Taylor Dome Part 1

Again, this will be a two post night. I say Part 1 because I hope to exchange pictures with people so that I may actually have photos of me to post. I have a few more photos that for some reason I can't post, so I'll work on that as well.

I just returned from a five day trip to Taylor Dome on Antarctica proper. Taylor Dome wasn't as much of a dome as I would have expected, but you could tell the horizon was nearer in certain directions, so there was some slope to the topography. Central Antarctica is a high plateau, while the coast is pretty rugged. Taylor Dome is at the beginning of the plateau. It's an amazingly desolate place. Roughly 700 miles of flat windswept snow stand between Taylor Dome and the South Pole.

We were at roughly 8500 feet, but because of the rotation of the earth, the atmosphere gets spun out towards the equator and gets thinner at the poles, so the physiological altitude was close to 10500.

The temperature was pretty moderate, only dropping to -30 degrees F or so, but the wind could be brutal. It didn't take long after I removed my gloves to tie a knot or work with connector for my hands to be pretty cold. For your information, toothpaste is still liquid at -30 F, but just about everything else freezes except for fuels. However, when you brush your teeth, the toothpaste you put in your mouth is at -30 F. Again it is always sunny here, the sun never sets, so it makes work easy as you don't have to worry about it being dark. You also don't have to worry about bears getting into your food or anything.

I traveled with two scientists and a mountaineer. The purpose was to set up a remote autonomous antenna that will broadcast a signal every second that can be used to calibrate the gondola when it is in flight. The antenna that is used to broadcast the radio signal, is down a 300 foot borehole in the ice. The ice is about half a mile thick where we were, but it doesn't become more comfortable the thicker it gets.

It was truly an amazing experience, I have a lot of stories about it, but it definitely had it's moments. There wasn't a time when I wanted out, but I definitely spent some time thinking about sitting on a beach in Hawaii.

I have done camping before, but I don't know this was definitely different. Melting snow for water took hours every day, everything freezes, high altitude, blowing snow, low visibility, total dependence on others for our survival as there was now way we could reasonably survive without a plane flight out, and the feeling of being the only people within a 150 mile radius are a few of the aspects of the adventure that stood out.

One short story I'll share now. I brought a pair of ski's along, as the mountaineer traveling with us spent 62 days skiing across Antarctica with her gear in the first all women's group to make it to the pole from the edge of the continent, and I felt that there wouldn't be a better place to learn to ski, or a better instructor. I won't say that I learned to cross country ski, but I didn't fall down, and was able to get around fairly well. I don't think there will be any photos of that, but it was a neat experience.

This most certainly was a trip of a lifetime, many people have come to Antarctica for years, and have never gotten to fly over the continent let alone camp with such an amazing mountaineer on the Antarctic Plateau. I have been very lucky, this whole trip has been pretty spectacular to say the least.




The Twin Otter we flew in. They are amazing planes that can take off at 45 knots. The pilots are also really impressive, but they probably have one of the greatest jobs in Antarctica, stunning scenery, minimal air traffic, and a good deal of appreciation by everyone they pick up.









The tracked vehicle in this photo is a Haglund, I've never ridden in one, but I can walk faster than them sometimes.












The outside of my window was icy, so these first few shots aren't too clear. In the background is Mt. Erebus, in the foreground you may see a big white circle on the right, that is the balloon launch pad. From this perspective, if the circle was a clock face, the balloon base buildings are sort of where the hour hand would be at 9:15. You can also see the runways for Willy Field, where I took off for this trip.







This is a shot of part of Ross Island. Mt. Erebus is in the background, McMurdo is sort of in the middle, you get points if you find it.















This is a close up of McMurdo. I apologize for not taking photos around base yet, but I'll work on getting that done.











These next few shots are from the window in front of me, the glass was cleaner, but I had to contort myself to get them. These are all above Antarctica proper.







































This is the bore hole that we were for, well at least the cover of it. It was left almost two years ago.











This is a shot of our camp.













This is looking out onto the Plateau.