Heavy Machinery at the South Pole

I'm sure the greatest comedic act in my life for my friends and family back home is the idea of me driving heavy machinery.  Well, here we are.  As a part of my job, I have been trained on a CAT 953c loader and 277b loader.  I've also been trained on driving an LMC (aka a snowcat) and the snowmobiles.  Inside the LO we have a small electric forklift that I am also required to operate as part of my work.

Each piece of machinery has its own regulations for how much weight that it can handle as well as temperatures that it can operate within.  The 953 can handle quite a bit of weight and is able to be operated for longer periods of time in the colder temperatures (sub -65F) than the smaller 277.  We use the 953 to retrieve large items like stacks of cement board from the outside berms, and the 277 is mostly used for small and light work - moving triwalls, retrieving insulation from the berms, etc.  The LMC is not a loader and rather just a snow equipped truck for lack of a better description.  It's used during emergencies and drills, to do reconnaissance at the berms, and transporting people to and from outside areas.  They technically can be used at all temperatures (emergencies), but you have to be cognizant of the tracks and hydraulics not freezing.  Finally the snowmobile is basically useless in the winter.  The tracks freeze way too quickly for us to use in these cold temps.

As a quick aside, let me discuss what the berms actually are.  One of our storage systems at the Pole is utilizing what are essentially long raised beds of snow behind the station.  These beds of snow have specific organizations and designations so that we can look items up in Maximo.  These are the berms.  They certainly come with their own issues, but it's what we've got right now.

So some issues that we encounter with driving in the cold and dark.  Our windshields can fog up pretty fast because of our body heat.  We try to avoid that by utilizing any cab heating within the machines and fans pointed at the windshields, but it's not perfect.  You have to learn to park the vehicles into the wind too to try to avoid having the exhaust freeze to the windshields.  Then there's the tracks and hydraulics freezing up, as I had already mentioned.  We keep things moving to avoid the track issue, and we operate within safe operating temperatures to try to avoid damaging the hydraulics too.  There are certain time limits that we have at the colder temps so the machines have to come in earlier.

We also can only use red lights because of sensitive science equipment mounted to the roof of the station.  The red lighting is definitely better than nothing, but it's also not perfect.  We can't see very far with just red lighting and, when you add wind to it, it can become a small nightmare.  It's easy to get turned around when away from station, stuck in the wind, and only have red lights.  In that situation, best to stop, turn around so the wind isn't obscuring your view anymore, and figure out where you are in relation to berms and red lights on buildings.  It takes some practice and knowledge of the maps we have for behind the station, but it works better than anything else.

Because of the temperature restrictions, when it's warm enough we make complete use of the vehicle time.  This week we had a few warm days where we could go and grab some plywood for the carpenters to use during their floor remodeling project.  Sometimes you need a spotter for the objects you're grabbing because of the snow masking the bottom of the pallet.  In those cases, Brett and I will hop in an LMC and direct Steve, who is in the 953, to the berms and help him there.  It's a group effort and a lot of fun to be able to get away from our daily work of inventory.  As always, biggest thing that bogs me down about it is the cold.  They say there's no such thing as being cold - just not wearing enough layers.  I call horseshit.  Those people have clearly never lived in a freezer.

Steve in the 953c bringing in a bundle of plywood for the carps.  I'm sitting on the crate in the back waiting to help put dunnage down.

Me driving Voltron, our electric forklift, to carry some cement board into the LO DNF.

A photo of the berms that Brett took back when we had daylight

Emergency Response Teams

Considering the number of alarms, false and real, that we have had recently, I've decided to make a post in regards to what we do in the instance of emergencies.  The emergency response is similar in a lot of ways to that of Palmer, but the biggest difference is the role of "emergency response teams" (ERTs).

At Palmer, most everybody is assigned to a team (pump, fire, trauma, etc.), but there is also an overlap with the search and rescue teams (glacier SAR, ocean, you name it).  My role during emergencies at Palmer was to take over for Mike, our chef, with getting a full muster.  Mike was on the trauma team as well as in charge of muster so by having me take over muster, he could be available for the trauma team much sooner.  It was a simple job that essentially meant that I had to listen to radio traffic to hear people call in their locations as well as count people in our muster location.  Another part of that role was to dispatch personnel to the scene if necessary to help out the teams.  Because for a large part of the winter season we only had 19 to 21 people on station, this meant that all extra hands were accounted for.

At the Pole, we are assigned to a team 1-4 with a few extras being placed additionally onto a special technical rescue team (team 5) in the event we have to capture a body or patient in a crawl space or on top of a high structure.  As a brief rundown of the teams, here are their roles:

• Team 1:  First Responders - this team goes to the scene immediately to check out the situation and send any information back to the station and the emergency operations center (EOC aka Wayne)
• Team 2:  Fire Brigade - the name is obvious I think;  they are responsible for donning bunker gear to attack a fire on station;  most of those on this team have been to fire training school in Aurora, CO this past year, but Jason is the lone exception as he has been on the team in the past and therefore been to fire school in the past
• Team 3:  Logistics - this is my team;  we are kind of a catch all group where our role is to supply equipment to all of the other teams, transport personnel to/from a scene via snowcats (LMCs), and package patients for transport;  we are also in charge of running a search and rescue mission in the event of a missing person;  we supply extra hands if necessary for mass casualties and other such events
• Team 4:  Trauma - again, pretty self explainable;  this team is run by the doctor and PA and they train their teammates on essentially being emergency room assistants;  many on the team have outside training in healthcare such as being an EMT or working in trauma in the military
• Team 5:  Technical Rescue - briefly described above, they train to retrieve people from spaces that require specific gear for the safety of the rescuers;  such spaces are on top of the power plant arch, within the confines of the water tanks in the power plant, under the fuel tanks in the fuel arch, and within the subfloor of the station

We were assigned to our ERTs by Wayne at the beginning of the winter season.  While I have healthcare experience being in pharmacy school and whatnot, Wayne has opted to make me a team 3 lead instead of placing me on team 4.  Team 4 already has quite a few members, and I work in the logistics department so it makes sense to have me be responsible for that team.  My experience at Palmer also makes me a bit more qualified for this role as a lot of their duties go hand in hand.  Jason got stuck on team 2 this year as he's been on the team in the past.  From what I gather he doesn't mind too much, but being beardless means a cold face so that bums him out.

In the event of an emergency, the fire alarms and strobes are supposed to go off to signal the situation.  An automated message about the location of the alarm will play on replay as well so people know where to go.  Wayne gets on the all call PA system and radio soon after to let us know that we are to respond to this alarm.  As a team 3 lead, I am required to report to the scene as well as deal with other team lead issues (schedule and host trainings, advocate for my team in meetings).  Each emergency and training is unique in its own way of course so how we go about attacking the problem will change.  

Off hours, we have an on call schedule for the teams.  Each team is separated into an A team and a B team, and the team on call (A or B) switches off every two days.  The schedule for being on call is posted on the South Pole intranet and the galley scroll.  The rules for being on call vary from team to team, but Kim and I (both the team 3 leads) have decided that if you are sober enough to carry a fire extinguisher and respond then you are good to go for the emergency response.  Some seasons being dry for your on call nights was a requirement, but we are a bit lax this year with understanding that one or two beers/glasses of wine likely won't ruin the ability of our teammates to respond to an emergency.  During the day, however, A/B designations don't apply;  we should in theory all be up and awake so we all should be able to respond to the alarm.

ERT can be hectic at times as we run around trying to deal with threats, drills, and alarms, but it is an important part of living on station.  We are far and away from any kind of outside support so it is absolutely imperative that we maintain our life sources here - water, fuel, and power.  Our efforts help us to protect those sources and each other.  My only complaint so far is just one of discomfort;  I don't want to go outside to respond to an out-building alarm in the middle of the night should the event occur!  So far so good, and I'm glad that I have such a great and responsive team this year :) 

That being said...no more night alarms please.  I like getting a full night's rest when possible.

Case of the Ramen

I am being lectured by Brett and Steve for not posting another blog post, so here you go:  The Case of the Ramen (or, rather, lack of a case of ramen).

Newest drama on station is in regards to the amount of Top Ramen packages available over the weekends.  This past weekend there was no ramen available to the masses so somebody left a passive aggressive note on the whiteboard in the galley complaining about it.  Our steward has sent out an email explaining the situation.  There just isn't enough ramen on station to be able to put out a lot each week as we would run out before winter ends.  There was also the blurb about saving food for the summer crew, but I still don't understand that argument as, well, fuck the summer crew.  They are here for only three months and get freshies the whole time whereas we are here for nine without freshies.  They can deal without getting some of the smaller luxuries that we have on station.  Yes, Top Ramen is considered a luxury apparently.

Anyway, I am not particularly affected by the Top Ramen issue as I don't particularly enjoy the food of the poor (Elitist?  Oh most definitely).  There are weekends though where I have to suffer and eat the "food" as there isn't anything in the leftover fridge that appears appetizing to me (not a fan of Asian, southern, or BBQ food and those cuisines seem to show up a lot on our menu).  Other times we seem to be out of bread and sandwich materials so Top Ramen is one of my limited choices.

So the current talk of my office (it's 3:55 P.M. here on a Monday afternoon) is about the ramen email we just got and the silly little memo on the whiteboard.  As I have mentioned in the past, people become wicked sensitive over minor issues as winter progresses.  Now that we are past midwinter, I guess that the latest "drama" on station is going to be in regards to a microwavable soup.  Hopefully the explanation of our limited supply of Top Ramen will be enough for those folks.  If not, as I always say, there are always Cheddar Guppies (knock-off Goldfish that we have that I eat when nothing else looks appetizing to me).

Happy Midwinter!

Sunday, June 18th we celebrated midwinter.  Midwinter occurs on June 21st in the Southern Hemisphere.  It is the shortest day of the year for us below the equator, which means (in South Pole terms) that the sun is at the lowest point below the horizon that it will get.  Because our weekends fall on a Sunday/Monday schedule when we get two day weekends, we had our dinner on Sunday rather than today (the 21st!).

Midwinter dinner is a longstanding tradition in Antarctica, going back all the way to the days of Scott, Shackleton, and Amundsen exploring the continent.  The tradition involves eating a feast, having a few drinks, and enjoying the company of your compatriots on station.  My midwinter at Palmer meant that we got some delicious guanaco from our chef, Mike Hiller.  He did an amazing job that year, and the freshies were a nice surprise considering that Palmer does not have a greenhouse and did not have any new shipments of fresh food.

This midwinter, our chefs did a fantastic job as well.  Appetizers consisted of duck confit, apple and brie crostini, and a crab and artichoke dip.  The cocktail of choice during the hor d'oeuvre portion of the meal was an old fashioned.  And, as a nice symbolic gesture, the weather decided to cool down all the way to -100F for the first time this season!

Congratulations 2017 South Pole Winterovers!  We are now a part of the group that has hit -100F in the winter.

Following the cocktail hour, we were served a salad with an orange vinaigrette, made from the greenhouse freshies.  The main course was lobster thermidor, a filet of beef, asparagus, and mashed potatoes.  Dessert was delectable as well - a homemade chocolate lava cake and homemade vanilla ice cream.  We don't have any vanilla ice cream on station this year, so this was certainly a nice treat.

The following are photos taken by Dr. James Casey of IceCube that were saved onto our network's common drive:

Salad! 

Our main dinner plate 

Dessert.  The red sauce is a raspberry puree. 

Aside from our dinner, we had a number of events occurring on station in celebration of midwinter.  Earlier in the day there was a facial hair competition, of which I was a judge.  Jason was told to shave this winter thanks to being on team two for emergency response (fire response - they need a close seal between the mask and skin so beards are a no-go), but he participated regardless.  He presented a photo of himself with a beard from Palmer in the summer of 2015/2016 and expressed to the judges the plight of being beardless.  Shockingly enough, he almost won for best attempt!  Alas, there were other men on station who had actually attempted to grow a beard so they won the prize of a six pack of beer.

Here we are judging the contestants.  As you can see, we take this job seriously

Jason talking about his plight of being beardless at the South Pole.  Yes, he wears socks and sandals.

Final deliberations!  We separated ourselves to not spoil any surprises for the winners (and losers).

After dinner, one of my fellow winterovers designed a murder mystery for people to enjoy.  Jason and I did not opt in on this event as it just seemed like too much work and too much of a commitment.  I could have changed my mind mid-dinner and decide not to participate which of course would screw up the storyline for everybody else.  It was best to just not sign up and not ruin the fun for others.  From what I hear, everybody seemed to really enjoy the event that night.  I had fun observing everybody in character while on the sidelines.

So now that we are officially at midwinter day, what does it mean?  Well, the sun will slowly begin to rise again.  In August we'll start to see our first glimpse of sunlight over the horizon.  I can't say that I'm eager to welcome the sun back into my life though.  Sleeping is difficult with 24 hour light, and putting up window shades and blankets only does so much to block out the light.  It also means that the stars and auroras will be gone.  What will be nice is having the temperatures warm up a bit as the cold is really starting to get old.


EDIT:  Here is our official Midwinter Photo.  This photo gets sent to all Antarctic stations, ASC, and the NSF.

How cold is the extreme cold?

Prior to coming to the Pole, I had no idea what -75F would feel like.  In fact, it was an unimaginable amount of cold.  Growing up in Boston, I have experienced the wet and cold winters there.  Usually the coldest days of winter in New England involve numb thighs and red noses, but you don't ever feel like you're at risk of losing some body parts.  Denver winters have been a complete joke in comparison what with their sun and snow-that-melts-immediately.  But the South Pole?  Again, completely unimaginable.

As it turns out, yes, -75F is cold, but it's not nearly as bad as I thought that it would be.  You have enough layers on you outside that you're protected from the environment - at least for a short period of time.  The best that I can compare such cold temperatures on bare skin to is when you put an ice cube directly against your face and don't remove it until it truly burns.  For the science types, it's like standing in front of an open -80C freezer for an extended period of time or touching sample vials directly coming out of an LN2 dewar with bare skin.  The cold just bites.  Honestly, the wind is much worse than the cold;  at least you can dress for the cold, but the wind finds a way to get through all of your layers anyway.

One of the more interesting things about the extreme cold is what it does to just about any material.  Jason had told me that he once snapped an electrical cord during the winter here because it was sitting outside for too long, and before coming here I didn't believe him.  Turns out he's right (go figure).  I have experienced what it is like to finagle an electrical cord that has been sitting outside for a few hours;  it is frozen solid and inflexible, like a piece of plastic.

Similarly, the rubber soles of our boots will freeze.  Obviously the colder the temperature the quicker it will freeze.  You don't feel it happening, but as soon as you walk inside to the warmth your shoes sound like they are high heels on a hardwood floor.  The slipperiness is also noticeable almost immediately as the frozen rubber soles become slick like the ice.

When buying work boots before coming to the ice, I selected a pair of composite toe Carolina boots that I wanted to get.  We need composite toe rather than steel toe due to the cold once again, although there are individuals here who have gotten away with steel.  Jason suggested against the boots that I had selected because the soles were a harder rubber.  He kept saying how they will freeze so quickly, and with a harder rubber I'll slip almost immediately.  Again, I didn't believe him, but he's done two winters at the Pole and a summer so I figured I'd be best to give him the benefit of doubt.  Yup, he was right.  My soft rubber soles freeze within ten to fifteen minutes outside.  Hell, sometimes when just climbing the beer can stairs in -80F temps they freeze!  Imagine what it'd be like if I had went with the harder rubber.

Another issue to be aware of is metal.  Don't touch metal with unprotected hands if it has been outside.  You can easily take off a layer of skin from your fingers by doing so.  Even just a thin glove liner (aka the cotton/polyester gloves that I would wear alone back in a world with warmth) is enough to protect your hands when dealing with frozen 55 gallon drums and freezer doors.

You should also remove metal from your body if it is going to be exposed to the cold.  When I first arrived here, I would wear my watch (metal face) on my wrist like any normal and decent human being.  Well, on day one of work I cold-burned a bit of my skin on the wrist because of the cold steel.  It has since healed just fine, but now I know to keep the watch hooked to the hammer loop of my Carhartt bibs.  I've heard stories of girls in the past freezing parts of their ears from their earrings so I've made it a point to either not wear earrings at all or make sure that they are totally and completely covered by my balaclava and/or hat.

So yeah, the extreme cold really is extreme.  You learn quickly to take precautions that otherwise would be silly in the real world.  Such is life at the end of the world.  It's difficult to truly describe what we have to experience on a day-to-day basis, but I hope that this entry has provided some insight into the reality of the temperatures.  Only one other place on this planet can get as cold as the South Pole during the winter, and it is Vostok Station - the Russian Antarctic base just east of us (well, north I guess since everything is north from here!).

Here I am doing inventory at the UT Roof

EDIT:  Other things that freeze - eyelashes to neck gaiters;  beards to balaclavas and sweatshirt zippers;  nostril hairs;  frosted head hair;  etc.

Totally not a guest post from Steve...that would be preposterous

One of the most neglected topics when you’re at Pole (or anywhere on Ice…or in any government contract, really) is INFOSEC. That’s a buzzword for “Information Security”. INFOSEC boils down to a series of best practices to keep your computer and the network safe from malicious code. It’s a huge deal in military installations and large companies, but it’s important no matter where you go. For instance: as a student pharmacist, if I ever let slip that the governor of New Mexico regularly sneaks into Colorado to get his Viagra prescription filled at my Walgreens, I could get in buckets of trouble.

Believe it or not, INFOSEC matters down here too. Mostly it means we have to lock our computers when we leave a room, report suspicious/spammy emails, and never discuss BEEEEP considering BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP and those damned probes. Could you imagine the panic that would cause?

One of my co-workers (a brilliant and enigmatic man) has taken it upon himself to keep an eye out for unlocked computers. He’s been known to write harmless emails from unsecured accounts, play with the screen orientation, even ghost write blog posts. It’s all done in good fun, and we’ve all fallen victim to pranks at least once. Unfortunately, some of our fellow Polies have found his brilliance to be a rebuke and have taken offence to his delightful antics. We all hate these people who can’t take a joke.

As a counterexample, Kim (our lead) has been the butt of many a joke. Yet she has been able to maintain a positive attitude and has only stabbed Steve that one time.

In honesty though, his dedication and steadfast commitment to our safety is what makes him a great American, and a great man. There are so few people in this world that I actually respect…Steve is one of them.

From the bottom of my heart, I wish you God-Speed. Keep fighting the good fight.

Yes, we all want you to INFOSEC properly

Daisy Chain!

On Monday mornings, as I have mentioned in a previous blog post, we usually push the food order for the week up to the elevated station via the freight elevator in the beer can (vertical tower).  Sometimes, though, the temperature outside and in the beer can drops too low for the elevator to be safely operated.  In events like that, we as a station populace meet in the galley to do a "daisy chain" up the beer can with the food on the last day possible to deliver the food.  Essentially, we all spread out over the ninety-two steps in the beer can and pass the food up the chain.  We wait until the last day possible so as to give the beer can time to warm in hope of using the elevator in lieu of manpower.

This morning was one of those mornings.  It has been hovering between -80F and -90F for the past week or so, and the beer can temperature has not been far behind.  We warned the station prior to our weekend that we would likely be hand-carrying the food up the beer can on Tuesday as the forecast has predicted continued cold temperatures.  Thus, the day has come, and we performed the Great Daisy Chain of the South Pole.

In preparation for the daisy chain, the materials department (colleagues and me) double wrap the 50 lb. bags of flour and 25 lb. bag of sugar in large plastic bags.  This is to prevent any spillage or tears as it makes its way up to the station.  We also check some boxes for any vulnerabilities and try our best to mitigate the damage preemptively.

After, we meet upstairs in the galley as mentioned.  Safety Gavin gives a talk to us all about proper lifting techniques and ECW as not everybody here at the Pole has to move heavy objects or work in the cold.  We aim to cover the bases for the lowest common denominator so as to avoid any injuries.  Once the safety discussion is over, we remind everybody about spacing on the stairs - two individuals to a flight of stairs and one individual on the landing.  The materials department spreads itself out so that we span the entire staircase.  We also try to ensure that we are located on landings so that we can control the events occurring on both flights of stairs.

All in all, the daisy chain takes about fifteen minutes to complete.  This is much faster than our typical routine of using the freight elevator.  There will always be a few in the group who complain about the weights of the boxes;  the cold temperatures;  or having to wake up to complete the daisy chain.  Regardless, it goes smoothly without too much trouble.  Some station personnel enjoy being able to see the food going to the station that week as it gives them a glimpse into the menu.

This week's food pull included all of our midwinter dinner items.  Midwinter is an annual tradition at all Antarctic stations where we celebrate the shortest day of the year (constant darkness here at the South Pole though so that is irrelevant).  It also marks the point in time for most of us for being halfway until we redeploy North.  The dinner is a formal event, and this year we will be feasting on lobster thermidor and filet mignon.  Dinner will be Sunday, and I think it is safe to say that we are all looking forward to it.

A photo of me in our electric forklift that my colleague, Brett, was so kind to pimp in Microsoft Paint