McMurdo a little city of 1,500 people (there are about 200 hundred people there during the winter - Feb. thru October). There is much to do here at McMurdo: bowling, cross-country skiiing, hiking, drinking, etc.
Quick Tips:
There is 24 hour daylight during the summer months, so bring your sunscreen and sunglasses. Sandals actually are nice addition for inside the dorm rooms.
Best Way To Get Around:
We flew into McMurdo Station by airplane from Christchurch (airfare to New Zealand included in the contract), a C-5 Galaxy that landed on 5 feet of frozen sea ice. This sea ice melted away which brought in resupply vessels. There are many different types of land vehicles that run between some sights. Walking is the best choice however, although it turns into a run if a cold wind starts to nip at you.
Everyone has to share it with a roommate. The old-timers (like myself)get to stay in the suite-style dorms. We share a bathroom with a neighbor. Every other dorm shares a bathroom for each floor. So sometimes there is a wait for the shower, and it is a long walk in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.
Each room has a mini-fridge, telephone, two beds, two desks, and two closets. You can only call out and no one can call you from home. A phone card is necessary to call out also and can be purchased at the store. Sometimes it is hard to get line out to call home, especially during the holidays.
Believe it or not, sometimes the rooms get too hot and you'll have to open the window to cool down. Since it is 24 hour daylight, we make a velcro curtains to block out the sun during the "night." The rooms are of a good size and comparable to any college dorm room, probably even better.
Each dorm is equipped with a communal television and VCR. Their are four stations: a couple of Armed Forces channels, a local movie channel, and a weather channel. There is also usually a ping pong table or foosball table. And some dorms even have a pool table. The bigger dorms have one sauna in them.
Hotel California is a small dorm and bunkhouse for people going or coming into McMurdo Station. It has been used in the past for permanent residence. You don't want to get stuck there because the rooms are very small.
Food is provided for you as well down on "the ice." The main building houses the cafeteria. There is the main dining hall and a side dining hall that provides less, but is good if the line is long in the other. The food is surprisingly good. There is always an abundance of choices and usually there is something one can find. There are vegetarian selections as well. Steaks, ham, chicken and many other foods are available on different occasions. However, rare is a shipment of "freshies," fresh vegetables and fruits flown from New Zealand.
During the lunch hour there is a sandwich deli that serves a variety of sandwiches how you please if you get tired of the cafeteria-style food. The killer junk food is the abundance of soft serve ice cream that is available all the time. Not very fair to do to someone who has weakness for ice cream.
Thanksgiving was wonderful and they smoked grilled turkeys all day. The stuffing was wonderful, a corn bread based substance that was to die for. Christmas also really was special with many of the traditional choices and also Antarctic cod, 100 pound, 4 foot long cod that live in the sub-zero temperatures of Antarctica. They were killed during research and then served to us. Kind of a greasy fish.
One thing is for sure, you will not go hungry in Antarctica.
Thank goodness for bowling. McMurdo Station runs one the oldest bowling alleys in the world. Certainly, the oldest active one in which the pins are dropped into a setting machine and lined up manually. The rumor is that the Smithsonian wants the two lanes to put in the museum.
McMurdo Lanes consists of two warped lanes. It takes awhile to get used to because the bowling ball will often follow the course of the worn grooves, but great fun can be had after getting used to it. Bowling shoes and balls are provided. There is no electronic scoring so someone actually needs to know how to add up the pins. Even beer is available, the cheapest being two year old Miller for 50 cents a can. It gets a little crowded, however, after ten people are in there. Even though the pins are set manually, they are set surprisingly fast by the poor guy back there working hard to throw them in the setter. He gets some extra cash for spending his nights there setting the pins up.
A bowling league starts soon after summer season starts. Your quality of bowling is not important. Everyone is there to have fun. Bowling in Antarctica is one of the funniest things I've done on the ice.
Happy Camper's School is meant as a two day training program for people going to field camps. However, if there is room, residents of McMurdo may get chance to spend two days learning the in-and-outs of Antarctican survival.
After a couple of hours of nice photos of frostbitten hands and warnings of the danger of Antarctica, you are driven out to Ross Ice Shelf by your teachers. The campsite is located past Scott's Base. There is an excellent view of both Mt. Erebus and the Ross Ice Shelf. Mt. Erebus is majestic and beautiful. The Ross Ice Shelf is a flat nothingness that extends for hundred of miles. Just white and flat.
We spent half the day building a snowmound, a basic igloo. We put our bags in a pile, put a tarp over the pile, and then shoveled snow on top. We then dug under the pile and pulled the bags out, creating a easy-made igloo. You have to slip underneath and then rise up to the flat area inside. It is about 10F to 15F degrees warmer inside the snow mound and it protects you from the wind.
If you can handle the cold, I recommend trying to go to Happy Campers' School. It gives you a feel for how the early explorers must have felt and also a new admiration for those explorers.
McMurdo Station has one store that sells a variety of goods. There are all the everyday goods: tampons, junk food, toothpaste, cigerettes, etc. Also included is cases of beer and soda. There is a limited supply of souvenirs. Most available are t-shirts and sweatshirts. The t-shirts are often clever and funny, like fake beer companies called Southern Cross or Scott Stout. There are some nice sweatshirts as well. There are a few postcards available as well as some special occasion cards. Otherwise it is fairly limited for the souvenir hunter.
However, what we called the "mall" is only a mile away at Scott Base. Scott Base is the New Zealand base on the ice. There are about 20 or more people at this base about a mile away from McMurdo Station. Every Sunday, a shuttle bus runs regularly between both bases. Inside Scott Base is a small giftshop the size of shoebox. But there are many more souvenirs available here. There are some books on the region, Christmas cards, patches, pins, etc. All the regular stuff you expect from a tourist area. So this part of Antarctica still provides an opportunity to consume and purchase.
Just outside of McMurdo Station is the Castle Rock Loop that is available to hikers and cross country skiers. The beginning of the trail is near the golf ball, behind the storage yard. Follow the red flags along the trail. It is important to follow the flags. If you stray off trail, you may end up in a crevasse. Black flags mark danger areas so don't get too near them. And yellow flags mark where it is possible to go to the bathroom.
There are apples or tomatos along the route that are available for shelter in case bad weather moves on which happens quite quickly in Antarctica. It is important to check out at the fire station before you go so they know where you are (and important to check back in when you return so they don't send out the rescue unit).
Half way through the loop is Castle Rock, a beautiful and huge piece of stone sticking majestically out of the flat white nothingness. It is a 20 minute scramble to the top of the rock. From the top are gorgeous views of the mountains and also Mt. Erebus, the active volcano that sits on Ross Island. Small plumes of smoke rise out of the beautifully sloped mountain. I have never heard silence like I have on top of Castle Rock. No trees blowing or animals calling out. Not even the wind itself. Absolute silence. I make the trip often and it's one of my favorite places here.
The loop then circles down to Scott Base. If you are tired, it is possible to catch a bus back home from this point. All together, it is wonderful hike. Not too challenging, but long and beautiful.
The Ice Cave and Scott's Hut tour......This is the best thing I ever did in Antarctica. Everyone should do it that gets an opportunity to go here.
It is not exactly a bus that takes you out there, but a huge, orange all-terrain vehicle with six-foot tires and a van back. The top speed is about 15 miles an hour. And it is cold in the back, so bring all your extreme cold weather gear. It takes about an hour to reach Scott's Hut, so be prepared for a long bumpy ride.
Scott's Hut was built in 1911 by Robert Falcon Scott, the British explorer. He was trying to be the first to reach the South Pole, but was beaten by Roald Amundsen. And to add insult to injury, he and four others died on their way back. Scott's Hut was home to the crew that stayed behind for a couple of years. The wooden structure sits calmly on the island and remains the same since it was built. Inside, everything remains literally frozen in time. There are still cans of food on the shelves and the beds are still made. Slabs of seal fat lay frozen next to the building.
Part of the structure includes the stables where the Mongolian horses were kept. The horses were meant to take them to the pole but proved useless in the environment. The stables still smell of them. There is great sense of wonder at how these early explorers survived and lived in such an environment in what is basically a wooden shack. The sight of the hut offers great views of Mt. Erebus also. And if you are lucky, a Wedell seal will be sunbathing on the ice. They are monstrous animals and beautiful to look at.
After Scott's Hut are the ice caves. They are on the side of a glacier and often opened up by a chainsaw. You have to climb down a ladder inside the cave which is small but gorgeous. The light is refracted which makes the cave an eerie, rich blue. Huge icicles come down as well as intricate patterns of ice form on the walls and floor. If you hit the certain parts of the walls just right, they make sounds like a steal drum.
I was there directly after a new room opened up from the shifting ice and I climbed and slid into room where no natural light was allowed in. My red clothing turned almost purple and our faces dark and blueish. When I moved quickly, red tracers seemed to follow my hand movements. It is one of the most surreal moments of my life.
Both attractions are incredible experiences and will invade your dreams for years to come.
There are three places to get a drink at McMurdo. The first place is the Southern Exposure. This is the smallest of the three bars. It is also the smoking bar. Because of the size and the smoking, there is often think haze inside the bar. Drinks range from beer to shots to mixed drinks. Prices are cheap. A shot is no more than two dollars. The beer is old and not that great. No taps. Old Miller runs for 50 cents a can. Canterbury Draft (from New Zealand) is more expensive and fresher. Bottles of Samuel Adams are available also. There is always some loud music going and darts are available to play.
Gallagher's is the second bar and is also non-smoking. The bar is named after a man who died on the ice of a heartache. It is big and quite populated every night. The drinks are the same as well as the prices. There is more floor space, so there is often dancing. Many events are held here also, like bingo night, swing night and karaoke night. There is a foosball table available also. Dollar bills decorated with writing line the interior, oherwise the decorating is sparse.
The third place of drink is a coffeehouse/wine bar. A glass of wine is always available for around three dollars. A cheese plate is also available. There is a ping pong table for fun. Poetry readings are held here as well as other artistic events. The coffeehouse is quiet and a good place to relax.
A town the size of McMurdo definitely offers an assortment of bars to visit and unwind in.
And that's pretty much my mini-tour of it's like here in Anarctica. It's not as hostile as some may think, but then again it's not tame either. If you ever get the chance to work down here I'd jump at it for just the experience of saying you have lived and worked at the South Pole.
