I Spoke Too Soon

Oh man where has the time gone?  I began this blog post about a week ago and am just finishing it.  Well the melt was on a roll, and then I opened my big mouth.  Just like everybody had said,  it can get cold again, and things can slow down.  Well sure enough, on Monday evening some weather rolled in and started cooling things down.  Here's a picture of what it looked like up valley from F6.

It really didn't get terribly cold, the ambient temperature still felt like it was in the 30's, but the clouds really cut down the amount of solar energy reaching the glaciers and substantially reduced stream flow.  It was kind of a bummer.  I was getting my hopes up a little that this might be a big flow year (which still isn't out of the question).  The stream that flows by our camp (Von Guerard) completely stopped running which was kind of a bummer.  It was our new source of drinking water, now that the moats are too melted to chip ice.  Now we might switch to just drinking moat water from the lake.  I just asked a limnologist and she said that the lake moats are really fresh (non-saline), so we should be alright.

On Tuesday we were supposed to fly to Wright Valley to tackle a couple of projects, but from the moment we woke up we had our doubts.  The clouds were really low in the valley, and visibility is the most important factor for the helo pilots.  One pilot was explaining that flying in clouds can be pretty disorienting, and it becomes even more dangerous when flying through white clouds over a white glacier.  Sure enough we got put on a weather hold until noon.  Then we got a call from the helo coordinator who asked if we minded if our flight was moved to Wednesday.  We didn't mind, so we had to come up with a new plan for the day.  It was pretty windy out, and it would have been really easy to just hang around inside all afternoon and be lazy.  Luckily we were able to find the motivation to get dressed and head out.

It is pretty funny because it really wasn't that cold out.  The majority of last year's season was much colder than this weather and windier, but we had grown accustomed to the calm warm days last week.  We hiked out to Commonwealth, which was ambitious considering the conditions.  We brought the waders because of our river crossing experience last week, but as it usually works out, the waders were completely unnecessary this week.  We hiked back and hit Aiken on the way back.  It turned out to be a pretty productive day, and it was nice to knock those streams out early in the week.

Wednesday the helicopters were able to fly.  The weather still didn't look that great in the morning, but our flight came.  I knew we had a possibility of getting stranded in the Wright Valley so I was sure to pack some extra food.  We were meeting some carps (carpenters, not to be confused with fish) over there so they could fix a staff gauge plate we have out there.  A staff gauge plate is essentially a ruler that we have in the water for us to read the water level.  The staff plate at Vanda (which is the lower end of the Onyx River, the longest river in Antarctica) is a little crooked, as you can see in the photo below. So the idea was that the carps were going to build a new one that was straight for us.  We landed at the lower end of the Onyx River (the largest river in Antarctica) and the flow was a little bit higher than the carps had expected, and they needed to borrow our waders.  We surveyed the setup before they made any changes, so we could relate the new staff plate readings to the old one.  We finished up our regular routine of gauging the river and collecting water samples, then we hopped in the helicopter to work on our station up at the upper end of the Onyx River.

Control at Lake Vanda. You can see the crooked staff plate in the middle of the stream.

View looking downstream over Lake Vanda

Up at our gauging station called Onyx at Lower Wright Valley (very confusing because this is the beginning of the Onyx River, however it is the Lower Wright Valley because the Onyx actually flows inland from East to West.  Anyways, we hopped out of the helicopter and the pilot told us we should hurry up because the weather was closing in.  Luckily everything went smoothly and we were able to wrap everything up within an hour.

Mikey hard at work gauging the flow with our FlowTracker

Trying to show the clarity of the Onyx River.  Some of the purest water I have ever seen.

Weather rolling in.

The plan was to drop us off at Marble point (helicopter refuelling station), and the pilot would go back to Wright Valley to pick up the carps so they didn't get stuck there overnight.  We had to navigate the low lying clouds to make it back to Marble safely, but we made it back without too much issue.  We touched down and headed inside.  They have a pretty cool little set up at Marble and they seemed really excited to have guests.  We came in and were treated to cookies, and some coffee.  One of the coolest perks there that I appreciated was a TV and real couches!  We put in a movie and kicked up our feet, not knowing when we were going to be picked up and if we would make it back to F6.  After the movie we caught word over the radio that our pilot was headed back with the carps and we would be getting a ride home.  As we were leaving we couldn't help but laugh at how much we felt like little kids getting cookies, and a movie, then to top it off we were sent home with soup. All the staff at Marble were amazing, if you ever find yourself flying around the Dry Valleys I would recommend a stop.  What a great spot to get stranded for a few hours.

Marble Point.

Due to the fact that it took me a whole week to get this post up, weather conditions have changed.  Friday things began to warm up again and the streams once again are flowing at relatively high discharges.  We went on a hike yesterday up on Mount Ray right behind Lake Hoare Camp.  It was a straight up hike with a killer view.  I will be sure to post some pictures soon.  Today we have some crazy down valley winds gusting at 44 knots (50 mph).  I hope the holiday shopping is going well back home.  If you are having a hard time trying to find a gift for me, just browse Cabela's and it shouldn't take long.  Miss you all!

Map of Fryxell Basin

Hey everyone.  I realized I am now throwing out all of these arbitrary stream names as if you know where they are.  I thought it'd be nice to give you some context.  Here is a zoomed in map I made of the Fryxell Basin.  The Orange boxes represent our gauge boxes, and the green triangular symbols are the camps.  I apologize it isn't quite as nice as something a GIS wiz like Breezy would make...

Things are Melting

With this recent stretch of warm weather, most of the streams in Taylor Valley have begun to run, and they are flowing at rates that are already greater than the peak flows we saw last year.  The warm weather has been surprising to us, but the veterans down here aren't overly impressed.  I think they are just accustomed to how sporadic the weather can be down here.  I personally think it's going to be a big flow year because of the early high flows, but everyone reminds me that the weather can change in an instant causing the streams to shut off within a matter of hours.

This is Aiken Stream flowing higher than we ever saw it last year.  You can see how cloudy this first flow is as the stream flushes the sediment and dead algae downstream.

Friday we hiked out to Commonwealth stream, located on the eastern side of Commonwealth Glacier.  It was running when we checked it the week before, however it looked as if the flow had more than doubled since then.   We had finished all of our work in the rest of the Fryxell basin earlier in the week, so we had a little bit of time to explore around the stream.  We hiked down the stream to it's outlet to the ocean. This area is pretty interesting because the stream flows through an old glacial moraine.  The stream has carved a pretty impressive canyon through the permafrost and ice-cored ground.  There are massive canyon walls that are slowly slumping, and melting into the channel, and even spots where the water has melted the ice beneath the hillside and tunnelled underground.

In the center of the photo you can see a dark spot in the hillside where the water is gushing out.  It is hard to make out, but that is a tunnel underneath the hillside that the water has cut out.

I like this picture because you can see the changes happening right before your eyes, even in a still photo.  There is a scientist who is taking a picture every day and creating a time lapse of this hillslope eroding which would be insane to see.

We eventually worked our way down the canyon and made it to the beach.  The beach was a welcome change of scenery from the valleys, and the lack of wind was refreshing.  It was slightly different than a lot of the beaches in more temperate climates.  I usually prefer the water to be a little warmer, and Mikey said the surf was too rough, so we skipped the surfing.  However, it sure made for a nice spot to eat lunch.  You can see Mt. Erebus in the background, and the crazy cloud patterns it was forming above it (Breezy that is where your crystal came from).  The water from Commonwealth stream was steaming as it flowed across the beach to the ocean, which I thought was odd.  We were curious what the temperature was, so we went over and measured it.  It was 55 degrees Fahrenheit!  It is pretty insane that a glacial melt-water stream can get to that temperature in such a short distance (a little over 2 miles).

The beach at Explorer's Cove with Erebus in the background.  We should have brought the volleyball...

After lunch, we hiked back up the stream and got to work on sampling and checking the gauge station.  Crossing the stream was a difficult endeavor.  We didn't expect the stream to be so high, so we didn't bring any waders to cross in.  I found a narrow spot and was able to jump across, managing to only submerge one foot.  The way back across was a different story.  We thought we found a better jumping spot so Mikey went to test it out.  The stream was flowing under some overhanging ice and snow.  It was too difficult to see how far the ice and snow were overhanging, but it supported his weight on the way over, so we figured it would be fine to cross back.  I guess this logic was flawed.  As Mikey went to jump the ice gave way and he ended up getting a little wet.  Luckily it was about 40 degrees out with almost no wind.  It didn't take long before the dry air here completely dried him out.

Mikey scoping out a safe crossing route across Commonwealth Stream.

On the way back we witnessed a pretty cool event.  We were walking along a pretty small stream on the way back to F6.  It was confusing because I had remembered walking up a channel on the way out to Commonwealth that was bone dry.  This one, however, had a decent sized stream flowing through it.  We were going back and forth on whether or not this stream had just started flowing when we walked around a corner and saw the end of the stream.  It was such a cool sight!  This little stream was beginning it's first flow of the season, and we were witnessing it as it filled up little pools, spilled over, and clumsily found it's way down the old dry channel.

The first flow on this unnamed stream that feeds Many Glaciers Pond.

We got back to F6 and learned that our friends from C-511 (they study the physical properties of the lakes) were coming over to spend the night after doing some work in the Fryxell Basin.  The Limno Team (focused on the biology of the lakes) just flew into Lake Fryxell camp that day, so they also were planning on heading over for dinner.  A group BBQ at F6 was discussed at Thanksgiving, but with everyone's crazy schedules we didn't think it would ever be a realistic possibility.  All the stars aligned, and we were ready for the First Annual F6 BBQ.  The weather couldn't have cooperated any better.  It had to have been mid 30's with no wind, and clear skies.  The trusty F6 grill was uncovered from last winter, and we fired it up to cook some delicious burgers courtesy of Limno Team.  These weren't just any burgers, they were monster juicy lucys with garlic, pesto, and cheese in the middle.

The First Annual F6 BBQ on a beautiful December day.

We were all hanging out eating and enjoying cold beverages when I noticed some movement down by the stream bed.  I thought the stream was flowing, but I realized that wasn't likely (first flow was around Jan. 5 last year), but I walked over there and sure enough it was flowing, and fast.  It was so exciting (nerds get excited about funny stuff) that everyone was there and got to witness the first flow of Von Guerard stream.  The Stream team sprang into action.  We got samples, and measured the flow almost immediately after the first pulse of water.  It was a pretty cool addition to an already memorable night.

First flow on Vonguerard Stream.  It was amazing how much flow came down with the first pulse.  By the way this flow has now dropped to a trickle because of the recent clouds.

The next morning came pretty early.  We were scheduled to fly at 12:30, but it got bumped up to 10:30.  We flew up to Bonney to sample and gauge the streams up there.  It was a really nice day again, which makes it so much nicer to get out into the field to do work.  The warm weather had all of the streams flowing that we normally sampled, which means we collected 9 water samples.  This may not sound like much, but our record for last year was 8.  I was the lucky one in the rotation that had the responsibility of filtering all of the samples from the day.  Mikey stopped in the lab before he went to bed and asked if I wanted to hike with him and Renee in the morning.  I really wanted to go because I hate wasting an opportunity to go hiking in such a unique place, and because hanging out with those two is a blast.  I regretfully declined because I knew I should catch up on sleep and give my legs a break.

It is hard to get a sense for scale, but this is a waterfall shooting off the edge of the Suess glacier seen from an helicopter.

So I don't really have much to write about from today.  I was able to sleep in, which was needed badly.  I ate way too many cookies (Renee makes dangerously good cookies).  I got some work done finishing up the samples from last night, and inventorying everything the Stream Team has here at Lake Hoare.  And I spent a little bit of time working on this.  Oh and I got a shower!  The weather has changed a little bit overnight.  Today it was gray, cloudy, windy, and a little colder.  Anderson Stream, which runs right by Lake Hoare, was flowing notably less this morning than it was when I went to bed last night.  It just amazes me how quickly these streams respond to the amount of solar energy hitting the glaciers.  I think I am going to go to bed now.  Tomorrow we fly back to F6 to start another crazy week.  I hope you all are doing well back home!

Back to Work

It has been a slow struggle getting back into the work groove, especially with this tighter beltline.  I don't doubt this is a slow week of work for most of you as well.  The fun of Thanksgiving is officially over, so I am struggling finding anything to write about.  Instead of fun hikes and cool pictures I'll just have to inform you with the day to day activities that constitute our "work" (it is a bit of a stretch to call this experience "work").

This week we have been back at F6 getting things done in the Fryxell Basin.  We have been checking boxes to make sure the electronics are working properly, and to check the nitrogen systems for leaks.  The electronics have been solid with one exception, but the nitrogen systems have been giving us the most trouble.  We are using old tanks that have seen their fair share of seasons and regulators that have some pretty rough threads.  Not to mention there is sand that is blown everywhere that gets into the threads.  This combo makes for plenty of leaks that are nearly impossible to detect.  As a result a couple of our systems were drained of nitrogen over the week, and now need to be replaced.  We ran out of spare tanks so we are waiting to get them from town, along with a new satellite phone, some food, and miscellaneous supplies.

We have also been surveying the elevations of our control structures, and orifice locations.  We have known established benchmark elevations at every stream gauge (bolts in large rocks), and we reference the other elevations to these to ensure the ground isn't shifting and changing the elevation of our instrumentation.  All of this takes quite a bit of time at each gauging station and it involves a lot of standing around.  This is pretty brutal just because you can get cold pretty quick, but the weather has been insanely nice the past couple of days.  It has been in the mid 30s (Fahrenheit) with minor winds.  I don't know how long this weather is going to keep up, but I am not complaining.

I took this before going to bed one night. I thought that we were going to get hit with a pretty good storm, but it cleared up and we woke up to another beautiful day.

The past couple of nights we had some free time around camp, which has been rare this season.  I  took a camp chair and my guitar to the leeward side of the hut and jammed.  I am admittedly pretty rusty right now just because I didn't play all fall with hunting, but I think I am picking it back up alright.  The hardest thing is the callouses on my fingertips that I have had for the past 10 years are gone.  Now I know why new people to guitar complain so much (Luke... haha just kidding bud!).  Anyways, it was a refreshing experience to have some alone time and just play to an empty valley in the warm sun.  I also went on my first run of the season last night.  It was pretty cold to start out, but I soon warmed up.  Running uphill in sand isn't quite as enjoyable as you might imagine, however when I turned around to come downhill it was a blast.  I hope the weather keeps up so I can run more often.

Free Time

Thanksgiving dinner was unreal.  It was almost better than grandma's... but not quite.  It is pretty impressive what Rae and Renee are able to create given the resources available.  I really appreciated all of their hard work to make Thanksgiving as fun, and close to being back home as possible.  We stuffed our faces on the thanksgiving meal, and then  played a bunch of snow volleyball the rest of the night.  Mikey brought a volleyball down from the states, and really wanted to get some games going.  So, we set up a court on the lake where some snow had drifted up which made for a nice flat, soft surface, that was almost beach like.  We propped two bamboo poles up, and fashioned a net between them.  We started by trying to actually weave the net.  This lasted for about two rows. We then realized that it would be Christmas before we ever were able to weave a net worth playing on.  So instead we made a makeshift net.  I guess to call it a net would be a stretch.  It didn't stop many balls, but it did the trick enough to know if it was a point or not.

The next day we were all pretty lazy.  We kind of just lounged around and watched movies here.  We got out and took some samples, and tried the ice skates out on a smooth part of the lake.  Yesterday, we made it out on a hike.  We hiked Vosslips, which is right across the valley from the Lake Hoare Camp.  It is a deceivingly long hike (9 hours, and about 11 miles round trip), but the view from the top was unbelievable.  Here are a couple shots that just don't do it justice.

Yesterday we did a little bit of work, and one of the guys here took us to one of his favorite spots in the Dry Valleys.  This little hideout was pretty crazy.  There were rivers and ponds all cut through the ice as if it were bedrock.  It also was sheltered from the wind, which is almost impossible to find in the Dry Valleys.  When we were sitting on this little beach Mikey said, "This is the warmest I have ever been in Antarctica."  It was true.  We were sitting there in t-shirts soaking up the sun.  It had to have been 40 degrees and dead calm.  Just insane weather for down here especially this early in the season.  A lot of people think it is shaping up to be a big flow year because the glaciers have very little snow on them, and it has been unseasonably warm early.  Low snow pack might cause you think that it would be a low flow year, because this is how things work back home.  However, low snow pack here means that the glaciers are dirtier (they don't have a fresh new white coating on them), the dirtier the glacier, the more the glacier absorbs solar energy, and the quicker it melts.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving (for me) from this side of the globe!  Today we are at Lake Hoare celebrating Thanksgiving, and I can't wait for dinner.  Rae and Renee the camp managers have been cooking, and baking all night and day preparing for today.  Last night the hut was at about 100 degrees F because of all of the pies they had been baking.  It will surely be worth it come later today.

Yesterday was a pretty terrific day of "work".  Our flight was scheduled for 11:45 to Miers Valley.  Miers Valley is a couple valleys to the south of Taylor Valley, and is a little bit less traveled than Taylor Valley.  This was my first trip to this part of the Dry Valleys, so I was pretty excited.  There is also a fantastic view of the Royal Society Range as you are flying over the glaciers on the way to Miers (shown below).  When we landed there we were baffled.  There was no wind, and the temperature was about 35 degrees F.  This is probably warmer than what you poor people are experiencing back in Minnesota at the moment.  We were able to work without jackets on which is a rare occurrence, especially in November.  We got our work done without any hiccups, and then we headed out on our side mission for the day.  Some of the UNAVCO folks had a gps antenna mount that was left on the peak of Mount Holiday, which is located in Miers Valley.  Since we were going to be over there they asked if we would pick it up for them.  We agreed, but the only clue to help us find it was the gps points.  This turned into quite the easter egg hunt via helicopter.  We hovered over the exact coordinates for a while and were unable to find it from the air (this thing was an aluminum bracket that was about 4 inches in width).  So, our pilot suggested that we land and search on foot.  It took him a while, but he was able to find a little landing spot near the peak.  This place was like a landscape of another world.  Unlike anything I had hiked through in the Dry Valleys yet.  This peak juts up between the two glaciers in Miers Valley, and has been carved and scoured by the wind and sand.  Turns out the wind has a pretty wild imagination when it comes to carving rocks.

I have bagged some peaks on foot, but I much prefer this method.

There isn't much for scale but that large rock on top is at least 12 feet tall.

We hiked around up there and finally found the piece we were looking for.  We retrieved it, checked out the Martian landscape for a little longer, and then headed out for our next stop down at Miers stream.  We opened everything up at Miers Stream, and began the 30 minute helicopter ride back to Lake Hoare.  We got back to Lake Hoare, and took it pretty easy.  Just tried to stay out of the way of the kitchen.  It was such a good weather day filled with new places, this will be a hard one to beat.

The Commute

I am looking forward to stuffing my face here, however I will be missing home today.  Hope all is well back there!  I have to say I am thankful for all my friends and family back home who are enjoying a nice break from me, but giving the illusion that they miss me!  I think most of all I will miss my grandmas cooking, and all of the booze fueld arguments about politics.  Happy Thanksgiving eve to you all back home! 

Wright Valley Trip

Yesterday turned out a little better than expected.  We headed out on our way back to F6 so we could be there to help unload the helicopter with all of our gear.  We were driving across Lake Hoare on the ATV, but the ice was already getting pretty bad so we stopped halfway across the lake and started walking.  We were all pretty quiet on the hike, I think we were all pretty hiked out from the day before.  We all waved at a helicopter fly over us while we were walking along side the Canada Glacier.  We waved and joked about how nice it would be if we could hail helicopters like you hail a cab.  About ten minutes later the same helicopter flew over from the other direction, and pretty low.  Then all of a sudden he landed in front of us.  We hit him on the radio, and he asked if we wanted a ride back to F6.  We all piled in and he flew me back to the ATV we had stashed on the lake and took the other two back to F6.  It was a pretty awesome morale booster, and it saved us about an hour of walking and driving the ATV.  It was quite the literal pick me up.  We always joke about how helicopters are like magical gods here.  We completely rely on the helicopters here, they bring us food and supplies to survive, they bring us mail, they take us everywhere we need to go, and they provide all of the good gossip from town.  They also have a pretty good sense of humor, "studying global warming at 110 gallons per hour."

The flight over the Asgard Range into Wright Valley

We arrived back to home sweet home and got settled in again.  Within an hour another helicopter came and dropped off more food and supplies.  We had some time to chat with the pilot.  He served as a pilot in Iraq, and did contract work in Afghanistan.  Not surprisingly he said he was really enjoying the flying down here.  He said these deserts were a little less hostile, and his clients were a little nicer.

Today we flew over to the Onyx River in Wright Valley.  The Onyx is the largest river in Antarctica at about 20 miles in length.  We have a gauge at the outlet into Lake Vanda, and at the beginning near Lake Brownworth.  It was a pretty smooth day.  Everything worked as expected, and the flight to and from Wright Valley is pretty amazing.

Onyx River (not flowing yet) looking downstream towards Lake Vanda

On the way back from Wright Valley we were dropped off at Commonwealth stream which flows off of the eastern edge of the Commonwealth Glacier.  It was actually flowing which was exciting, but unfortunate.  This means that our gauge didn't collect the first couple days of flow data, but that is the way it goes sometimes.

Here we are doing some surveying of the control points and the orifice of the Onyx  Lower Wright gauge (beginning of the river) to make sure our elevations haven't changed from year to year

Tomorrow we are headed to Miers Valley to open our final two unopened gauges.  I am pretty excited because I have not been to this valley yet, and apparently the flight is pretty spectacular.  I'll try to take some pictures.  Anyways, after that trip we are headed to Lake Hoare for Thanksgiving festivities.  It sounds like Thanksgiving is quite a party there.  I am sure it will be fun, but I really wish I was home with friends and family to get uncomfortably full on turkey and stuffing and pass out on the couch watching a bad football game.