At the top of Observation Hill

I’ve gotten out and done a little hiking up Observation Hill, and Hut Point. Observation Hill provided some great views of the scenery around McMurdo including Mt Erebus and Mt Discovery.

Sun shining on Mt Erebus

There was also a cross at the top erected by Capt Scott’s rescue team after finding the remaining men of the expedition frozen in a tent only about 10 mi south of one of their placed food and fuel depots.

Cross dedicated to Capt. Scott

Down at Hut Point, I was able to go inside the Discovery Hut which was one of their staging areas during the winter. It was extremely well preserved because there really is nothing down here to eat away at the wood structure. It’s just too cold. Inside there where tons of crates of biscuits for, some seal carcasses, and a lot of other supplies labeled for “Capt Scott’s Antarctic Expedition.” Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of the inside because I left my memory card for my camera in my laptop (oops).

Discovery Hut

There is one more trail I would like to do before I go but I might save it for another time. There is a Castle Rock loop trail that is suppose to be very good but not all of it is open yet and it is a little more extensive hike. I have already dragged my checked bags up to cargo so all I have is a carry on as I wait for my flight. Otherwise, there is not a whole lot for me to do here during the day. I’m ready to get to the Pole, settle in and start working.

If you didn’t know, the JOIDES Resolution takes her name from the HMS Resolution. The HMS Resolution was a sloop in the British Royal Navy and the ship which Captain James Cook commanded on his second and third voyages. July 13th marks the 237th anniversary of the beginning of her second voyage under his command. But the HMS Resolution carried only 112 people, while the JOIDES Resolution is carrying 126! Okay, we’ll ignore the fact that the JR is more than 4 times the size of her namesake, and we travel in far more comfort and safety than Cook probably could have imagined.

The HMS Resolution (1771-1782), James Cook’s ship, watercolour by midshipman Henry Roberts.

The important point to note is that both ships were on missions of exploration, and were filled with volunteers willing to travel great lengths to forward the cause of scientific understanding. Another more meaningful difference is that Cook’s second voyage took him to the Antarctic, while ours takes us to the Bering Sea. It is difficult to say what information this trip may yield, but it promises to be great, and will fill a void in our current understanding of global climate change.

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So what have you been up to, you might ask?
Over the past few days the scientists on board the JR have continued preparing their sampling plans. Think of it as a trip to the store with 30 or so shoppers, purchasing goods for one home. You don’t want everyone to pile up in aisle three looking for toothpaste. We need to share resources, effort and eventually results.

We’ve also been prepping for some of the data collection. I’ve helped clean up cut syringes, prepare rhizones for pore water sampling and various other tasks that are all intended to make things run smoothly when we first have cores to look at.

I’ve also been learning the ins and outs of the video conferencing abilities of the JR. I should be able to contact my classes back in Austell, Georgia, in a few weeks. I look forward to telling them what I am up to, and letting them know I expect them to do some serious work while I am gone! Well, I guess that’s enough for now. I’ll be back soon with more. We should hit our first drilling site some time around 6:00pm local time tomorrow, July 16th. And then the fun really begins. Talk to you soon!

The members of the Shackleton Centenary Expedition will be retracing the same route to the South Pole as the Nimrod Expedition in 1907-09. This will be a 900-mile long overland traverse over 80 days on skis and towing sledges, each weighing 150 lbs. The team members include leader Henry Worsley (in search of a link with Frank Worsley, Shackleton’s skipper on the Endurance), Will Gow, and Henry Adams (both great-grandsons of Jameson Boyd Adams).

Expedition members Worsley, Adams, and Gow from left to right. Worsley is holding a compass originally owned by Shackleton that was used on the Nimrod Expedition.

The team arrived at Hut Point, located just outside of McMurdo, mid-morning of day three of their journey. Their trip started at Shackleton’s Hut at Cape Royds on Ross Island. There was no formal presentation or speeches, just a short meet-and-greet to answer questions and to have the opportunity to wish them well on their long journey. Today, after all, will be their last physical human contact until they reach the point at which the original Shackleton expedition was forced to turn around, the Furthest Southerly Point. There, they will be joined by Patrick Bergel (great-grandson of Shackleton) and Tim Fright (great-great-nephew of Frank Wild) where they will continue to the South Pole and complete what the original Shackleton expedition was unable to do.

Worsley’s 150 lb. sledge that he will be towing across the continent.

One piece of information I found interesting was their daily caloric balance. Worsley estimated that they would each lose “about 1.5 stones”, or 21 pounds, along the journey. They will be burning 8000 calories a day, and they plan to take in 6000 calories a day. If you consider that the nutritional labels on all of our food are based on a typical 2000-calorie-a-day diet, that’s a lot of energy!

And now for a short history lesson to help put all of this in perspective. On August 3, 1907 Shackleton set sail for Antarctica aboard the Nimrod in hopes of making it to the then unclaimed South Pole. After spending the winter in huts on Ross Island, a four-man team that included Ernest Shackleton, Frank Wild, Eric Marshall, and Jameson Boyd Adams set off for the South Pole with four Manchurian ponies pulling sledges. By the time they had crossed Beardmore Glacier (a 140-mile long glacier named by Shackleton), they had already lost all four of the ponies and were pulling the sledges themselves. On January 9, 1909, due to exhaustion, food shortage, and weather, Shackleton made the decision to turn back, only 97 miles short of the Pole. Although they had not made it to the Pole, they had traveled further south than any other explorer, and this point came to be known as the Furthest Southerly Point. All four men successfully rejoined the rest of the Nimrod party on March 4, 1909 at Hut Point. Shackleton never reached the South Pole. A Norwegian explorer, Roald Amundsen, was the first to reach the Pole in 1911.

Worsley heading away from Hut Point.

You can follow along with the expedition as they travel to the South Pole at http://shackletoncentenary.org/. We wish them the best of luck on their journey!

Expedition members head south away from Hut Point and head across the Ross Ice Shelf.