Today we were trained on two different "light” vehicles, the Tucker and the Pisten Bully. The Tucker weighs 9,700 lbs and you can see how big it is compared to Bryan. Bryan is 6'2" tall!
Bryan and the Tucker. Photo by Marcus Kolb.
Julie Bonneau trained us on how to drive and maintain the Tucker. There are LOTS of women in all sorts of jobs in Antarctica. Women and men fuel the vehicles, work as carpenters, mechanics, shuttle drivers, and heavy equipment operators. Antarctica is an equal opportunity continent!
Julie Bonneau explains how to drive and maintain the Tucker
Photo by Marcus Kolb
Julie also taught us how to drive and maintain the Pisten Bully – which is the daily workhorse around McMurdo. The wheeled vehicles can’t leave the roads, whereas the Tucker and the Pisten Bully have tracks so they can cruise around on snow and ice.
Julie and the Pisten Bully
Bob showed us how to drive and maintain the snowmobiles and the ATV which is a 6-wheeler instead of a 4-wheeler! Everything is bigger in Antarctica!
Bob riding the snowmobile - not!
Then Tom showed us how to use both the 5,000 watt and 1,000 watt generators we will be using, and the drill heads that we attach to the flights for drilling ice cores.
Tom and Stacy with our 5,000 watt Honda Generator
By the time we went to dinner, we had finished our 16th training at McMurdo!