Touring Palmer Station

Most of my blogs and photos thus far have been on the wildlife and scenery here -- and justifiably so. But I will try and do a few on some of the facilities and society here at Palmer Station, which is so much different from the other two U.S. Antarctic Program stations at McMurdo and South Pole.

It's by far the smallest science base of the trio, and we are currently maxed out with 45 people. Ironically, it gets the most visitors by far in terms of tourists. The station typically hosts 12 ships per year, as well as the occasional private yacht or sailboat. It's great outreach for the science program, allowing people to see the facilities and meet the researchers personally. I talked to a bunch of tourists over the last week or so, and all of them were impressed by the station. They get a tour of the station, the highlight being the store:














At the end of the tour, the groups are led to the lounge/galley, where they can chat with station personnel and chow on brownies (apparently famous enough to have been mentioned in the Lonely Planet Antarctica) and have tea or coffee, and grab some brochures as well.

After a day of working and playing tour leaders, the station staff has a great place to hang out. The local pub is BYOB, and everyone contributes very generously to the general stash:














In addition to the recent tourist ships -- whose passengers included Buzz Aldrin -- we got a visit from the RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer, one of the two research vessels for the National Science Foundation. Stiff sea ice on the east side of the peninsula has rebuffed their efforts to go very far south, so they're on the western side trying to come up with a new plan, though they think they can fly helicopters across the mountainous peninsula to do some of their original work.



A helicopter coming in to land from over the glacier behind station.

At right, the RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer pulling away from Arthur Harbor, Palmer Station.

Boating Around Palmer Station

Here's a short 55-second video of boating around the local area and visiting Torgersen Island, home to mostly Adelie penguins, though the lone penguin in the video you'll see is actually a gentoo, a larger subantarctic species that is "invading" territory traditionally held by Adelies, who are struggling in the warmer climate here. The island is less than 10 minutes away by Zodiac, inflatable boats with outboard motors that are used for science and recreation here. Access to many of the islands is limited to scientists. In fact, half of Torgersen is actually a preserve that tourists are now allowed to be on. However, one of the birders -- scientists studying the various seabird populations here, including the penguins -- told me the impacts of tourism are pretty low when well managed.

At the end is a leopard seal on an ice floe, where they can often be found lounging after enjoying a tasty meal of penguin.

Boating at Palmer Station

I'm finally back at Palmer Station for the duration of my time in the Antarctic. My plan for my first night here was to hike the glacier behind the station -- a towering wall of ice that has been increasingly receding as the area continues to warm.

But then some folks put together a little boating expedition to nearby Torgersen Island, a rocky island less than 10 minutes away from the station by Zodiac. It's home to an Adelie penguin colony, a fact you can smell as well as see as you hit the downwind approach. Nearby at Elephant Rocks, brutish elephant seals slammed into one another like mammalian versions of sumo wrestlers ...





Elephant seals duels at the eponymously named Elephant Rocks.


Predatory skuas attempt to steal an Adelie chick from its parent.

Parental love among penguins.

Palmer Station with an iceberg in the harbor.

A Zodiac boat used for transportation in the area.

Palmer Station

The dreaded Drake Passage was more like Drake Lake.

I arrived at Palmer Station, a scattering of buildings clinging to the coast of Anvers Island along the Antarctic Peninsula, on Dec. 3. The middle of the four-day crossing is infamously rough between the tips of South America and the peninsula because of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the world's largest ocean current, which circles the continent completely unimpeded by land. High seas and lying low in your bunk are the norm, I'm told. But Poseidon or whatever marine deity that rules these seas was kind to us, and after a day of precautionary seasick meds, I enjoyed the trip, getting to know some of the scientists and crew aboard the ship.

The captain of the Laurence M. Gould, a stick-thin and amiable fellow named Joseph Abshire, said it was one of the two or three calmest crossings he's seen out of 40 or 50 clips across that stretch of sea.

It's a surprisingly young bunch onboard, recent graduates and postdocs, with a few polar veterans, led by Hugh Ducklow, chief scientist who has been working down here since 1994. It's mostly Americans, though the postdoc, an infectiously cheerful lady named Kim Bernard, is from South America, and the chief engineer, a sort of silent, strong type, is from Portugal.

While uneventful in terms of high seas, we enjoyed some wildlife en route, including a large pod of Commerson's Dolphins in the Straits of Magellan. The black and white dolphins looked a bit like mini orcas, gliding and slicing through the rolling waves during the long twilight. Sadly, no photos.

However, lots of other picture opportunities, as you'll see below, and plenty more to come, esp. with nearly 24 hours of daylight. Technically, the sun sets for about two hours or so right now, but it's always daylight out. Not a lot of time for blogging, as the science cruise is preparing to leave, and I'll be on the ship for another day or two to see most of the operation in action, then back to Palmer Station for about a month.

Not all is white in Antarctica. Lichen on rocks.

Palmer Station. My home for about a month.

The breathtaking Neumayer Channel near Palmer Station.

The ship tied up at the Palmer pier.

A crabeater seal prepares to slide off a tiny iceberg into the water, which is right at freezing.

48 Hours and Counting

Less than two days before I board a plane -- well, several planes -- on my fifth trip to Antarctica. This will be my first visit to Palmer Station, and by all accounts, the perfect time to visit. Wildlife will be at its peak, and I should definitely see penguins and other seabirds, possible several species of seals, and maybe even whales. More importantly, I'll be there at a busy time of the year for polar research, joining the Palmer LTER team aboard the Laurence M. Gould, a science vessel in the U.S. Antarctic Program's two-ship fleet. Seasickness meds packed.

My route will take me from Denver to L.A. (an unusual stop, as usually people exit the country via Dallas or Miami) to Santiago, Chile, to Punta Arenas, the largest city in Patagonia. Based on the itinerary, it's about a full 24 hours of planes and airports, meaning I'll leave Saturday morning, the day after Christmas, and arrive sometime in the afternoon on Sunday in PA. The Gould and the Nathaniel B. Palmer are both in port right now, a rare opportunity to see both vessels together. Al Hickey, a sometime employee of RPSC, has promised to give me a tour of the Palmer, so I hope to get some good pics and maybe even a story before the adventure really begins.

Countdown Begins

Only 10 days before I head south once more to Antarctica, my fifth trip since 2003.

This time is different: A visit to Palmer Station, a research base for the U.S. Antarctic Program out on the Antarctic Peninsula, where the spine of the Andes re-emerges after a dunk into the Southern Ocean from South America. I'm scheduled to take a USAP icebreaker, the ARSV Laurence M. Gould out of Punta Arenas across the dreaded Drake Passage.

I'll spend about six weeks aboard the vessel and the station, writing stories about climate science, penguins, the people and other topics for The Antarctic Sun. I'll also post short dispatches, pictures and videos here of the trip as often as I can.

Here are a couple of more pics from the Antarctic Photo Library to whet your appetite:

Leopard seal with an unlucky penguin in its mouth.

A typical scene aound the peninsula.