Antarctica, Austral Summer 2019 - 2020 (Part 3 - Exploring McMurdo)
Antarctica is a harsh continent. Our mere presence here is a testament to our species’ hubris. In sheer defiance of nature and evolution and everything else that is telling us that we shouldn’t be living here. There are no insects, spiders, or vermin of any kind. Almost nothing can survive here. Yet here we are.
Since the winters down here comprise of months of complete darkness with temperatures dropping as low as -80°F, a lot of work has to be done during the summer months. Taking advantage of nearly six months of constant sunlight, there are people working 24 hours a day over three different shifts at McMurdo.
With work a priority, one is expected to get to work the day immediately following your arrival. It was no different for me, and at 11 AM I reported to the galley for my first shift in the kitchen.
The kitchen is very different than anything I’m use to. With the station’s safety being the top priority, none of the stoves, ovens, fryers, or tilt skillets are electric. This is a big difference for someone like me who is used to cooking with natural gas. The kitchen is also massive but that is to be expected considering the fact that at the peak of the summer season we will be feeding anywhere between 900 - 1100 people.
During my first shift I was working with Jay, one of the sous chefs returning from last year who kind of showed me the ins and outs of the kitchen and what is expected from us on a day to day basis.
Since we were among the first people in the galley on the station, there were only three of us working in the kitchen that evening including myself, Jay, and a cook named Sam. Being just the three of us meant clean up took a decent amount of time and we didn’t get out of there until about an hour and a half past our scheduled time.
As luck would have it, my scheduled days off are on Wednesdays so, even though I only arrived on Monday, I already had a day off after only working for one day. I used this to my advantage and went on a short hike around the town to try to get some photos.
Within three minutes of starting my hike, as I made my way up some stairs, a frayed piece of wood on the handrail stabbed through my glove and I got a few splinters in my palm. The splinters were small but in an awkward position so I was unable to remove them myself. Being so close to the medical building I walked over only to find that they were closed for their lunch hours for the next hour.
I decided to continue on with my hike as planned with the intent to continue long enough for the medical team to come back from lunch.
I made sure to wear my full ECW gear to make sure I could stay outside as long as possible without getting cold. When fully equipped, my ECW clothing should keep me warm in -40° temperatures. The freezing conditions have a tendency to kill the battery of any electronic device you may have but fortunately my Nikon was able to keep operating despite the -10° weather.
About an hour passed since I got the splinters in my palm which meant that medical finally opened for walk-ins once more. I made my way there where one of the medical attendees dug the splinters out with a needle.
The splinters were small and fragile and kept breaking off in my hand which made digging them out particularly difficult and painful as she had to go deeper to make sure she got it all.
I was given a clean bill of health and was sent on my way. Before heading back in, I went down towards the helipad to get as close to the sea ice as possible to get a few good shots of the mountains in the distance.
I headed back to building 155 to get lunch in the galley before going to edit my photos. There I ran in to Jessica, Katie, and a few other people from the kitchen crew and had lunch with them. The galley honestly feels like a high school or college cafeteria and much like either of those institutions, the dining room in McMurdo is a little clique-y.
It definitely takes a special kind of crazy to decide to work in Antarctica. Look across the dining room and you’ll see a wide variety of people: peppy, wide-eyed millennials looking for an adventure, machine and equipment specialists, scientists, pilots, and finally, people that really don’t fit anywhere else in the world.
After lunch, I spent some time in the lounge editing pictures, writing, and watching the news before heading to Southern Exposure, one of two bars on station.
I made conversation with some of the people who had landed from Christchurch that day for a bit before going to bed for the night.
I spent the next few days hiking around town in the mornings and working in the afternoon and evenings. Sous chefs at McMurdo work on a rotating schedule that changes every 5 to 6 weeks. I was assigned the “PM Flex” shift meaning that I came in later than the rest of the dinner shift crew but then stay late into the beginning of the overnight shift. Being perfectly honest I’m not a huge fan of this schedule.
As mentioned earlier, the kitchen staff at McMurdo work around the clock in three different shifts: the AM shift, running from 5 AM - 3 PM, the PM shift, running from 11 AM - 9 PM, and the overnight (AKA MidRat) shift, running from 9 PM - 7 AM. As the “PM flex” chef, I am kind of caught between two worlds, neither working the dinner shift or overnight shift fully. This unfortunately means that, since most social activities end at midnight, I work too early to hang out with the overnight people and work too late to hang out with people from the more regular AM and PM shifts.
Hiking around town was definitely a good way to keep my mind off feeling kind of lonely until I could find a group of people I liked hanging out with. Fortunately, Antarctica provides a kind of natural beauty that can take your breath away.
