When we left McMurdo it was a fairly overcast day. We returned to Pegasus Field (the same airstrip on which we arrived on the C-17) and boarded a C-130 Hercules to fly to the pole.

Three C-130’s side-by-side at the airfield. They are the only heavy-lift aircraft equipped with skis in the world and they are operated by the New York Air National Guard.

The C-130 as we boarded the plane.

Soon after we took off I saw something in the snow from the window and I took a photograph of it. When I zoomed in on the photo I discovered that it was a crashed plane!

“The Pegasus” wreck (in upper left part of the photo) from the air.

It turns out that what I had photographed was “The Pegasus.” “The Pegasus” was a C-121 Lockheed Constellation aircraft which crashed on Oct 8, 1970 in horrendous weather. None of the 80 people on board were injured. The plane had passed the “PSR” (“Point of Safe Return”). Many of the planes which fly from New Zealand to McMurdo do not have enough fuel to get back to New Zealand if they cannot land at McMurdo, so a decision gets made mid-flight whether or not it is safe to proceed to McMurdo. Because the weather in McMurdo is so changeable, “boomerangs” back to New Zealand are quite common. I have actually boomeranged twice in my six trips to Antarctica. In fact, once we must have come close to passing the “PSR” because we ended up having to land in Dunedin (on the southern tip of New Zealand), since we did not have enough fuel to safely get back to the more northern Christchurch airport.

And that’s how the ice runway being used at McMurdo is called “Pegasus”, named in honor of this crashed plane.

A close-up of the Pegasus wreck. Photo courtesy of sandwichgirl.

Another view of the wreck. Photo courtesy of sandwichgirl.

For more on the plane and its story, click here.

As we flew onward, I took a photograph of a GPS. It is roughly a 3-hour flight, and as you can see, we were indeed headed southwards.

The weather at the South Pole was great. Having just arrived, here I am (in the middle) with colleagues, some who are leaving and others who are arriving.

Soon after I arrived, I took this photograph of a spectacular sundog (caused by ice crystals in the air). You can see part of the “parhelion” (the horizontal line), which was particularly bright on this day.

As you can tell, it can be an adventure getting to the pole. For me, everything went on schedule, and it still took a week! Now it’s been several days since I arrived, and the weather in McMurdo has been pretty bad of late. A C-17 boomeranged from Christchurch to McMurdo a couple of days ago, and additional attempts yesterday and today have had to be canceled due to weather. The flights from McMurdo to the South Pole have also had to be canceled due to weather – they have been trying hard to get a flight to pole because there is a person here who got sick and they need to do an emergency medical evacuation but they have so far been unable to. It looks like a plane just took off again headed this way, so I hope the folks waiting to leave will get out of here tonight. Currently IceCube has close to 10 people trying to fly to Antarctica from New Zealand, and close to 10 people trying to get to New Zealand from either McMurdo or the South Pole.

Enter the past:  The DC-3, or C-47 military variant, is intermediate in size and range between the Hercules and Twin Otter, and is one of the few types of aircraft that can be fitted with skis.  The first plane to land at the south pole was a C-47.  However, all of the existing airframes are very old and not suitable for sustained operations of the type we need for scientific exploration.  Fortunately, a company in Wisconsin gives these airplanes a second life by completely restoring them from the bare frame, adding more powerful and safe turbine engines, new electrical and fuel systems, flight instruments, you name it.  They even lengthen the fuselage by over a meter.  The airplanes are essentially new when they roll out of the facility.

The LC-130 Hercules (left) and C-47 (right).

Our project saw the need for such an aircraft and undertook the modification of one to conduct long-range airborne surveys in Antarctica and Greenland.  Last season in Antarctica we proved its capability by surveying a vast, largely unknown part of East Antarctica using fuel and facilities at the coastal stations of McMurdo (US), Casey (Australia), and Dumont d’Urville (France).  We made two stops at Concordia Station (French/Italian) in the interior and obtained about two dozen barrels of fuel there, but that was the only interior resource we used.  We were also able to pack up and move ourselves between these stations while conducting surveys along the way.  This is a first, and has opened the door to a new era of Antarctic exploration.

I have included some video of our unique aircraft and team members in action.  In the next installment I’ll explain a bit about radar and show you some data that we’ve acquired here, since that provides the first and best picture of what is below the ice.  Stay tuned.

In the 1970’s, an international effort to fly ice-penetrating radar over Antarctica resulted in the first rough maps of the sub-ice world.  A ski-equipped Navy LC-130 Hercules was outfitted with radar and flown for long distances.  This reconnaissance was invaluable, but the program went by the wayside after the specially modified airplane crashed doing other work.  The concept was largely put aside until the early 1990’s when glaciologists and geologists got together and tried again.  By this point, it was clear to some that critical additional information could be obtained by including other measurements, namely gravity and magnetics to help understand the geology beneath.  Incredibly, the scientists stuffed all these instruments and a laser altimeter (we didn’t have satellite laser altimeters then) into a much smaller aircraft, a deHavilland Twin Otter.  The Otter is much cheaper to operate and supportable at temporary field camps, so it was perfect for high-resolution studies of specific problems.  

A ski-equipped LC-130 Hercules with jet assisted takeoff (JATO).

Field camps were built each season and LC-130’s delivered fuel for the Twin Otter to use.  This went on until 2001 and then again in the 2004-05 season, and many discoveries were made; however, the Twin Otter just can’t reach the deep interior without heavy support, and this has become very expensive.  Such resources are also very limited.  LC-130’s are very costly to operate, are much larger than needed for this type of work, and require a huge ground crew to support.

The Twin Otter.

The Twin Otter flying over Thwaites Glacier Remote Field Camp.

Having outstripped the capacity of Twin Otters, what next? In my next dispatch, I’ll tell you about what might seem an unlikely platform for Antarctica research: a twin engine aircraft that first saw action during World War II.

Enjoy this video about the process, including the take-off of a C-130 full of ice from WAIS Divide.

In all, we are having no trouble staying busy! Next up, getting the core processing line set-up for the new ice cores that we will begin drilling next week!

The previous winter-overs running the Atmospheric Research Observatory, LTJG Marc Weekley and engineer Patrick Cullis (aka Cully), were there to greet me at the ski-way, and help me with my bags. Winter-overs are people who stay on station for the 8-9 long months in which there are no flights into or out of the Pole. Temperatures are just too cold during this period for flights. Many winter-overs like Marc and Cully spend the S. Hemispheric summer months here as well making it a full year. After a few days of turnover with Marc and Cully (who were extremely patient and helpful for having just spent a winter in isolation), I was able to catch up with Marc for an interview on his thoughts, feelings and advice on spending a year at the South Pole.

Photos courtesy of:

Patrick Cullis, all aurora shots
Brian Vasel, the tower with low sun
Emrys Hall, view of ARO from tower
ME, the plain looking shot of the tower

In Kanger, Kaitlin got an excellent introduction to Greenland—we caught a ride with the NEEM camp manager up to the edge of the ice sheet. The area we went to was Russell Glacier, one of my favorite spots. There, a 40 foot wall of ice calves off into the Watson River below. Volkswagen-sized ice chunks churn in the silty water and are carried down the river. Since it is July, the glacier is calving all the time, and the river is flowing fast.

Vas Petrenko hikes near Russell Glacier.

Tunnel of ice near Russell Glacier.

On the way back into town from the glacier, we saw two musk oxen close to the road. The flowers are in bloom, and Greenland really is green for a bit. It’s a great introduction to Greenland for Kaitlin’s first day.

Musk ox near ice edge.

It seems we will now be delayed in Kanger for a bit before we can fly up to camp…not due to storms, but due to the temperatures being too warm! When the snow gets warm enough (it’s -5 deg C or 23 deg F up at camp…really, really warm for polar work) the Hercules aircraft (ski-equipped LC-130’s) we fly in have a hard time getting enough speed to take off on the skiway, or snow runway, up at camp. Sometimes, this means the pilots have to use JATO (Jet Assisted Take-Off), which is basically rockets attached to the side of the plane which are fired to give the plane extra lift. We’ll see if that’s what it takes for the plane to take off at NEEM!

Greenland is green! Flowers near Lake Ferguson in Kangerlussuaq.

Getting on the LC-130.

In addition to carrying people back and forth these planes also carry equipment, food and fuel for the South Pole Station (and waste the other way). Over 200 LC-130 flights are made to the pole each year, and a plane will typically have approximately 2,000 pounds of fuel syphoned off from it after it lands – this is what the South Pole generators run on, and they need several hundred thousand pounds of fuel to make it through the winter.

A 15,000 lb IceCube surface-to-DOM cable aboard our LC-130.

Flying with me was a 15,000 lb IceCube Surface-to-DOM cable. We need one of these for each of our deployments/strings (we are hoping to do at least 14 deployments this season). IceCube is a pretty massive project, and requires many cargo flights of fuel and equipment in order to succeed.

During the flight to the pole over the Transantarctic Mountains, I saw some really neat cloud formations. They are called “altocumulus standing lenticular clouds.” I was told that they are fairly common in mountainous areas. I thought they were pretty spectacular!

Altocumulus standing lenticular clouds over the Transantarctic Mountains.

Altocumulus standing lenticular clouds often form on the lee side of mountain ranges as moisture condenses at the crest of a standing wave in air currents.

This first movie is a pan around the cargo hold just after we boarded the jet while we were settling in for our journey. You’ll see Lisa (waving), then Mary. The guy in the Orange shirt waving at the camera is Ralph Harvey, who collects meteorites on the ice. Though we didn’t know him at the time, you can find him featured in our webcasts.

This second movie is our arrival and debarking from the jet into the blinding whiteness of Antarctica. All people on the jet are required to wear extreme cold weather (ECW) gear. The C-17 looks bigger from the outside!