great days, part II: cape evans events

Cape Evans is a point about 15 miles from McMurdo where Scott (one of the first Antarctic explorers set up a hut to act as a staging area for some of his various intra-continental missions. Most people have to sign up on a sheet and hope they are able to make the cut for the trip as only about 40 people can go per trip. This is a pretty popular Delta Trip since there are few organized tours of the hut. Our shuttles group (after rescheduling twice) was able to secure a time with the Chalet to take a Delta for our staff only.

We all crawled into the back of the Delta and began the trek out on the Sea Ice. The 15 mile trip takes about 1.5 hours to complete one way. The evening was amazingly warm and the sun was out. Our group enjoyed spending this time all together for the first time this season in the back of that vehicle – even with the bumps as big as they were (most of our Deltas have cracks in the back windows from people who didn’t wear there seat belts and were throw into them over a bump).

Our first stop was for a little Adelie penguin. The more peculiar sight was probably the group of 18 of us huddled around in a semi-circle waiting for the little guy to wander into our camera lenses. Unfortunately, this little fella was on his way to die. He was wandering alone, separated from his group, or sick. Life and death here among the Antarctic organisms is a harsh, but very real concept as we, humans, are not allowed to interfere with “nature.”

Our second stop along side the road was to view a monstrosity of a Weddell Seal laying right next to the ice road. Amazingly, this big mammal, did a most-unbelievable back flip for us when we were standing around it taking pictures. The hole he came up was about 15 feet from where he lay and only about 2 feet wide! It’s amazing that these creatures can use a place so small to crawl up. They are known to knaw their way to the surface through the ice if they have to. God certainly created a strange one in this species!

We finally made it to Cape Evans. I experienced, perhaps, the most quiet of all quiets on earth. There were still a few people talking, but everything was still. Every now and then, a skua would squawk, but there was no noise; no loaders, no generators, no buzz and hum of society. Simple stillness like I’ve never seen or heard before!

Near the hut there are glaciers that roll off of Mt Erebus which seemed to signify a true arrival to Antarctica. This picture of me is my excitement at beholding the Continent as it had appeared in my mind for years until I came here.

The hut was a pretty fascinating place to visit. As someone put it after we toured through the building, “it is the most amazing museum I’ve ever been in.” The huts in Antarctica are protected by the Antarctic Heritage Trust, managed by the Kiwis. Each hut is how it was. Very little has been touched. The Terra Nova hut we visited on Friday evening (named for the ship it was transported on) is complete with horse stables, seal blubber and penguin eggs that are nearly 100 years old. A real dead penguin is still laid out, frozen, on Scott’s table where it was brought in.

And, there is a reminder nearly everywhere humans have been on this continent of the sobriety of the environment we live in. Plenty of people have died in efforts to explore this white place and they are by no means the last to perish by the harsh conditions here. One of Scott’s last journal entry, March 22-23 “…no fuel and one or two of food left – must be near end. Have decided it shall be natural – we shall march…and die in our tracks.” And, his last entry on March 29: “Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have shared the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale…”

After a fascinating visit and playing in the snow, we loaded back up in the Delta and began our trek back to McMurdo. The only problem, was that in the course of the evening, under the bright sun, the snow had softened and our vehicle got stuck. Not just once, but twice. The first time, after more than an hour, our crew had sufficiently dug the huge tires out and we were able to back around the tracks on the road to get back on the top of the snow. The second time our tires sunk in the snow, we were so stuck that we called Fleet Ops to send the Challenger out to pull us forward, but were told that Fleet Ops was off for the holiday. So, we began a massive shoveling campaign. Marty pulled out the food rations from the back and began to make hot chocolate! I decided to help him, so we got the stove going, added a bit of water to our humongous pot and then added snow to melt. The two of us felt like the morale troop of the trip! However, we had just gotten our water boiling when the rest of the group had finally released the Delta from the snow. We arrived home at 01:30, roughly 3 hours later than expected. Fleet Ops had finally found people to pull us out with not only one Challenger, but 2 such vehicles and sent them out to meet us even though we had canceled the request. They wanted to be there in case we got stuck again, I suppose. Since I was transitioning, I had been up more than 33 hours, with only bits of naps here and there. Bed was a welcome sight that night!

Our trip was the closest we might come to a real Antarctic adventure. We were thrilled it happened on such a beautiful warm day, when we rarely needed our Big Reds! We had an amazing time getting to know each other and watching the group dynamics unfold. I work with some fun folks!

"The significance of man is that he is insignificant and is aware of it." –Carl Becker-