When working in McMurdo, your sense of time is compressed into three days – yesterday, today and tomorrow. For the life of me, I cannot keep track of what day it is. I can remember what I did yesterday. I know what I am doing today. And I know what the plans are for tomorrow. Just do not ask me if it is Tuesday.
Yesterday I mentioned the Berg Field Center, but failed to post an image for you. I said the BFC was pretty small for the amount of gear crammed inside. You can get a sense of it from this photo. It is the blue building on the right. Note the Ford F350 for scale. The gray building on the left is the cargo warehouse and also holds the food pantry on the second floor.
Today started a lot like yesterday – snow in the morning. And like yesterday, by lunch time the snow had stopped and the wind had picked up. And like yesterday, we got more gear for our pre-season trip into the cargo stream. We have two Twin Otter boxes staged out in the cargo yard, and as stuff gets tagged, we haul it over and dump it either in box one or two. It will take two Twin Otter flights to get us out to the field. Box one contains the stuff that will keep us alive just in case the second flight gets delayed: our tent, food, cooking/heating fuel, sleeping gear, communication equipment, survival pack, and more. Gear needed to hunt for meteorites will be concentrated in the second flight.
John and I also pulled our food from the pantry today. Just as they tell you never to go to the grocery store when you are hungry, never, ever go to the BFC food pantry on an empty stomach. Everything looks like something you *must* have in the field. But looks are deceiving! Based on four previous trips, I already know what I will and will not eat in the field. Maybe I have gotten it right this time? Nah.
Tomorrow might be better weather. Looking south over the helipad, blue sky is pushing in behind the clouds.
-Posted by duck (a.k.a. Dave Mittlefehldt)
The Berg Field Center (right) and cargo warehouse (left). (note added by rph: with Observation Hill in their back yard!).
Two lonely Twin Otter boxes out in the cargo yard waiting for more gear.
(note added by rph- these boxes are named after the airplane, not the box company. They’re bigger than they look here, about 4x4x8 ft, and are designed to be fork-lifted up to the cargo door of the Twin Otter for hand-loading. Each of the three contractors operating flights in Antarctica (US Air National Guard, Ken Borek Air, PHA) uses a different cargo tracking and loading system; this is one of the easier ones).
