icebreaker and Antarctic explorers

The icebreaker ship got all the way to McMurdo today. It breaks a channel for the annual supply ship to come in. We've heard that when it breaks the channel, lots of charismatic megafauna (e.g., penguins, seals, whales) come close to shore. Like penguins wandering around the station... how cool is that? Today it was just the loud boat, but it was pretty fun to watch.

It was a really clear day today and I got some good scenery pictures from Hut Point (the little black blob is a seal), which has new meaning to me after this amazing lecture we heard this morning. Donal, the course organizer, is really into the history of Antarctic exploration and told us all about the early explorers... really amazing stories. Ross sailed down to Antarctica in 1841 and found the south magnetic pole, which was a big deal for navigation at the time. Then nothing happened until 1901 when Scott sailed from NZ to what is now McMurdo and first set foot on the continent. In Feb. 1902 they built Scott Hut, which is still standing just out this point from McMurdo. They got stuck there until 1904 and tried to get to the south pole, failed and almost died of scurvy, explored and found the dry valleys, which are really cool microbial ecosystems. Scott also brought a bunch of scientists including Edward Wilson, and they were one of the first interdisciplinary teams of scientists. In 1911, Amundson made it to the south pole just before Scott's second attempt, and because Amundson had a team of dogs and better gear, they got out before winter set in. Scott was not so lucky and his team died about 10 miles from their cache of food, most of the way back to Hut Point. Meanwhile his team of scientists had stayed at Hut Point and were collecting marine organisms and doing geological research, which sounds much more exciting to me than treking up glaciers to get to THE south pole. Now I'm inspired to read some of the explorer diaries... Scott's crew actually dragged sleds full of gear up glaciers, how crazy is that? On not enough food and water and with scurvy. It's interesting timing with the icebreaker coming in... what a difference 100 years has made. Donal is giving another lecture to the whole station about Scott either this Sunday or next, which should be interesting as well.

FYI, the course has an official blog that the faculty and instructors have been writing.