Island hopping.

We visited two islands in the past week Jules and Tent.  The experience could not have been any different.  Jules was a tropical paradise.  An island of dark volcanic rock in a sea of dirty ice.  Dirty ice is beautiful, white with lines of black dust ringing pools of clear blue water.  The sun warms the rock and there is no wind.  After we upgraded the weather station a few of us laid down for a nap in the sun while we waited on the helicopter to pick us up.  Tent could not have been any more different.  Continuous 40 mph winds whipped over the island.   We had to lash our packs to the tower to keep them from blowing away.  Volcanic dust that rose with every step is not fun in the eyes!  But, we finished in time and made the call to the helicopter barely catching it, five minutes later and it would have been on another trip earning us another hour on the blasted rock!

What have I gotten myself into?!

  So as I sit and write my sermon for the upcoming Sunday I am a little overwhelmed.  I walked into this one.  I was eating lunch with the Chaplain and the other usher and mentioned that I always wanted to be an usher when I was young.  He responded that he always wanted to be an usher too.  So I suggested that I preach next week and he could usher.  "Ok, sounds good" he responded.  Now he is a teacher of preaching and I have been talking with him about going into the ministry so this isn't out of place, but still I wasn't expecting it!
  Last week I decided to start taking my faith seriously and stop being lukewarm.  So, this is an answer to prayer.  My family has been irritatingly not as stressed about this as I am, but that has also been encouraging.   I will be speaking on Jonah 3.  It is fitting because I feel like a recovering Jonah these days.  I have gotten a bit on paper after staring at the blinking empty cursor that represents writers block these days, back to work!

I am the Aeronaut!

  The first rule of helicopter safety is don't move fast because loading and unloading a running helicopter is exciting.  It really is, you feel like you are special forces in a movie!  I had three helicopter flights over the last three days and it is a great new experience.  After you take off there is a moment of wrongness and fear and then it's a blast.  On the third day we landed on a ledge on the side of Jules island.  The pilots here really know their stuff and even in the high winds are accurate.  They did manage to blow a few of our bags down the hill when they came to pick us up.  We all had to just watch because the second rule is not to chase things a landing helo blows around.  More flights to follow next week, just something about a helicopter ride that makes me feel like Rambo!

Who burned the snow!

  "Happy Camper" was amazing.  We had three great instructors.  One, Julian was an outward bound instructor who's regular vocabulary include liberal use of words like, gnarly, burly, and such.  A guy like that can teach about anything and hold a crowd's attention.  So, good instructors, adventure commences!

  We rode in deltas out about halfway to the balloon launching facility.  By we I mean 20 assorted Mcmurdo staff.  Some Swedish fish and fossil scientists, some deep camp cooks, and some seal observers.  From there we hiked a few hundred yards to the I-hut.  The lovely heated hut where the instructors teach and sleep.  There I learned how to light the most finikey reliable camping stove on the market.  All you have to do it pressurize the white gas, let some pour all over the coil and light it.  Then when the gas comes though the coil next time it is heated and gaseous. As long as you remember to keep pumping it snow becomes water presto change o!  Side note: did you know you can burn snow?  If you heat just snow in a pot the pot burns and the resulting water tastes like burnt pot.  

  After another couple hundred yard hike we arrive at our camp.  A few hours and we know how to storm proof  things and the instructors head off to the warmth of the I-hut.  By now we have been outside about eight hours at three degrees.  Constant eating, drinking, and movement is key to staying warm!  At this point I can enjoy watching the lazy people who don't pitch in and help get cold!  We construct a kitchen to keep the wind off the camp stoves and a wall to protect the tents.  This snow is great for building walls and such.  After the camp prep is done I can begin my snow trench.  I had promised that it would be palatial with gargoyles and spires.  After about three hours of digging I had a nice deep trench and my aspirations had moved to creating something warm.  Another hour I had a roof and felt rather pleased with myself.  Most of the camp is asleep in their tents haha fools!  I have a warm trench to sleep in!

  At this point take not of a few things.  First my beard is full of ice and awesome!  My water is frozen even though it was inside my fleece.  I skipped the dehydrated dinner provided and ate some lovely mostly frozen spam!  Also note my Dr. Pepper was also mostly frozen.  Boiling water added to frozen soda makes a warming treat.  I wandered over to watch the Swedish fish scientists build their igloo.  In hindsight at the point I was a bit low on food, water, and have not moved in a few hours.  Bedtime!

  My huge snow trench now seems a bit tight with a roof on it.  I would have preferred to get my gear set up before I roofed it, but that would have covered my sleeping bag in snow.  So, now I am trying to get set up in this tiny cold space. Anything I do covers me and my bag in snow. The old problem arises with gloves on I don't have the dexterity to take off my boots, without my hands are so cold, so cold!  Prepare for me to broken record that a bit.  Boots and coat off I manage to get into my liner and bag without to much snow getting in there with me.  My left hand is frozen and I break open my first set of hand warmers... duds!  Hands into armpits, nice and toasty!  At this point I realize I should have spent more time smoothing out the floor, and as I pull the bag's hood over my head It stops short.  Also it is icy cold.  This cycle repeats for a couple hours.  I eat more, drink a frozen Dr. Pepper, and do sit-ups, nothing works!  Now the worst thing you can do is put your head inside the bag because your breath eventually soaks you and freezes.  The good thing at this point is I only have to kill three more hours.  I am very glad I stayed up to watch the Swedes and avoided   several hours of cold sleep.  About three am I find a comfortable position where I can scrunch into the bag and cover my head finding a small opening to breath through.  I am almost warm!

  Morning rolls around and it is piercing cold.  I manage to worm my way up the stairs pop open the roof/door and enter the sunshine.  Did you notice that my snow palace has both a door and stairs?  At this point I am still in my sleeping bag because there is no room to reboot. Now the rest of the day is pretty standard.  Tear down the camp and then.... six more hours of training.  Huzzah I can ride in helicopters!  I make it home have a dinner. In bed by seven, and I wake up the next day at nine!  I'm a new man with the exception of a crick in the neck from poor sleeping position.  This feels anticlimactic....

Expedition time!

Well closer to a camping trip. It's time for my survival training which means two days of camping on the sea ice.  My current concern is how to prevent my spam from freezing.  I think by the time I put on all my layers and stash all the things I don't want to freeze inside I will look like that kid from "a christmas story" that could barely move.  The prize for completion is being able to head out to remote camps on the helicopters.
  So, off I go!  This should be the camping trip to end them all!  I wanted to build a magnificent snow fort but the sad truth is the larger it is the harder it is for your body to heat it.  So tiny and artful, maybe some ice sculptures...

I got a job!

  I started work as an usher at the chapel yesterday.  Apparently I have an affinity for carrying plates and have secretly always wanted to be one.  Now that flight check is done I am able to relax and start to build a life down here.  Both of the weeknight Bible studies are going well also.  The provided questions stay pretty standard, either "goes without saying" or crushingly personal.  But, I'm getting to know the crowd so I can answer some personal ones.  I still hate talking about myself, is that a western stigma or could I have grown up around to many long talkers.  Either way, they are great last week we had four people come, if you include both chaplains!
  I am currently half asleep.  I work up at 12:57 just in time to miss lunch.  I like night shift, it's the perfect combo!  Leadership is asleep and the airfields are quiet enough to get some work done.  We have to level all of our equipment every day, some of it is checked three times.  The sea is is so shifty.  It is a great time to watch the sun try to rise and set.  It never gets dark but the sun does dissapear behind the mountians for a few hours.  I saw my first sundog today.  It's a circular rainbow around the sun.  There was only a little bit of ice in the air so only the smallest section showed up.  There is another odd thing here, when the conditions are right which is often it is called "flat light".  It removes all the definition from the snow and makes driving and walking difficult because you cannot see lumps or bumps.  Had a few humbling falls for sure...

Stonger, Faster, Colder!

I once watched a documentary about the caribou herders of north Canada.  There was an old man weaving rope in sub zero temperatures with fingerless gloves.  It amazed me at the time.  Now I understand,  I already feel adapted to this cold a lot.  Today its -8 and I am comfortable in a light fleece and glove liners.  Now before you say "wow Josh you are such a manly man" that is as long as I am moving.  It is novel to have to strip down to a long sleeve t-shirt to cut ice so I don't start sweating and die.  Steam pours off of us like Detroit smog.  But, the second I stop moving the cold really sinks in. I'm eager to experience the really cold stuff at the pole and see that the current temp -50 feels like at 9000 feet.