32 days and a wake up...

So I'm winding down my adventure down here. It seems that I just left, but I've been gone a long time, I guess. I only have 32 days and 1 wake up down here left, hence the title of this entry.

I have the countdown not because I'm looking forward to leaving here, but I do miss a ton of people from back home. You guys know who you are. So the fuel ship arrived last night, so we have 2 out of the 3 ships down here, which means soon the bars will close for ship offload. The ship offload is basically the biggest thing that goes on this season. A successful and fast ship offload would help a great deal to get the ball rolling for the station to start winterizing. The whole winterizing process is very fascinating. For example buildings are evacuated/emptied and shelters are set up around the roads. The whole stations one goal right now is really focused; to ensure a safe winter season for everyone who stays behind. I know if I stayed a winter I would like everything done correctly, because working outside when it hits -100 is not my idea of a fun time. But back to this offload process...What I think most of you will enjoy the most about the shift offloading process, is the trucks that they use. Here is one of them.

It really show the dedication that the Vehicle Maintenance staff have to these trucks. These trucks are at least 20+ years old and still run and fuction very decently. Wish I had these guys working on my truck back home.

I feel bad that I haven't written in a while up here, I've been busy. The flights, are starting back up. We are having several Kiwi C-130 flights a week now. The flights bring cargo down, and slowly are bringing scientists back home. The C-17s start back up Sunday, with a special trip planed. Rumor has it that it is a special Military flight, we have a grand total of "Tweleve Stars" on board. Of course this is refering to the stars on the uniforms. So basically I guess we will see some 2 star and maybe 3 star Air Force personnel in the near future. I'm not sure why they are coming, but the NSF is getting a free C-17 flight out of the deal so they are happy.

So the fuel ship was sighted last night off of Hut Point, but didn't dock until this morning. I was at work, so I missed it. The Oden has been cruising around the area for the last couple of days and it is really neat to look at it crushing ice. The boat in this picture is the fuel ship.

What is really mind blowing is that the ice that I see out at Hut Point is really sea ice and not just regular snow/ice that blends in around here. It is hard to think about that since I have driven on it many times. Eat that Ice Road Truckers! (Does anyone really watch that show?) In fact, Station 2 is basically sitting on top of the ocean because it is sitting on the same ice. WOW! I know, I just blew some minds reading this.

Since the C-17s are going to be starting once again, I have come to terms that the next couple of weeks will be very busy. The leadership within the Department have informed us that our "Kelly" days will be pretty rare, if they happen at all. The air force requires a certain amount of ARFF firefighters/ARFF Agent count to be on standby when the flights come in. That means that we will have to staff it with double the amount of men we currently have been the past couple of weeks. As the planes get bigger, so do the ARFF stand by crews. But due to the amount of injuries within our own Department and people leaving, everyone will have to do more than their share of work for the weeks to come. This also means that the firefighters will stay down here a bit longer than the other base personnel, until 90% of the flights leave. I don't mind it that much, because the crews that I work with have really grown on me. But this did affect my plans for back home greatly. Shout out to Dan Bedford and Jess Tiff-naff-ney! (They are getting married, FYI)

To celebrate or rather to enjoy this being my last week freedom, a whole bunch of us who were off duty today went for a hike to Castle Rock. Castle Rock is the longest hike that we offer down here, roughly 9.8 miles. And if you are following the blog, you would know that I ski-ed it pretty recently. (Shout out to Sam, the number 1 fan of this blog!) So, thirteen of us, our whole shift is roughly 18, went on the hike. We started the side near Scott Base first. This meant that we had a climb, for most of our hike, all the way up to Castle Rock. The hike up was pretty tough, but we all pulled through. I wish I got a photo of the trail because really it is steep. The motivation for making it up to Castle Rock; was the promise that we could see open ocean from the top. You would think that living on an island down here we would see open ocean all the time, but we are surrounded by ice. The reason for this is, as I have mentioned in the past, is a major ice berg essentially blocked off this area for a couple years. The sea ice then never melted, and just kept getting thicker. The iceberg has since drifted away, but the result of this whole ordeal was thicker sea ice and less marine wildlife around station.


After we made it to the top of the steep climb, we decided to acesend Castle Rock itself. The climb requires one to use an anchored rope line to safely climb. Please refer to the photo of this...pretty crazy huh? This portion of the trail was closed last time I went, so I was excited to climb up. I have heard that the view from the top is really awesome. After a safe climb, I celebrated my hike and cracked open a beer.

As an Eagle Scout, I was prepared, and brought a whole 6 pack for the hike. I passed out a couple beers to my friends and my fire captain. There was a decent amount of beer hiked in, so we all could toast our last week of freedom. That is why I like my shift, we all have similar ideas and thoughts. It was great to cheers our season and enjoy the view. I was really happy sipping on my cheap New Zealand beer and eating a packed lunch that I made. I really hope these photos give the view justice. The visibility was great!











After a couple group photo shots, we started our decent and walked back to McMurdo just in time for dinner. The hike to McMurdo was a bit shorter and mostly all down hill. All and All it was a great hike, and a beautiful day! (It was only 5 degrees.) So I will catch up with you all later, hopefully I'll be writing more...sorry about that. Take care everyone!