The above was translated by Kbot. ......................................... Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác): The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 31 2009:
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Update from Antarctica - Dec 31 2009 11:27:12 GMT
Happy new year 2010 from da bottom of da world.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Update from Antarctica - Dec 31 2009 04:22:37 GMT
South Pole station uses new zealand time. In a few hour there will be ceremony to move da mark of geographic South Pole to its new correct location.
The above was translated by Kbot. ......................................... Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác): The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 31 2009:
Update from Antarctica @ 90°00'.0"S 87°44'15.0"W
Greetings from da South Pole :).
The above was translated by Kbot. ......................................... Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác): The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 30 2009:
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Update from Antarctica @ 89°54'42.0"S 130°04'45.0"W
Day 5. We can see South Pole station from here. Only a few nm to go. Going to have David & Nubo do voice update.
The above was translated by Kbot. ......................................... Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác): The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 30 2009:
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Update from Antarctica @ 89°24'56.0"S 94°10'22.0"W
Was quite cold this morning , -30 but now = -25. Will ski long er hour tomorrow & da rest to try reaching da pole by New Year.
The above was translated by Kbot. ......................................... Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác): The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 26 2009:
Friday, December 25, 2009
Update from Antarctica - Dec 25 2009 23:11:54 GMT
We cannot ask 4 a better day in Antarctica. Sunny calm brilliant day. Skied 4 5 hour. My cooking day today so our Christmas dinner is alfredo with chicken.
The above was translated by Kbot. ......................................... Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác): The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 25 2009:
Update from Antarctica @ 89°19'22.0"S 91°39'28.0"W
Ho Ho Ho :) merry Christmas. Hope everyone have a good holiday.
The above was translated by Kbot. ......................................... Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác): The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 25 2009:
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Update from Antarctica - Dec 24 2009 22:52:09 GMT
Had a small Christmas get together @ our tent. Was nice & cozy. Even had Christmas tree on paper from my niece jocelyna. A tru white Christmas @ Antarctica.
The above was translated by Kbot. ......................................... Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác): The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 24 2009:
Update from Antarctica - Dec 24 2009 13:05:41 GMT
Today is rest day. Going to have Christmas eve lunch & my fruit cake in our tent.
The above was translated by Kbot. ......................................... Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác): The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 24 2009:
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Update from Antarctica @ 89°14'4.0"S 89°50'4.0"W
Day 3 another short day. -20 or so. Foggy outside.
The above was translated by Kbot. ......................................... Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác): The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 23 2009:
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Update from Antarctica @ 89°09'40.0"S 88°11'17.0"W
We !did ski as long as planed & decided to take it easy next to days to acclimate better.
The above was translated by Kbot. ......................................... Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác): The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 22 2009:
Monday, December 21, 2009
Update from Antarctica @ 87°06'3.0"S 87°05'34.0"W
Day 1. Got 6 hour skiing on sticky snow. Quite tough. Increase 1 more hour tomorrow. Share tent with Nubo & Andy. Take turn cooking.
The above was translated by Kbot. ......................................... Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác): The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 21 2009:
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Update from Antarctica - Dec 20 2009 22:35:03 GMT
Tomorrow plan is ski 6 or 7 hour to aclimate. We're @ 9036 foot. Share tent with Nubo.
The above was translated by Kbot. ......................................... Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác): The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 20 2009:
Update from Antarctica @ 88°59'50.0"S 85°35'2.0"W
Landed @ 89 degree. Beautiful weather. Camp 4 the night before skiing tomorrow.
The above was translated by Kbot. ......................................... Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác): The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 20 2009:
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Update from Antarctica - Dec 20 2009 01:00:52 GMT
Forgot to mention David is now our guide. Ronnie un fortunately hurt his back a little so David replaced him. David is an experient mtneer & polar explorer. So we good.
The above was translated by Kbot. ......................................... Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác): The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 20 2009:
Update from Antarctica - Dec 20 2009 00:45:18 GMT
Returned to Patriot Hills Basecamp @ 11:30am after 3h of skiing. Pack our sleds. Hope weather is good tomorrow 4 flight to last degree so we can start skiing to the South Pole.
The above was translated by Kbot. ......................................... Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác): The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 20 2009:
Friday, December 18, 2009
Update from Antarctica @ 80°21'1.0"S 81°18'26.0"W
We practice today , camp out near Patriot Hills Basecamp. Go bak tomorrow , pak 4 trip. Hope to fly out next day.
The above was translated by Kbot. ......................................... Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác): The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 19 2009:
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Update from Antarctica - Dec 17 2009 12:50:51 GMT
Going to have test trip today. A very busy ahead. Met Ronnie , Tanya & John today. Ronnie is da guide. Tanya & John from uk. Also met Nubo , da chnese man yesterday. Now we ready.
The above was translated by Kbot. ......................................... Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác): The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 17 2009:
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Update from Antarctica @ 80°18'4.0"S 81°20'31.0"W
Arv @ Patriot Hills Basecamp safely.
The above was translated by Kbot. ......................................... Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác): The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 17 2009:
The Start of the Journey to the South Pole
7AM: I woke to the sound of my alarm. I set up the phone to buzz me at 6AM in anticipation of the call from ANI people. It turned out my phone is set to different time zone :). Anyway, I got no knocking on my door by the owner of the hostel. We were told ANI staff to call us at 6 to 6:15 if we are to fly today, if not, they would call around 10 for different schedule. Nothing happened at 6. I was a little disappointed but totally understood. This is nothing new. Even for a short flight to a Chilean base at the edge of Antarctica on a tour last time I did was delayed multiple times. I realized a long time ago that we come to Antarctica not to conquer it, but to work with it. I thought there would be no flight today.
But by 9:30, Rene (another person from ANI) phoned and told me the weather report they received was looking good and by 10ish, they would get another and let me know. My excitement level increased just by this news.
At 10:56, Rene called again and said, more delay. We have to wait until noon to get confirmation from Patriot Hills.
Just now, at 12:17 Rene called with great news. They will come pick me up at 1pm, departing for the Patriot Hills. I am totally excited.
From now on, it’ll be just text messages I will be sending from Antarctica, not the whole paragraph. Hopefully things work out for me here. But the main thing is I hope everything works out well for me in Antarctica. Wish me luck. It’s showtime!
But by 9:30, Rene (another person from ANI) phoned and told me the weather report they received was looking good and by 10ish, they would get another and let me know. My excitement level increased just by this news.
At 10:56, Rene called again and said, more delay. We have to wait until noon to get confirmation from Patriot Hills.
Just now, at 12:17 Rene called with great news. They will come pick me up at 1pm, departing for the Patriot Hills. I am totally excited.
From now on, it’ll be just text messages I will be sending from Antarctica, not the whole paragraph. Hopefully things work out for me here. But the main thing is I hope everything works out well for me in Antarctica. Wish me luck. It’s showtime!
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Pre-trip Reflection
I made sure I had a good meal before the long journey with all freeze dried food (this time it'll be Norwegian kind - not sure how it is going to be better that what I ate in the North Pole) and high calorie snacks. Also I have been craving for seafood and this is Punta Arenas, right next to Strait of Magellan, there should be plenty of seafood restaurants. So I decided to go for a feast on sea creatures.
I bumped into Nick on the street. He was going to get some postcards to send home in the UK. I asked him for a recommendation. He knows the town pretty well, so he said I should check out Sotitos restaurant. They have the best seafood in town. It's kind of out of the way, far end of downtown. And true to his recommendation, it was excellent. I had pretty much full course meal (except for dessert -- I would have if I had room for it). I ordered a veggie soup, squid for appetizer, and fish for entree. They were all delicious. I wish I had room for dessert :)
Now I am full and relaxing at the hostel, I suddenly feel the need to write more.
It's been amazing ride for me to get to this point. Although this kind of adventure is not new as I did the North Pole, but still I had to go through a lot of hurddles to get to here.
Firstly, and obviously, the finance. It can be a down payment of a house. I had to get a loan and support from sponsors (not too much but anything helps). I want to thank them for supporting me. When I told people the cost, everyone thought I was crazy, not about the fact that I am going to Antarctica and South Pole, but the way I managed to pay for it.
Secondly, if you follow this blog, I did quite a bit of training. I had an amazing summer when I did my major work as preparation for this. A lot of climbing. And tire hauling. And gym sessions. I want to fully experience Antarctica and a good preparation is part of process. You can never be over-prepared for this kind of trip. I really hope what I done so far helps.
Last but not least, the support of my family and friends. For the North Pole, most people worried about me, but I made it back safe and sound. It's a proof that when you take a good care of yourself and well prepared, you can be safer. This is Antarctica, nothing is guaranteed and the fact is it is a big risk to take to do this kind of expedition. Preparation lowers the risks but does not eliminate them. That's the fact. But anything in life you do always associates with some risk, so while this seems to be riskier than others but if you know them and mitigate them, they can be part of the enjoyment you'll get.
I bumped into Nick on the street. He was going to get some postcards to send home in the UK. I asked him for a recommendation. He knows the town pretty well, so he said I should check out Sotitos restaurant. They have the best seafood in town. It's kind of out of the way, far end of downtown. And true to his recommendation, it was excellent. I had pretty much full course meal (except for dessert -- I would have if I had room for it). I ordered a veggie soup, squid for appetizer, and fish for entree. They were all delicious. I wish I had room for dessert :)
Now I am full and relaxing at the hostel, I suddenly feel the need to write more.
It's been amazing ride for me to get to this point. Although this kind of adventure is not new as I did the North Pole, but still I had to go through a lot of hurddles to get to here.
Firstly, and obviously, the finance. It can be a down payment of a house. I had to get a loan and support from sponsors (not too much but anything helps). I want to thank them for supporting me. When I told people the cost, everyone thought I was crazy, not about the fact that I am going to Antarctica and South Pole, but the way I managed to pay for it.
Secondly, if you follow this blog, I did quite a bit of training. I had an amazing summer when I did my major work as preparation for this. A lot of climbing. And tire hauling. And gym sessions. I want to fully experience Antarctica and a good preparation is part of process. You can never be over-prepared for this kind of trip. I really hope what I done so far helps.
Last but not least, the support of my family and friends. For the North Pole, most people worried about me, but I made it back safe and sound. It's a proof that when you take a good care of yourself and well prepared, you can be safer. This is Antarctica, nothing is guaranteed and the fact is it is a big risk to take to do this kind of expedition. Preparation lowers the risks but does not eliminate them. That's the fact. But anything in life you do always associates with some risk, so while this seems to be riskier than others but if you know them and mitigate them, they can be part of the enjoyment you'll get.
Patriot Hills
Aerial view of Patriot Hills (image from Wiki)
We hope to fly out to Patriot Hills base camp tomorrow. In the mean time, a little info on this base camp. This camp is set up by ALE, on the edge of blue ice near the range of the hills around the camp that is called Patriot Hills. This camp is operated seasonally. However, the tents, equipments and food are stored in the ice caves for use annually. All human wastes are flown back to Chile for dumping. They also have a solar panels generate most of the base use. Today Nick went through images of Patriot Hills camp, it looks quite good. In fact Nick said this base camp is the greenest among all the base stations in the Antarctica. Time for the Antarctic station to be greener now. They added more facility year after year. But this is still a very basic camp. The philosophy here is leave no impact on the Antarctic environment.
Blue ice runway
There are main tents for the staff, dining "hall" where it is required there should be no phones (not sure why, maybe people want to enjoy buffet style meals thoroughly without ringtones), a "hospital" tent (which no one wants to occupies) and areas for people who go on expeditions. There are food storage caves as well. These caves have enough food for 300 days for the base.
Toilets
One of the most important tent is toilet. This year they built a nice platform for the toilet (see picture). They separate solid waste and liquid. So we were told do the number one first, then number two :). Women can use either the sitdown or a funnel for the "stall". The reason for separation is on the plane, the waste may thaw out, so the liquid containers are handle differently from the solid ones.
Nick claimed the chef at the base is fantastic, and he cooks the best food. I will have to experience that and let you know my own opinion :).
Gear Shipping
This morning we had a briefing session at The Club Croata (Croatian Club) in downtown Punta Arenas. Nick, one of the owners of the ALE (Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions - a mother company of ANI Adventure Network International) . He went over Antarctic safety guidelines, how to preserve the pristine environment, and all other good stuffs.
So for our trip, we have to pack all our solid waste. Good thing they will be frozen and packed away in the sled, not like those mountaineering trips where you put them in your backpack :)
We were told to allow max 30 kg (66 lbs) of checked in lugggage (ie, gears). Any extra kilogram will be charged $60 -- very expensive even compared to those American domestic flight. They will pick up my luggage first, cuz I stay furthest. Most people stay downtown, but me. I go cheap staying in a bed and breakfast a little, out of the way, 25 mins walk to downtown.
I rushed back to hostel and check my luggage again. I packed them yesterday. Together they definitely weigh over 30 kgs. I had to take out and exchange a few things (non essential, including some of the cookies :( - I still have a lot of them though, enough to last me for the trip).
They just came picked up the luggage. Total was 32 kg. Mark was nice enough to let me know not to worry about the extra weight. Thanks guys.
I also met the German guy. His name is Andy. I didn't have the spelling of his last name. He's an avid downhill skier. His "extreme" trip would be backpacking in the Sahara dessert and went to the North Pole on an ice breaker. He said to prepare for this, he went to ski slopes in the Alps to get some altitude exposure, and obviously skiing. Seems like a nice and fun guy to hang out with.
I didn't have a chance to meet the Chinese person. There were a few people from China at the briefing as well, but most of them are going elsewhere, not the ski to the last degree.
The British couple are already at the Patriot Hills. They custom made their trip, going to the Patriot Hills earlier to practice.
My guide is also at the basecamp currently.
So tomorrow, if the weather is good for flying, Mark will call me at around 6am and I have to be within 15 mins. If we cannot fly out tomorrow, he would let me know at 10, and a tentative schedule for the next flight.
I just have a few last thing to do, and one of them is sew the nose beak on my new pair of googles.
Now I'm expedition ready.
So for our trip, we have to pack all our solid waste. Good thing they will be frozen and packed away in the sled, not like those mountaineering trips where you put them in your backpack :)
We were told to allow max 30 kg (66 lbs) of checked in lugggage (ie, gears). Any extra kilogram will be charged $60 -- very expensive even compared to those American domestic flight. They will pick up my luggage first, cuz I stay furthest. Most people stay downtown, but me. I go cheap staying in a bed and breakfast a little, out of the way, 25 mins walk to downtown.
I rushed back to hostel and check my luggage again. I packed them yesterday. Together they definitely weigh over 30 kgs. I had to take out and exchange a few things (non essential, including some of the cookies :( - I still have a lot of them though, enough to last me for the trip).
They just came picked up the luggage. Total was 32 kg. Mark was nice enough to let me know not to worry about the extra weight. Thanks guys.
I also met the German guy. His name is Andy. I didn't have the spelling of his last name. He's an avid downhill skier. His "extreme" trip would be backpacking in the Sahara dessert and went to the North Pole on an ice breaker. He said to prepare for this, he went to ski slopes in the Alps to get some altitude exposure, and obviously skiing. Seems like a nice and fun guy to hang out with.
I didn't have a chance to meet the Chinese person. There were a few people from China at the briefing as well, but most of them are going elsewhere, not the ski to the last degree.
The British couple are already at the Patriot Hills. They custom made their trip, going to the Patriot Hills earlier to practice.
My guide is also at the basecamp currently.
So tomorrow, if the weather is good for flying, Mark will call me at around 6am and I have to be within 15 mins. If we cannot fly out tomorrow, he would let me know at 10, and a tentative schedule for the next flight.
I just have a few last thing to do, and one of them is sew the nose beak on my new pair of googles.
Now I'm expedition ready.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Gear Checking
So one of the staff from ANI called the B&B and looked for me when I was out for lunch (I couldn´t lounge around waiting for a checkin and I was hungry, so I stepped out for a bite). They left a message with Mary, the B&B owner and asked me to call back. I was happy to see their message. I called them back and again, Mark, the person who called, went for lunch as well. We played phone tag :) Finally, he called when I was napping and said he would drop by in 20 mins to check my gears.
I laid out all my gears, he and I went over the list. We checked every single item and I got everything except for one missing pair of googles. I was looking all over and couldn´t find them anywhere. That was when I remembered that I left them at the Santiago airport :(. No shops opened at late hours. I was was tired, sleepy, hungry and thirsty. I took out a bottle of cookies from my family from the bottom of my backpack where I put the googles on top. They must have fallen under the chair that´s why when I packed everything again, I didn´t think I miss anything, or I might be too tired to focus on anything. Oh well, sh-t happens. Not big a deal but now I have to shed some money to get a new pair and have to sew a nose beak on. Not so fun.
While checking the gears, I asked Mark about the group. Now I know where other people are from. One male from Germany last named Major (may not be spelled this way), one couple from the UK and one guy named Huang from China. So the group will have 5 skiers and one guide.
Tomorrow we are going to group at a club house downtown Punta Arenas to go over everything for about an hour and a half. Most likely in the afternoon we are going ship all our gears to Patriot Hills.
And if weather permits, we´re flying to Patriot Hills basecamp on early Wednesday!
I laid out all my gears, he and I went over the list. We checked every single item and I got everything except for one missing pair of googles. I was looking all over and couldn´t find them anywhere. That was when I remembered that I left them at the Santiago airport :(. No shops opened at late hours. I was was tired, sleepy, hungry and thirsty. I took out a bottle of cookies from my family from the bottom of my backpack where I put the googles on top. They must have fallen under the chair that´s why when I packed everything again, I didn´t think I miss anything, or I might be too tired to focus on anything. Oh well, sh-t happens. Not big a deal but now I have to shed some money to get a new pair and have to sew a nose beak on. Not so fun.
While checking the gears, I asked Mark about the group. Now I know where other people are from. One male from Germany last named Major (may not be spelled this way), one couple from the UK and one guy named Huang from China. So the group will have 5 skiers and one guide.
Tomorrow we are going to group at a club house downtown Punta Arenas to go over everything for about an hour and a half. Most likely in the afternoon we are going ship all our gears to Patriot Hills.
And if weather permits, we´re flying to Patriot Hills basecamp on early Wednesday!
Punta Arenas
After a long wait, and short 3 hour ride, I arrived in Punta Arenas. The town is empty, just like I remember it 4 years ago. The weather is ok here, cool and high humidity. I got to the hostel at 7:30, woke up the lady who owns the bed and breakfast by the door bell. She didn´t seem too upset the fact I arrived so early. But she seems a little frustrated and confused, of course, with my so very broken español. I had to use the back of the Lonely Planet Chile to look up vocabulary for my sentences. I got frustrated at myself too :) We managed to understand each other at the end. In fact, I managed to ask her about a few things including how the tourism in Punta Arenas is doing. She said this year is no good due to global recession and the pandemic (swine flu I supposed - I couldn´t find the spanish word for pig in Lonely Planet :)). We talked, or rather I conversed in choppy spanish words over breakfast (very sweet fruit cake and te) .
I´m now waiting for the room (only check in at 11, darn) to be ready and so ready to crash. It´s been two days I didnt have full sleep. I need to contact the ANI office in Punta Arenas today to find out what´s going on, but now I want to hit the sack so badly.
I´m now waiting for the room (only check in at 11, darn) to be ready and so ready to crash. It´s been two days I didnt have full sleep. I need to contact the ANI office in Punta Arenas today to find out what´s going on, but now I want to hit the sack so badly.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Next Stop Chile
I'm in Miami, a layover before my flight to Punta Arenas. As I mentioned before, the journey to Punta Arenas is quite long, I will only arrive there on Monday morning! So not looking forward to be on the plane.
Miami is so warm, in the 80s! It is too hot and balmy, on the opposite side of thermometer compared to Colorado. And worse yet, I carry my winter jacket around, looks totally out of place while everyone in shorts and flipflops. Just a few hours flight away and the weather changes drastically. I don't mind the warm weather but this probably won't help me too much at this time. May be I should crank up the AC. Not!
I'm departing for Santiago early tomorrow morning.
Miami is so warm, in the 80s! It is too hot and balmy, on the opposite side of thermometer compared to Colorado. And worse yet, I carry my winter jacket around, looks totally out of place while everyone in shorts and flipflops. Just a few hours flight away and the weather changes drastically. I don't mind the warm weather but this probably won't help me too much at this time. May be I should crank up the AC. Not!
I'm departing for Santiago early tomorrow morning.
Keystone
It turned out the day I arrived in Colorado was the coldest day of the year. Its been warmer (relatively speaking) since, in the 10s and 20s Fahrenheit. I did get to ski in Keystone, about 1.5 hours away from Denver. It is such a beauty country there. Even though it was cold and all, there was not much of snow because this is just the beginning of skiing season. There are a few ski and snowboarding slopes open but most still wait for a major snow fall to start their business. For cross country, it requires lots of snow too. Luckily the trails where I skied was on higher altitude so there was some snow to stride on. And due to lack of snow, I only have to pay for gear rental but not the trail usage. From the Nordic center where I rented the gears to the trail was a 20 mins drive, very scenic. The drive passes through this tiny "town", of 20 houses, called Montezuma. It's a historic town where there was a silver rush back in the day. Most of house were destroyed because of wood stove. Some managed to remain. It's not a ghost town but quite interesting to see some remnants of the past still standing. On the first day of skiing, the snow was nice but there were a few icy sections. I slipped into one of this section on the way downhill back to the trail head. I was wet. My fleece pants was wet but somehow ok, but my hands were practically holding two ice cubes for about 40 mins because my gloves were soaking wet! I learned my lesson not to wear fleece gloves when there may be icy water on the trail :)
The town of Montezuma
The town of Montezuma
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Introducing KBot
It is my pleasure to introduce you KBot, a helper to assist me while I am on the ice and away from civilization. The helper, or the bot, will help me on a few things, making it easier to follow the expedition. These are the tasks that my robot performs:
1) Tirelessly awaits for my messages that I will be sending via satellite phone. It will "sleep" a little though, and check for my dispatches every minute or so. Hence, whatever you see on the blog will be about one minute delayed. You can't get more live than this :). Depends on what messages and commands I send, it will perform the tasks accordingly.
2) Plots my location and path on Google Earth. This allows everyone to know exactly where I am on earth. So there's no "where the heck on earth are you" anymore. It's quite scary to let people track you, but hey, this is different :). It also summarizes my status and calculates how far away I am from the South Pole, and updates it on the blog under Status section. So if you want to see the progress, you'll need to download Google Earth plugin for web browser or download the KML file and view it on standalone Google Earth.
3) Translates my crypted messages into readable (more or less) English. I had a lot of complaints from last trip to the North Pole that it was impossible to understand what I said. So those who complained will be pleased this time around :). It even goes further to translate it into Vietnamese as some don't speak English. The Vietnamese translation is done by Google Language Tools, and let just say they have a lot of work to do.
4) Learns new shorthands and uses them next time. As of now there are about 480 entries in the dictionary that KBot uses to translate my messages, but I'm sure there will be more that I need to add as I go along. I will send it new short forms and it's meaning as needed. It will take new definitions and add to its dictionary and next time I use the shorthands again, it'll know what to do. This task is invisible to you though.
5) Posts my voice dispatches on the blog. I'll do audio update in this expedition, not as much though as it can be costly. It's going to be quite interesting to hear the Antarctic noise - or may our own noise (hopefully not an embarrassing one :)), depends on what it picks up at the time.
6) Sends out tweets when messages are posted to this blog. If you follow me on Twitter (khai_nguyen) and using your phone to receive tweets, this is yet another way to follow the expedition, by the minute (only when I send messages :)).
7) Reports to me the status of the tasks. This is a crucial piece of information. As I send information back, there is no way I can check the blog, twitter and everything else so I have to rely on the reports KBot sends me. If something goes wrong (as always happens to a piece of software), at least I am aware of it and will attempt to fix, either by me directly or have someone to look into this.
8) Recovers from bad inputs. I am the only user of this program but on the ice, there are a million things I need to worried about and I'm sure I will make mistake or the communication might break somewhere from phone to the satellites hanging out at 480 miles above us. So if there are some missing tasks or I do not receive the status report in a certain amount of time, I will send a special command for recovery. If all fails, only human can do the job. Let's hope I do not have to send and SOS to someone to fix the bot.
As I wrote this program (yes, from scratch!), I almost felt like those mission control engineers who work on software for rovers, but in reverse. The rovers are controlled by engineers from a civilized location and I, somewhere in Antarctica, control my bot which resides in the well connected world.
It took me almost 2 months on and off, at night and on some weekends to implement (and research on the technology as most of them are I haven't touched before such as Google Earth, blogger, etc) and test it. There's some last testing I need to do before declaring it's completely ready. I really hope all the work pays off as I spend quite a bit of effort on this. But, I should expect the worse when things go wrong and no one could help me fixing it. That's when I will have to fall back to my old, trusted method: send directly to blog with crypted messages; and I'm sure people will have fun decrypting them :)
1) Tirelessly awaits for my messages that I will be sending via satellite phone. It will "sleep" a little though, and check for my dispatches every minute or so. Hence, whatever you see on the blog will be about one minute delayed. You can't get more live than this :). Depends on what messages and commands I send, it will perform the tasks accordingly.
2) Plots my location and path on Google Earth. This allows everyone to know exactly where I am on earth. So there's no "where the heck on earth are you" anymore. It's quite scary to let people track you, but hey, this is different :). It also summarizes my status and calculates how far away I am from the South Pole, and updates it on the blog under Status section. So if you want to see the progress, you'll need to download Google Earth plugin for web browser or download the KML file and view it on standalone Google Earth.
3) Translates my crypted messages into readable (more or less) English. I had a lot of complaints from last trip to the North Pole that it was impossible to understand what I said. So those who complained will be pleased this time around :). It even goes further to translate it into Vietnamese as some don't speak English. The Vietnamese translation is done by Google Language Tools, and let just say they have a lot of work to do.
4) Learns new shorthands and uses them next time. As of now there are about 480 entries in the dictionary that KBot uses to translate my messages, but I'm sure there will be more that I need to add as I go along. I will send it new short forms and it's meaning as needed. It will take new definitions and add to its dictionary and next time I use the shorthands again, it'll know what to do. This task is invisible to you though.
5) Posts my voice dispatches on the blog. I'll do audio update in this expedition, not as much though as it can be costly. It's going to be quite interesting to hear the Antarctic noise - or may our own noise (hopefully not an embarrassing one :)), depends on what it picks up at the time.
6) Sends out tweets when messages are posted to this blog. If you follow me on Twitter (khai_nguyen) and using your phone to receive tweets, this is yet another way to follow the expedition, by the minute (only when I send messages :)).
7) Reports to me the status of the tasks. This is a crucial piece of information. As I send information back, there is no way I can check the blog, twitter and everything else so I have to rely on the reports KBot sends me. If something goes wrong (as always happens to a piece of software), at least I am aware of it and will attempt to fix, either by me directly or have someone to look into this.
8) Recovers from bad inputs. I am the only user of this program but on the ice, there are a million things I need to worried about and I'm sure I will make mistake or the communication might break somewhere from phone to the satellites hanging out at 480 miles above us. So if there are some missing tasks or I do not receive the status report in a certain amount of time, I will send a special command for recovery. If all fails, only human can do the job. Let's hope I do not have to send and SOS to someone to fix the bot.
As I wrote this program (yes, from scratch!), I almost felt like those mission control engineers who work on software for rovers, but in reverse. The rovers are controlled by engineers from a civilized location and I, somewhere in Antarctica, control my bot which resides in the well connected world.
It took me almost 2 months on and off, at night and on some weekends to implement (and research on the technology as most of them are I haven't touched before such as Google Earth, blogger, etc) and test it. There's some last testing I need to do before declaring it's completely ready. I really hope all the work pays off as I spend quite a bit of effort on this. But, I should expect the worse when things go wrong and no one could help me fixing it. That's when I will have to fall back to my old, trusted method: send directly to blog with crypted messages; and I'm sure people will have fun decrypting them :)
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
First Stop Denver
I have been at Denver airport a million times but never set foot outside. Today is my first time really being in Denver. It's cold. When I arrived this afternoon, it was 3F (-16C). Two hours ago when I was outside driving around looking to buy a camcorder and hotel accommodation, it was -5F (-21C). This condition is perfect for me. I should get used to the cold before it only gets colder in Antarctica.
This trip to Colorado is for training purpose.
First, ovbviously the weather. Colorado can be quite cold as it is on higher altitude. I talked to a hotel staff, she said it's been pretty bad, temperature wise, and lots of snow. Usually it is warmer, as in the 20s (-6C) and wet. The weather turned nasty lately, through out the west coast and here. I don't complain tho :)
Secondly, altitude acclimatization. Denver is called mile high city for a reason, it is elevated at 5281 ft (1609 meters). But I am going to be in Keystone, a ski area which has trails near to 9000ft, almost the same altitude as the South Pole. I did quite a few mountaineering trips and hiking over 14000 ft, so 9000 is not too much of a concern but it's best to get some acclimation before the big trip. I was told due to the extreme weather at the South pole, 10000 ft can feel like 14000. I'll have to find out, soon enough.
And last, to practice cross country skiing again. Since the North pole trip, I did not have a chance to do any cross country. Although how we ski to the pole is not really skiing, let alone cross country. It's almost impossible to glide on the hard, rough sastrugi (ridges formed by snow, everywhere in the polar region) unless there is some smooth snow surface which is quite rare. We found a few place in the North pole we could do that but that was on thin ice! The Antarctic, however does have some as reported by Eric Larsen, who's three weeks into his expedition. Will see what we will find when we are there. Back to the practice, again, it's good to get back the skills, and certainly (and hopefully :)) develop some muscles that were not used in my other trainings (tire pulling, stairmasters, hiking, etc..).
I probbaly do not need to have this training, but hey, I need to give my all to make this expedtion as succesful and enjoyable as possible, right?
This trip to Colorado is for training purpose.
First, ovbviously the weather. Colorado can be quite cold as it is on higher altitude. I talked to a hotel staff, she said it's been pretty bad, temperature wise, and lots of snow. Usually it is warmer, as in the 20s (-6C) and wet. The weather turned nasty lately, through out the west coast and here. I don't complain tho :)
Secondly, altitude acclimatization. Denver is called mile high city for a reason, it is elevated at 5281 ft (1609 meters). But I am going to be in Keystone, a ski area which has trails near to 9000ft, almost the same altitude as the South Pole. I did quite a few mountaineering trips and hiking over 14000 ft, so 9000 is not too much of a concern but it's best to get some acclimation before the big trip. I was told due to the extreme weather at the South pole, 10000 ft can feel like 14000. I'll have to find out, soon enough.
And last, to practice cross country skiing again. Since the North pole trip, I did not have a chance to do any cross country. Although how we ski to the pole is not really skiing, let alone cross country. It's almost impossible to glide on the hard, rough sastrugi (ridges formed by snow, everywhere in the polar region) unless there is some smooth snow surface which is quite rare. We found a few place in the North pole we could do that but that was on thin ice! The Antarctic, however does have some as reported by Eric Larsen, who's three weeks into his expedition. Will see what we will find when we are there. Back to the practice, again, it's good to get back the skills, and certainly (and hopefully :)) develop some muscles that were not used in my other trainings (tire pulling, stairmasters, hiking, etc..).
I probbaly do not need to have this training, but hey, I need to give my all to make this expedtion as succesful and enjoyable as possible, right?
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