January 13, 2000

The Palmer Station hut.

I took the day off, while Steve lent a hand to one of the science projects--changing batteries at a number of offshore radiometers. The weather was varied, as a front passed through the area. I spent the night in the hut in the "backyard," what we call the area immediately behind Station, before the rise to the Marr Ice Piedmont. In our closely-knit community, privacy is a premium and hard to come by. It is important to have a place to retreat to, from time to time, for a quiet moment of reflection. Over the course of the season, folks have pitched tents on terraces and overlooks to Arthur Harbor--"summer cottages," as Norm Lavoie calls them. His tent overlooks Bonaparte Point and, when he spends a night there, "It is like another world."

The Station maintains a small hut, as well. It is a simple wooden affair with three windows with enough room for 1 to 2 people: just over 2 metres in length, by about a metre wide and a metre and a half high--much like a tent, you can sit up and lie down inside. The floor is padded with thermarests and a sleeping bag and pillow are all you need. There is a sign-up sheet for hut use in the galley and, with my radio obligations finished, I jumped at the chance to spend some time in the "backyard." Weekends are popular and most are already taken. But the weekdays are wide open. I woke up early, with the sun streaming through the clouds and into my window; the face of the glacier shimmered and glowed in shades of lapis and jade. Brash ice had been brought in by a steady southwesterly wind. Leopard seals were hauled out on some of the larger pieces. The current slowly spun them around Arthur Harbor. There is no generator sound in the hut, just the muffled chink of ice against the rocks and the occasional glacial calving, booming across the water.

By coincidence, as I finished writing this today, I received an e-mail from Jim "Thumper" Porter, who worked at Palmer nearly 10 years ago as a carpenter. He writes:

"Hey, I have a question. When I wintered there, I made a very small wooden hut out of sight from the station, on the Arthur Harbor side of the peninsula, to function as a kind of wooden tent, to allow folks to camp out. Do you have any idea if it's still there, and still in use. I suppose it matters to me because it was a fun project and a labor of love."

Jim, the hut is very much here and a still peaceful haven--a room with a view.