DAlympics and Plane Crashes

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  McMurdo Station, Ross Island
Wednesday, February 16, 2011

This week was full of new adventures. The pending flight north looms over our heads as we try and soak up all the beauty and adventure we can.

Our lead DAs hosted a DAlympics that included events like mopping, dish, juice, and a slalom course. These are all activities we do on a daily basis, only this time we were being judged for speed, ergonomics, and most importantly, style. People were quite creative in that category; someone even pulled out their trumpet on the slalom course.

My friend David took second place and his prize was a boondoggle out to the Pegasus plane crash site. He was able to do some convincing and I was invited on the trip as well. We rode in a shuttle out to the runway galley where we met a man who works in Fleet Ops named Dustin. He took us another half mile out to the plane. It crashed on the ice runway (the one closer to town) in 1971. As it was coming in, a condition 1 weather system rolled in and ripped the wing off the plane. Everyone on the plane survived, thankfully, but it was destroyed. They drug it out to its present location to get it out of the way. The plane was named Pegasus, and that is what the runway is now called as well. It was an extremely unique experience; plane wreckage slowly being drifted over with snow in the middle of an ice shelf. I felt like I was on the tv show 'Lost.'

After touring the plane, Dustin took us back to the runway where asked us if we wanted to learn how to drive a 65,000 pound D6 bulldozer. The answer was of course a resounding ‘yes!’ We ‘helped’ Dustin level out the ground next to berms that they will eventually put all of the equipment on top of for the winter so it is easier to dig out when summer rolls around again.

I’ve attached some videos that hopefully explain things a little better.

I have 5 nights of work left, a day off to transition back to a day schedule, a dag to ‘bag drag,’ and then I fly north! Its so close. Too close. I’m not ready to say goodbye yet.

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Sitting on Pegasus	David doing a backflip off the plane	LOST, anyone?	Bulldozing!!
It was really fun to drive!	Atop Ob Hill. So much of the ice has melted!	Pegasus Plane	Bulldozer 101   Comments!

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