Kenny Matsuoka’s crazy Antarctic adventure
Kenny established a crack team of scientists for our adventure. The hiring process was exceedingly arduous as he interviewed what seemed to be millions of candidates (OK maybe 20). Kenny asked such probing questions as, “can you work in a group?” and “do you have backcountry experience?” Once we all passed Kenny’s rigorous screen we were off to the doctors. A complete physical (turn to the side and cough) and three dentists visits later and I was cleared to go. As it turns out you are not allowed to travel to Antarctica and stay in the field if you have Wisdom teeth. This makes me rethink the naming of the teeth since they apparently pose some type of enormous threat to my safety. But what the heck dental surgery is cheap and pain free so why sweat it?
Once the doctors visits were complete we all came together in Seattle. Seattle played host to our reindeer games for the next 6 weeks as we prepped to go south. Kenny extremely competently estimated fuel, food, and various other resource needs while in communication with our fearless safety expert Peter (who lives in Ohio). Kenny hosted a series of projects meeting in which he laid out in detail what exactly it was that we had signed on for. These meetings served as harbingers for our fate as well as reassurance that we had signed on with a competent leader. Kenny brought Charlie Raymond (an Antarctic veteran) along to calm the troops with words of encouragement as to how well organized Kenny actually was.
Various magical projections were showed to us to indicate the locations of the Radar and GPS sites with some scientific hoodoo to back up site selection. A general agreement was coalescing within the powers that be indicating some serious decisions had been made and they seemed to be good ones. We were shown maps and routes and food cache points as if to wet our adventurous appetites. All ducks seemed to be in a row as far as the planning end of things were concerned. We sealed the deal with beer and pizza from a local pub as we attempted to see who exactly we had signed on to go to Antarctica with. I am told that Scott selected some of his men on their ability to sing as he feared boredom and thought a musically inclined person would be nice. I am sad to say that I do not think Kenny selected people on the same merits (although I think this may provide for a better fate then Scott).
In the weeks before deployment site selections for our strain and radar measurements were honed. Practice operations were held in lush green fields within view of Rainier. Many a computer keyboard was feverishly pushed as if we were rats in some type of endorphin experiment. Scenarios were run and rerun until all seemed to be in place. Some of us, not naming any names, even became bored (if only for a second) with all of the type-type-typing in preparation. Although no doubt worth every poke we yearned to be in the great white maw of Antarctica. Into the void we would step but not without a couple more meetings…