Friday was my first station install! We still couldn't go to Fallone due to weather, which is unfortunate because Mike had to leave on Friday night. Instead, we went to a location called Mt. Howe, where there was an existing GPS station, but no seismic station. This was a pretty exciting trip. There were a number of bumps in the plan, but it worked out alright and I thought it was an enjoyable trip.
The existing GPS site was situated on a ridge (actually the southernmost rock exposure on Earth!). To the northeast side of the ridge, we knew from previous experience that there was deep snow, but that there had been some difficulty landing on that side. On the southwest side, there was blue ice, which was unsuitable for the seismic station, which needed to be buried in the snow. So, the plan was to try to land on the northeast side of ridge.
Unfortunately, this proved to be very difficult. The snow was rough and so hard that the pilots weren't able to land there. We flew in circles for 45 minutes, making many "touch-downs" to test the snow. Sometimes, the pilots would fly along the ground for several miles, so close that you could occasionally here the snow scraping against the skis. Eventually, they gave up on that side of the mountain, and after a couple touch-downs on the blue ice to the west of the ridge, we landed.
At first, we hoped to find a patch of snow west of the ridge that was deep enough for burying the sensor, but after a couple test holes, it was apparent that the blue ice was just too close to the surface, and that we were going to have to transfer our equipment over the ridge to the eastern side. How much gear? The biggest piece is the box containing the batteries, power control, and control system - it weighs 400 pounds! Next is the sensor, which weights 30-40 lbs and is very fragile. There's also a tall and bulky - but fairly light - post that holds up the GPS antenna and the solar panels. Add these to the shovels, tool bags, and boxes of other things, and you can see that lugging these over the ridge was no small thing.
Thankfully, the pilots helped with dragging the box over the hill, but I did carry the sensor most of the way. Someone took pity on me though, and helped me the with the last bit of the way. Pretty embarrassing, but I was tired, out of breath (more on that later), and very grateful for the help.
Most of the time was spent digging the wholes for the sensor and equipment box. The snow was hard and I had some trouble in the beginning, but once I got the hang of it (and discovered that some shovels worked better than others), I think I made a decent contribution to the holes. Installation went pretty quickly since most of the equipment was in the box and already running. We ended up finishing the station install before the GPS servicing was through, which was surprising. Probably not entirely fair, though since we had so many people helping off and on with the seismic installation.
When we got back to the plane, I had quite a bit of trouble with breathing and coughing. Unfortunately, this has been a problem since I arrived. My oxygen saturation has been quite low every time I measure it, and almost every time I come in from the cold, I have a nasty - and noisy - coughing fit. This hasn't gone unnoticed by me team members who have commented on it on the past two trips. And, I also have trouble breathing at night. Other than the coughing, I felt pretty okay, but Guy strongly suggested that I go to the medical clinic when we returned to the base and I agreed that I would.
I walked into the clinic and told the clinician that I had a cough. At first she was rather rude and asked me what I wanted her to do about it. They'd run out of cough drops several days before. I didn't quite know what to say, and mumbled something about having been sent there by my team because it wouldn't go away. So, she started checking me out. Since I'd just come in from the cold, the coughing started up while I was there, making further explanation unnecessary (and impossible since talking seemed to make it much worse).
The verdict was that I had bronchitis, which was irritated by spasms due to the cold, and that my oxygen levels were way too low. Generally, it should be close to 100, and 95 is considered low, and below 90 in hypoxic. At Pole, due to the elevation, she said they consider anything above 88 as acceptable. Mine was bouncing between 79 and 86, averaging around 83 or 84. So, she gave me some pills and an inhaler and put me on oxygen for about 30 minutes. That didn't bring the levels up much, so she also gave me a nebulizer treatment, which finally did the trick.
Fortunately, she said I could continue to work as long I take it easy. I was happy to hear this, since I'd been a little worried that if I went to the doctor, they'd just say "don't go outside," which would obviously not work given what I'm here to do. Or even worse, that if they couldn't get my oxygen levels up, they might send me home. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who was worried about this, as Guy mentioned at dinner that it was important to get it under control since if they sent me home, he'd be the only one left to work on the station. (Patrick is unlikely to be allowed to come back this year, Mike was leaving that night, and Thomas is leaving in a week.)
So, the install was eventful as was the evening afterwards. But, on the whole, everything ended well, so I guess it was good day!
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