tlarson58 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 10:09 am
Um...
New Hampshire for the win.
Screenshot 2023-02-04 080753.jpg
That wind was recorded at the summit weather observatory on Mt Washington., elevation of 6288Ft, so about 5000ft above most towns in the area.
South Pole was nice. I had also worked at Mcmurdo station many years earlier. McMurdo was a cold mud pit on the coast. Beautiful coastal water and distant Mountain views. Killer whales, penquins, Wadell seals big n lazzy, Leopard seals...one story has a guy walking across the ice, and a Leopard seal punches up thru the ice and goes back down with his calf muscle in its mouth. Thats how they catch penquins, or people. McMurdo was quancet huts, dorms, research facilities, all like you'd imagine a research/military remote camp to be. Dirty, looking permanently temporary. Good food, though. Good social scene. Good people, generally. I used to sneak over to neighboring Kiwi/NZ Scott Base where they had a rope tow on a good slope. Maybe 150 yds. Maybe only 100. It was great.
We could sign out tele touring skis on base, and their were a few nice loops that were flagged as okay to ski on. But US folks were not supposed to use kiwi base rope tow. Of course, half the people at the rope tow were from McMurdo.
I won a timed ski race down there..GS format, .could be first ski race on the continent. "So i got that going for me."
I played in "the band" there, and later at South Pole.
South Pole was nicer...pristine white flats and drifts as far as you could see. I lived in a quancet hut there. I think everyone gets into the station now a days. Station is nice. Basketball court, gym, sauna, little retail store, movie sign out, common rooms, and research and utility stuff. Really good food. I was a carpenter to help out research groups. We renovate skiddable trailers-huts to suit their research needs, then they get dragged out wherever the research is. Perhaps they need some area heated, and with desks, or with plastic dome over top for pictures, air sampling, core sampling, etc. We also did some maintenance such as the meteorological visibility signs which enable station weather people to see how far visability in 4 directions is, for approaching pilots. Me and a friend/coworker had a few weeks work raising those billboard sized signs as the drifting snow keeps encroaching. We'd go out on a snowmobile. I think each direction went for 1-2 miles with visability signs every 1/4 mile or so.
It was awesome. We once got fogged in, couldnt see the base, nor determine which direction the last sign really was. We waited and it cleared out. That same coworker friend and I are the guys who rebuilt the escape shaft ladders in the tunnels. Those were my favorite 2 jobs.
So, New Years eve, band has played past 12 oclock in the gym/basketball court area. people coming and going all night . There was a great dinner earlier, the music, dancing, perhaps a few hundred people wobbling around...and outside, ......over where the "drillers" use hot water to melt 3ft diameter shafts straight down a few thousand feet through the ice, on a huge grid pattern so scientists can hang round neutrino detectors every 100ft down.....there is a cloud that looked so odd. The air was otherwise clear. Sun was buzzing around its circular route. It doesnt set until maybe April. But, whats up with that cloud, and why are so many people going over there? I walked over the 100+ yds and then I saw the steaming hot water lagoon full of people. Its 0 degrees, warmest day yet. Guys and gals in swimming trunks, bikinis, underwear, togas...walking to and from the base. Shuttle vans driving back and forth. ...floating inflatable palm tree drinky-poo islands...60-100 people at any time. All beverages at the makeshift bar...The lagoon must have been 50ft across and 4 ft deep. You could squat down and just have your head exposed. Even the little floating tables must have been having fun. The ice melting drillers had plowed out the snow and used huge rubber fuel liners to line the lagoon, then they filled it with hot water which was cycling in one line, and out another for reheating. The steam cloud was such that you might see only 15-20ft away, packed with smiling faces, once you were in the water, until a breeze pushes the cloud away and another cloud quickly forms. I soaked all that up until about 6am when it became time for breakfast. It was the most bizarre mix of things going on. One of the most incredible parties I've ever been to. Off the record...totally unapproved. Marvelous new years experience. The contrast of being, and knowing where I was, and what I was seeing was very enjoyable.