This is me in the cab of the Al-Jon metal baler. It's so fun, I got to do it 4 times this season! A whole dumpster full of metal, including drums and tanks gets crushed into the size of a suitcase.
Minkie whales in front of Scott Base. A huge whale season since it was so hot and so much of the ice melted out. The girls and I walked to Scott Base and saw fifty of them just swimming around out front.
Boat ops was fun, but long hours. We pulled and removed spill containment boom around the Coast Guard ship when they took fuel, and the fuel tanker the Maersk Peary when they offloaded fuel to station.
The tanker ship from our little Spill Response boat.
My coworkers Paul, Kate and I got to take a fun trip out to "Room With a View" which is up towards Erebus with a great view of the mountains across the way. We all went in costumes and I really love these two. Paul is actually wintering.
We rode two per machine on our trip and I was lucky to have Larry Fabulous as my guy. He had never ridden on a snowmobile and was nervous, and I had and just wanted to ride with someone funny and kind.
Dream trips: I went out twice for further training on operating these tractors. Last season I operated the Caterpillars more than the Cases, so on this trip I hauled a generator out a few miles.
The day before I flew out was a day off so I was able to pack super hurriedly so that I could go out for the afternoon and train more on the tractors. That day I hauled a bunch of fuel tanks and fuel hose reels. I kept joking that I should get the operator's pay since I was doing all his work and that in the least he owed me 5 hours of pay in chocolate.
This is my last day, on our way to the airplane in front of our ride to the airfield: Ivan the Terrabus.
This was an action shot from our Christmas Acoustic Show at the Waste Barn, where we enacted the whole Nutcracker in between live bands. This was me as one of the rats during the Rat King and Prince fight scene with the soldiers.
This was the most violent storm I'd seen in 10 years, made worse by the moat between the pier and land being completely thawed out and waves being able to break like this.
Icestock 2014, our New Year's celebration. I think this was the 25th. It's Kevin (wearing pants that I made for him!!!! James, my boss, and Kate my coworker on stage. Amazing band!)
Travis, my coworker, and I dressed up for the Acoustic Christmas Show bit where we ballet danced the Russian Dance. We called ourselves Svetlana & Boris, and sent this picture out to field camps as our Christmas Card.
I ran my first race ever, and the first time running outdoors in Antarctica ever...the Antarctic Half Marathon, over the ice road which was grooved and slick, in 2 hours and 22 minutes! And made it back in time for brunch, which was my only goal.
More storm and supply ship pictures. It was a huge storm. Dave I sent you this one.
Another storm and wave photo. Dave will appreciate the size of that wave near the Tower of Power.
This is an audience photo from our Waste Barn Acoustic Christmas Show, and the only picture I have of my amazing roommate Sparky, up front in the purple/pink hat. LOVE that girl! This pic is for Dave who can recognise a lot of our friends in this shot. :)
My Dry Valleys trip in a helicopter to clean out old fuel barrels (thirty some) from a field camp.
Back on the Spill Response team.
This is how you make a tutu our of trash, with a glue gun.
My awesome help pilot Kareem.
On our way to Lake Bonney.
Blood falls from the helicopter.
Me hooking the nets of drums onto the bottom of the helicopter so it could be flown out.
A large ventifact near Lake Bonney.
Only 1% of Antarctica is not covered by snow and ice, and most of that is here in the Dry Valleys.
Ventifacts are rocks shaped by the wind.
Glacier near Lake Hoare from the helicopter.
My coworkers Travis, Anne and Quinn at New Years. We flash mobbed Ice Stock by ballet dancing through the crowd during one of the songs. Getting some use out of those tutus.
An incredibly fun and fast season, which felt non-stop, not just at work but after hours. Training four days a week for the marathon with one hour runs and keeping up with all the shows we put on and all the craft projects and mini-movies that we made. It flew by this season for sure. I'm in New Zealand right now visiting my beautiful family and headed back to the USA on March 1st to see Dave. Love you very much, Ildiko.
