An alarm sounded at 4pm-ish, Glycol leak in the Heavy Equipment Garage. Great! Another drill, and the situation exactly like the last drill/real event. So I grabbed my jacket and fire helmet and run down the beer can, through the tunnel to the HE garage entry and find glycol pouring down through the cracks in the second floor, through the light fixtures, and basically EVERYWHERE.

“Wow.” I think. “They sure went all out on this drill!”

About the time I turned off the camera, the gycol started cascading down the stairs.

About that point, it occurs to me that perhaps this isn’t a drill! I turn around, and tune into COMMS on the radio, and start asking around: “Who’s On Scene Commander (OSC)?” Everyone shrugs at me. About that time Incident Command (IC) comes on the radio: “This is IC to OSC, who’s OSC?”

Seeing everyone else just kind of looking at me, I assumed OSC until such a time as I thought Marc would show up to take it from me. (This turned out not to happen as Marc assumed Incident Command from the COMMS HQ, and I was OSC on site for the whole incident.)

So anyway, after getting everyone together in the carpenter shop where it’s warm (it’s -60°F outside the building this occurred in) I found out that there had been an explosive glycol rupture on the second floor that had vaporized extensively creating a hazardous atmosphere upstairs and completely soaked 3 workers including one of the guys on my first responder team.

Woot. About this time, Laurie the safety officer showed up, and the fire team began to arrive on site with their SCBA gear. To be honest, I can’t remember everything I did, or whatever happened. I was really tired, and operating in a kind of autopilot (which may have been a good thing, I always do better when I’m delirious).

Basically, as there was no one else in the area to rescue, the fire team entered to assess the scene and try to find a way to stop the leak, which continued. Trauma team began to tend to the injured - one of which had gotten the glycol sprayed in his eyes (it’s a good thing I read the instructions carefully on the emergency eye wash station this week! X D), the support team quickly got spare SCBA bottles and fans on site with which we opened doors and louvers on either side of the vapor and began to ventilate.

All was going well until the fire tech got on site and advised that right next to the open doors we had a 10k gallon pressurized fire suppression tank filled with water. If the valve were to freeze (being next to -60° temperature) it would rupture the tank and well… that would have been very, very bad news. X D

Peering through the sealed door into the glycol haze, after the lights had shorted out and floodlights were brought in.

So basically, I spent the next 4 hours coordinating the 4 teams - my own (Team 1), fire team (Team 2), support team (Team 3) and trauma (Team 4). From the “huddle” in the carp shop. (As seen below… only the crappy short videos would uploat atm).

Everything went quite well, it was a GREAT learning experience for me. The last drill was disastrous compared to this real event. Everyone pulled together, communicated, stayed calm, stayed supportive and got the job done. I tell you, it’s a GREAT feeling, GREAT, to be part of a team like that. It’s what I love about emergency response, it’s such a rush.

In any event, as I mentioned, apparently I did well, because all the station brass kept coming up to me and telling me how well I did. The icing on the cake though, was finding this on my facebook this morning, posted by the safety officer, Laurie.

“i’d be on your team any time, any place with you as On Scene Commander. You were excellent tonight. We made it happen–you were a key element in that.”

I love this chick, she’s so awesome. It means a lot to me that she said that - she’s been in charge of safety on the northern slopes of Alaska, dodging bullets in the oil fields of Nigeria, and pretty much coordinates everything safety related on station.

In any event, the galley kept the food warm for us, even though we were all several hours late for dinner. It was king crab and steak. Man, I tell you, it’s a harsh continent. X D

So we had a big emergency drill the other day. Situation was that there was a glycol explosion in the backup power plant and we had multiple casualties. I arrived on scene of the drill after a couple of my other team 1 members, and one of them had taken command of the scene. Things went all right, we got the injured out without dying ourselves, however our command and control needs serious work. We basically let the other teams fend for themselves - which is not good. In any event, I was recently put in command of the entire first responder team, since the current lead is leaving to get married! I need to arrange some in depth training for my people if we’re going to be trying to coordinate rescue efforts.

Anyway, after the fire team had carried the victims out from the equipment, I did a final sweep, and discovered a pinkish fluid pouring out all over the ground in the power plant. After ensuring it wasn’t part of the drill, I realized it was a real leak. At first I thought it was fuel, AN-8 to be precise, but after we evacuated everyone and canceled the drill, I learned it was a glycol leak. X D Dozens and dozens of gallons were spilling out of a hole where one of the fire crew’s SCBA had knocked out the metal stopper.

Also, I made a helmet cam with my camera and video taped the whole thing. It’s about 150 megs, so it’ll have to wait to make it online till I get off the ice. Actually some cool stuff in that.

Anyway, after that was “Manager Cooks” day, so our kitchen staff can have the day off. After all, they worked Christmas and New Years. No problem, we had a blast last time. Me and Brian and Tripp came up with ANOTHER creative dish, a mix of italian sausage, kalamata olives, ricotta cheese, tabasco and penne pasta. We called it “Hakuna Kalamata con Piggi”. Yes, a TLK reference, no, not my idea. X D

Photos, behind the cut!

This was the cooking crew that day. On the left you can see me, with Brian (COMMS tech) peering over me from behind. Tripp (SYSADMIN) is in front holding some limp asparagus, and my boss Henry (IT manager) is on the right in the orange hat. Claude (Network Engineer) is wearing a black beanie and holding some sort of spoon triumphantly in the air.

Here I am, helping to prepare our delicious dish. X D

Here I am, cradling the tool of corporal punishment that the station uses.

Here is our masterpiece, carefully presented!

And here is Brian with his invention - the X-11 deep fried ham n’ cheese sandwich. My arteries hurt just looking at it and it sat in my stomach like a fat drenched Krispy Kream donut. But boy was it good.

That’s all for now! Satellite disappears in a few minutes. Have fun everyone!

This year, the marker is an actual time capsule. No idea when it’s supposed to be opened, but the globe contains photos, notes and trinkets from the winter-overs who created it.

Below, Claude and Tripp, the network engineer and sysadmin respectively, wait eagerly for the new pole revelation! X D

And Logan, the winter site manager, unveils the new marker! Hurrah!

And behold, the new pole marker and station dome in the background. The New Years football match was canceled due to 20 kt winds, however. So we played Fallout 3 all day.

Hope you all had a good Christmas season!

And I get to put a nickname on the back… so…

Also, we’re finally able to move forward on installation of the new antenna…

Here’s the reflector and s-band feed being assembled on the ice prior to being mounted.

Here’s me in front of one of the HAM antennas we were working on t/sing.. the 20 meter version in this case.

I hope everyone had a happy Christmas!

Wow, Christmas dinner last night was impressive. Beef Wellington, two lobster tails, Pinot Noir, cheesecake, fudge, all by candle light with live music. They really do go all out down here.

So today we had the “Race Around the World!” In which everyone raced around the world 3 times. I was certainly too lazy to run, so we took a decked out Pisten Bully.

And woohoo! We kind of got second place! X D

Jeremy and Chrissy spent all night decking out a Pisten Bully to look like… well..

Lots of hilarious video that I can’t upload too. X D

Other than the lighting and the insulated piping, there’s not a whole lot down there. Except for the shrines. There are a number of creepy shrines cut into the sides of the ice, deep down where no one goes. The ambient temperature is below -60°F, so cold in fact that the little thermometer I keep on my jacket (its lowest temperature is -20, so it’s meant to tell me when it’s warm out. XD ) broke because it was too cold! So people rarely go down there.

Long view down one of the main tunnels.

Chris, one of the Raytheon network engineers, standing amidst the ice crystals.

Chris taking some photos amongst the ice stalactites.

End of the line for us and the tunneling team!

Me in the famous old station dome! It’s used for food storage now.

Me in one of the tunnels.

Entry to the old dome from the outside.

New hole drilled deep into the ice - called a Rod Well, it will provide fresh water for the station by cycling warm water down into it.

Looking up one of the frozen tunnel escape hatches.

Alarm panel in the old Skylab laboratory.

Piston removed from one of the 1MW station power generators.

South Pole Station gravity well experiment. Not sure how it works, I suppose I should have asked the physicist I was exploring with. X D

The physicist climbs down into a tunnel.

A small shrine, seemingly dedicated to popcorn garlands… o.0

One of the creepier shrines, a frozen pig’s head dedicated to the first new station Winter Over crew.

A hardhat - not sure if it’s dedicated to an injured or deceased crew member.

The coolest shrine! A dried up sturgeon and some caviar! The full story can be viewed (kind of) in the next image.

Story telling how the sturgeon got there, as a gift from the Russians!

A shrine for the Kiwi winter overs.

A shrine for some visiting firemen from Palmer Station.

Okay… it’s a partial video because it got clipped while uploading… but yeah. It’s a video from the ice tunnel. You wouldn’t BELIEVE how hard it is to get video out of here.

http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/contentHandler.cfm?id=1639

“The TDRS F1 satellite is now shouldering the burden for primary communications for South Pole Station, as it carries bulk science research data at an amazing volume of 100 gigabytes per day, and recently achieved a record 126 gigabytes per day.”

That was all me, baby! X D

And now, a couple of pictures for you…

First, the South Pole Telescope as seen at 02:00 in the morning.

And next, our very own Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth class…

Also, today is day number 6 of my exercise regimen. It’s not as intense as it could be - on purpose - since I’ve been able to continue it every day for the last 5 days! If I keep this up, it will progress over the next few months and I will, conceivably, get into great shape. Right now, it’s just a half hour routine of stretching, pushups and situps, walking, jogging, walking and jogging, all timed by a specific playlist of music on my MP3 player. I plan on sticking to this, with no exceptions, 6 days a week.

Now - off to test the backup transmitter system I put together, with live data this time! X D

I’m not going to bother with an in-depth review of the book except to say the following:

The story is nothing at all like I expected. Having been inundated by “Dracula” and vampire kitsch since I was born, I had no real desire to read this novel at first. I’m not a big “vampire” fan, really. However, having completed it tonight, I can firmly say that this book will go down as one of my favourite reads of all time. Why? Because it is nothing LIKE the vampire kitsch. This is a brilliant adventure novel with carefully crafted and lovable characters, presented from a logical and down-to-earth perspective. The book is written, first person, in the form of journal entries of the various characters. It lends itself to both to incredible characterization and a natural, if retrospective, plot progression.

In any event, the most important aspects of the work are the ones that are so often glossed over by the recreations of the vampire kitsch, so I would really recommend this even if you’ve no interest in some of the concepts that, though now worn out, were groundbreaking in this novel.

And, on a side note, I shall leave you with a view peering down one of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory’s drill holes, with sensor orbs being placed!

Over the loudspeaker:

“Attention! Attention! There has been a fire reported in:

*recorded voice* sccckkkk… The Fuel Depot.

Attention! Attention! There has been a fire reported in:

*recorded voice* sccckkkk… The Fuel Depot.”

I jump out of bed, grab my radio and try to throw on my ECW gear. So many people are talking on the radio I can’t understand anything. Grab my kit and run out into the hall, amongst firefighters who already have all their gear on… we exit the station and…

“Attention south pole. Attention south pole. Please disregard, this is a false alarm. Repeat, disregard, this is a false alarm.”

EVERYBODY groans.

Oh well, I had to get up anyway. I ran a test with NASA in White Sands this morning - doubled our S band data rate to 5 mbps… now if only the packet shaper in Denver would be modified to support the increase. *rolls eyes*

Too tired to go back to bed, so I took a shower and did laundry. Gonna have a nap at some point today, in preparation for the “Big Lebowski” and SPIF (South Pole International Film Festival) showing tonight. If you come in a bath robe to the Lebowski party, you get free White Russians!

Also, after being broken down 300 miles out for several weeks, the Norwegian traverse finally made it to the South Pole! Here’s them, tired, cold and hungry, making their way in off the ice.

And finally, it’s Dan, waving his wrench around like a mad man, next to an LMC.

That is all for now.