20 December 2007
Brimstone Peak, Antarctica.
-4F, Clear Skies
We were all pretty exhausted after 12 hours in the field, but wanted to take advantage of the weather, so back out we went 45 minutes later, this time to a site called Brimstone Peak. Brimstone is about the same distance away from McMurdo as Westhaven, only to the north. The site install went well (although we will need to go back to finish up one more item) and the weather was great again. Again, about -20C and not too much wind. Really ideal conditions for about 7,500 ft. but still tiring to move all that equipment….quick lesson for those who don’t know…the way oxygen works at altitude is that as you get higher, the pressure decreases. Basically this means that your body has to work harder to pump oxygen from your lungs into your blood. That’s why it’s harder to breathe when you are at high elevations. So here’s the catch: the barometric pressure decreases as you move away from the equator, and guess what, Antarctica is about as far from the equator as you can get. So in short, the pressure is much lower here, which equates to being at higher elevations. That means when you hoof around 75 pound batteries at 7,500 ft. here, you get pretty winded.
At any rate, here is a photo from Brimstone Peak. This shows Eric (on the right) and Joe installing the monument that will hold the GPS antenna.
