Hut Point

I've been wanting to write this blog post for a while now, but just haven't found the time to sit down and compile the photos and my thoughts. After a very full week, we have been given tomorrow (Sunday here) as a day of much needed rest. Some are choosing to use the time to run the 1/2 and full marathon that is being held tomorrow on the ice shelf. Me? I'm going to my time to catch up on some sleep, explore a little farther afield and do some more fishing with George and the group to replenish our experimental fish supply.

As the course progresses, we are learning lots about the biology of the continent and the research that is conducted here. The instructors are also taking every opportunity to bring in the history of the continent, past research trips and even the original expeditions to put things in perspective for us. I'm really enjoying these parts of the lectures as it really reminds me to look beyond my immediate surroundings on the station, which on the surface just look like a muddy, brown, work camp.

(I found this shipping container pretty amusing)

This brings me to the topic of Hut Point. It is a small peninsula just on the outskirts of McMurdo Station, with a wooden hut and a cross on the hill. The first few nights I just thought of it as a lovely walk to get some fresh air and a nice viewpoint over the seasonal ice. Also a good spot to see Weddell seals lazing on the sea ice.

(Some redcoats, as we are called, looking out on the ice from Hut Point)

In one of our morning lectures last week, I became enlightened on the significance of the ground upon which I take my evening strolls. Hut Point is the point of landing for Robert Scott's Discovery Expedition of 1901-1904. The Discovery made it as far as McMurdo Sound on February 8th, 1902 and the crew decided it was a good, sheltered location for overwintering. They built a wooden hut that was originally intended for shelter, but became solely for storage due to its draftiness and the crew lived on the ship instead. It was off Hut Point, that the Discovery was allowed to be frozen into the sea ice. The following spring, it was on the same ground that I walk upon, that Robert Scott, Ernest Shackleton and Edward Wilson (the doctor/zoologist) set off from for their first attempt for the South Pole! Discovery Hut still stands in perfect condition and there is a simple, yet beautiful, wooden cross in memorial to George Vince, one of the crew members that drowned in the bay.

(Discovery Hut, built in February 1902, still in its original state January 2010)

(McMurdo old and new)

(Vince's Cross with McMurdo Bay and Trans Antarctic Mountains along the horizon)

(10:30 pm January 16, 2010)

Midweek, the Swedish icebreaker The Oden smashed its way through the annual sea ice, making a channel for the fuel tanker & cargo ship that are due in on Monday (they will bring in the supply of fuel and stores for the winter, and ship out all the waste).

(The Oden in action)

(Heading back out to the ice edge past Hut Point)

This channel now connects McMurdo sound to the Southern Ocean. It has also allowed many more seals to find sunning spots on the ice in the sound and much to my delight, with the open water come the comical gangs of Adelie penguins! Rumor has it that the orcas will not be far behind (the fashionably late dinner guests). Today they were spotted further out in the channel close to the ice edge by some of our group that flew over the ice in helicopter to reach a field site.

(Weddell seal checking me out as he swam by the point)

(Adelie Penguins)

These bunch of clowns have been hanging about the station all week. They have been spotted checking out our ice fishing holes and the divers that go down under the ice to collect invertebrates. It was probably a couple of these Adelies that made the footprints and belly sliding tracks tracks in the pop quiz photo, which was taken along the path to Hut Point. I'm declaring it a tie between Ian and Tina for the correct answer :) I just need addresses to send the postcards!

And now, just like the penguins I saw at Hut Point earlier this evening, I'm calling it a night!

johanne