kilometers, the valleys constitute around 0.03% of the continent, and form the largest ice-free region in Antarctica. The valley floors are covered with loose gravel, in which ice wedge polygonal patterned ground may be observed.
The unique conditions in the Dry Valleys are caused, in part, by katabatic winds: these occur when cold, dense air is pulled downhill by the force of gravity. The winds can reach speeds of 200 mph, evaporating all water, ice and snow.

Spending Halloween in the Dry Valley's had to include a little costume :)

Around 4 pm winds started to blow and sped up to at least 90 mph!
The storm started just as we finished our last tasks for the day and blew for the next 14 hours! They shook the polar haven tents and blew my mountain tent into the ice! We slept in the Polar Haven's that night to the sound of the tent poles shaking and the walls being whipped around by the winds. In the morning all was finally calm.