Impressions of a Trip into the Dry Valleys
By Stephen Pekar

As our helicopter lifted off, we quickly started to head toward the western shores of the frozen McMurdo Sound. The “helo” is a powerful machine that swirls with such intensity that the entire craft bounces slightly as the propellers spin above, suspending us in mid air, like a puppeteer suspending his marionette. There to our south lies an enigma that is literally black and white in all regards, Black Island, White island, and Minna Bluffs. As the names suggests, Black Island and Minna Bluffs are black, consisting of bare black volcanic rock, that have been blasted by mother nature's wind, scouring nearly all forms of ice and snow away. It is as if the polar winds seem to converge, blowing adversely along these landscapes stripping them of all their snow-white cover, leaving them naked to the elements with little ability of the viewer to see the relief of their periphery and the crannies of these rugged dark black volcanic hills. The next island over is White Hill, which as one would expect is draped in thick snow and ice. Why do the winds spare their wrath on this hill, but blow with such fury at the island next to it? One is blown with perhaps moist or more gentle winds that permit it being buried by the soft white powder, giving it a far more tranquil landscape than the harsh forbidding lands of Minna Bluffs and Black island.

As we continued up, there rising up from behind the blacks hills of Ross Island is the great mount of Erebus, not far behind McMurdo Station, whose frozen top belches fire and rolling smoke. Within its crater lies the center of Hades itself and is hidden to all except that brave its perilous slopes of ice and black jagged rocks, past its gaping blemishes of fumaroles of hot steam and poisonous gases that sweat sulfur and water, creating vast passageways of ice on Erebus˙s skin. For those so inclined, a trip to the rim of this living-breathing mountain, one can gaze down into its interior. It is here where a lake exists consisting of rolling boiling scenes of Hades itself, molten in all manner of fashion. A pool of Earth˙s hot interior churning and frothing to the point that in its fury it explodes, hurling out of its rim molten debris in all directions. Today, man taunts this massive edifice of molten lakes and jagged rocks and ice by putting a live video cam at the rim, so we have a 24-hour TV show of a day in the life of what Gates of Hades must be like from the high capital of the lord of the underworld.

As we continued westward toward the Ferrar Valley, we first flew ever closer to the Royal Society Mountains. These majestic peaks loomed larger than at McMurdo Station, with their cliffs of rock laid mainly bare, with only a sprinkling of snow. This is possible owing to their vertical inclinations, which cast snow and ice off, revealing in all of their glory, their naked backs up heaved high into the sky, where only clouds dare reached their icy crest. Within their sides laid the relatively flat layers of an Earth of by gone eras. Some created before all of the continents joined in one great union of a landmass and then only later torn apart to the present continental configurations and before the monstrous sounds of dinosaurs pierced the land. It was a time of warmth that bathed this now harsh ice covered world, a world once covered by simple plants and still nascent fauna that were making their first steps onto land. Now these rocks lay revealed high up stretched across these peaks, revealing the ancient history of this now frozen place.

Turning into Ferrar Valley, all eyes peered eagerly into the vast expanse and heights that beheld our gaze. A long nearly straight valley that extended many tens of kilometers, steep mountains lined it sides with the lower half of these peaks all lined up like a huge carving knife had sliced their fronts off, forming a neat row of mountain slopes, crafted by glaciers from times past. Flying into this valley was like entering a mighty gothic cathedral and an awe of silent amazement was beheld by all.

Deeper and deeper we flew into this valley of juggernauts of iridescent blue ice hanging in heaps that was once snow laid down, but now transformed from the unrelenting pressure from the snow above into a solid mass so hard and forceful. It is strange that what once was such a soft powdery substance is now this unstoppable mass of harden blue crystals, moving inexorable with unwavering desire, carving deep into the solid rock that it now is perched on, and in many times resting on them in a most precarious manner.

Continuing further into the valley, we passed perched valleys often with a glacier hanging and crumbling off its cliff. Ice and rock embedded in a struggle for dominance; high rugged gray and brown masses that have been vaulted high above the valleys by tectonic forces from down deep versus its cold white and bluish counterpart. These mountains originated from a fiery world of molten rock and the energy that convects from our inner world; forging and thrusting these great spires of rock high into the air. Yet, with all their strength of endurance against the winds of time, they are yet still vulnerable to the unrelenting forces of the ice that continuously scraped and scorned the rocks by their weight and movement, with the inexorable desire of only getting down to the sea, where once achieving this goal, will perish like a moth to a flame. As we traveled deeper into this frozen valley, it was like an art galley of living earth and ice, in which we glided gently past these masterpieces of this harsh land. Then as we neared the end Ferrar Valley, we came upon a sight that completely overwhelmed the senses, for we had entered the wide expanse of the convergence of the Ferrar and Taylor Valleys.

Our hovering helicopter flew us into this wild expanse, and through the shock of the sheer openness of the land, pure as the expanse of a heavenly vista, we sailed high above these tongues of the ice sheet, with the high peaks to our west that held back an enormity of frozen water that has been locked up in these icy throes for hundreds of millennium. These rocky carved fortresses against the white plateau of ice have been victorious in years past. Yet, these ice masses pushed and have in the past overridden these mighty peaks and flowed down into these valleys. The remnants of these events are evident by carving of these proud mountains, now stripped down along their sides, exposing nearly flat layers of a now by gone era. Episodes of deposition from once flowing streams and rivers, of beaches where waves of warm soothing water washed over the shores of these now frozen lands are now locked in these rocks. For a person with knowledge of the Earth, they represent frozen time portals of long ago and are testaments of our ever-changing planet. Another layer tells yet another tale, in a later time, these rocks speak of a story when the deep interior of the Earth belched forth its inner molten self, extruding up through the Earth and then coming to rest above these pale brown sands of when early animals were still timidly coming forth onto land. These monstrous layers now form a banding of shades of brown to black from mountain to mountain seemingly ringing every peak in the this valley. As we floated around the back of this intersection of two majestic valleys, we entered Taylor Valley and started to come full circle in our trip.

One of the Dry Valleys, most of Taylor Valley lacks the large glaciers that fill both Ferrar and uppermost portions of Taylor Valley, therefore laying bare its desolate ground. Our first landing was on a hill nestled in the middle of this formidable valley. A hill made of grounded up rock and boulders apparently pushed and laid down by glaciers from a time of when this area was filled with ice. Upon landing here, we scurried like little children on Christmas morn, running in this case to spy one vista after another of spectacular ice and soaring peaks. We were several hundred feet above the valley floor, which was covered in hexagonal shapes fashioned by the ice itself, although their appearance looked far more manmade by their symmetrical lay out. However, it was evident that what laid in front of us contained no hint of humanity's heavy hand anywhere.

Inside twenty minutes, we were back in the helicopter to continue down to the Commonwealth glacier. Within this “dry valley” were features that appear to be incongruent with dry; small frozen lakes of light turquoise blue, with small braided streams and rivers saddled between Nussbaum Ridge and the mountainsides. Though now locked into place from the frigid conditions, one can imagine when in the summer time, when the Sun moves in the realm of Aquarius in the sky and with it, bursts of sunshine warm the ancient stones and rock, which lie beneath the frozen lakes, melting the ice from below. One would then see expanses of liquid water forming in this “dry valley” that would flow down these ephemeral streams. The dark rock laying on the ground also serve to melt the surrounding snow and ice forming little streams that flow into the channel that crisscrosses along the bottom of this valley. With a never setting sun gilding her beams of radiant energy, the spirits of winter’s cold and dark would be much maligned and would bemoan in envy that the sun so low in the sky can produce such results, ”this is our realm and the sun and her legion of warm golden rays has no place here”. But the sun is unrelenting and warring against her is a most futile ambition.

We landed in front of the Common Wealth Glacier and thus began the next part of our adventure, with a trail-less path down from the Common Wealth Glacier to New Harbor. This glacier ends at the Taylor Valley. Its vast expanse rides up the hill and disappears beyond the tops of the mountains that line Taylor Valley hiding its true size and dimensions. Cliffs of ice a hundred feet high mark the abrupt end of the glacier. Snow and ice that seemingly looked as if it was flowing off the top, and now frozen, created the illusion of a waterfalls that had been stopped in place. Why did the ice so abruptly end here, one could only wonder? Along the sides of the mountain, scarps or ridges aligned at a certain elevation, almost like nature had constructed a contour of elevation. However, these were formed by when the Earth laid in the throes of the last ice age. A time when although the ice could still not breach over the mountain highs that lie west of here, the ice sheet instead traversed across the entire Ross Sea extending its ice across its entire expanse, burying it and was sufficient in its mass to reach its deep bottom. Then with ice’s great enormity, it slid up this valley pushing boulder and rock alike to form these ridges along the side of Taylor Valley. Our walk down to New Harbor took us along the streambed, now mainly frozen but with hints that the deep freeze of wintertime was finally coming to an end. Areas of thin ice and actual water seeping through, gave the slightest glimpses of Spring˙s arrival. It was a pleasant journey down hill. However, for me, I was anxious as I awaited to glimpse upon the area where I will be co leading my first expedition in Antarctica, New Harbor.

And as I stood as if on heavenly ground, peering out to the promise land, an outrageous scene laid before me. So named New Harbor, I gazed out onto a frozen sea that has been up thrusted into sculptures of twisted edifices, with petrified broken jagged limbs up stretched from expansion from its natural recourse during freezing. Spires heaved up from the sea surface were also ruined by mountains of force from furious seas and surging waves that most violently beat and distorted the ice that laid frozen along this otherwise quiet embayment. Assaulted frozen ice and compelled most urgently into these mounds of ragged torn heaps that are most hazardous, now laid displayed out all along these shores. They formed an impenetrable way in from of us, there by blocking the shortest route to our destination. These thick slabs of ice where the bottom were in some cases turned upward, exposing their deep icy blue undersides, like veins within our skin drained of the life giving oxygen, laid exposed and frozen for all to see. The ice does not reveal itself so easily in this manner and does so most reluctantly. It is only by force of the nature in its most violent state that they lie up turned and twisted in these unnatural poses.

Upon reaching the shore, these slabs of frozen sea broken most perversely formed a barrier that forced us to follow a longer way around to the New Harbor camp. Although I wanted to explore this broken vista, it was perilous a trip and would be far more time consuming, as the ice resembled a lair of icy thickets, containing surfaces most pointed and yet so treacherously slick. So, the more gentle means to our destination prevailed and thus began our walk along the actual shore of New Harbor. It was not completely plain to see this shoreline. The only real means of distinguishing it was the jagged spires of ice that laid to our left and the occasional gravelly soil that would pierce the snow, becoming visible in places. Otherwise, a snowy and icy landscape laid out before us in all directions and elevations.

The camp of New Harbor was deserted, but if one was still and observant, one could hear that it was filled with echoes of past adventures and whispers of the history of science exploration. As only a chosen few have had a chance to visit and use this camp as a staging area for discovery, it was like entering a shrine of adventure and discovery and a chapel for the thrill of being alive. Although modest in most respects, two rac tents laid side to side with a corridor connecting the two, it felt remarkably spacious considering we were at the head of the Dry Valleys 70 km away from McMurdo. At the site, another shrine had been erected, signs posted of galvanize metal declaring that two of the Dry Valley Drilling Project Sites were located here. A bit of early Antarctic exploration had occurred here, in this now isolated locale. I stood and my heart wept with the joy of being able to see a bit of history and having my soul be touched in such a special chord by this rare beauty. I also felt that I had come home, for a mere 18 km offshore from this coastline is where I will be co leading an expedition next year. A dream that is coming closer and closer to becoming true.

Here is a typical list of events that occur during a week at McMurdo Station

Week in Rec
October 29nd- November 4th
Thank you to all the Antarcticans who dressed for McTown’s Costume Contest. You made it an incredible night!
Monday, October 29th

Catholic Mass in the Chapel - 5:45pm
Yoga in the Chapel 6:30 - 7:30pm
Craft Room Open 7pm-9pm
Tap Dancing
Mondays 7:00 – 8:15 pm
Starting October 15 in Barb’s Laundry Room
Night at the Opera:
An informal social club hosted by Stefan Pashov
7:30 – 8:30pm in 203B lounge
Library Open 6.00pm to 10.00pm
Gear Issue Open 5.30pm - 6.30pm
Volleyball in the Gym 6:30pm – 9:30pm
Ceramics Studio Open & Attendant on Duty 7.00pm - 9.00pm
Alcoholics Anonymous in the Chapel – 8:00pm
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Tuesday, October 30th
Sign-ups for Arts and Craft Fair Begin see Highway 1
Morning Ceramics Studio Open & Attendant on Duty 8am – 10am
Morning Library Hours 8:30am-10:30am
Gear Issue Open 5.30pm - 6.30pm
Catholic Mass in the Chapel - 5:45pm
Climbing Night at the Climbing Wall- 6pm-9pm
Library Open 6.00pm - 10.00pm
Open Volleyball in the Gym 6:30pm – 9:30pm
Craft Room Open 7pm-9pm
Outdoor Safety Lecture, upstairs Crary Lab 7pm
Fellowship in the Chapel - 7:00pm
Ceramics Studio Open & Attendant on Duty 7.00pm - 9.00pm
Guts and Butts Class 7:15-8:15pm in Barb’s Laundry Room 155
Stitch & Bitch 7.30pm - 9.30pm, 208 2nd Floor Lounge
Tuesday Coffeehouse Foreign Film- 7pm
Kippur by Amos Gitai
An Israeli film about the Yom Kippur War.
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Wednesday, October 31th
Trick or Treat… Give Me Something Good (bad) to Eat
Morning Coffee at the Coffee House 6.00am - 10.00am
Gear Issue Open 5.30pm - 6.30pm
Catholic Mass in the Chapel - 5:45pm
Boot Camp Class 6pm-7pm in the Big Gym by the Helo Pad
Library Open 6.00pm - 10.00pm
Wednesday Yoga in the Chapel 6:30 - 7:30pm
Craft Room Open 7pm-9pm
Climbing Wall Certification at the Big Gym 7pm
Burger Bar at Gallagher's 7.00pm - 9.00pm
Ceramics Studio Open & Attendant on Duty 7.00pm - 9.00pm
Open Bowling @ Bowling Alley 7-10pm
Wednesday Night Science Lecture
From Cobbles to Core: Uncovering Antarctica's Elusive Glacial History
Presented by Richard Levy
7:30pm – Upstairs Crary Lab
Halloween Bingo 8pm at Gallagher’s
Free Cupcakes!!!
Open Dodgeball in the Gym 7:30pm – 9:30pm
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Thursday, November 1st
Hut 10 Sign up open for all November
New Early Morning Library Hours 12:30am-1:30am
Gear Issue Open 12pm – 1pm
Gear Issue Open 5.30pm - 6.30pm
Catholic Mass in the Chapel - 5:45pm
Library Open 6.00pm - 10.00pm
Open Soccer in the Gym 6:00pm – 9:00pm
American Night at Scott Base
Last shuttle departs at 10:00
Scott Base Store Open 6:30pm - 8.00pm
Shuttles leave Derelict Junction every 30min. Starting at 6:30pm
Shuttles leave Scott Base every 30min. From 6:45pm-10:45pm
Craft Room Open 7pm-9pm
Bible Study in the Chapel - 7:00pm
Guts and Butts Class 7:15-8:15pm at Barb’s Laundry Room 155
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Friday, November 2nd
Morning Coffee at the Coffee House 6.00am - 10.00am
Gear Issue Open 5.30pm - 6.30pm
Catholic Mass in the Chapel - 5:45pm
Climbing Night at the Climbing Wall- 6pm-9pm
Library Open 6.00pm - 10.00pm
Friday Yoga in the Chapel 6:30 - 7:30pm
Belly Dance Class For Women 7:15 – 8:15 pm In Barb’s Laundry Room
Boot Camp Class 6pm-7pm in the Big Gym
Craft Room Open 7pm-9pm
Ceramics Studio Open & Attendant on Duty 7.00pm - 9.00pm
Live Music @ Gallagher’s! 8pm
Line-up includes: Jah Chant, Level 5ive, and Muschnuckle
Open Basketball in the Gym 7:00pm – 10:00pm
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Saturday, November 3rd
Open Gym
Outdoor Safety Lecture
Where? Upstairs Crary Lab 10:30am
Gear Issue Open 12pm – 1pm
70’s vs. 80’s Party @ Gallagher’s
8pm
Library Open 4:00pm to 8:00pm
Gear Issue Open 5:30pm – 6:30pm
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Sunday, November 4th
Open Gym Hours
Open Volleyball in the Gym 2:00pm – 4:00pm
Open Basketball in the Gym 4:00pm – 6:00pm
Open Soccer in the Gym 7:00pm – 9:00pm
LDS Sunday Chapel Services 8:30am
Catholic Sunday Chapel Services 9:45am
Protestant Sunday Chapel Service 11:00am
All musician and vocalists welcome!
Library Open 12.00 noon 10.00pm
Sunday Coffeehouse Films:
Comix!
1p - The Incredibles
4p - Fat Albert
7p - Sin City
Crary Lab Tours 2.00pm
Craft Room Open 2pm-4pm
Open Bowling at the Bowling Alley 2-5pm
Burger Bar at Gallagher's 5.00pm - 8.00pm
Sunday Night Science Lecture
Title: IPY 2007: The International Pinniped Year - Researching Seals and Sea Lions around the World
Presented by: Markus Horning and Jo-Ann Mellish
8:15pm – Dining Hall

We are getting down to the last of the cores. We are expecting to examine about another 100 meters (about three days of work) and then quickly write up the initial report and then head home. In terms of activities here we had our Thanksgiving last Saturday as the base gets all day Saturday and Sunday off. Well, except for the Andrillians who for us every morning is Monday morning and every evening is Sunday night. In other words, if one wants to go out to the bar and have a fun night, they do it at their own peril, as the next morning there is the perpetual 8 am meeting. Here the calendar may move forward, but the days of the week stay static. However, outside of our seven-day workweek, the community functions on a six-day work week, with a number of activities each day of the week. These activities actually remind me of where I am in the week. These activities include everything from exercise classes with names like “boot camp” to “butts and gutts” to movies, science and travel lectures, arts and crafts, to an opera evening. Of course, the bars have their own special evenings. One of my favorites is Burger Bar at the Gallagher’s (it’s a bar). The line is usually long and I have had to wait up to an hour after placing my order for the food. The burgers are a bit greasy and thin, the fries are nothing to write home about (well, except in this case), but there is something special about sitting down with a burger and a beer and actually spending money to get it. Also, in the galley (i.e., cafeteria), no alcohol is permitted except on Saturday evening and then it can only be wine or beer. There always seems to be an event going on here, especially when the holidays arrive as the community here are a quite an eclectic bunch.

Thanksgiving here is the biggest holiday here outside of Christmas. The festivities begin on that Friday evening with parties scattered among the dormitories and the various buildings. That evening I was a bit tired, but first went out to the wine bar called the Coffee House around 11 pm to wish Fabio a happy birthday. There were a couple of parties going on, one at the carpentry shop and the other in what called the BFC, which is where the field equipment is kept. I was extremely tired, and was about 5 feet from the steps of my dormitory and when a thought hit me, saying hey try to experience life to its fullest. So I went to see what it is all about and thought that I would stay five minutes and then go straight back to the dormitory. I kind of knew that this 5 minute plan was probably not going to hold up as I could hear the music from a hundred meters away (well it is a quiet place). The first floor of the building is a long wide space that extends a hundred feet back lined with Scott tents either hanging or leaning against the wall as well as other camping gear. With most lights either dimmed or off, eerie feelings of the ghosts of past expeditions were in there in a forest of yellow trees. Upstairs was typically Mac town stuff, the xmas lights were strung all over, large cardboard posters with writing and drawings covered the walls, a large box of costumes that anyone could wear. Well once I got upstairs, I knew I was going to be staying more five minutes. Firstly, it was an 80’s party, so all of the music was the stuff I danced to so many years ago. Secondly, lots of the Andrill gang was there, with the co-chiefs Dave and Fabio dancing up a storm with some of the usual suspects (i.e., mainly the Italians). The music was so much fun. There was Devo, Soft Cell, Aha, and it seemed that everyone loved these songs. Many of the dancers were singing along with the lyrics and dancing in unison. It felt like the early 80's all over again back in my apartment of those long ago years. If only that Steve could imagine that he would be dancing to those same songs twenty plus years later in Antarctica. Although I swore off drinking anything but water as I knew I had to be ready for tomorrow, I knew that I wanted to hang out with the gang and dance to the music that I knew and loved.

Well, the best-laid intentions don’t always work and I ended up not getting much sleep at all. The 8 am meeting was a total struggle, the sampling of the core was painful and then I blazed over for the annual McMurdo Station 5 km Turkey Trot, which started promptly at 10 am. Conditions were as best as we could hope for, with temperatures in the teens and a moderate wind giving wind chills in the low single numbers. Just another brisk spring day in Antarctica!! The course took us down on the transition road (the road that goes from town onto the sea ice) and then out to the airport and then back. The views as we ran were incredible, I have not been down onto the ice much, and running with hundreds of Mac towners was clearly a real adventure. The sky was clear and Mt Erebus, Mt Discovery, Mt Morning (all volcanoes) were rose up above the icy flats of McMurdo Sound, with the Royal Society Mountains looming above the hills of the Dry Valleys, like majestic lords of this frozen land.

BTW, I am sure that you are wondering, “well, how did you fare in the race?”. Well, needless to say, the world record for the 5 km was not in jeopardy that day from me although a few people did quite good. I did get through the race without stopping, except to slow down to take pictures. Actually, it would have been real bad if I had stopped as with the biting winds, the front of my legs were tightening up as they cooled down as the wind went right through my sweat pants.

Turkey night was a huge celebration with all of us getting to sit all in the same area. The only thing that I was disappointed with was it ended so quickly. We had all of the typical trimmings and everyone loaded up and ate like they had just left the desert after 40 days in the wilderness. In fact, more than a few guys, did not use plates and just loaded up the food directly onto their trays. It was a sight to behold. The rest of the evening included more parties and revelry.

We went out to visit the sea ice transition as we have finished most of the work and have a bit of time to enjoy the beauty of this place. I will let the pictures speak for themselves as this area is a place of beauty and awe.

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On December 5th, we had our final farewell party. It was special to see everyone without the hustle and bustle of work and be able to enjoy everyone's company over a drink.

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This is a view from one of the small windows from the military transport C-17 aircraft as we headed back to New Zealand.
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The plane broke down in NZ and we had to stay in Mcmurdo for an extra day while waiting for a part. So we waited for a couple of days and in the end got back to NZ on Saturday. There were some problems with my flight, but in the end with a bit of positive cheerful attitudes, people were able to help me get home by the 10th.

I had mixed feelings about leaving Antarctica. I missed Ani, my friends and NYC, but also felt that yet another amazing adventure had come to a conclusion. During the flight and on my way home, I tried to enjoy as much as possible. The views from the small windows in the plane made the trip back a magical one. The sky was clear and not many people peered through them, so right until we got over the ocean, I stood and gazed out at the beauty of this continent.