It's Not Always this Glamorous

Greetings All,

I am just as surprised that I am sending yet another DSP so late in the season, but a few things have gone down since the last update.

We were packed and prepared to be shuttled to our hight camp this past Thursday, However, in the very early morning I was awakened by the S.Pole station manager and asked to go to the communicatos center. It turns out that our DC-3 Basler aircraft had crashed by the west coast and myself and another medical mountaineer was needed to fly out via our Twin Otter to assist and pick up crew and passengers. So, at 4:00-AM our morning started and we arrived at the crash site around Noon on Thursday. Fortunately, there were only a few minor injuries during the incident. Apparently, there was a mechinical issue during take off and the plane suffered a hard landing, stranding the crew and pax at the location. So we shuttled in survival gear and supplies and remained with group until another Twin Otter arrived from McMurdo. So it was good news as everyone was okay, just sore, cold, tired and hungry.

I spent Friday sleeping and regrouping at McMurdo and returned to S. Pole via Twin Otter last night.

We are leaving for our three week camping trip at our high camp in an hour and will be there until January 20th. So, pending another epic (wouldn't surprise me) this will be the last DSP until then.

I am wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Enjoy every minute of every hour of every day that you are all up and walking around.

Take care and be safe....talk to you in a month!!

'Till Then,

Tayloe

Plugging Our Sponsors Stuff

Hi Bleau,

No worries, I haven't forgotten you bud. I have taken several pics with banner and wearing the SharkLids beside the Geographic South Pole...very cool! They look really good. Having trouble downloading them from camera to email...hope to get those to you soon. Its been really busy and we are flying late and leaving early. If I cannot get pics to you in the a.m. it will have to wait until I return to the MCM station in January.

Here a brief scoop on their performance: We wore the MEDshields for one hour outside in -41F and 10Kn winds...they work awesome. The adheisive stuck like nobodys business. Everyone here at the Pole who has worn them like them. They do not offer wind protection like goggles so folks cannot wear them for extended time outside...but an hour test run with my other mountaineer worked awesome. Will carry banner and SharkLids sunglasses with me to the next basecamp tomorrow and get photos and R&D info.

Hope all is well.

Take care,

Tayloe

Wish I was Surfing

South Pole
Weather: -29F, Wind 6.7Kn, Alt 10,434, Clear & Sunny



Greetings all,

Hope this email finds all doing swell...oh, speaking of swell...wish I was surfing!

Flew a 17 hour day yesterday to our longest site way out at the Northern edge of the plateau. Very long day to be sitting in a Twin Otter.

Got our ground time down to 1.5 hours installing the seismic station as we both (mountaineers and scientists) went to this site together. It was -41F on the ground with 10Kn winds however, it's odd for me to say, but it felt sunny and warm.

Today is a short day and I am taking break as I may fly to our high camp in the next few days.

We were visited by an expedition party that arrived at the Pole yesterday morning. They had skied in from the coast and along the way, camped at the actual Pole and are awaiting pick up. They are a mixed bunch from the UK, New Zealand and USA...now those dudes are crazy!

Hope all is well and hope to update one more time before headed higher.

Take care..be safe..stay warm

'Till Then,

Tayloe

Finally Flying

South Pole
Weather: -39.9F, Winds 6.7 Kn, Alt: 10,260, Cloudy w/400m visibility



Greetings all,

Finally, we got to seismic sites installed yesterday up on the plateau.

We left from the South Pole early yesterday morning. Myself and one team of scientist flew 600 miles via DC-3 (pictured above) and dropped-in and buried a site. The other team left S. Pole at the same time in a Twin Otter and flew appx 600 miles and did the same.
We spent about 2.5 hours on the ground installing the system. That entailed digging two 4x4x4-foot pits to bury the sensor and the recording box (excuse the non-scientific terms) and setting up a solar panel. At our sites the weather was -42F with winds at 22 kn. It was a circus-style, crazy day in the field. In total, it was a twelve hour day in the field and now we are waiting to fly to a site approximately 800 miles yonder. The weather here at the Pole is terrible but the weather at our site is awesome...catch-22 for sure!

We will start flying with two medical mountaineers per flight to speed up the ground time as we now will only be flying with the one Twin Otter airframe.

Ok, update on the AGAP high altitude camp (I almost forgot about that). We have had two LC-130 missions to camp and have fuel and two structures staged. Our camp crew arrived yesterday here at the Pole and we are all awaiting the next two flights up to camp to finish setting up the basic structures. We are hoping to fly up and be there by Wednesday. After acclimatization we will have just about three weeks to complete the camp and get out before weather and temps drops to -50F...not a pleasant place to be middle january!

Well, that's the latest news. Glad I am able to keep the DSP's coming while here at the Pole.

Hope everyone is doing well and staying safe..kristin reported ground temps in Divide, CO today of 1F...Global warming my ass!

Until next time...take care and be safe.

If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space.

Tayloe

Bottom of the World

South Pole...the bottom of the World
Weather: -39F, Winds 20Kn, Cloudy/Blowing snow, Pressure Elevation is at 10,557-ft






Greetings All,

Hope this DSP finds everyone happy and safe.

We arrived at the South Pole on Monday and have been acclimatizing over the past three days. The weather has been bad and all our flights to begin setting in our seismic stations have been canceled. As a matter of fact, our Basler and Twin Otter airframes have not been able to get here from McMurdo station...so we wait. It's a game played down here often!

As far as the 13,000 foot camp goes...same deal...weather has delayed those flights as well, so we have no cargo and no equipment staged up at our high camp. It's getting kinda late in the season to be playing around up on the plateau. There is a estimated date that the temps begin to fall below -50 F and the LC-130's will not fly to the plateau in those temps...and that date is around January 19th. So we are really behind and its looking like a short field season as of now.

So, I have finally attached a few pics for you folks. One is the brand new South Pole Station. It's still under construction but fully operational. Pretty sweet station...it is all decked out on the inside like a space station and designed to operate as an independant station without outside support for months at a time. And best of all, the food is pretty good as well.

Myself and the other medical mountaineer have been spending our days looking after our scientist and getting the seismic stations ready to install when the planes arrive. It's been pretty busy up until today as we have just gotten caught up. Now it a waiting game.

We only have email from 3:00 AM to 6:00 PM due to satalite positioning, so better send this off now before I run out of time. Maybe I will have time for one more dispatch before departing to the high camp or maybe I'll be able to send fifty more due to our current weather pattern delays?

Hope life is treatin' you well and wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

"Don't knock the weather. If it did not change, nine out of ten people could not start a conversation"

'Till Then,

Tayloe

Heading Out

McMurdo Dispatch
Weather: 18F, Winds 2 calm NNW, Sunny, Blue skies

Greetings all,

Well, we are finally getting out of town so I thought I would drop a line before leaving and update you about our plan for this season.

Myself and another mountaineer/medic are leaving tomorrow for the South Pole with six scientist. We will acclimatize there for three days. If everyone is feeling good, then we start flying on Thursday to install the seismic equipment up on the plateau. This involves flying to a site via Twin Otter or Basler, unloading and setting-up 400 pounds of gear. The seismic recording equipment will be placed approximately three feet into the ground and covered. We'll also set up solar charging and data recovery systems at each site. Once we're done, well head back to the Pole. It should take about four hours of on-ground time with a total of 12 hour crew days. So with ten sites planned for setup we're going to have some long days!

My camp crew arrives to the Pole on 15 Dec. and after three days of acclimatization we (including myself) will be flown to AGAP (our altitude camp) via Twin Otter. When we arrive there should be a minimum of two structures (base camp tents) awaiting us. Here is where it gets confusing. While I am down at the Pole the field corps will have flown into AGAP camp via LC-130 and spent one hour on the ground setting-up and dropping-off gear. There will be three of these missions. They are being flown in from sea level to 13,000 feet. There has been a lot of preparation for these folks and we call them the "sacrificial lamb crew" as they are going to be hurting bunches after stepping off that plane at 13,000 feet and setting up big tents without the acclimation that we're accustom to.

When we arrive at AGAP we will acclimatize to the new altitude for three days then begin building camp and a ski-way for the planes. We should be back out of the field by January 20th.

I will have to make a quick run out to have a look at one of our Katabatic Consulting's contract medical support camps, then its back to NZ for a few days of surfing and I return home to Colorado to prepare for the Everest trip.

I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy new Year. Think of me while sitting beside a warm fire or while drinking something warm.

Take care and be safe,

Tayloe

Associated Press Explanation

McMurdo Dispatch
Weather: Still Cold

Two back to back dispatches from me; obviously its Sunday and I am bored!

This article was forwarded to me and explains what our science group is going to be doing here this season. Enjoy.

Scientists to Study Antarctica's Geology
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 5, 2007 - Filed at 8:48 p.m. ET

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A group of Washington University researchers will head to Antarctica later this month to learn more about the continent's geologic origins.

The group will install 10 seismographs that will provide data to help other scientists build better climate change models, Douglas Wiens, a Washington University professor and team leader said. 'We have no idea what's beneath the ice,'' Wiens told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. ''No one has even taken any rock samples. It's thought that when the Earth's climate started to cool millions of years ago, the first glaciers in the world formed in these mountains.''

The team's base camp will be built 250 miles north of the South Pole, in a region of Antarctica that has only been explored by a Russian team 50 years ago and last year by a Chinese group. The Washington University scientists will fly from St. Louis to Christchurch, New Zealand, where they will be outfitted with cold weather gear. From there, they will fly to the McMurdo Station, the U.S.-run Antarctica research center. Then, they will fly on a prop plane to a South Pole base camp and adjust to the altitude before arriving at their camp, another 400 miles away.

The unchartered territory will be enveloped in daylight during the few weeks they're there. The seismographs will help researchers understand the motion of the continent's ice streams, giant rivers of ice that can be up to 80 miles wide. The flow of the ice streams are expected to provide clues about the rocks beneath.

The team will return to the icy continent next year to collect the seismographs and install additional devices.

Science Happens

McMurdo Dispatch
Weather: 8F, Winds 15NNW, Snow, Blowing snow, VIS

Greetings All,

Well, it been awhile since an update and a lot has happened...lots of talking and long meetings.

The folks who make the decisions...those who have never slept in a tent, much less here in this god-awful place have finally started listening to the folks who do sleep in tents in this God-awful place. You know...the guys who are here because they know how to get things done and live to talk about it. Anyway, we have some positive resolutions.

We are now headed to the South Pole to 'car camp' for a few days to acclimatize and then run up to our high altitude spot, completely build-out a base camp for next season; locker 'er up and come on home. Without any issues, it should take until the middle of January to get the job done. No science groups will be coming with us this season, thus making it a good safe plan.

However, because science is why we are here and why the taxpayers pay for us to be here, well, science just has to happen. So, as a part of our plan is that I will accompany the science group as their guide/medic on flights from the South Pole via Twin Otter and DC-3/Basler aircraft on a series of eight flights to install their seismic equipment all around the plateau. This entails flying to a designated site, being dropped-off while the plane hops to another site. While there, we dig a hole (BTW: I hate digging!) and place the seismic equipment inside the hole, get it running, do a few test, then cover it up and head to another site when and if the plane returns. After completing eight days of flying I will rejoin my camp crew at the South Pole and we will head up to AGAP to build our camp; now that is the fun part.

I will be leaving a week from Monday and be out until mid-January. I wish I could send photos from the field because it would be rather interesting...but that ain't going to happen...so will have to do that upon returning.

Hope everyone has a great Holiday season.

Take care and be safe,

Tayloe

Thanksgiving on Ice

McMurdo Dispatch
Weather: 22F, Winds 5, Scattered, Unrestricted

Greetings All,

I hope this DSP finds everyone happy, stuffed and enjoying a long holiday weekend. Our current weather looks more like a Colorado fall day rather than an Antarctic summer day. As you can see I am still sending email, which means I am still stuck at McMurdo Station; not my favorite place to be stuck, if you know what I mean. We have had a great deal of headaches getting out of town and getting our camp put in. I will do my best to summerize whats been going on down here.

As I had mentioned before, some critical equipment has not shown up here to enable us to head out, including all of my medical gear. We have several basecamp structures, heaters, generators and such still enroute from God knows where. So, for the past two weeks we have been sitting in conference call meetings with the NSF guys in Washington trying to put together a reasonable plan to make this a successful science season, which is what we are here to do. However, its getting a bit out of control. I have never sat in more than two meetings in my career down here upon arrival; we take care of all that before arriving, so this has been, to say the least, a bit of a nightmare. Our latest plan (there have been 6 as of Friday) is to head South to the Pole to acclimatize and then move to our 13,000 foot camp and build it out for science. This presents a bunch of new logistical issues as we had not planned to go on a camping trip to the South Pole on this outing.

Now, due to the Thanksgiving holiday and the time/day differences from here and D.C. our crew has been anxiousely awaiting this next Tuesday's meeting to see what has changed since Friday's meeting. Its all part of the job, but lets get it done already.

We enjoyed Thansgiving yesterday and it was a hoot. You can not imagine the food that was prepared for the folks down here...really great. So it was a good relaxing weekend with a little work thrown in to remind us where we are and what we are doing here.

As mentioned, I hope everyone had a great holiday. I will keep in touch and fill you all in when we have a plan.

Take care and be safe up there!

Cheers,

Tayloe

Finally Made It

McMurdo Station Dispatch
Weather: Sunny, Winds 8NNW, 4F



Greetings all,

As you can see from the weather report I have made it to Antarctica, a Good thing as the surf turned up flat in NZ the last three days I was there. We flew via C17 airframe, which is a super huge military aircraft that delivered an uneventful, 5-1/2 hour flight.

Our crew has been stymied since arrival as our basecamp gear has not arrived in Antarctica and support is limited from departments here on station since we purchase all our gear ahead of time and expected no station support. We have no tents, medical equipment, sleeping bags and the such, so we are chasing our tails trying to come up with other plans. This isn't usually the drill for our crew!

A Recce flight to our proposed altitude camp was done last night and did not look as good as we had expected. Soft snow at one site and bulletproof at the other. Here was the conditions at our 1,200 foot camp: Temp. -45F; Winds 30 knots; Pressure Altitude 1,300 feet. We did expect cold windy conditions, but -45 with pressure altitudes of 13 grand was a little surprising. As this is a high risk, high altitude camp and with the current gear issues we are facing we have just about decided to change the whole plan as in, a Christmas back home in Colorado would be pretty cool nice right about now. In all seriousness, we may decide to do a light basecamp and sort things out up there for next season. Possibly no science this season, just our crew going up and checking the situation out. A little camp-out session you could say. But we shall see.

We will find out a lot more this evening as we have several meetings with the pilots and crew. Either way I still have to make my way out to Kristin's camp that she set up two seasons ago to check on our other medics who are there now. That camp is a world a part from this project.

Hope all is well up there and life is treatin' ya fair.

Tayloe

Almost Flying

New Zealand Dispatch
Weather: Not worth mentioning

Hey All,

Still in NZ waiting a flight down. Next flight is Tuesday and I have ben cleared to fly. Surf has dropped so I will stay out of the water and be a good steward to the United States Antarctic Program!

Cheers,

Tayloe

Sick from Surfing

New Zealand Dispatch
Weather: Blue skys, 74F, No surf report

Greetings All,

Sorry all these emails are from NZ; our flight got nixxed again this morning. I guess the weather is really bad down South.

I guess that I should not have been rolling in my own good fortune surfing my days away since I spent the today at the medical clinic due to a sinus and outer ear infection...YES, due to cold water surfing! THE BAD NEWS...So I've managed to get myself pulled from all flights until Tuesday to let the meds do their job. THE GOOD NEWS...The Doc seems to think because I am on antibiotics and steroids that surfing should not be an issue as long as I wear ear plugs. So it all seems to work out in the end for me to surf some more. On that note, big swells are heading this way and should make landfall Sunday morning. So I'm headed out to Taylor's Mistake to stay with some surf buddies until Monday night.

Hope all is well, be safe out there and roll Steady,

Tayloe

Surf Report

New Zealand Dispatch
Weather is clear and 60F temps.
Off shore winds with surf 4-6 feet, beach break - sand bar and peeling left handers

Greetings all,

Well, as you can see by the weather and wave report I am still in NZ. Thought that I would post the lastest surf reports until I get down South as surfing is all that I am doing while waiting for our flight out.

Our plan is to depart tomorrow at 1:30 a.m. to try and sneak out before the next weather hits. I'll send more on arrival to MCM (McMurdo Station).

Hope all is well where you are and be safe out there.

Roll steady,

Tayloe

Greetings from New Zealand

New Zealand Dispatch
Weather is overcast, with nightly rain and 60F temps.

Greetings from New Zealand,

Once again this morning we all got up before the sun was out to learn that the flight South was nixed due to weather at McMurdo. Four full days here in New Zealand is usually a good time with good food and a great city to be in, but it’s time to get on with it…I am ready to head South and take care of business.

Here is a picture to show you just how hard I am really working while here in NZ.



When the weather is crap in Antarctica and pushing to the North the surf builds and slams into the coast of NZ so we naturally take advantage of it. We have to do something while awaiting our ride!

Cheers,

Tayloe