Antarctica Trip (2006): McMurdo Life

After arriving at McMurdo, we traveled on Ivan "the Terrabus" (pictured left) and others traveled on the "Deltas" (pictured right).

Upon our arrival to McMurdo (a.k.a. "Town"), we received our inbrief in the Galley during dinner. We got our high level overview of things, got our room key, and headed off to our room. It is a barracks style room with lockers and we were lucky that we had four to a room. The room could have fit five or six. The picture here shows my bunk (it's the one at the bottom) along with my "big red" jacket.

Two things that immediately caught my attention about life at McMurdo. One was a sign posted outside of the store outlining the daily quota for alcohol purchases. The other was a sign in the bathroom talking about...well, you can read. We walked by the recycling area where everything was divided out: food waste, burnables, construction material, plastic, glass, clothing, etc. At that moment, it became readily apparent that recycling, space, power, and water had to be greatly conserved.

The next day, we received a walking tour of McMurdo by our kind hosts from Raytheon Polar. We saw the Crary labs where we got the opportunity to look at the touch tank and get a briefing about some of the science projects that were ongoing.

McMurdo has a gym, bowling alley, movie theater, three bars, a church, a library, and many other amenities. Life there is not that harsh and people really make the best of it. We found that everyone we met was very friendly. McMurdo Station supports approximately 1000 people (scientists and contractors that support the infrastructure). Since it was December, it was the beginning of summer in the southern hemisphere. Walking outside late at night with the sun brightly shining is an experience that takes some getting used to when living there.

McMurdo is continuously under construction of some kind and there are a number of vehicles specific to that base due to the climate and terrain.

We had an opportunity to tour Scott's hut located at McMurdo base. The British explorer, Robert Scott, journeye to the South Pole in the early 1900s. He established a base here at what is now McMurdo. Scott and his party left a hut here stocked with goods in 1904 and it is well preserved due to the climate.

One of the biggest and easiest things to do at McMurdo is go on hikes. One thing we found after our short tenure there, there is no real privacy and hiking offers folks a chance to get away. And, when you go on a hike, you get out and get a chance to see more of Ross Island away from town. Most of the trails/routes require that you go with another person, but it's better than nothing. And, you get some breathtaking pictures as seen below.

Mt. Erebus from the Happy Camp location: