Cruisin around town

McMurdo Station (View from Arrival Heights)

I forgot that I promised a tour of town in a previous post. Many of the buildings you will see in the photos are warehouses, maintenance shops, or work centers.  If there is something unique about a building, I'll try to point it out in the photo caption.  You've already seen my dorm in a previous post so I'll start with the building I worked out of.  Below is Building 165 which houses control centers for the various aviation assets working in Antarctica.  I had a great view of the helo pad, Ob hill, and also the mountains across the sea ice from my windows.

Building 165

Safety Office

Great view from the office

Cross on ob hill in memory of Capt. Robert F Scott and his men who perished on their return trip from the South Pole

There are lots of little bridges all over town to cross over pipelines, and electrical conduit.  Apparently there have been some creative welders on station over the years and you can find metal sculptures, such as this troll under the bridge, hidden all over town.

Troll under the bridge

There are a couple of different signs for McMurdo Station.  The first picture below is the original sign.  I brought along a t-shirt with the Greenwood zip code courtesy of my Sister In Law's t-shirt business, LOL by Kerri...give her a call if you need t-shirts made! (Shameless plug) The second sign is the newer of the two and in addition to the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) it also sports the National Science Foundation logo.  Both signs are at a point that overlooks Capt. Scotts' Discovery Hut and Vince's Cross, on Hut Point.  All distance is deceiving in Antarctica, In the picture of hut point below it looks like its just a short walk from town but it's actually about a mile hike.

McMurdo Sign, shirt by (Live Out Loud by Kerri) Greenwood Zip Code

Scotts Discovery Hut and Vinces Cross 

Derelict Junction is the epicenter of town.  It's the shuttle stop and if you work anywhere other than right in town, you will likely stand here to catch a ride to one of the ice runways or balloon launch areas.

D.J.

D.J. with Dorms in the Background

When you are at the bottom of the Earth with a medical emergency, where else do you go but McMurdo General Hospital.  If it's a life threatening emergency, chances are you will get medically evacuated by airplane but if that wasn't possible due to weather or other circumstances, you might find yourself in one of the 4 beds here.  The hospital is staffed with top notch physicians and medical professionals from private sector, NASA, and the Military.  There is an operating room, several exam rooms, a dental chair, and a hyperbaric chamber to deal with any divers who may have experienced decompression dive emergency.

McMurdo General Hospital

Building 155 is the very large blue building visible in several pictures.  It houses lots of different amenities under one very large roof.  This is the building where the dining facility is, it also contains the lodging office, recreation office, the store, craft room, civilian safety office, the radio studio (104.5 Ice Radio is on the air when people volunteer to DJ) and a computer lab.  There is one really long hallway that has been nicknamed "Interstate 1".  This is where the store is located as well as several offices.  It's also where the recreation board is and a place to check out recreation equipment.

A look down the main drag

Building 155, Dining Facility, Store, Dorms, Craft room, offices, radio station, etc...

Stairs to the dining area

Craft room and hallway in Bldg 155

Recycling bins in each building, notice how much things must be separated.

McMurdo Store

Interstate 1

The nasty bird below is called a Skua, it's basically a giant sea gull and they can be a little aggressive.  They like to hang out by the entrance to the dining facility and if you are carrying food, they will dive bomb you and try to knock the food out of your hands.

Skua hanging out by the entrance to the dining facility

View from the Chapel of the Snows looking up the main road

Just outside the recreation office is scrolling board of all things happening on McMurdo station.  As you can see, it was a Thursday when I took the photo and it looks like your choices for that day were to go to the bars, enter a Spelling Bee, play soccer in the gym, go to a study about Shackleton, hit up a yoga class or maybe do T25.  There are 3 gyms on station, the "Big gym" pictured below, the "Gerbil Gym" and the weight room. There were organized events a few times a week in the big gym such as dodgeball or volleyball and it was also used for events like the Halloween party.  The "Gerbil gym" was treadmills and elliptical machines and of course the weight room was free weights and also a large room where exercise and yoga classes were held. There was always something to do and I never found myself bored because of the board...see what I did there. ;-)

Recreation Board

"Big gym" with rock climbing wall

Continue walking past the big gym and you will find yourself transitioning to sea ice.  This is the way to the observation tube I posted about previously

The photo below is off the back stairs of my dorm building.  This is a view of hut point again but this time it gives you a better idea of how far it really is out to the discovery hut.  This photo also shows the ice pier.  Beginning in late December or early January, the US Coast Guard ship "Polar Star" will begin to break an 18 mile channel through the sea ice to allow a resupply vessel to come into McMurdo Sound and moor up next to this floating ice pier.  It will then spend several days offloading containers and then reloading with all the trash and recycle materials.  EVERYTHING gets hauled off the continent, food waste, paper, sometimes human waste, it ALL has to go, to be in compliance with the Antarctic Treaty.

Ice Pier

The National Science Foundation offices are in the building below referred to as the "Chalet"  The flags of all the Nations that signed the Antarctic Treaty fly outside this building and centered below them is a bust of Admiral Byrd who was a big supporter of exploring and furthering our knowledge of the 7th Continent.

NSF Chalet and Offices

Admiral Byrd

Welcome to Crary Lab!  This is where much of the science work goes on.  The field scientists will do work at various camps scattered around the Continent and then they may come back to the lab to finish working on the data or maybe bring specimens collected in the field to study in a controlled environment.  Crary is a three tiered lab that sprawls down the hillside, in the bottom tier, there are many different tanks and they have the ability to pump sea water directly into the lab.  They have a "Touch tank" should you be brave enough to want to handle any of the sea life such as star fish, sea lice, or sea spiders.  I passed on all that but it was cool to look at.

Front door to Crary

Crary Lab with Ob Hill in the background

third level of Crary

Touch Tank

 One of the first things I noticed about McMurdo Station was the Chapel of the Snows.  This is the third Chapel as the first two burned down.  The current chapel was built in 1988 and reminds me of a small country church.  There is a beautiful stained glass window at the back of the chapel and you have an unobstructed view of the mountain range across McMurdo Sound.

Chapel of the Snows

The Fire Station was always one of my favorite places to visit.  The fire crews and supervision were all awesome to work with.  

Station 1

There are three pubs on station that serve alcohol, there is also the option to use your alcohol ration and buy your own in the store if you choose.  Gallaghers had a dance floor, occasionally a group of folks would put a band together and play live music.  The Coffee House actually did serve coffee, but they also had wine for sale.  Once a week they would have board game night and people would get a group together and play games. The place I didn't get a photo of was Southern Exposure, it had a local pub kind of vibe with a shuffle board table and a pool table.  Me and a couple of maintenance folks did go in and play shuffle board one Friday night which was pretty fun.

Gallaghers Pub

Coffee House/Wine Bar

That's it for the quick tour of town.  IF you want to see what's going on there live, you can log on to https://www.usap.gov/ and view the cameras at McMurdo Station, South Pole, and Palmer Station as well as get information about the National Science Foundation.  In the next post, I'll take you on a trip 15 miles across the sea ice to Capt. Scotts Terra Nova Hut where we'll get our Delta vehicle stuck in the snow on the return trip. Stay tuned!