December 6, 2006
I think that whoever reads this blog and has not been to Antarctica should realize that my experiences there have not yet been intrepid or truly harsh and challenging. And the reason for me feeling thus is that I have slept every night on the exploration vessel and not had to contend with the continuous physically demanding and energy sapping environment usually described by Antarctica explorers who have traversed sections of the continent. I have also been the beneficiary of modern equipment, professional and concerned crews and cautious leadership practices.
I was raised in Michigan and I am not unmindful of harsh winter conditions. The trip to the Snow Hill Island Emperor Penguin Rookery added some new twists on winter. I commented in the first blog that in order to visit the rookery we had to helicopter from the ship to a landing site about two kilometers from the rookery and behind a grounded iceberg. The first day we did this the day was lightly overcast, a little windy and just a bit cold.
Antarctica is all about snow and what 100,000 years of snow looks like in all its forms. There is an enormous amount of ice that was really snow that did not melt. Antarctica is also the driest continent on Earth and yet it has most of the fresh water of Earth locked up in the ice that can be miles thick. The ice is created by snow falls that generally do not melt. From year to year these snow falls build up on one another and ice is created by the pressure of each new layer covering the thousands of previous snow falls. The skin of AntarcticaSnow Hill Island. It was challenging to walk upright; the high wind and slick surface were difficult for everyone including the penguins. In fact most of the Emperors were tobogganing across the ice rather than walking to the open sea to fish seven or eight miles away. is often crusty snow or ice particles. When a wind comes up blizzard conditions can develop almost immediately even if there are no clouds or fresh falling snow. The wind driven snow then acts like a Zamboni on a hockey rink. The ice that lies beneath the crusty skin becomes extremely smooth and slippery. The higher the velocity of the wind the harder it becomes to walk on the very smooth, slippery ice. These conditions briefly describe the second and third days on the ice south of Snow Hill Island. It was challenging to walk upright; the high wind and slick surface were difficult for everyone including the penguins. In fact most of the Emperors were tobogganing across the ice rather than walking to the open sea to fish seven or eight miles away.
Drifting snow/ice crust builds up when the sun melts the surface covering and it then freezes during the night and stays frozen until the sun comes out again or there is a new snow fall. There were drifts to be negotiated on the back and forth treks across mostly barren slippery ice to the rookery. Since the crusty surface of the drifts had been wind swept away one sometimes found themselves in knee deep or waist deep drifts that would not support your weight. The smart thing then was to play follow the leader, just like the penguins, and make a path through these drifts. These paths are always blazed by a lead party that checks for crevices or other hidden dangers and they lay out a red flag marked trail. At one point I stepped one foot off the path and went into the drift such that I could not free myself. Fortunately right behind me was Russ Russell, a mining engineer from Guernsey, who is easily 6'6" and capable of Superman feast. He just reached out and like the cranes that bring the zodiacs aboard, lifted me effortless from my snowy prison. Keep in mind that we were working against high winds and vertical snow. The second and third days were the most difficult for me because the cloud cover contributed to colder conditions and much darker lighting.
I am writing this in order to provide a sense of the conditions for the three particular days of the Snow Hill Island Emperor Penguins Rookery landings. Within these conditions many wonderful and special events took place that one can only marvel at in their uniqueness. In the next blog I will try to describe some of these unique events. Like what to do when meeting a line of Emperor Penguins, who are no dummy's, and have decided to use your path through the drifts.
Links:
http://bipolar.colorado.edu/cgi-bin/words/topic.pl?snow
http://www.prototista.org/E-Zine/climatechange.htm
http://nsidc.org/iceshelves/larsen2002/animation.html
I was raised in Michigan and I am not unmindful of harsh winter conditions. The trip to the Snow Hill Island Emperor Penguin Rookery added some new twists on winter. I commented in the first blog that in order to visit the rookery we had to helicopter from the ship to a landing site about two kilometers from the rookery and behind a grounded iceberg. The first day we did this the day was lightly overcast, a little windy and just a bit cold.
Antarctica is all about snow and what 100,000 years of snow looks like in all its forms. There is an enormous amount of ice that was really snow that did not melt. Antarctica is also the driest continent on Earth and yet it has most of the fresh water of Earth locked up in the ice that can be miles thick. The ice is created by snow falls that generally do not melt. From year to year these snow falls build up on one another and ice is created by the pressure of each new layer covering the thousands of previous snow falls. The skin of AntarcticaSnow Hill Island. It was challenging to walk upright; the high wind and slick surface were difficult for everyone including the penguins. In fact most of the Emperors were tobogganing across the ice rather than walking to the open sea to fish seven or eight miles away. is often crusty snow or ice particles. When a wind comes up blizzard conditions can develop almost immediately even if there are no clouds or fresh falling snow. The wind driven snow then acts like a Zamboni on a hockey rink. The ice that lies beneath the crusty skin becomes extremely smooth and slippery. The higher the velocity of the wind the harder it becomes to walk on the very smooth, slippery ice. These conditions briefly describe the second and third days on the ice south of Snow Hill Island. It was challenging to walk upright; the high wind and slick surface were difficult for everyone including the penguins. In fact most of the Emperors were tobogganing across the ice rather than walking to the open sea to fish seven or eight miles away.
Drifting snow/ice crust builds up when the sun melts the surface covering and it then freezes during the night and stays frozen until the sun comes out again or there is a new snow fall. There were drifts to be negotiated on the back and forth treks across mostly barren slippery ice to the rookery. Since the crusty surface of the drifts had been wind swept away one sometimes found themselves in knee deep or waist deep drifts that would not support your weight. The smart thing then was to play follow the leader, just like the penguins, and make a path through these drifts. These paths are always blazed by a lead party that checks for crevices or other hidden dangers and they lay out a red flag marked trail. At one point I stepped one foot off the path and went into the drift such that I could not free myself. Fortunately right behind me was Russ Russell, a mining engineer from Guernsey, who is easily 6'6" and capable of Superman feast. He just reached out and like the cranes that bring the zodiacs aboard, lifted me effortless from my snowy prison. Keep in mind that we were working against high winds and vertical snow. The second and third days were the most difficult for me because the cloud cover contributed to colder conditions and much darker lighting.
I am writing this in order to provide a sense of the conditions for the three particular days of the Snow Hill Island Emperor Penguins Rookery landings. Within these conditions many wonderful and special events took place that one can only marvel at in their uniqueness. In the next blog I will try to describe some of these unique events. Like what to do when meeting a line of Emperor Penguins, who are no dummy's, and have decided to use your path through the drifts.
Links:
http://bipolar.colorado.edu/cgi-bin/words/topic.pl?snow
http://www.prototista.org/E-Zine/climatechange.htm
http://nsidc.org/iceshelves/larsen2002/animation.html
