Mullins Camp
11/11/04
10:04 PM
Day 2 at Mullins Valley camp. Today was quite a day. Last night when we went to bed, the wind was whipping through camp at around 40 mph. The tents were really noisy. I put in my earplugs and could still hear the wind, but I slept pretty well. I woke up at around 2 AM to Dave’s voice telling Doug he had just lost a D-ring (little metal rings that connect the lines to the tents). Adam woke up a little while later. It turns out that all three of the D-rings on Dave and Jim’s tent went during the night and one of Joe’s did as well. Our tent managed to get through the night with only some stitching coming undone on one of the front ties. We call it the pink fortress. Jim and Dave had to tie a rope from the top of their tent to a huge boulder so that it wouldn’t blow down. Everyone with blown D-rings had to use bungees, which actually work pretty well.
The ice is still cracking. Probably three to four times a minute. I only seem to notice at night. I think it is caused by the thermal contraction of the ice when it gets colder, so it makes more noise at night (and by night I mean when the sun dips behind the valley walls). It is surprisingly satisfying and a reminder that we are camped on a frozen lake, riding on top of about a hundred meters of moving glacial ice.
I set up the gel cell battery under my cot tonight and have like 5 things charging at once. The damn thing keeps cutting out on me and makes this annoying little beep when it does. It will be very nice to have the generator.
So anyway, when we woke up this morning, the weather was still awful. Up to 60 mph winds (according to Dave, although Adam tells me everyone overestimates wind speeds – he’s probably right, I would have no idea, all I know is that it was really windy). The sky was overcast and visibility was shit because of all of the snow blowing around. The East Antarctic Ice Sheet is only 2 miles beyond our camp over the head of the valley, so we were getting all of the cold air and snow off of the ice sheet. The wind was never consistent either, it kept switching directions, which made working (and doing anything outside) very difficult. We woke up at 7:30. The cooktent is literally 10 feet from ours, which is much more pleasant. Waiting inside were Adam, Doug, Kate and Bex. We ate and killed some time. At that point, the day appeared to be a washout. We decided to spend the morning building an ice wall for the shitbox. It was tough with the wind and blowing snow. There were several times when the wind would push you and you would just slide over the ice or snow, helpless. It was fun at first, but got old fast, especially when it pushes you into someone swinging an ice axe. We carved out a 3 foot deep trench while cutting blocks of snow and then build another 2-3 foot wall around the edges. The box is a much more pleasant experience.
We went back and ate lunch. Doug took a nap while the rest of us went out and started digging trenches on the moraine and near the edges of the lake to show the different ices. My wrist was really bothering me. I fucked up my right wrist and my two middle fingers at some point during the past few days. Now it is killing me. I think it is the high impact of picking the ice. And the worst part is that it will only get worse, I won’t have a chance to rest it. I don’t know what tendonitis feels like, but if you get it, you’re not supposed to pick and shovel for 8 hours a day.
We headed up valley, toward the accumulation zone for Mullins. It was beautiful. The entire valley is gorgeous. Dave and Jim were moving so slowly. Jim wanted to take pictures of everything and Dave took forever with his camera. Eventually I just started off on my own because the rest of the group was sort of milling about waiting for Dave and Jim. It was fucking cold. By late afternoon, we actually had blue skies with a few clouds and sunshine, but the wind was still blowing. I have a feeling that is going to be the case most of the time here. I walked all the way up around the rim of the accumulation zone on the moraine that dams the lake. The glacier ice is a creamy aqua, like scuffed light blue tinted glass. It is everywhere up there, with big angular boulders and patches of till here and there.
We got back to camp at around 5:30 and I had to cook dinner for the other tent. First of all, it smells weird in there, I think because of Joe. He kind of smells funny. Plus it is organized very differently than the other cooktent which is kind of annoying. And it seems so much darker because it has a red floor and doesn’t let much sunlight through the walls. I started cooking and he helped where he could. Dave and Jim came in right as dinner was ready. Spaghetti with sausage. Jim brought in a poster tube filled with images…the ice just popped right underneath my cot…of Mullins for entertainment and 4 Canterbury Draft’s (another New Zealand brew). Dave put on The Pretenders. He has a little walkman with tapes and speakers form 1989. They have been out here every season since then. He probably knows each of those tapes so well by now. We ate in near-silence. It was a little awkward. Dave was a little awkward. Joe said some things that weren’t really that funny and a little strange. I tried to make conversation, but eventually gave up. After we finished eating, Jim pulled out the images and we finally had something to talk about – science and planning. Dave put on the “Best of 1966” tape and mentioned that he was four years old then. Jim was born in 1942, Dave in 1962, and me in 1982. Talk about generation gaps. I think Dave still feels a little uncomfortable, or at least subordinate to Jim. Maybe subordinate isn't the right word. I feel the same way about Dave. 20 more years of science. I finally left their tent after finishing my beer with the excuse of getting the camera batteries charged. I popped into the other dinner tent and immediately felt at home. We laughed about the awkwardness. I do feel sorry for Joe. He’s the new guy and always has to deal with Dave and Jim. I found myself saying things to Dave and Jim that I would never say back at school. Talking about gold bonding my ass and shitting for example. I’m at that stage of field crudeness, but I don’t think they’re quite there yet.
The whole dual cook tent thing is really strange and kind of divides the camp. I really hope we get one of the 21 foot endurance tents. It would make things so much more pleasant and we would probably feel more like a team as opposed to a group of people working together, separately.
So my paper was accepted. Jim gave me the reviewer comments tonight during dinner. I guess he wasn’t kidding when he said he’d brought them. The man wastes no time.
I’m about to run out of batteries. Now that we have power, hopefully I’ll be able to do this more often. In the meantime the hand written entries continue to accrue.
A view of Wright valley during the helo flight to Beacon.
A view from the helo of the campsite. We are camped on a frozen lake at the head of Mullins Valley. The frozen lake and all of the rocks are sitting on top of a glacier that fills the valley and spills down into Beacon Valley below. It is unreal.
The helo dropping a sling with tent and equipment from the old camp.
A sound clip of a different glacier, but they all sound pretty similar. The pops and cracks can actually be pretty loud and when the wind isn't blowing they are the only noises at night. It is so cool.
The storm.
Spaghetti and sausage dinner. My second favorite to the chili.
The view from the shitbox. I finally remembered to bring my camera with me one morning.
10:04 PM
Day 2 at Mullins Valley camp. Today was quite a day. Last night when we went to bed, the wind was whipping through camp at around 40 mph. The tents were really noisy. I put in my earplugs and could still hear the wind, but I slept pretty well. I woke up at around 2 AM to Dave’s voice telling Doug he had just lost a D-ring (little metal rings that connect the lines to the tents). Adam woke up a little while later. It turns out that all three of the D-rings on Dave and Jim’s tent went during the night and one of Joe’s did as well. Our tent managed to get through the night with only some stitching coming undone on one of the front ties. We call it the pink fortress. Jim and Dave had to tie a rope from the top of their tent to a huge boulder so that it wouldn’t blow down. Everyone with blown D-rings had to use bungees, which actually work pretty well.
The ice is still cracking. Probably three to four times a minute. I only seem to notice at night. I think it is caused by the thermal contraction of the ice when it gets colder, so it makes more noise at night (and by night I mean when the sun dips behind the valley walls). It is surprisingly satisfying and a reminder that we are camped on a frozen lake, riding on top of about a hundred meters of moving glacial ice.
I set up the gel cell battery under my cot tonight and have like 5 things charging at once. The damn thing keeps cutting out on me and makes this annoying little beep when it does. It will be very nice to have the generator.
So anyway, when we woke up this morning, the weather was still awful. Up to 60 mph winds (according to Dave, although Adam tells me everyone overestimates wind speeds – he’s probably right, I would have no idea, all I know is that it was really windy). The sky was overcast and visibility was shit because of all of the snow blowing around. The East Antarctic Ice Sheet is only 2 miles beyond our camp over the head of the valley, so we were getting all of the cold air and snow off of the ice sheet. The wind was never consistent either, it kept switching directions, which made working (and doing anything outside) very difficult. We woke up at 7:30. The cooktent is literally 10 feet from ours, which is much more pleasant. Waiting inside were Adam, Doug, Kate and Bex. We ate and killed some time. At that point, the day appeared to be a washout. We decided to spend the morning building an ice wall for the shitbox. It was tough with the wind and blowing snow. There were several times when the wind would push you and you would just slide over the ice or snow, helpless. It was fun at first, but got old fast, especially when it pushes you into someone swinging an ice axe. We carved out a 3 foot deep trench while cutting blocks of snow and then build another 2-3 foot wall around the edges. The box is a much more pleasant experience.
We went back and ate lunch. Doug took a nap while the rest of us went out and started digging trenches on the moraine and near the edges of the lake to show the different ices. My wrist was really bothering me. I fucked up my right wrist and my two middle fingers at some point during the past few days. Now it is killing me. I think it is the high impact of picking the ice. And the worst part is that it will only get worse, I won’t have a chance to rest it. I don’t know what tendonitis feels like, but if you get it, you’re not supposed to pick and shovel for 8 hours a day.
We headed up valley, toward the accumulation zone for Mullins. It was beautiful. The entire valley is gorgeous. Dave and Jim were moving so slowly. Jim wanted to take pictures of everything and Dave took forever with his camera. Eventually I just started off on my own because the rest of the group was sort of milling about waiting for Dave and Jim. It was fucking cold. By late afternoon, we actually had blue skies with a few clouds and sunshine, but the wind was still blowing. I have a feeling that is going to be the case most of the time here. I walked all the way up around the rim of the accumulation zone on the moraine that dams the lake. The glacier ice is a creamy aqua, like scuffed light blue tinted glass. It is everywhere up there, with big angular boulders and patches of till here and there.
We got back to camp at around 5:30 and I had to cook dinner for the other tent. First of all, it smells weird in there, I think because of Joe. He kind of smells funny. Plus it is organized very differently than the other cooktent which is kind of annoying. And it seems so much darker because it has a red floor and doesn’t let much sunlight through the walls. I started cooking and he helped where he could. Dave and Jim came in right as dinner was ready. Spaghetti with sausage. Jim brought in a poster tube filled with images…the ice just popped right underneath my cot…of Mullins for entertainment and 4 Canterbury Draft’s (another New Zealand brew). Dave put on The Pretenders. He has a little walkman with tapes and speakers form 1989. They have been out here every season since then. He probably knows each of those tapes so well by now. We ate in near-silence. It was a little awkward. Dave was a little awkward. Joe said some things that weren’t really that funny and a little strange. I tried to make conversation, but eventually gave up. After we finished eating, Jim pulled out the images and we finally had something to talk about – science and planning. Dave put on the “Best of 1966” tape and mentioned that he was four years old then. Jim was born in 1942, Dave in 1962, and me in 1982. Talk about generation gaps. I think Dave still feels a little uncomfortable, or at least subordinate to Jim. Maybe subordinate isn't the right word. I feel the same way about Dave. 20 more years of science. I finally left their tent after finishing my beer with the excuse of getting the camera batteries charged. I popped into the other dinner tent and immediately felt at home. We laughed about the awkwardness. I do feel sorry for Joe. He’s the new guy and always has to deal with Dave and Jim. I found myself saying things to Dave and Jim that I would never say back at school. Talking about gold bonding my ass and shitting for example. I’m at that stage of field crudeness, but I don’t think they’re quite there yet.
The whole dual cook tent thing is really strange and kind of divides the camp. I really hope we get one of the 21 foot endurance tents. It would make things so much more pleasant and we would probably feel more like a team as opposed to a group of people working together, separately.
So my paper was accepted. Jim gave me the reviewer comments tonight during dinner. I guess he wasn’t kidding when he said he’d brought them. The man wastes no time.
I’m about to run out of batteries. Now that we have power, hopefully I’ll be able to do this more often. In the meantime the hand written entries continue to accrue.
A view of Wright valley during the helo flight to Beacon.
A view from the helo of the campsite. We are camped on a frozen lake at the head of Mullins Valley. The frozen lake and all of the rocks are sitting on top of a glacier that fills the valley and spills down into Beacon Valley below. It is unreal.
The helo dropping a sling with tent and equipment from the old camp.
A sound clip of a different glacier, but they all sound pretty similar. The pops and cracks can actually be pretty loud and when the wind isn't blowing they are the only noises at night. It is so cool.
The storm.
Spaghetti and sausage dinner. My second favorite to the chili.
The view from the shitbox. I finally remembered to bring my camera with me one morning.
posted by LankyPoobah at 10:04 PM
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