The temperatures are dropping, and the days are getting significantly shorter. Compared to the South Pole, or even most of the northern states in the US, this is going to be an easy winter. Still, for the banana belt of the Antarctic, the 16 degree F temperatures (~-10c) are relatively frigid. ...
The last thing that I expect when I come to Antarctica is the chance to get away from station for a few days. Sure, in McMurdo if you’ve got the right job, or are sleeping with the right person, it’s possible to get one of the rare boondoggles to a remote field camp, but...
I hate to say it, but for all you people working back in the real world, life just isn’t fair. I’m on my third year down on the ice, and I still can’t believe that they pay me to do this. Sure, I put in a lot of hours during the week,...
We’ve just come out of a two day weekend that featured absolutely beautiful weather. At the South Pole, two day weekends were nice, but I found myself getting bored around noon on Sunday when I got sick of watching movies, and it was too cold to go outside. Here, it doesn’t seem like...
I never thought I’d be so happy to see a plane as I was today when Skier 96, P024 landed to take me away from here. It’s been a good winter, not as good as my last one, but then we were a very special crew back in 2002. My replacement just got in on...
We officially opened yesterday with our first two flights of C-130s. Our population has doubled in just two short hours, and the effects are huge! The galley is completely crowded again, and you actually have to wait for a table sometimes. All the new people are way too tanned, but us winterovers...
So the sun has finally risen, and all is good with the world. One of best benefits of this time of year is the amount of natural lighting coming in thru the new station’s windows. The lighting fixtures in the berthing rooms are some of the worst I’ve ever seen. The...
The weather continues to be mostly lousy, but we’ve had a few breaks that let us see that there is an amazing sunrise going on behind the haze. I went out last Sunday and took this picture around 11:00 at night. We really couldn’t have asked for better conditions on our day off....
Well, the biggest news in my world lately is that I’m now scheduled to get out of here around the 1st of November, a good week sooner than I’d expected! That means that I’ve done 76% of my time down here, and the rest is going to be a cakewalk. Life continues...
You see that picture? Doesn’t look very impressive, but do you see that little bit of light on the horizon? That’s the sun! After nearly five months of darkness, today was the first day we could actually detect the fact that we’re on our way back to the daytime. I didn’t...
