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You could say Kyle

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Krabill is fond of his four-wheeler. But that's not what made him

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carefully pack it for travel, outfit it with specialized equipment

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like a GPS tracker, and bring it along

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on a 10,000 mile trip from his home in Virginia to the frozen

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continent of Antarctica.

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Twice a year, Kyle takes part in a NASA mission called

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Operation IceBridge. He and he colleagues Robbie and John

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travel to both poles to measure our planet's changing ice with the use of lasers

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mounted on aircraft. But to make sure that data is accurate,

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the entire mission relies on precise calibration

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basically they need to know exactly where the ground is.

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Usually, they both set up ground stations

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and also drive around on a level surface, like a runway, to get a reference

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map of a known elevation. But for the first time last fall,

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IceBridge was flying out of McMurdo Station in Antarctica, a place

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with not much bare earth. And the runway? A floating

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sheet of ice in McMurdo sound, which moves up and down with the tides

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every day. The solution? A trip to nearby

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Black Island. Kyle Krabill: The reason it's named Black Island is because the wind blows

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so hard, all the time, it blows the snow off. It's good for us because

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we want to, measure, the actual dirt, on the island.

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The road that goes down it, bad for us because it's a very tough

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place to get to and do some work. Narrator: The plan: wait for a

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calm enough day for the McMurdo helicopter squad to be able to ferry the

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ATV over to the island, followed by Kyle, Robbie, and John.

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(music)

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On the first attempt,

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they only made it halfway there.

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But finally, the four-wheeler made the trip,

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followed by the crew.

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(music)

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Kyle Krabill: For this the entire thing was different than we've ever done

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It wasn't an easy thing. Any time you

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deal with helicopter operations and a place where the wind can blow

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up to 160 miles an hour, it's a tough place

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to work, it's a tough environment to work in.

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(music)

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The adventure was really fun. It was something different, and the day ended up

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looking really clean, and it worked well.

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(music)

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Narrator: A job well done, it was time to ferry the ATV back to McMurdo,

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and when the campaign was over, return 10,000 miles to the

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Eastern Shore of Virginia, where Kyle and his four-wheeler would have quite a story

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to tell.

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(helicopter sounds)

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(faint helicopter sounds)