What's It Like to Work on a Diving Project There?

Here are several people outfitted in some of their ECW gear on the Hercules transport flight from New Zealand to McMurdo Station, Antarctica. The ECW clothing becomes a constant companion during one's time with the US Antarctic Program.

Antarctic continental temperatures are usually below freezing throughout the year. Coastal regions have 40-100 centimeters of snowfall per year. Katabatic winds are a characteristic feature. Antarctica has an average elevation over 2000 meters and cold dense air from the high continental plateau spills down slope to the coast under gravity's influence. When channeled through valleys, katabatic winds can reach gale force at the coastline, sometimes exceeding fifty meters per second.

The US Antarctic Program prepares the participant for survival in this environment by outfitting each participant with Extreme Cold Weather clothing before departure from New Zealand. This ECW outfit has everything needed for topside clothing in Antarctica, comprising everything from long underwear to a cold weather parka, and emphasizing layering for warmth. The team brought some additional clothing for personal preferences and for diving undergarments.


Anyone leaving McMurdo Station to go out into the field has to participate in several trainings as safety preparation. For the team, this included Field Safety Training (more below), snowmobile training (driving and emergency field troubleshooting and repair), vehicle driving (Spryte tracked vehicles, radio procedure), sea ice training (ice safety, sea ice crack awareness, tent pitching on ice), and helicopter load training (safety around helicopters, emergency procedures, load distribution).

Field Safety Training prepares the US Antarctic Program participant for going out into the field in Antarctica. The essentials of snow camping are taught including cutting snow blocks for wind-shelter, snow cave making, tent pitching and anchoring, staying warm and fed, etc. Weather knowledge is discussed as well as crisis mangement and search party techniques in blizzard whiteouts. Usage of field radios and MSR stoves is practiced. The tent on the right is a Scott tent which is capable of standing up in gale force winds. It is the most comfortable since its occupants can stand and have a lot of floor space. The other tents that are sheltering from the wind in a snow block wall are four-season winter mountaineering tents with more limited floor space and ceiling height. Subzero synthetic-fill sleeping bags are used with two layers of sleepmats underneath. Water bottles are kept inside the sleeping bag at night so that there will be unfrozen water to quench thirst.

Field teams check out their field camping gear and get their food supplies from McMurdo Station's Berg Field Center. Considerable time is spent in advance planning and staging field camping equipment and food. The Berg Field Center (shown here) consists of two 2-story warehouses that are fully stocked for camping, travelling, and mountaineering in Antarctica. Field gear might include ice axes, winter mountaineering tents, ice screws for tent pegs (when setting up tents on sea ice), sleeping bags, fleece sleeping bag liners, ensolite and ThermaRest pads, MSR Whisperlight stoves, water jugs, emergency dehydrated food, canned food, perishable food, shovels, toilet tank, ice saws to saw snow into blocks to build wind sheltering walls for the tents, ice drill used to drill anchors in the sea ice for tent guidelines and check for ice thickness etc, sledge hammer, on and on and on. There are a lot of details and many questions arise. BFC staff proved to be consistently patient with an inexperienced field team.

Load up a Spryte tracked vehicle with diving gear, ECW clothing bags, and survival camping gear. Diving in the vicinity of McMurdo Station involves driving to the dive site. Drive the Spryte along the frozen ocean to a dive site along the shoreline of Ross Island or its offshore islands. The deluxe setup would be to have a heated dive hut available at the dive site, as shown here for a dive site at a grounded iceberg south of Cape Evans. That's Mount Erebus in the background and a helicopter hovering over the iceberg.

Less deluxe would be diving out in the open. Here's a shot from a sea ice crack opened up a bit with chipping bars to allow divers to enter and exit the water. Though sunny outside, the biting wind combined with the cold air temperature requires divers to bundle up for warmth when out in the open between dives, or simply stay suited up in the drysuit between dives. At least one of the divers has to remain topside while other divers are underwater in order to assist divers in and out of the water. As the last step in gearing up, the diver's dry gloves are pulled over the drysuit's wrist seals and assistance is helpful. When the dive is over, the diver strips off the tank/regulators and the weight harness in the water and hands them up, then climbing up and out of the dive hole.

Scientific diving is hard work and not a vacation dive experience. The divers working on research projects centered at McMurdo Station have specific objectives and tasks underwater. There is usually little time for sightseeing dives because a large body of work has to be completed within a relatively short period of time. Here some divers are surveying a site of a long-term experiment.

Recreational divers should look into Antarctic diving charters where the diving emphasis is on fun rather than work !

Antarctic storms can blow up quickly, pinning field teams down until the blizzard relents. Blowing snow greatly affects the ground visibility. Three weather conditions are defined by the US Antarctic Program. Condition Three is normal, clear weather and ground visibility is greater than 1/4 mile. Travel by open vehicle like snowmobiles is allowed. Condition Two has ground visibility less than 1/4 mile usually due to high winds. Travel is allowed only by covered vehicle like the tracked Sprytes. Condition One has ground visibility less than a few hundred feet or almost none. Travel is not allowed and can be impossible. If a Condition One storm blows in while a field team is out in the field, the team usually cannot see far enough ahead to drive the Spryte tracked vehicle safely back to McMurdo Station along the flagged sea ice road. The storm must be waited out either in the vehicle or, as seen here, in a dive hut. Waiting can take hours or days and field teams are supplied with emergency food, sleeping bags, water, and field stoves.

Text ©Peter Brueggeman. Photographs © Norbert Wu & Peter Brueggeman. Photographs may not be used in any form without the express written permission of Norbert Wu & Peter Brueggeman. Norbert Wu no longer grants permission for uncompensated use of his photos under any circumstances whatsoever; want more info?