Filed under: alex
After an 8 year run, the relationship has ended. With the relationship, so too does So Civilized find the end of the road. If Elizabeth has anything planned I’ll update this post with a link. My story continues over at my new blog, Clean Cut American Kid, which is titled after an Ill Repute song. Thanks for reading.
Filed under: Antarctica
View of Parque Torres Del Paine
Alex & I have safely crossed the Drake Passage for the second time. We arrived in Punta Arenas, Chile (where the ship typically docks) on Friday. We quickly packed science samples and then took off the following day for the beginning of our Patagonia journey. First stop Puerto Natales, Chile for a quick overnight and then on to Argentina. The photo above is a view of Torres Del Paine (the famous park in Patagonia) on our way from Chile to El Calafate, Argentina. We are headed to the lesser known and traveled Parque De Los Glaciares for some climbing and mountaineering. That is if the weather allows. So far we have had beautiful weather while traveling north.
In front of Hostel Calafate
We were pleased to find Argentina quite to our liking thus far. El Calafate is a beautiful little mountain town with excellent infrastructure that far surpasses anything we have found in any other South American country. Our decision to spend out time in Argentina seems like a good choice.
Random street El Calafate
As time and internet access permits, we will post more from the end of our Antarctic voyage. Including some photos of Deception Island where we stopped on our way back from Palmer Station.
Filed under: Antarctica, running | Tags: Antarctica, Palmer Station, ultramarathon
Elizabeth has been doing most of the posting to SoCivilized for the past few months, but I figured I should give a first hand account for this one. In short, the monkey is finally off of my back. The weather and our schedule coincided to allow me to run an ultramarathon in Antarctica. In November, Elizabeth and I used a GPS to map out a 1 mile course from the station up to the top of the glacier. On top of the glacier, we also mapped out a quarter mile loop on relatively flat ground. The idea was that I could get 2 miles out and back from station while also having the option of running “easy” miles on top of the glacier.
Running down the glacier with Paul.
The Palmer Station 50K was supposed to happen on the morning of the Winter Solstice – our longest day of the year. Unfortunately, it was canceled because we woke up to about a foot snow. Ever since then, I have been waiting for a decent weather window to coincide with a lull in our work schedule.
With a bunch of samples being processed by HPLC, we had Saturday off from any significant work. Friday’s weather was decent with a ridge of high pressure forecast to remain in the area for the next day. At 6:45 on Saturday I opened my eyes to a bright blue sky. I gathered extra clothing and went to the galley for some breakfast. Alden, our carpenter, was awake. He and I exchanged a few words as we ate breakfast. At 7:30 I was starting my run from the pier under blue skies and zero wind with air temps at about 28 F.
Coming up from the pier at mile 26.
With bagpipes playing on my iPod, I started jogging up the hill from the pier. After about 30 seconds, I had passed through the station and entered the backyard. In general my favorite trails are rough and rocky. Indeed the backyard at Palmer does not disappoint. The gravel road ends about 100 feet past the last significant structure at station. Beyond there, my path was a scramble over boulders to the ridgeline. My path stayed just below the ridgeline on a runable stretch of bedrock before hitting the last 100 yards of scree (glacial moraine) to the foot of the glacier. From the scree laden moraine, I ran to the VLF antenna cable and followed it to the top of the glacier and the antenna itself. The view from the top of the glacier is spectacular, so it is pretty easy to run quarter mile loops on a clear and sunny day. The only downside to the quarter mile loop was that we had several inches of snow a days earlier. That plus the previous day’s sunshine resulted in a very soft upper layer of snow. It took about six miles on the quarter mile loop to pat down the trail into something that was flat and firm.
Running towards station.
Elizabeth came out and joined my for miles 8 to 12. Then one of our IT guys, Paul Queior came out at about mile 17 and ran with until the end. Paul was great to have along and will be a perfect pacer in a future 100 mile run. He told an excellent story about the Palmer Station winter solstice and then fell into a wonderful history of cryptography.
Navigating the rock field - our "backyard".
Running the 50K at Palmer wasn’t too different from other ultras. I kept a pile of food and drinks in the lab which is next to the turn around point on the pier. Otherwise, my goal was maintain 5 miles per hour including the walk up the glacier – which was necessary because it would have been a waste of energy to try to run up the steep ice slope. Aside from hiking from the moraine to the crest of the glacier, I ran the rest of the race. Of course, “running” is relative. Large boulders, scree, and snow/ice make a 12 minute per mile pace seem fast. Overall, this was something I needed to do and am glad to have finished. Now I can go back to focusing on science.
Heading into station from the backyard
This post is being written from the comfort of our bedroom at Palmer Station on Anvers Island, Antarctica. Zib is asleep, but I wanted to just put up a few quick pictures to show everyone what’s going on.
Our first close up view of our new home.
Our bedroom is the window to the right of the U.S. Antarctica Seal on the 3-story building.
On our first night, we went for a hike up the glacier behind the station.
Zib is posing for a picture in our
This morning we woke up to much better weather. The winds had died dwon from their sustained 30 knots from the previous evening. When the weather is clear, we get a decent view of the nearest mountains.
Looking to the left out of our bedroom window.
When the Gould (the primary support vessel for Palmer Station) leaves, there is a tradition of doing a jump into the water. Both of us did it. Air temp was about 0 degrees Celsius with about 15 knot winds and the water was about -1.5 degrees Celsius.
Saying goodbye to the Gould.
We’ll have more informative and comprehensive posts coming soon.
We left Newark, NJ at 3pm on Saturday. After laying over in Dallas and then Santiago we finally arrived in Punta Arenas on Sunday at 2pm. On Saturday, Chile started daylight savings and moved one hour ahead of our native NYC timezone. The result was a lot of stress from Jimmy – our Chilean people herder – as he tried to expedite us (Zib, me, and about 7 other scientists on our flight) through customs and onto our next flight. Jimmy was able to use his local swagger to walk us to the front of the visa and then domestic Chilean travel lines so that we made our connecting flight. Two and half hours after departing Santiago, and flying over the crest of the Andes into Patagonia, we landed in Punta Arenas. Offhand, there are a few key observations. One, Chile is nothing like its less-developed neighbors to the north (Peru and Ecuador). Two, stray dogs roam the town so it doesn’t feel too disconnected from its neighbors. And, this place has the aura of being at the end of civilization. The town sits atop windswept hills that gently roll into the channel. Did I mention the brisk wind? Yes, this wind makes takeoffs and landings a bit of an adventure.
Glaciers should be thought of as very slow moving rivers. This picture taken during our flight from Santiago to Punta Arenas show why.
The coolest part of our trip so far is this photo of the Cordiera del Paine (Catedral is the prominent peak at the right of the granite wall). Seeing the Torres del Paine (out of view and below the bottom of this image) from the plane was incredible. The Torres del Paine are famous for their ruggedness. As with everything else, pictures never quite capture what we see.
Hotel Noguiera in Punta Arenas, where we will be lodged for the next 2 nights. One fo the nicest places in town.
Tomorrow morning, Zib and I begin our journey to Antarctica. We fly from Newark, NJ to Dallas, TX. From Dallas we fly to Santiago, Chile. After landing in Santiago we fly to Punta Arenas. Our boat departs from Punta Arenas on Wednesday. This is our last day on the east coast of the U.S. for a while. We’ll miss it, but we are also ready for something new. Perhaps we will ride out the financial crisis from the comfort of Antarctica. Here is our contact info while we are at Palmer Station.
Phone: 702 568 2775
If you want to send us packages, they should weigh less than 2 lbs (edit: a packing list must also be included on the outside of the package), and can be sent to the following
Palmer Station
c/o Raytheon Polar Services Co.
7400 S. Tuscon Way
Centennial, CO 80112-3938
Any packages sent to the above address prior to Thanksgiving, will arrive at Palmer around the New Year. Packages sent after Thanksgiving may or may not make it by the New Year. After the New Year, the exact mail dates are unclear as of now.
Over the past few weekends, Elizabeth and I have been driving north from NYC to spend time in the snow. In early February, we spent a weekend in the Berkshires, near the border or New York state and Massachusetts. We snowboarded at a small mountain called Catamount which had a family friendly vibe where everyone seemed to know one another. The following weekend – Superbowl Sunday actually – we took a bus to Hunter Mountain. In short, we will never ride at Hunter again. Aside from the horrible conditions, the other skiers and snowboarders made the day miserable. There were tons of people smoking outside the lodge and on the runs. Nothing like some brisk mountain air a cigarette to kick start a run down the mountain. After our dreadful Hunter Mountain experience though, we we rewarded on the subsequent weekend with excellent powder at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire.
On this particular weekend, we stayed in Conway, New Hampshire with Becky, whose son Casey started Couchsurfing. Becky made sure we met up with her friends who assured us that Bretton Woods was the place with the best snow. Always trust locals when it comes to snow or waves. Aside from snowboarding, we also attended the Mount Washington Valley Ice Fest in North Conway where Elizabeth and I took a glacier travel and crevasse rescue course. At the ice fest Elizabeth ran into some girls who were in her ice climbing course in the Adriondacks a few weeks earlier. In the evenings we attended a series of slide shows and short films made by climbers about their recent journeys to the various mountain regions of the world. On top of all this fun, Elizabeth bought $20 worth of raffle tickets and ended up winning a new Mammut coat and climbing rope. At some point during the month, Elizabeth contracted pink eye (photos not show in this post) and we spent one day walking through Riverside Park. Within Riverside park, somewhere in the 90′s, we found a very long stone wall that would be perfect for basic balance and rock climbing (first photo in this post). More recently, we had our first big snowstorm in NYC. We brought out the camera and snapped off a couple of images from Central Park. The best of the bunch include Zib running (pictured above) and Stuart (my morning running partner) and I posing in front of the reservoir (below). 
Cold Axe Bitches: l. to r. Naz, Emilie ( guide), Annie, Shyana, me, Uly, Hannah, & Becky (guide)After an unusually warm week in the Northeast, we feared our weekend in the Adirondacks may be canceled due to a severe lack of ice (a very important component when ice climbing). We took our chances and headed north for a weekend away if nothing else. We took the opportunity to couchsurf with a native Californian (also from Sonoma County) now living in Saranac Lake, just outside Lake Placid. We arrived Friday evening to Jacob’s wonderful apartment above a shop on main street in Saranac Lake, and to our pleasant surprise he informed us all the beginning ice climbing classes were still on for the next morning. 
The festival was sponsered by an array of outdoor companies that provided demo gear for our ice climbing adventure. After gearing up, Alex & I split into groups of our respective genders. My all womens group had been cleverly named “Cold Axe Bitches” and was headed up by an incredible woman climber Emilie Drinkwater. Emilie appeared to be dancing up the ice as she gave us a quick demo at our first climb “Lions on the Beach.” My group was comprised of women who all had at least some rock climbing experience and a few with some ice climbing exposure. As it came to my turn on the
ice, I discovered climbing ice was much more difficult than Emilie made it look. I successfully climbed the two routes at Lions, and was sufficiently soaked after my last climb. The “frozen” waterfall that we were climbing was actively melting, adding a very cold and wet element to the climb. After each having a few goes at the climbs we decided to give the guys group an opportunity to switch routes with us. They were just a short walk from us at another location called “Happy Hour,” which stood at approx. 30ft compared to the first wall at about 80ft. This allowed us to get some more climbing in on an easier wall, with our already sore and tired arms. In addition we were able to experience climbing ice that was more solid requiring a slighlty different swing of the ice axe. I stuck around the first wall so I could snap off some photos of Alex climbing.
Alex took to ice climbing with relative ease as he does with most things he tries. He also managed to stand out in his group as he was one of only a few guys that had any climbing experience at all. One of Jacob’s friends, a fellow journalist named Mike, was enrolled in Alex’s group and ended up writing a piece for the local paper. You can check it out here.
http://adirondackdailyenterprise.com/news/articles.asp?articleID=10008
We were told by Jacob that a photo of Alex was included in the final print. We have yet to see it for ourselves so we can’t confirm, but it is possible that Alex is a big star up in the small Adirondack town of Saranac Lake (pop. 5000) There are some photos below of Alex climbing at “Lions on the Beach.”
A belated Happy New Year to everyone. We spent the New Year’s weekend visiting Matt and Beth in Vermont. Once again we took the train and stayed with matt and Beth in Essex Junction. Elizabeth continued to build up her snowboarding skills during the two days we snowbaorded at Bolton Valley and Stowe. We also spent a day driving around northern/central Vermont and stopped by the Ben & Jerry’s plant, a Cabot cheese outlet-type place, and a cider mill.
The day we rode at Stowe (with Matt as well), was a bit chilly and snowy, but with plenty of fluffy powder. We arrived at Stowe and ate one of the worst meals we have had in a long time at a small inn adjacent to the lower part of the mountain prior to riding that afternoon. We rode excellent but cold conditions for about 5 hours. As we hopped on the lift for our last ride of the day, Matt noted that the guy a couple of chairs ahead of us was his boss and inventor of snowboarding, Jake Burton Carpenter. At the top, we followed the route called, “Toll Road”, which is a meandering and incredibly fun 3.7 mile run that brought us back to where we started five hours earlier.
New Year’s eve was spent playing a video game “Rock Band” in Matt and Beth’s basement with a handful of their friends who came over to celebrate for the night. Pretty much anyone who has played Rock Band or Guitar Hero knows how addictive these games are – even for people like Elizabeth and I who are generally averse to video games.
This is a clip (about 2:15 in length) of Zib ripping up the bottom of the Toll Road at the end of our day at Stowe. We used our Canon digital camera’s video feature to make this short movie. And, because the temps were somewhere in the mid-teens (F not C) my hand was about to fall off from the cold. Enjoy!
Filed under: alex, annie, bryan, jane, Trains, travis, zibba | Tags: Add new tag
Alex & I spent an amazing weekend in Savannah, Ga back in November. I am just a little late with this post. The initial motivation behind our trip was to visit a childhood friend of Alex & Bryans. Travis (aka Captain Krug) is stationed at
Fort Stewart anxiously awaiting the completion of his service to this country. He lives just outside Savannah with his lovely wife Annie and their new adorable son Finley. Bryan & Jane were planning a trip out there so we decided to coordinate our trips. When deciding on our mode of transportation, we threw around 
the idea of taking the train. Alex & I have become big train advocates since living in the Northeast, in addition to all other alternative modes of transport. Upon further investigation we discovered you can rent a “roomete” on Amtrak for overnight trips. I was sold, sleeping on a train in my own little compartment, too cool! The train tickets were comprable to a plane ticket, plus an extra $150
for the room, which we justified by thinking we would have to rent a hotel room for the same price if we arrived in the evenning anyway. Plus the pain and suffering of air travel would be avoided. All we had to do was take the subway to Penn Station, 
hop on our train and 15.5hrs later we would be in Savannah. The price of our tickets included dinner and breakfast in the dining car and our fabulous little room, equipped with sink and toilet in addition to our bunk beds. I claimed the top bunk and struggled to sleep through the excitement of our train adventure. We left Penn Station (NYC) around 3:15pm and early the next morning at 6:45am, we pulled into the station at Savannah. Train travel is definately the way to go. Far more enjoyable then dealing with the security, delays, and hassles of air travel. Now if we could just figure out this ban on bikes situation we would be huge Amtrak supporters.
Due to the early arrival time of our train, Alex & I had much of the morning to explore Savannnah before Bryan & Jane arrived in the afternoon.
As I am a big fan of the book “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” by John Berendt, I was already somewhat familiar with the town of Savannah. For those of you who have not read the book or seen the movie, starring John Cusack and Kevin Spacy, I’ll give a brief explanation. The book is 
written by a nyc journalist who went to Savannah and fell in love with the quirky charm and spent many years there. While he was living there a man, Jim Williams shot and killed his young boy lover in his grand home, the Mercer House on Monterey Square, shown in the photo to the left. The majority of the book describes the charm of the town and all the eccentric characters he meets while living there. Of course, this meant I had to go visit the Mercer House. Once Bryan & Jane arrived we took a tour of the inside of the home, where Jim William’s sister still lives to this day. The town of Savannah is divided into 21 squares,
which are basically big garden roundabouts every few blocks. The historic distric is quite small and very easy to navigate when wandering around town. Bryan had arranged a rental home for the weekend and once they arrived we were able to settle into our wonderful little apartment which was directly across the street from The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. An amazing location with a wonderful little balcony that served us well during the Veterans Day Parade, which started in front of the cathedral.
Our friends Annie, Travis, & Finley soon arrived to wander the streets with us and join us for dinner. Finley was just born at the end of August, making him just under 3 months when we were there, but by the look of him you’d think he was closer to 6 months. It looks like Finley is going to be a big boy like his daddy.
We had a wonderful visit with everyone and plenty of time to explore the intriquing town of Savannah. We took a ghost tour one night, a barbeque at the Krugs another evening where I tried alligator tail and kicked Alex’s butt at ping pong, and enjoyed the Veterans Day Parade from our balcony. We stopped at Wormsloe Plantation, but due to limited time just took this cool pictures and then were on our way.
I can’t forget to mention Sammie and Cooper, a Sharpei and a Boxer who are members of the
Krug Family. As many of you know I am crazy for dogs as is Alex, so we spent much of our time rolling around on the floor with the dogs. I think they were enjoying the attention. Bryan & Jane had to leave early Monday, but our train didn’t leave Savannah until 7pm so we got to spend the day with the Krugs. They took us to Fort Stewart, the base where Travis is stationed, and showed us around the area. When it was time for us to leave, I didn’t have to dread all the hassles of air travel. We were dropped off at the train station, settled into our little room on the train, had some dinner, went to sleep, and the next morning we were back in the city. How can you not love the train!
Bryan, Jane, Annie, Travis, Finley, me, & Alex
The Boys
