Santa Flight and Shackleton's Hut

For Christmas each year we send a helicopter with Santa and the elves to deliver Christmas goodies to those scientists out in the field camps from McMurdo. These camps are only accessible by helicopter. Seven lucky people get selected as elves after being nominated by their departments. This year, I got to play “Santa” since I’m the NSF Representative in Antarctica. Thankfully, I only had to wear a Santa hat and not a whole getup over my Emergency Cold Weather Gear we have to wear on the helos.

First stop was Marble Point, which is a small refueling station that houses one camp manager (Katie) and a fuelie that rotates in that position. This Santa was thankful to get to that location after 1.5 hours of flying in a middle seat without a window. Katie has made the little hut a real home with homemade cookies, biscotti, and bread upon arrival and a computer generated “fire” on the fireplace and holiday music playing. We all took a chance to sample the goods, take in the holiday feel, and use the bathroom, which is an experience in itself. Think ISS with poop bags and separate areas for urinating vs solid waste. It was scary enough for this Santa to refrain from that experience…..

After Marble Point, we headed towards Cape Royds. On the way, we passed over so many beautiful landscapes. We even saw penguins waddling and whales surfacing. I’ll have to get pics from others because I was not at a window for that part of the flight.

Once we landed at Cape Royds, we visited with the Antarctic Heritage Trust which is in charge of maintaining historical landmarks, such as Shackleton’s hut. Built in 1907, this small hut housed 15 men over the first winter and was used for a few years after that. Everything in this hut is restored to the original condition or is original materials itself. This was an extreme highlight and I am very aware how special this opportunity was for us.

Shackleton's hut

Pretty amazed to be standing here in this historic hut

The views were just breathtaking. We have two scientists living out here for months at a time doing penguin research. We spent so much time in awe of the hut that we had to hurry to see the penguins nesting nearby. Most of the Adelie penguins had chicks or eggs on their nest. They were pretty far for those of us with iphones, but some had long lenses on fancy cameras to snap some good photos. I was just in awe that these two ladies live here and don’t have internet or phone or any creature comforts….like a shack even, and they do this work for months at a time! They were really appreciative of the box of goodies and the boxes of mail that we brought to them.

Adelie penguin colony resting on nests

Standing penguin has two chicks under her 

Skua birds

Cape Royds camp for two scientists

On the way to our last stop, we flew over Mt. Erebus, the tallest active volcano in Antarctica and the second tallest volcano overall in Antarctica. It’s almost 13,000 feet, so the helicopter had to take a while to climb. The altitude difference was quite noticeable with ears popping and some headaches starting. The view over the top was something not many people have seen, so again, we were all aware of how special this trip was. Most of us sat in silence just taking it all in. The pilot kept checking on us to make sure we were all ok since we were the quietest group he said he’s ever had onboard!

Our last stop was Cape Crozier, where three young female scientists were doing different penguin studies than the previous team. I took the opportunity to stand alone at the top of the hill where we landed and just took it all in in silence… well, my ears weren’t adjusted so it was really silent, but also the silence of no people around as others went to see the hut and the possibility of penguins. The sea ice wasn’t conducive to seeing those penguins, so I chose wisely. As the fog started to settle in, it was time to get out of there so we didn’t get stuck.

Cape Crozier where three people live and work

Our pilot, Bryan, also flies for SpaceX and picked up the Axiom 1 crew after landing. He is the lead pilot out here, so we were fortunate to fly with such an expert.

The elves were happy and really appreciative of the experience. I just wish we could take everyone at McMurdo on these flights. It really is what we are all about here… the science and the uniqueness of this nature in Antarctica.

Happy Holidays from McMurdo’s Santa!