EPS in Antarctica: Day Trippers

11 Dec - Arena Valley

We took another helicopter jaunt today – this time to Arena Valley. The flight took us south, over the Taylor Glacier, and up to the top of the valley, from where we could also see the Ferrar Glacier. After taking a few samples at the top of the valley, we spent the rest of the day walking down, stopping occasionally to take more samples. Around lunch we passed through a layer which contained a lot of features called concretions – these things erode differently than the sandstone around them making all sorts of circle shapes – bowls, plates, contact lens cases, googly eyes, and even a sarcophagus.
In our helo ride home we had two surprises – our GPS/LiDAR friend Marianne happened to be riding back to McMurdo after a couple days in the field, and we stopped at a fuel cache on the way to top up the tank. Large 55-gallon drums were deposited on a good landing site on the Taylor glacier and now helicopters don’t have to go way off course to fuel up.

12 Dec – Linnaeus Terrace

Today was another daytrip, but this time by foot. A couple miles away from camp is an area called Linnaeus Terrace, a region defined as an “Antarctic Specially Protected Area.” So, we had to get a special permit to be there. It is protected because some scientists spent a long time studying endolithic microorganisms there (although the bugs are all over the Dry Valleys – there happen to be a ton on the boulder overlooking our camp) – we saw some of the colonies where life takes hold just under a rock’s surface.
We were there to photo-document some long-term erosion experiments as well as take some samples of our own. To take the photos though, Robert had to climb up on what must be Antarctica’s, if not the world’s, largest step ladder – 15 feet of aluminum which we had to find cached on the ground somewhere in the area. It was a great day full of hiking and a good opportunity to get more views of the Wright Valley Area. However, as the day progressed our sunlight disappeared; for the first time we have low clouds and a very tiny bit of snow falling in Sessrumir Valley.

13 December – Winter Wonderland

What was a very tiny bit of snow last night turned into a couple inches overnight. When we woke up it was still snowing – and it continued off and on throughout the entire day. We seemed to be on the edge of the weather, as between snow showers we had nice bright sun (which melted/sublimated some snow) and views of some pretty impressive clouds down the valley. Visibility wasn’t good (we could see neither distant land features nor the rocks beneath us) and we wanted to finally use the pancake mix and bacon in our food supply, so today became our first rest day in a while. We got some chores and some cleaning done around camp, did some of our own personal work, and had fun cooking, too. Besides frying pan pizzas for lunch (thanks Jenny!) we baked brownies for dessert. The night finished up with a long session of playing cards and a little bit more snow.

14 December:

Today was (assuming the weather’s good tomorrow) our last full day in Sessrumir Valley and so we spent most of the day packing up the non-essentials, taking a few last samples, and entering a lot of our data into the computers (just in case). Rob, Allen, and I made a brief excursion down valley to pick up some samples we had left behind in a cache and had to spend a few minutes pulling them out of the snow and brushing them off before we stuffed them in our packs. We were even able to call our families (hi families!) back at home via our Iridium phone, which made the States seem a lot closer than half a world away.
Tomorrow we’ll have to get up a bit earlier than usual in order to take down our tents and pack up what’s left before the helicopter comes to take us across the Wright Valley to the Olympus Range where we’ll have another camp and continue our work.

Here’s the Ferrar Glacier as viewed from the top of Arena Valley.