Well we are delayed by a day – we won't go into the field until Monday. The SPOT team just left McMurdo today (after brunch of course – you cannot miss brunch) and it will take them awhile to get out to the shear zone, unhook everything, and get our supplies unloaded. On Friday, we helped the SPOT team load everything onto the big sleds that they will be taking. The caterpillar tractors that the SPOT team uses have been especially modified in Oregon by the Caterpillar Corporation to meet the needs of the SPOT team. The main modifications deal with the front end and the inclusion of the cranes at the rear.
The big tractors that pull the sleds – outfitted with a rear crane to remove items from the massive sleds
Face to face with one of the tractors - they are impressive pieces of machinery.
The massive treads on the tractors are designed to dig into the hard wind blown snow to provide maximum traction.
The tractors are attached to the main sleds via an a-frame like attachment – four large super-slick 1/2 inch plastic sleds are attached to the rear of the a-frame. The black plastic sleds that the SPOT teams tow are super-slick along for the whole contraption to just slowly slide and roll across the snow and ice. Much more efficient and cost-effective way of transporting material to the South Pole than flying it in on aircraft. I was able to get up into one of the tractors and take a look around so some of the photos are from that perspective as well – although a comfortable ride, I'd imagine it would be a long one and I'm looking forward to talking with the SPOT team about all of the logistics that it takes to complete this enormous transport task.
The SPOT team custom-designed a-frame attachment to hook up the sleds to the pulling tractors for the overland traverse.
The a-frame attachment with the large non-stick, super-slick skids allows the tractors to haul the big rubber mat sleds.
From up in the cab of one of the tractors, you can see the a-frame loaded with the attached sleds and the sleds we had packed the pervious day loaded on top of them. McMurdo has a world-wide lock on strap-downs to say the least.
The loaded sleds will depart one day before the team departs. The SPOT team hauling all the gear out there (along with all their gear and the dynamite) takes a little bit longer and then they also have to use the cranes to unload everything.