Although MILR station is notorious for very cold and windy weather, it was relatively pleasant on Wednesday, -20C with no real wind. By the end of the day, most of us had shed layers, unzipped coats, and/or removed outer gloves or mittens. (Incidentally, this led to some confusion as most of us had black mittens, which at first glance look alike.) The station was at a much higher elevation than McMurdo (which is at sea level), but I was really the only one who had much difficulty breathing from the elevation. I was slightly light-headed the instant we stepped off the plane (stupid asthmatic lungs!).
The "snow" however, was in terrible condition. There was blue ice very close to our location and the snow at the site had nearly turned to ice itself. We were working on a slope, which was very slippery and people were frequently falling down. We were extremely lucky that our mountaineer, JR, and our pilots were willing and able to dig the new hole for the sensor. The pilots aren't actually supposed to help (in case they get injured), but without their help, I don't think we would have finished the station. The snow was so close to ice that they had to "dig" by hacking away with a pickax and haul the chunks out.
And, while I'm on the subject of icy snow, this post very nearly could've been called "The Day I Broke My Leg!" Seriously, it was a close call. Our station was on a rock with a slippery snow/ice slope leading up to it. I was stepping off the rock onto the slope with some heavy equipment. Having already fallen and banged my knee once doing this, I tried putting my foot down in a different spot. Unfortunately, there was only a thin layer of ice there, with a small cavity beneath, and my lower leg fell through. Since I was headed downhill, though, my momentum carried the rest of my body forward, so that I fell forward downslope with my leg still stuck in a vertical hole. There was a whole lot of pressure on my shin and then a loud snap as I hit the ground.
You know how sometimes it takes a split-second for your brain to register pain? Well, in that instant, I registered the pressure on my shin and the loud snap before I felt any pain and was very afraid that I'd broken my leg out in the middle of nowhere in Antarctica. But, once my brain caught up with the pain, I knew it wasn't bad enough to be broken. The snap I'd heard turned out to be the ice around my foot-hole cracking and freeing my leg just a little. Still, it was pretty painful, and when everyone was around me yelling "Is it twisted?" "Did you break it?" "Can you bend it?" "Can you straighten it?" etc., I kept trying to ask them to wait, since I knew I'd cry if I tried to talk. I was unsuccessful in this though, and I can only ask you to imagine how humiliating it is to be fighting back tears in front of a bunch of tough men in the field. Still, I'm glad to not have a broken leg, and although it was swollen and feverish for a couple days, it's mostly better now, and there's no real harm done.
The site was in the Transantarctic Mountains, and the scenery there and on the approach was beautiful. The rock that the station was on was particularly amazing. A metamorphic, beat-to-hell sort of rock, with thick veins of felsic material (possibly quartzite?) shot through the whole thing. Unfortunately, we were so busy on site, that I was only able to snap a few pictures. But, I will end this post with the handful I did take.
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