November 29, 2001 (#2)

What is the most significant that has happened to me on my visit to the ice? I made my first SCUBA dive under the ice a couple of days ago. I know that the diving will be one of the most important factors influencing the music that I make here. Besides music, research diving is also at the center of my professional expertise. I have been a Scientific Diving Instructor for nearly 20 years; teaching for 15 of those years in the dive program at UC Berkeley. Antarctica is certainly the ultimate dive destination for a scientific diver. It's the place that requires the most preparation for diving operations and is also a place where the payoffs are greatest, as man is just beginning to learn about the undersea ecosystem here.

Rob Robbins, McMurdo Station's excellent diving coordinator, briefed me on the safety procedures and diving practices of the Antarctic and then escorted me beneath HUT 19, through the ice hole, and down into a fantastic underwater seascape that was completely outside and beyond any previous experience of my life.

I am still very high from that dive! It's going to take a while just to process all the visual impressions. You can look forward to some underwater images and more descriptive writing about this here in the future. I look forward to having a few more dives go by when my sensorium (or whatever) can apprehend all that new information in real time. Old visual cues don't apply so readily under the ice here. The visibility can be up to 1000 feet. This confuses your perceptions quite a bit. Odd to not really know how far away or how large or small things are. And without my depth gauge, I would have had no clues to my precise depth that I can yet understand.

I'm used to understanding most things in the diving environment - to have a totally new ecosystem and so many organisms beyond any previous experience is unprecedented. Usually I know the names of most of the organisms around plus a lot of behavioral information and a thorough understanding of the ecosystem.

Here, I am completely starting from scratch...

So much to see and so much to learn. What a great opportunity.

This is all truly AMAZING to me and one of the greatest diving experiences I have ever had. (and I have made 3000-3500 dives since I was 11 years old!) After a few more dives, I will struggle with words some more and attempt to write something better about all this for you all.

I LOVE THIS PLACE and I AM READY TO LOVE IT UNDERWATER THE MOST OF ALL.!

My time here is really precious for me. For the support of many folks who helped me to get under the ice here, I am very grateful. PARTICULAR THANK-YOU'S TO:

Lloyd Austin, Art DeVries, Guy Guthridge, Rob Robbins, Henry Fastenau, Amber Mace, Janet Glaser, Rhanor Gillette, Fred Lieberman, Kay Campitelli, Jane Stevens, Kim Stanley Robinson, Ben Hunt and Kevin Hoefling.

Now I am off to the South Pole Station for the first weekend in December. Then back to McMurdo for a week of diving. And then a week at the top of Antarctica's 12,000'+ active volcano, Mount Erebus. More reports soon.

HK

November 29, 2001

What's one of the first things that you do when you arrive at McMurdo Base in Antarctica? You take a 2-day survival course, variously known as SNOWCRAFT ONE, SURVIVAL SCHOOL, or HAPPY CAMPER.

Nine of us spent a day learning how to survive if stranded out on the polar icecap in a condition one hurricane-blizzard. We learned to put up various tents and to construct snow shelters, snow walls, snow caves and igloos. We learned to light stoves, make water and to stay warm and on the happy side of the hypothermic line. Then the instructors left us to fend for ourselves for the bright night out on the icecap. Fortunately, we had nice balmy weather: 20 degrees above zero to ten degrees below. I shared a classic Scott Tent with two others and experienced the best sleep of my trip. Another, not-so-happy camper spent his night alone in a constructed snow cave and was so cold that he could not sleep. A great lesson in survival strategies.

The next day, after lessons in setting up an emergency short wave transmitter, we passed a couple of survival scenario tests with flying colors. With white plastic buckets over our heads, we attempted to locate a lost team member. And after that, we set up a quick survival camp next to our crashed "school bus" and called out for help on a short wave, after setting up an antenna.

HK

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November 27, 2001

What’s the best thing in the world? This week, for me, the best thing in the world is laying on my back in the middle of McMurdo Sound on top of 15 feet of sea ice, with 1700 feet of water underneath it, and looking up at an amazingly BLUE Antarctic sky. I am so completely happy to be here.

To review what is going here: I am in Antarctica for two and one-half months on a National Science Foundation Antarctic Program Artists & Writers Grant. The purpose: To compose, improvise, and record an instrumental, solo acoustic and electric guitar CD about Antarctica — its landscape, weather, natural history, exploration, and the science of people working there today. The CD will be recorded entirely on site in Antarctica. Portions would be recorded indoors and other portions outdoors, incorporating musical interactions with the natural soundscapes of Antarctica. The music will include environmental sounds recorded by myself in Antarctica. While in Antarctica I would also produce radio commentary and sound art for National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and video reporting about Antarctica for the National Geographic Today television program. These reports will include musical art, images, sounds, and interviews from Antarctica, as well as accounts my own project’s development.

I am based at the USA’s McMurdo Base. Look for McMurdo Sound and Ross Island on a map. That’s where I am. I will be traveling to several different field camps during my stay here. This coming weekend I will fly to South Pole Station for a 3 night stay there. I say “night”, but as you should know, during the Austral Summer, the sun never sets on Antarctica; it is always light and always seems to be daytime.

A week ago, I flew in a packed Royal New Zealand Air Force Hercules transport aircraft from Christ Church, NZ to McMurdo. This first week here has been one of the most exciting and happy in my life. More about it in my next report. For now, each and every day, I celebrate being the luckiest and happiest person that I know of.

HK