So on my day off, I went on a hike up to Observation Hill. Observation hill is a 1.5 mile hike, and has a vertical climb of 756 ft. Or so they say...I think its more. It took us roughly a little more than an hour to do the whole climb, we spent a decent amount of time on the top looking down at Mac-Town (McMurdo). You get a great view of the helicopters landing and taking off. You also get an awesome view of the entire area including Scott Base, Willy Field, Pegasus and McMurdo. The Cross on top of the hill was made in 1913, as a memorial to Robert Falcon Scott. Observation Hill can be seen by my window in my dorm, and from the photo also in this entry.
Since the hike is right next to base, one does not have to fill out an "efoot plan", which is the tracking system we use to make sure that people check in. Plus, most hikers stick out with the red jacket on the brown and white hill. I was fortunate to get some hiking boots before the trip. Which if you read a bit further, you will find out how I got some. (oooohhh, the suspense!)So, I'm sure I haven't really touched on this yet; but McMurdo is really serious about recycling. Everything has to be sorted by us, then the recycling team down here sorts again...and finally the waste is transported out of the base via steel containers on the yearly barge that comes here.
McMurdo is said to be the greenest base/facility in the United States, and I would believe it. As you can see, those are the sorting dumpsters, and we have trash cans in all the dorms that are labeled what trash you throw in it. It takes a little to learn how to classify trash, but after a week or so I think I have mastered it. I can hardly wait till I come home and ask where the "burnables" dumpster is. Down here they have a section entiled "Skua", named after that great bird. "Skua" is a swap shop, where one can drop off goods and pick up goods for free. Often you will find shampoo, clothes, boots, tapes, books and a whole bunch of random stuff. I found the hiking boots that I wore on my Observation Hill at "Skua". So this wasn't a random tangent about recycling.
The walk up the hill was pretty nice. The rocks around here are all volcanic, so that was really cool and different. The view of McMurdo was really nice from the top, as you can see. The climb like I said was fairly easy. The Snow on top of the mountain was a bit challenging to climb. Since it is cold and packed down, it makes for a slippery climb if one is not careful. But I'm an Eagle Scout, so it was cake.
All and all it was a pretty fun hike. I hopefully will hike all the trails they have here in the trail system. Which is roughly 7 trails, and a couple cross country ski trails. So I leave with not one but two awesome photo's of me on my climb. (Also I'm wearing my old Antarctica Jacket, I brought it down with me. I like it better than the one Raytheon is lending me)
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1 comment:
The recycling sounds a lot like what we do here in Japan, too -- Everything has to be sorted into burnable and non-burnable garbage (which is first cut apart and washed and made flat as possible before going in the bag), and recyclable metals, plastics, papers, and cardboard. You have to tie everything up into neat little bundles and take them out to the drop off point before 8 am the morning of the pickup of whatever category they are collecting that day. Everyone is into what their individual Carbon footprint is, even my cell phone tells me how much I just emitted with each short trip I take through the city.
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