Antarctic Update

[will]

7 Days and counting till i return to the great white south..

All my bags are packed and i am ready to go, well almost… a few things to
buy then i am on my way….

Last time some of you said “i wish i had a map to actually see where all
those places were that you wrote about”
Attached is a USGS map of Ross Island, Antarctica. This is where McMurdo
(US) and Scott (NZ) Bases are.
I hope that the few of you that wanted this find it useful.. I leave
Allentown at 11:30 AM next Thursday Morning,

The next email will be from New Zealand.

Cheers!
Chris

Christopher Post
________________________________
United States Antarctic Program
McMurdo Station Antarctica
Lehigh County Emergency Management
Allentown, PA
________________________________
E-Mail : n3sig@arrl.net
Pager: chris.post@my2way.com
NEXTEL: cpost.nextel@lehighema.org

[thepooles98]

Hey Chris, looking forward to seeing you and the rest of the winfly group. I’m being tagged to be a cargo delta driver for some of the flights. Let me know which flight you are on.
 I guess that goes for anyone else reading this message. Look for me in a big all terrain vehicle with 5 foot high tires. I’ll be the one wearing a red parka.Just kidding, everyone here has a red parka. If you are new to the program find someone from the program to help you out in Christchurch. It’s a beautiful city and a place that all of us down on the ice are looking forward to visiting when we leave. A good place to meet fellow USAP members is Baileys Bar. It’s across from the Cathedral in the mid city square.
Most of  you will land in Cheech(our pet name for Christchurch) and be greeted by someone from the Antarctic Center. They will probably be wearing a red jacket with an Antarctica patch on it. If you are scheduled to fly south the next day then you will go right to the Antarctic Center to get your cold weather gear. Otherwise it will be the next day. Expect that you will make several attempts to fly down here. The flight crews won’t fly if there is the tiniest thing wrong. Once you take off it is a 5 hour flight. At some point you reach the PSR(point of safe return), which is where the plane still has enough fuel to get back to Cheech if the weather turns bad. At the psr they get a report on the weather  here. If the forcast is for deteriorating conditions which would make for an unsafe landing, then the planes will turn back and return to Cheech to wait for a better day. It’s not unusual to make 4 or more attempts. At this time of year the sun is coming up for the first time in months and the added heat stirs the atmosphere. In general the winfly time period is marked by stormy weather.
enjoy your flight down. If I get time I’ll add some more.
mike

[will]

Sounds good Mike, i am on 1st flight WINFLY, i will be wearing ,my Hawaiian shirt and sandals…You guys need coffee from CHCH?[/font:vdpgrxyg]
See you in a Week…[/font:vdpgrxyg]
[/font:vdpgrxyg] 
From the northern hemisphere…[/font:vdpgrxyg]
[/font:vdpgrxyg] 
Chris [/font:vdpgrxyg]

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Original Message

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From: Antarcticmemories@groups.msn.com
To: Antarcticmemories@groups.msn.com
Sent: Thursday, August 08, 2002 2:53 PM
Subject: Re: Antarctic Update

	[font=Arial, size=4:vdpgrxyg]New Message on Antarctic memories[/font:vdpgrxyg]

[font=Arial, Helvetica, Sans Serif:vdpgrxyg]Antarctic Update[/font:vdpgrxyg]

Antarcticmemories@groups.msn.com?subject=Re%3A%20Antarctic%20Update

[font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans Serif:vdpgrxyg]Recommend[/font:vdpgrxyg] Message 2 in Discussion

[font=Arial, Helvetica, Sans Serif:vdpgrxyg]From: [/font:vdpgrxyg][font=Arial, Helvetica, Sans Serif:vdpgrxyg]mike+lorie[/font:vdpgrxyg] Hey Chris, looking forward to seeing you and the rest of the winfly group. I’m being tagged to be a cargo delta driver for some of the flights. Let me know which flight you are on.  I guess that goes for anyone else reading this message. Look for me in a big all terrain vehicle with 5 foot high tires. I’ll be the one wearing a red parka.Just kidding, everyone here has a red parka. If you are new to the program find someone from the program to help you out in Christchurch. It’s a beautiful city and a place that all of us down on the ice are looking forward to visiting when we leave. A good place to meet fellow USAP members is Baileys Bar. It’s across from the Cathedral in the mid city square. Most of  you will land in Cheech(our pet name for Christchurch) and be greeted by someone from the Antarctic Center. They will probably be wearing a red jacket with an Antarctica patch on it. If you are scheduled to fly south the next day then you will go right to the Antarctic Center to get your cold weather gear. Otherwise it will be the next day. Expect that you will make several attempts to fly down here. The flight crews won’t fly if there is the tiniest thing wrong. Once you take off it is a 5 hour flight. At some point you reach the PSR(point of safe return), which is where the plane still has enough fuel to get back to Cheech if the weather turns bad. At the psr they get a report on the weather  here. If the forcast is for deteriorating conditions which would make for an unsafe landing, then the planes will turn back and return to Cheech to wait for a better day. It’s not unusual to make 4 or more attempts. At this time of year the sun is coming up for the first time in months and the added heat stirs the atmosphere. In general the winfly time period is marked by stormy weather. enjoy your flight down. If I get time I’ll add some more. mike

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[will]

thanks for ur email but i still wanna know u better and know how msn groups
work

_________________________________________________________________
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http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx

[thepooles98]

Hey Chris,
We still have coffee beans available in the store. I don’t know if they will last the summer. If you are a bean coffee drinker send some down for yourself. At least enough to last until the supply ship comes in. Lorie says to get her some vitamins. Email me when you get close and I’ll let you know the brand and types.
It’s getting cold these days. Ambient temps went down to almost -50 yesterday. Clark and I brought a group out  for an overnighter to the Kiwi A-Frame. Man it was cold outside. We had the best aurora’s yet. They formed a narrow band of light from one end of the horizon to the other. It looked like a rainbow over our heads. When we got back today there was no mistaking that it was light. Even though the sun won’t be up for another week, there is not the faintest hint of darkness in the afternoon anymore.
We are begining to get polar circumcirrus(spelling?) clouds. If you remember from last year they are the clouds that form in the high upper atmosphere at this time of year. They are also called nacreous clouds and they refract the sunlight that hits them into a rainbow of colors.
 
Nobody else coming down has  posted anything here so I don’t know who else to look for. Enjoy your flight down and as always we hope for some bad weather so you get to stay in Cheech for a few days.
mike
 

[thepooles98]

Antarctic Memories is a msn groups site that I started a couple of years ago on my first trip to Antarctica. Originally it was a place to store photo’s so I could share my experiences with my friends. Over the years it has evolved into an information site about life at the McMurdo Antarctic Base. With the help of a couple of assistant managers who have written pages about their particular areas of interests we”ve tried to put together something that anyone who ever dreamed of coming to antarctica could look at and get an idea of why we like this place so much.
The front page of the site is divided into the right and left sides. The left side is blue and mostly consist of photo albums about the things we do down here. The right side is informational about Antarctic and McMurdo in particular.
People browsing the site can sign the guestbook without having to join, but if you want to leave a message that someone will answer you need to leave it on the discussion page. Sooner or later I try to answer all of the questions.
I hope you enjoy it.
mike

[DrDale]

Curiously I ask. I gather you’ve wintered over?  What science project(s) are you associated with?  Reason being, I miss the land down under.  I went down for Operation Deep Freeze ’83 aboard USCGC Polar Star (WAGB-10).  During that trip we circumnavigated the continent with a State Department delegation on a Antarctic Treaty compliance verification survey.  Although we didn’t winter over we were “Around” for over 3 months instead of the normal 30-45 day support and supply to Palmer, McMurdo, SoPole Station.

[thepooles98]

DrDale
I always enjoy hearing from the Old Timers. I bet a lot has changed down here in the last twenty years since you were here.
Yes, I’m a winter over this year. This is my second winter and if all goes well I’ll be back for a third winter in January. There aren’t a lot of science projects that go on down here in the winter. For the most part the science is done in deep field camps and require helecopter or air support. During the winter months it’s too cold and dark and the helecopters are shipped out. The science is done during the summer months and starting in the next few weeks the science groups will be coming down in droves. They study almost everything you can think of as Antarctica is one of the last unspoiled places left on the earth. In addition the ice here has been accumulating for thousands of years and has preserved records of past climates.
Our population will swell from just over 200 winterovers to well over a thousand people by the end of October as all the science groups arrive..
 
I’m not involved directly with any of the science groups. Lorie and I are both part of the support staff on the base. Lorie has been the winter manager in the store for the last few years and I work in Logistics and Supply. For all the science that goes on down here they need a pretty  extensive infrastructure ,from vehicle repair to power supply to people who construct the science camps etc. My department supports all of that by getting all the parts and equipment shipped down here. After that we unload everything, assign it to inventory, store it and then when parts are needed we go out and get them. It often times means going out and digging things out of snow drifts.
During the summer it is very difficult to do major repairs and upgrades here. There are just too many people. The time for that is during the winter. This year I’m in supply in the carp shop and also more or less running the tool issue room. In previous years I’ve been in the Heavy Equipment Repair shop, and helped out a little with food inventories in the freezer. Everyone in supply is also involved with unloading the annual supply ship that arrives each year in February.
Any chance we may see you come down again? Last year we had a fellow from the 80’s return. It’s about time for another.
mike

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[DrDale]

Oh how I would LOVE to come, if only to visit.  Personal ‘Logistics’ and a lack of  ‘Supplies’ proclude such things.
 
As I hadn’t read your profile prior to posting my original querry, I wasn’t thinking about someone from Operations hosting the comm.  I blindly assumed you wore with  National Science Foundation as a guest researcher working on one of the long-term studies.  As a member of Polar Star’s dive team, I worked directly with the NSF people and think more about their work forgetting, that as a member of Polar Star’s crew, that I was part of Operations and that without whom NSF would be without most of what the ‘Town’ has and offers them.
 
I’m amazed that you look forward to back-2-back “Winter Overs”.  Not may people I know deal with the extended seperation form ‘the world’ that comes during the winter season.  After all, even the Navy grants compensitory leave to active duty personnel who volunteer to WO.
 
Mike, Drop me a direct e-line I have a specific query I wish to pose. 
 
To all stay warm and be safe.

[Anonymous]

Hello Mike and Lorie,

            I just wanted to know if you are guys deaf, then I would like to communicate about the biblical scriptures. If you do not interested about my preaching from the bible, let me know. That is all! But I’m not Jehovah Witness or Seventh Day of Adventist. I’m involved with New Things Church from Korea. They have many deaf communities there. I love to help all deaf people whoever interested our good news. Well, take care! Talk to you soon!

                                                                       Friend,

                                                                      Darin

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[thepooles98]

Sorry but as far as I know there are no deaf people here. I think you would probably not pass the physcal if you were deaf. We have lot’s of heavy  equipment driving around. You pretty much have to be able to hear them because the hood of  your parka restrict your vision.
mike

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