The Ob Tube

So, somebody asked me to post pictures of the Ob Tube.

The Ob Tube is basically this big metal tube that they stick into the ice every year so scientist can climb down and look at things under the surface of the sea ice. Because the ice around Ross Island is so finicky this year, there are not many morale trips for Mac Town residents due to safety concerns. To remedy this, the Ob Tube was opened up for residents to visit whenever they had free time to kill.

It's a really cramped space, and in order to climb down, you need to strip down to your underwear and apply plenty of seal blubber so you can slide down. No kidding though, on my first trip to the tube, there was a 45 minute wait to climb down because someone got stuck and couldn't get out. I can't phathom what that's like, but I imagine it is more scary than having the self realization that you are exactly the awful kind of person that you always assumed yourself to be.


Approaching this thing, you have the realization that this tube is being held up by by packed ice and a couple of metal bars that prevent this thing from falling to the sea floor. Really fucking scary, but then you walk up and you look down and see nothing but darkness. While you're contemplating whether this was a good idea or not, the person you walked out to the tube with is all, "Hey man, are you gonna climb down or what?"  So you throw your legs over (and you know that you're not going to fall in, because there's no room to fall,) grab the rungs, and begin your descent. Halfway down somebody closes the lid, so whatever light you had no longer aids your climb. Ten feet from the bottom, the metal rungs turn into a rope ladder and totally destroy any confidence you built up and you begin to sway wildly until you pull your shit together and establish some sort of balance. And then you find yourself in the world's most crazy aquarium.

Unfortunately, my phone camera is a piece of junk, and the focus mechanism focuses on the glass and not the water on the other side.

Those white floatie things are everywhere. I don't know they're called, because instead of going to Sunday night science lectures, I spend my time playing shuffleboard at Southern Exposure. This picture does not begin to capture how many of those things exist down there. And that bright spot at the top is frozen sea ice. It looks really cool from the tube, but again, bad photo.

If I had a better camera, I could have taken pictures of jellyfish the size size of basketballs, and even seals that swam by. Okay, I didn't see any seals down there, but there is a seal that lives right outside of the Ob Tube, and he swims around all the time. One time I did see a Kraken, but I'm not allowed to post pictures because of NSF guidelines. Sorry, but that's somebody grant money right there...

Due to the weather warming up, the tube is now closed, but it was fun while it lasted. Although the first time down is scary as hell, it's not as bad after you know that you're probably not going to die. I also have photos of the tube that some diver took from the exterior. They're not mine however, so I don't feel cool posting them without violating somebody's work and adding watermarks. But yeah, the Ob Tube... fucking awesome.

Happy Thanksgiving from Ob Hill!

So, it has been a while since I've posted. Most of my days off now are spent doing random hikes and community projects, so I've been "kinda" busy. On top of that, I spent a week fighting the dreaded McMurdo crud, which involved a lot of sleeping and a lot of hot totties. Today we celebrate Thanksgiving, and I've received an additional day off this weekend. What a perfect time to post while I wait to line up outside the galley for an hour and gorge myself on... I dunno, not freshies though, no flights have been able to make in it all week.

I wanted to show everybody some of the cool stuff there is to do down here besides watching Kiwis drink and scream about rugby.

A few weeks ago, I signed up to volunteer for the McMurdo trail crew. There's a number of different trails around the station that range from 1-7 miles, and a lot of them cover some of the mountainous hills surrounding Mac Town. A couple of us residents signed up to shovel snow on Ob Hill and make sure the trails are actually still there. It was basically 4 hours of shoveling rock-solid snow on the tallest hill overlooking town.

This

Became this

HOLY SHIT!!! IS THAT DUDE SWINGING A PICK AXE??? That's right, trail work in Antarctica is fucking serious!!!!

The result of 4 hours work?

Boo-yah! Now take that view and spread it our over a quarter of a mile, and you got some serious cleared trail happening. The original picture was taken about 30 feet above where the actual trail was, so imagine trying to hike around Ob Hill in the snow at a 45 degree angle. That's some scary stuff, and better men and women than I have done it just to reinforce the fact that I am a sissy. No joke, it's posted right in the middle of Highway 1: MIKE IS A SISSY. The most popular name at McMurdo is Mike, so it may no be referring to me, but all of us Mikes share the burden...

I did get some cool shwag out of the deal. I received a trail marker and a bunch of stickers.

Oh yeah, we also some props from folks elsewhere, too. Fuckin-A we're tough wingnuts, we play with pick axes.

This was just my afternoon on that particular Sunday. I have a bunch of pictures from the rest of the day, and other days as well. So, hopefully, more postings soon.