Su 22 April 2018, 22:24. Rooftop terrace of Windmill Hostel, Mendoza, Argentina. Considering I entered Antarctica knowing virtually nothing about fur seal or penguin biology, I learned a lot over the course of my first season at Cape Shirreff. Doug, Jesse, Sam, and Adam taught me about seals. Jefferson and Nai taught me about penguins and skuas. Because of his short stay, Mike mostly taught me about baking sourdough, which…
Su 25 March 2018, 18:30; written from in a colectivo (shared cab) in Punta Arenas … finished M 2 April 2018, 23:26; written from night bus traveling from Puerto Natales, Chile, to El Calafate, Argentina As I stood with an armload of groceries in the checkout line of Lider, it finally hit me. Searching for a smile, I looked hard at my package of TimTams as I tried to fight…
Week 17: Sa 17 February 2018, 19:34. Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island, Antarctica After months of careful observations and thought, I’ve figured it out. Between Antarctic fur seals, penguins, and brown skuas, I know which animal’s offspring-rearing strategy is the most appealing. Though penguins are diligent parents, they don’t offer their chicks any freedom. Their protection from skua predation is essential for the first 3-4 weeks of the chicks’ lives, but…
Week 18: Sa 24 February 2018, 15:42. “Little Chile” aka Guillermo Mann Chilean Base, Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island, Antarctica Here I am in Little Chile, proofing data in the depths of Microsoft Excel while drying my face of tears. The “Lord of the Rings” soundtracks are what kept me ticking through the studies of college life, and today they’ve carried me along through Rite in the Rain notebooks of data….
Week 16: Sa 10 February 2018, 18:18. Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island, Antarctica Considering chinstrap penguins and gentoo penguins come here for the same purposes – procreation and chick rearing – it’s pretty entertaining to see the number of ways in which they differ. I generally prefer gentoos to the chinnies, but Nai feels the opposite. In terms of appearances, I consider gentoos to be one of the bird species I’ve…
Week 15: Tr 1 February 2017, 23:21. Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island, Antarctica SDH: It’s what I call the fur seal puppies that are especially Small, Dark, and Handsome. 2 January: Today Doug, Adam, Sam, Nai, and I had face-to-face interactions with about 10 new people for the first time since we were dropped off on 24 October. Doug and Sam somehow knew how to have conversations with strangers. The other…
Week 9: Tr 21 December 2017, 19:15. Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island, Antarctica From “Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage” by Alfred Lansing — “Returning from a hunting trip, Orde-Lees, traveling on skis across the rotting surface of the ice, had just about reached camp when an evil, knoblike head burst out of the water just in front of him. He turned and fled, pushing as hard as he could with his ski…
Week 8: F 15 December 2017, 20:49. Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island, Antarctica In celebrating the holiday, last night we toasted our midnight suns with a hearty “Skol!” and feasted on fårikål, lefsa, kringle, and pepperkaken. God had provided the proper weather overnight and into the day; we awoke to lightly howling wind and a coating of snow blown against the northeast-facing doors of camp. Small snowdrifts had built up at…
Week 6: Sa 2 December 2017, 22:10 … through Week 7: Sa 9 December 2017. Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island, Antarctica And suddenly it’s December. In just another month we’ll be at the halfway point when we get our resupply and camp leader swap. What have we been up to since our arrival the last week of October? For the first few days we focused on opening camp, which included lots…
Week 5: Sa 25 November 2017, 18:29. Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island, Antarctica Possibly never in my life have I had such mixed feelings on blue sky and sunshine. This is Antarctica. It’s supposed to be snowy and cold forever, right? Actually, no. Little by little, the sunshine is melting the snow and tearing our camp apart. Nai and Sam are on Team Melt. Adam and I are on Team Snow….