More McMurdo Vehicles!

Hi Friends,

Welcome to the sixth of seven consecutive posts about our exploration of McMurdo this weekend. The next and final entry for the day will investigate a hut built by Antarctic Explorer Robert Scott and his crew in 1902! See previous posts for information about resource management at McMurdo. 

This entry is a follow-up to an earlier post I wrote in response to a special request for pictures of the vehicles around McMurdo Station. With my eyes sensitized by the previous post, I've noticed even more interesting vehicles!

I don't know what these specialized forklifts are called elsewhere, but around here they are called "Pickles!

Pickles are valuable for their ability to fit into cargo containers.

Another view of a Pickle. 

A lot of energy is expended maintaining driving surfaces around town. This vehicle is often at work smoothing road surfaces with a metal scoop beneath the vehicle.  

Many of the roads have channels to direct the snowmelt.

Snow is another challenge to road maintenance!

A backhoe clearing snow on the road we took to practice walking in our crampons. Town is barely visible on the right side of the photograph. Vehicles use this road to access important logistical locations such as antenna sites that circle the town. On the ridge on the left side of this photograph, you can see McMurdo's HF radio antenna site.

Bulldozers used to move snow can have much larger blades than those used to move rock, or other heavier materials. 

In McMurdo, you don't have to stand around very long before a forklift carrying something interesting passes you.

It is hard to resist taking a picture of Ivan the Terra Bus.

Ivan transported us to McMurdo from the runway the day we arrived in Antarctica. We will almost certainly take a ride in Ivan when we leave!

Ivan is such an institution around station, the information technology staff modified the desktop backgrounds to include it!

These vehicles are relatively new around town. They're more commonly associated with heavy metal and coal mining operations.

The flatbed on the vehicle in the previous photograph can also be used with this personnel carrier.  Perhaps a future replacement for Ivan?

All of these vehicles run on fossil fuels. Personnel who facilitate fueling operations for McMurdo are called "fuelies." In this image, they are hard at work on top of a fuel tank.

My final post about McMurdo activities will document our tour of one of Robert Scott's huts this afternoon! Hopefully we'll deploy to the field soon. I'm running out of McMurdo topics!


Hope all is well back home,


Claire