Winter 2010 Pictures

Some of the winter's loveliest aurora pics- (brazenly looted from Fleet Ops Loui's IDrive postings. Thank you, Louis) et al

Red 4 vs The Big Winter Fire

Photos of a fuels truck that caught fire on the Ice Runway work site. Courtesy of ice runway workers and a quick-thinking Crary worker who used a camera and the telescope. (Photo sequence starts at the bottom)

The fire was off-road and out of town, so crews responded in grip-track-equipped Red 4 and Ambo. Ambo's crew attempted to slow down the fire with their handheld extinguisher. When Red 4 arrived on scene, the handline was pulled. Unfortunately, a faulty solenoid prevented the foam valve to the handline from opening, so the crew only had drychem to work with. (Red 4 uses 4 large bottles of compressed nitrogen to produce CAFS/drychem mixed or separate at the tip. It seems like a simple, workable system, but frequent pesky leaks of highly corrosive Arctic foam throughout the system play hell with all the sensitive electronic bits and brass fittings. The truck is only a few years old and 0-for-2 on fires now). Application of drychem from 20' away lent a lovely purple hue to the smoke, as seen below. Final extinguishment was achieved by falling back on the reliable old technology of shovels and cold, dry, snow.

In other news, the week was made pleasantly eventful by the simulataneous breakdown of nearly all our ARFF equipment. Red 4 was felled by the aforementioned CAFS system failure. We will now get to test and trouble-shoot all of the Renegades. Red 6 succumbed to a mysterious nitrogen-tank leak, radio failure, and inability to start in the morning. Red 3 committed hari-kari in three different ways and left its lifeblood pooled in an oily, reddish puddle in the snow. Apparently it had a frozen air intake, frozen fuel filter, blown transmission, and maybe a couple other things I've forgotten, all at once. It now resides at Station 4 (aka the Vehicle Maintenance Facility). Red 2's generator has developed a severe fuel tank incontinence issue and the truck has been frozen a couple times. And the grand failure, discovered by none other than myself (this means I get credit): Red 1. The entire 110 electrical system in the truck's package has been fried due to it inappropriatedly being powered by a three phase power supply at the airfield. It needed 2-phase.

On the plug-in lineup, Red 5 shivers alone and contemplates the miseries of its brothers.

Winter Film Festival- The News- Casey (Australia)

Winter Film Festival - Dr Strange and the Incredible Machine - Dumont D'Durville (France)

Winter Film Festival - Dolores, the Deer, and the Chicken - Bird (GB)

Winter Film Festival - Mechanic vs Abomidable Snowman- Arctowski (Poland)

Winter Film Festival Best Acting - Camembert Man by Crozet (France)

The 2010 Antarctic Winter Film Festival Winner - 'Fitness Month' y Davis Station (Australia)

Condition 1

Last night at 0300~0500 we had our first proper Condition 1 storm of the winter. Everyone was required to stay in place indoors due to blowing debris and limited visibility in 60 knot winds. Above, SAR team practices putting out the Con 1 ropes earlier in the season.

Today's Dinner Menu (average options)

Mains: Pork Loin with Sundried Tomatoes and Feta
Seared Salmon with Pineapple Sauce
Black Bean Rice Cakes
Sides: 7 Grain Rolls
Fresh Baked Oat-Sunflower Bread
Mashed Potatoes
Brocolli
Sweet Corn and Ham stew
Cold Salads: Marinated Beet Salad
Trailmix Quinoa
Sweet Chili Salmon
Mediterranean Couscous
Dessert: Lemon Jello
Canned Peaches
Vanilla and Chocolate Softserve Icecream with toppings
Vanilla Wafer Pudding
Apple Walnut Bars
Half-and-Half Bars
Sandwich Bar with ham, turkey, 3 cheeses, hummous, cranberry hummous, and dressings
Leftover Fridge - leftovers from past 3 days of meals
Drinks: Water
Milk - whole, skim, soy
Juice - apple, orange, apple-passionfruit, grape, cranberry, grapefruit
Lemonade, Limeade, Kiwi fruit drink, Ice Tea
Coffee
Tea - 14 varieties available

Pretty Sunsets from before The Dark

Tractor Falls through Snow Cover into Buried old South Pole Station

A little oopsy from this summer. Many hours and much blushing later, the tractor was extracted.

Midwinter Polar Plunge

Winter solstice. Months of darkness. - 20 degrees ambient, -40 degrees windchill, 29 degree seawater with bits of ice floating on top.

Submissions for 2010 Yearbook Cover, by MacTown residents