In late November, I flew to McMurdo station, the largest US research base in Antarctica, with a small field team. Our goal was to select a subglacial bedrock drill site that will allow us to investigate the history of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. We stayed in McMurdo for just about a month before we flew to our field site in East Antarctica at the edge of the Transantarctic Mountains and the polar plateau. Although we were delayed getting to our field site, we all felt lucky to be there at all and made the most of our week to achieve our scientific goals.

We arrived at McMurdo station on November 30, 2023, and spent the following week training on all the necessary glacier safety and camp skills to survive and work at our field site. We practiced setting up the 80-pound canvas tents we would sleep in, practiced starting (harder than it sounds) and operating snowmobiles, and learned how to pull a friend out of a crevasse if the worst-case scenario happened. We organized all the food we needed for four weeks in the field and packed our science and mountaineering gear into wooden boxes that wouldn’t blow away in case of a strong Antarctic storm. We successfully prepared all of our equipment within 9 days, and then the waiting game started.

While we prepared, we eagerly waited to hear about the dates for our field put-in, as weather, mechanical issues, ski-way conditions, pilot availability, and conflicting projects commonly cause delays in Antarctica. Behind the scenes, a busy group of logistics planners balanced multiple objectives and constraints to plan when we would fly to our field site, but a perfect storm of continuous bad weather and logistic issues delayed us until the last possible day. Finally, on December 28th, 2023, we got on a small plane and flew to our field site!

During the flight out, I was waiting to receive the message from the flight crew that we were “boomeranging,” a term used by the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) to indicate that a flight is returning to its AOD (Airport of Departure) due to weather or mechanical issues. I must admit that the weather didn’t look good when we left McMurdo. My conversation with the pilot confirmed my fears when he said, “We’ll see if there’s a hole in the clouds to land in.” Not the most promising sentiment after waiting to leave for almost a month, but we were also just happy to get to fly in such a cool airplane. After an hour of flying, the clouds cleared, and we had amazing views of the Drygalski Ice tongue, a miles-long extension of ice that extends into the Ross Sea, and the Transantarctic Mountains as we approached our field site. The most amazing feeling that day was arriving at our field site and seeing the light and dark intersecting granite of Robert’s Butte for the first time.

After landing, we worked quickly to unload all of our gear and stage it to set up camp. We began by setting up tents and organizing food and a kitchen area within our large cooking tent. Setting up camp took us the entire day, so after a late dinner we were off to bed for the first time in our -40˚ down sleeping bags.

Average temperatures at our site varied between -25˚ to -15˚ F depending on the time of day, winds were constant but light, and we were above 7,000 ft of elevation. After adjusting to our new home and elevation, we spent each day split into two groups, one focused on collecting rocks from Robert’s Butte and the slightly farther away Miller’s Butte and the other (including myself) focused on analyzing the subsurface ice using ground penetrating radar. After setting up our radar systems, we headed out with two snowmobiles for the day.

The system we employed is a radio transmitter connected to a long wire which transmits radiowaves down into the ice. Specifically, we were interested in the depth of the ice and wanted to find bedrock. After a full day of sitting on a snowmobile driving around the cold, windy plateau, we returned to camp to assess our data. For the next 6 days, we continued doing the same thing: we woke up, got ready, drove around on snowmobiles to collect radar data, and then returned to camp to process the data.

The following days were easily some of the most memorable of my life; after we got into a routine, it became easier and easier to wake up in the -25˚F morning air. Every morning I woke up to frozen clothing, ice covered from my frozen breath condensing on them during the night, but I learned to keep a base layer in my sleeping bag so that it would stay warm and dry for the morning. We took turns cooking each day, alternating responsibilities before heading out to collect data. As we explored more areas, we learned more about the mountains sticking up from the ice and the ice sheet that flows around them. Every day we were there I got to experience the beauty that exists in Antarctica. The lack of life and color is beautiful in its own way, providing a better context for the world we live in. The snow was stretched into long ridges parallel to the wind direction in features known as sastrugi, which formed fascinating patterns and beautiful small features. Large wind scoops over 100ft deep had their own sense of beauty; carved by the wind, they exposed layers of blue ice and snow. Ice crystals almost always buffeted us, being blown by the wind and sparkling in the polar sun, like glitter in the air. I grew to love this area in only a week, enjoying camp life with 6 other great people who I am glad to call my lifelong friends and feeling lucky to explore and do science where no more than 15 people have ever been.

Although the weather was generally good enough to safely do science, we had two days where the visibility was too low to go out safely due to lack of visibility forcing us to stay in camp. On these days we would read, write postcards to send when we returned to McMurdo, or our favorite activity was to fold paper (a folding game called foldology) which was relaxing and stimulating at the same time. On New Years Eve we were not able to go out and celebrated by making brownies and taking a group picture at midnight in front of Robert’s Butte.

Although we were busy, we still took time to explore a bit when we had the opportunity. As a geologist I felt lucky that fewer than 15 people had ever been to these mountains and seen the rocks there. The large granite buttes sticking out of the ice were defined by hundreds of foot-tall cliff faces.

As with any adventure, it eventually had to come to an end. After 8 days in the field we received word that we were being picked up to return to McMurdo. That meant we had 3 hours to completely break down camp, weigh everything and stage it to be transported back in the plane. After we got back we had a few days to dry and clean all of our gear and return it to the Berg Field Center (BFC) which handles all of the gear owned by USAP. After a few days, we got on C-130 and returned to Christchurch to go back to the US.

Overall, I learned a lot from this experience. About myself, about Antarctica, about field work, and about how to successfully participate in an Antarctic Field season. Now that I am back I have had a lot of time to reflect on everything that happened. Looking into the future, I am excited for my next opportunity to return to the ice. Thank you for reading and we look forward to providing more stories about our field experiences in the RaD lab!

-Jason Drebber

Coming soon!