Marc Ankenbauer's 10+ year quest to jump in every named lake in Glacier and Waterton National Parks for charity.
168 lakes. Only 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ZERO LAKES LEFT!!!
-- Marc jumped into Fisher Cap Lake on Sunday September 8th, 2013 to complete his goal! --
Read about Marc and how this project started...

Return to McMurdo: Headed North

Life is filled with moments which you know can’t be lived again.

When you know that you’ve been living something special.

And, now you are leaving that special moment, never to return.

That’s life. It happens.

It makes us appreciate how precious and fleeting life is.

What is the phrase? “The only constant is change”.

Today I’m leaving the South Pole.

Now, I’m a reasonably well traveled guy.

But, if I’m playing life’s percentages “I will never be back here again”.

I’m still processing the fact that I got this chance once.

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I’m sure some of my ideologies and opinions need some work.

But, I try desperately to live life and the opportunities that come my way as if they won’t come again.

This is my way of appreciating the life I live.

It is very important to me to live the life I’ve been given to the fullest.

These are moments in a story that can only be read in a forward direction.

Today and every other day lead you to moments in which you won’t live again.

I try to eat life with as big of a spoon as I can find in the drawer.

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Anyway, I’m outta here and headed North.

I grabbed my bags and hauled them past a Christmas tree made of steel machine parts and a very odd Santa Claus.

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We packed our cargo on an Airforce pallet so a forklift can load it into the C130.

A few friends came out to wave us goodbye as we boarded the plane and took our seats.

As the C130 pulled off the ice and started flying north the station got smaller till there was nothing but a flat white horizon and a whining engine tearing us through the sky.

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The clouds were thick which made photographs less appealing than our flight to Pole.

Luckily I explained to the National Guard guy that when the Trans Antarctic Mountains finally popped up, I would love to take a few photos from the cockpit.

I fell asleep for a while finally getting a moment to relax.

I woke to the same guy telling me that the pilot would allow me in the cockpit for the landing.

I had to ask him to repeat himself, but I wasn’t going to ask three times.

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We were getting close to McMurdo when I climbed into the cockpit.

Black Island, White Island and Mt Discovery were all recognizable but from odd, unfamiliar angles.

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I was so excited that I think I took about three hundred photos.

I figured I would just keep clicking till they told me to sit down and strap in for the landing.

When I was about settled in, the pilot yelled “come back up here”.

I took my spot next next to the window again.

He took a fly over of the airstrip and banked hard into a 360 to line back up for the real landing.

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In short, he was showing off for me.

It WAS AMAZING!

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It was also all I could do to not fall over as I gripped hard onto a ceiling handle and tried to keep the camera taking steady video.

When the plane door opened up I was overcome by the smell of spring.

To me more accurate, it smelled like a warm sunny day of spring skiing.

It was undeniable.

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It had been 40 degrees in McMurdo for a couple weeks now and the snow out on the ice shelf was foot deep slop.

If I were skiing I would refer to it as mashed potatoes.

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While snow was melting like crazy, the mountains all around were still slathered in snow.

The snow pack is hundreds of feet thick so it doesn’t melt away it just becomes sloppy.

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At the South Pole there is no smells.

There is nothing to smell.

No plants, no animals, no water.

It took a while to realize why everything in the South Pole station was so clean.

But, there is nothing to make it dirty.

There is no dirt.

So I was overwhelmed by the scent of warm melting water and dirt.

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It smelled like taking a late afternoon spring walk around Missoula with Jess.

It smelled like a barbeque in a soggy spring backyard.

But, most of all it smelled like sitting on the front porch at the ski resort in April.

The days when you wish you could ski in shorts but you are not stupid enough to do it.

The days when you are baking in the sun with a pitcher of beer in front of you.

A couple great friends laughing and recounting the day.

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I COULD SMELL!!!

I was like Dewey Cox!

I wasn’t smell blind anymore!

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McMurdo had never seen a month of heat quite like this.

It was making an absolute mess of the snow road from Pegasus Airstrip to McMurdo.

What used to be a quick 45 minute drive has become almost a 2 hour endeavor.

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Vehicles with wheels couldn’t get traction and only ripped the road up.

There is a four mile section in which the bus had to be pulled on a “magic carpet”.

It’s the same industrial plastic sheeting that the Traverse pulls cargo across the continent on.

The huge Caterpillar tractor pulled us and another bus along like were on a toboggan.

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Eventually the road became solid again so our bus was able to make good time back to McMurdo.

A dorm room, a shower and a late night dinner awaited.

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The only Emperor Penguin that I’ve seen so far was standing on the side of the road.

Pretty drab sighting, but I’ll take it.

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I’m also overwhelmed by the site of liquid water.

I know that may sound strange.

However, when everything is frozen as far as you can see, a pool of bright blue water is pretty profound.

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I found myself staring at a seasonal drainage ditch on the side of the road.

It was running water and there was something guttural that made me smile and stare.

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McMurdo in general was a different place than I left two months ago.

Everything was dry and dusty like a country road in August.

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Doors to buildings are left open to get fresh air while the short nice weather window is spreading its joy.

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It’s great to just be able to go for walks again.

At the South Pole you don’t go outside unless you have to or you are going somewhere specific.

I’ve gone on a walk in gym shoes every day since I’ve been back to McMurdo.

I still need a coat, hat and gloves, but it is still Antarctica.

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Andy and I walked to Scott Base one evening to have a beer and check out the station.

We were still acclimatized to the 10,000’ elevation at South Pole.

It felt so great to walk at sea level!

I wondered around for hours taking pictures and enjoying the warm 35 degree weather.

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The sea ice heaves and cracks near the base which allows openings for Seals.

The melt ponds gleamed bright blue while the seals made periodic groaning noises.

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As I walked back I stared down at the massiveness of the Ross Ice Shelf.

Ivan the Terra Bus looked like a dot as it drove arrivals back from the airstrip to McMurdo.

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Observation Hill’s silhouette stood tall against the ice sheet.

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Hut Point has some open water and Adelie Penguins and Weddell Seals have been hanging out there.

They are far enough off that I don’t get great photos but it’s just amazing to be in their presence.

They tend to just stand or in the case of the seals, just lay there.

They don’t do a Happy Feet flash mob or anything.

I’m just excited that they are being penguins and seals in Antarctica.

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The open water leads into a huge crack that stretches far across the sea ice.

It is enormous but somehow still dwarfed by this expansive landscape.

There are clusters of seals along the length of the crack.

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Within a month there will be an Ice Breaker ship sent to open up the ice in the bay.

Shortly afterward the annual cargo ship arrives with a year worth of food and supplies.

The same ship leaves with all of the year’s garbage and the cargo being sent back to the United States.

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The other night I was standing at Hut Point watching the tide come in and out.

When I left for the South Pole the ice was covering all water and there was obviously no visible tide.

Now the rise and fall moves plates of sea ice up and down.

It’s hypnotic.

Maybe I’m just overwhelmed by what I’m a part of.

Well, I know I am.

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This has been one of the most profound experiences of my life.

I continue to walk around in total awe of the concept of where I am.

I may get used to the culture of the place or that there is a huge volcano directly across the sea ice.

The classic imagery of Antarctica is always in my face.

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Helicopters fly in and out against the mountainous backdrop on what seems like an hourly schedule.

There are few things more visually dramatic than that.

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While it’s all of these things that make it very apparent where I’m at.

It’s the fact of knowing how special and once in a life time this moment is.

I’ve been given the chance of a life time.

In return I hope I’ve given it the respect that it deserves.

I will be forever grateful for this opportunity.

I hope I’ve used a large enough spoon for the occasion.

To LIFE!

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Welcome to the South Pole – “Leaving on a C130”

As I write this I’m sitting inside the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.

In the morning I will be heading out to the first of our deep field AGO camps with my science group.

A week ago we left McMurdo Research Station to go to the South Pole.

That morning we hopped on another classically huge Antarctica vehicle and drove out to the Sea Ice airstrip.

This isn’t the one that drove us down there but I love these tank track pick up trucks.

Tank tracks with a Follow Me sign and a C130 in the background.

So, Very Antarctica!

The airstrip is dwarfed by the surrounding mountains and is filled with more unique vehicles and buildings.

This was the first time that I got to see a Twin Otter plane.

These are the smaller planes that will fly us from the South Pole to the AGO camps. 

There was a Twin Otter being unloaded when we pulled up to the airstrip.

Today’s flight was on a C130 being flown by the New York Air National Guard. 

C130’s are used as the cargo shipping work horses on Ice. 

They bring almost all the people to the South Pole, but also the cargo and mail shipments. 

Today’s chariot was “The Pride of Scotia”. 

When we boarded the plane the entire back end was filled with cargo. 

There was five crew members along with the 16 passengers. 

The pallets in the back contained the mail and a wide variety of South Pole supplies.

Until getting down to the Ice, I had never been on a plane other than a commercial airliner. 

The differences are dramatic. 

It’s all about function. 

Like this urinal. 

To urinate on a C130 you simply climb behind this curtain and lift a steel lid. 

There is no wasted space; you are doing your business literally feet from other passengers. 

Luckily everyone I met were really cool and we all just go along with the situation.

I love how many different people you meet on the Ice. 

They all have a story and often a really unique knowledge or skill.

Andy and Moses work for Thompson-Caterpillar out of California and are down here to rebuild the enormous generators that power the station. 

We also have to wear our ECW (Extreme Cold Weather) gear on the plane. 

The issue gear is the Big Red Parka, insulated Carhart overalls and huge Frankenstein boots. 

Get a load of these things!

But, they are super warm and very necessary.

The South Pole is as far from McMurdo as Minneapolis is from Dallas. 

When a flight is planned in Antarctica there is always a reasonable chance that it will get delayed. 

A commercial airplane in the States flies in all but the most dramatic weather conditions. 

With Antarctica flights, the benefit of the doubt is given to the weather. 

Flights around Antarctica are delayed and cancelled pretty often.

Obviously the weather is unpredictable and very harsh, so you never know what you will wake up to. 

The bigger issue is that if there is a problem there are no options between A and B.

If a plane needed to land elsewhere between Minneapolis and Dallas there are countless options. 

Down here there is nothing but thousands of miles of ice. 

The Transantarctic Mountains separate the continent into two halves. 

If they weren’t impossibly remote, this would be a mountaineering mecca.

This flight will provide me with the last mountainous terrain that I’ll see for a couple months. 

The perfectly flat Eastern Antarctic Plateau is where the South Pole and all of the AGO camps lie. 

Luckily for us, the pilots allowed us to climb into the cockpit to during the flight. 

It provided a chance to photograph the most intense landscape I’ve ever seen in my life. 

There are gargantuan rivers of ice flowing between all of the mountains.  

And, if these are rivers of ice, at one point they all flowed into the equivalent of the Amazon. 

Hardly any rocks poked out from the mountains.

Here and there you could see a cliff face or rocky ridge.

But, most of everything was just slathered in thousands of feet of ice. 

Profound! 

Absolutely Profound Landscape! 

After about three hours the mountains gave way to flat white. 

The same flat white that I’ll see every day for the next couple months. 

When we landed at the South Pole we were met by a group of employees as we exited the plane. 

We were led towards the new Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station which will be my home off and on for the next couple months.  

They expect us to not be ready for the temperature and altitude change. 

McMurdo is at sea level elevation and when we left it was 15 degrees Fahrenheit outside.

Three hours later we got out of a plane and it was -56.7 Fahrenheit with the wind chill. 

The South Pole is technically at 9300’ elevation. 

Since the poles have a lower barometric pressure than the rest of the planet your body feels the pressure of 10,410’. 

Maybe I’ll be able to explain that better by the end of my time here, but I just know it’s the case. 

That is a whole lot of change for the body to acclimate to in three hours. 

We were even issued Dexamethasone which is the same drug that high mountaineers take to combat high altitude cerebral edema or HACE. 

So, this is why the people are there to help you walk to the station. 

It’s time to start the physiological adaptation to the elevation. 

I’ve spent the last couple days just letting it soak in that I’m at THE SOUTH POLE! 

 

I’ve braved the cold a few times to visit the actual geographic South Pole. 

This metal marker is placed at the exact pole every New Years. 

It is moved every year because the ice sheet moves over the surface of the continent approximately 30’ a year. 

That doesn’t change where the actual pole is, so the marker has to be moved. 

Bizarre, huh? 

I’m sure that is just the beginning of the things that I’m going to learn about this extreme place. 

I’ll keep you informed as I learn more. 

 

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving where ever you were. 

I hope you were warm, happy and in good company. 

I know mine will be one to remember. 

To Life!

P.S.  If you have any questions, leave me some comments.  I’ll try and get you some replys when I get back from the field. 

Hut Point Ridge – Seal Blubber?

Vince’s Cross at Hut Point

McMurdo Research Station is on the very tip of Hut Point Peninsula on Ross Island.

It’s just off the coast of mainland Antarctica, but it’s attached to it by the Ross Ice Sheet.

So, I think if you are attached to a continent by a huge ice field, than you are part of the continent.

I’m sure some purists would disagree.  But hey, I’m not a geographer.

 

Countless explorers have made this spot their entry point to Antarctica.

It is basically as far south as you can take a ship before crashing into a large chunk of ice.

Robert Falcon Scott endeavored to be the first person to reach the South Pole in 1912.

Although he did make it to the pole, it didn’t work out well for him.

When I get to the South Pole, I’m sure I’ll elaborate.

Scott also led the Discovery Expedition to Antarctica eleven years earlier in 1901 to carry out scientific research and geographical exploration.

Before that trip more or less no one had really explored the continent.

For that trip they brought a prefabricated Australian hut.  They set it up on the very tip of Hut Point Peninsula and the Discovery Hut is still there.

It’s did tour the hut, but beforehand I hiked up Hut Point Ridge Trail which starts at the same spot as the hut.

Sunday is the only day employees have off, so windy or not…Sunday is hiking day.

I led my way up the ridge as the winds blew.

It was probably about 0 F but with 20 mile and hour winds I’m sure it was much colder.

It was cold but as long as you stayed bundled up and kept moving it was not too bad…

From above I saw the sea ice in McMurdo Bay starting to crumple up against the shore.

Later in the season there is supposedly penguins and seals hanging out.

Today, there was only crumply ice.

The Transantarctic Mountains create the far off landscape of McMurdo.

This section is called the Royal Society Range.  Pretty sweet name, huh?

As I crept further up the ridge I could see back down to the tip of the peninsula where the hut is.

I bumped into another employee and asked him to take my photo.

I felt bad; he had to take his mittens off, so we made it quick.

The ridge led directly into the wind?

It was such an amazing view I didn’t even care really.

But, it was wicked windy.

The trail eventually ends at a place called Arrival Heights.

From there you can’t continue unless you are part of a science group that has permission.

From here you get an absolutely amazing view of Mt. Erebus which is the southern most active volcano on earth.

It’s enormous and often has a little ripple of smoke coming out of the summit crater.

From here you get an amazing panorama of the entire area.

Mt. Erebus, the Ross Ice Sheet, The Royal Society Range, McMurdo Research Station…Jeez!!!

I could only handle being on top for a little while before the wind was just simply too much.

I followed the snow covered trail back to McMurdo.

Luckily I got back with ten minute left before dinner.  Great Day!!

McMurdo Station and Observation Point

A couple days later I got to go on the tour of Scotts Discovery Hut.

Since the weather is so cold and so dry, everything is preserved really well.

There is even a seal carcass outside of the hut that is in fine condition.  Odd…

Inside there are many of the original boxes and supplies that were left there from Scotts Expeditions.

Many of the boxes are even engraved by the manufacturer to say that they are for the expedition.

How’s that for custom production.

They brought dogs on some of the trips and there were even specially engraved boxes for the dog biscuits.

Both the human and the dog food were referred to as biscuits.

How would you like to live in a hut and eat these delicious looking morsels?

Kids, never complain about what mom and dad make for dinner.  K?

Actually Scotts Discovery Expedition did not stay in the hut.

It was simply too cold, so they stayed on the ship and used the hut as storage and a hang out spot.

Other explorers through the years have used it as a cabin though.

The walls and ceiling of the hut are covered in black soot.

This comes from burning seal blubber to heat the cabin.

Cloth tarps were hung to hold heat in, so they weren’t trying to heat the whole hut.

Again, with Seal Blubber!!!.

Again, no complaining folks.

If it’s cold at your place this winter, put on a sweater or grab a blanket…

Or you could burn some SEAL BLUBBER!!!

It was so powerful to see how they lived and the supplies they used.

If you look real close there is a finger print on this can.

Who was it?  What was his name?  Which group of explorers huddled in this building with him?

It brought so many questions.

It is really difficult to imagine living in these conditions.

We have it so good these days.

No complaints here.

I wonder how many men have looked out this same window at the insane weather outside?

Jeez!

So… Off to my warm dorm room!  J

Hope all is well where you are.  May you be healthy and happy?

May you not be eating strange dog biscuit looking things?

And, may you not be heating with seal blubber.

To Life!