Cold Alert!

The day keeps getting colder. Its the coldest it has been since I arrived. The temperature is -35 degrees F with 30 knots of wind. The wind chill is -104 degrees F. Brrr...Enough said.

Cold and Tired

Its -28 degrees F with 37 mph winds today... cold. Just walking from the galley to the lab, about 150 feet maybe, it was enough to freeze my face off. I'm completely pooped today too, I just finished taking a nap on my office floor for the last hour. Thats right, my nap was at 8:00 this morning, I just couldn't wake up. But I've been here a week, made it through week number one on the ice. We have accomplished a lot in the lab, 2 successful balloon launches and we are ready to launch one of our big instruments. Leslie and I have been building masts and preparing ozonesondes. Mahesh has built our big instruments. We can all run the big scary laser. My favorite thing so far is driving our big van around, its fun.
I earned my beastly badge yesterday in van driving, it was amazing, I backed all the way around a corner and up a ramp to a building. It was pretty hot.

The views are amazing here too, I always like to just look around and wonder, its just crazy that I'm actually here in Antarctica... I amaze myself sometimes. For those who don't know where I am exactly, its McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Here is a map and the red circle is McMurdo:
McMurdo is located on Ross Island in the McMurdo sound by the Ross Ice Shelf. We can see Mt Erebus, Mt Terror, Black Island, White Island and the mountains across the sound from different places on the station. I'll get more pictures of them later.

Here is a better map of Ross Island for anyone interested. So now that we've all had our geography lesson for the day, here are a couple of things I can see from the door by our lab. This is Mount Discovery across the ice shelf. This mountain is attached to the Trans-Antarctic mountain range which runs along the edge of the continent.

Here are some of the Trans-Antarctic mountains. This is one of the most amazing mountain ranges I have ever seen. Absolutely beautiful. That is the permanent ice shelf you are looking at as well, the mountains are across the shelf.
I'll get some more pictures and keep putting them up. I have to be able to stand being outside for more than 2 minutes. :)

By the way, Leslie just told me it is -30 degrees F right now, thats just the temperature, not wind chill. Stay warm everyone!!

Hey Leave Some Comments

Please, I would love to read comments from you about the blog and pictures and things. Its nice to hear from you all.

Getting gear and arriving on the ice

Christchurch is where the Antarctic Center is located. People going to McMurdo check in here and get their gear and everything else we needed to know.
This is an example wall of all the gear we are issued and have to wear on the plane down to the station and while out an about on the ice. They call the big red coats "Big Red" and the boots are called "bunny boots". It all keeps you nice and warm.
Here is 3:00 in the morning on the day we left and we just picked up all the gear and were going through security to get on the C-17 we were taking to the ice.
Packed in like sardines in a tin can. :)
View from my seat.
I'm ready!
My first view of the ice and Antarctica. Brr!
The first polar stratospheric clouds I'd ever seen! This is exciting for me because my thesis is all about these clouds and you can only see them in arctic environments. I'll explain more about these later.
Heading to McMurdo Station from Pegasus (the airstrip). The big mountain is Mt. Erebus, an active volcano and the little pointy one on its left is where the station is. We are driving on the permanent ice shelf right now. I'm on the ocean!
McMurdo! My new home! The vehicle in front of us is "Ivan the Terra Bus" and I'll take a picture of him later.

I'll get some more picture up later of some the scenery from around the station and other interesting things I found! Woo I'm in Antarctica!! The bottom of the earth!!

Pictures of New Zealand

OK I'm trying to get some pictures on here but this blogger thing is not acting like its supposed to and I'm having trouble with them.

Here is a park right by our hotel near the river in Christchurch.

This is the Windsor B&B where we stayed while in NZ. It was a really cute hotel and the people were so nice and friendly. The breakfast was fantastic as well, my favorite was the creamed corn and grilled tomatoes.

When we left for the day, whoever cleaned our room would tuck Mango in bed every day. It was so cute!

The middle of downtown Christchurch has a local square where there is a huge cathedral shown above. They also have a tram running through town that gives a nice tour and some history of Christchurch, shown below.

Leslie and I went to a historical museum one day. There were great displays of Maui culture, when settlers came and early Antarctic explorers. Below, we were in the early transportation room and I just had to ride in the carriage and try out the crazy bike. It was the stairs getting up to the bike that I fell down and twisted my ankle, that's what you get for goofing around I guess.

I will try to get some Antarctic pictures up soon for you all to see.

By the way, we had another successful balloon launch yesterday (Sammy Sonde). Leslie and I decided we are going to name every ozonesonde we send up now. So Sammy was a really smooth launch and it wasn't even that cold out, only -11 degrees F and very little wind.

Hmm

So another long day getting things done. Last night we were able to get launch a balloon and it was a successful flight. Learned some things... here is a list of things I learned
1. I'm a great "go for" girl.
2. I can shovel snow like a super star.
3. I follow instructions very well.
4. I can wire things together.
5. I am an excellent data watcher.
6. Sometimes you just have to drink the kool-aid and bottle the egg...

Woo I made it!

We arrived in Antarctica yesterday and have been busy ever since setting up the lab, gathering supplies and getting settled. We flew out yesterday on a C-17 and when we landed it was -26 degrees F... yes, it was that cold. But it is amazing here, beautiful, cold and amazing! When we arrived there were a bunch of people to greet us, they haven't seen new people in 6 months and they were so excited.... for freshies or fresh fruit and veggies... I think they were happy to see us too ;) We had our arrival briefing and then right away, our group was off to start training and setting stuff up. Later, we were able to get our luggage and have a meal. The food is pretty good here, I have no complaints. Leslie and I then went to our room and pretty much went to bed.

Both of us were up early and headed to the office to start getting things ready. The whole day has been busy setting up. There were some amazing polar stratospheric clouds out today, which by the way is what my thesis is about so it was fun to see them in person since they only hang out in arctic regions during winter and you can only see them in the spring when there is sunlight in the atmosphere. Which we don't have much of. I believe the day we arrived, yesterday was the first day the sun was actually completely above the horizon for a bit. We had about 7 hours of light yesterday but I'm not sure on that so I will check and get back to you. We are gaining light really fast though and but never really see the sun. Its below the horizon most of the time. Pretty soon though, Leslie told me we will have 24 hours of daylight which will be new for me.

Antarctic is awesome, really awesome... and yes its cold, take your breath away cold but the gear we have is great. I will have some pictures soon, we finally got our computers checked and can log onto the internet now so I wanted to put a brief up date here. I'm freezing though so I'm going to go to the dorms now and climb into my warm bed. More to come later!!

New Zealand

Sorry no pictures yet but I'll try for soon.

We arrived in NZ on tuesday and have been hanging out here ever since. The day we arrived, we basically just found some food and went to bed. I was really tired from being in a plane for 20 hours and in airports for 10 hours. Long day. That night I slept for 12 hours straight and it was fantastic. The next morning, Wed, Leslie and I went out to explore Christchurch... did some shopping and walked around for the morning. In the afternoon, we went to the Antarctic Center to get our winter gear. We have two bags full of gear. I have a picture of all the gear we have. so we tried on all the clothes and boots, got a flu shot and we ready to go. That afternoon we had tea with Terry in the botanical gardens and went out for dinner later.

We were supposed to leave on Thurs morning but the weather in McMurdo was not good so we were delayed a day. It gave us more time for exploring, which Leslie and I did. We found a cute place to have coffee and took the tram ride. We then went to the arts center and looked around, had lunch and then went to the muesum. It was really nice. Until I fell off the stairs by a bicycle and twisted my ankle. Yes, I am already injured but hey, what are you going to do. I have a great picture of this bike so you will see what i'm talking about later. Then it was nap time, wandered some more, have dinner at this fantastic italian resurant and went back to the hotel. I had to ice my ankle and take it easy but it was nice to be in bed early.

We were again delayed this morning, so hopefully third time is the charm and we can get to the ice tomorrow. I just want to get there so we can get moving on our project. I will try to add pictures soon but this is a little update for you all. Love ya!!

I'm leaving on a jet plane...

Well I'm all packed and I think I'm ready to go. Damian and I are spending some time together, he is making me dinner tonight. Then I'm off to the airport tomorrow morning to start the journey to the ice!

Wooooooooo!

I'm going to Antarctica!! Holy buckets of balls! Almost adventure time... we leave in two days!! Crazy!

Holy Cow!! One week!

Holy buckets, in one week I'm going to be a plane heading for the other side of the world! I did a practice pack today and I'm pretty sure I can fit everything I need in. I'm a little worried about weight, I've got a lot of chocolate and it weighs more than you would think. I suppose I could leave some of that behind if I need to but I don't really want to. I also think I have the house ready to leave, I believe I have taken care of everything I have to... parking permits, online accounts, plants, Chili is ready and things put away. I'm glad Damian will be home to keep things in order.

I thought I would put up my flight times too.
Sun., Aug 16th - I leave Laramie at 11:25am to Denver, get there around 12:10pm and sit there until 4:30pm, when we head for LA, California. We will land around 5:50pm, LAX time, and sit there for another 3 hours. Then is the long flight to Sidney, Australia from 10:30pm LAX time and get there at 6:15am, Sidney time on Aug. 18th. I totally miss the 17th, somewhere in the all the time changes and crossing the date line, its gone. No 17th for me.
Tues., Aug 18th - After we land in Sidney, we have about an hour to get on the plane to Christchurch, New Zealand. One hour might not be enough time... I guess we'll see. So then we get on a plane to NZ at 7:15am and land around 12:15pm and woo I'm in New Zealand! Then we get a day for break.
Wed., Aug 19th - We get all our gear from the Antarctic Center for the ice and maybe get some training, I don't know, just going with the flow on all this. :) Leslie and I are going to do some shopping and looking around if there is time. Eat some food, good stuff.
Thurs., Aug 20th - Another plane ride. This time to the ice! Leslie tells me its about a 5-6 hour flight and then we'll land in McMurdo, Antarctica!! After that, I have no idea what we need to do or where we go but we'll be there at least.

Lots of traveling in store and I will try to keep you all updated on whats going on, if there is any good stories. Eeek! One week!

2 weeks

I'm starting to get really nervous now... I've been compulsively packing for weeks now and suddenly feel I need to have my bag packed. I still have time but I find myself running to Wal-mart for a couple items, writing lists and putting things in the suitcase and taking them back out to reorganize and check if I still have it. I've also been dreaming about Antarctica, but mostly the trip there and just about everything that can go wrong on the way. Leslie calls them "the" Antarctica dreams, she gets them too so I don't feel so bad. I'm excited but nervous, its getting so close!

This has nothing to do with Antarctica but I thought I would put a picture of pig wrestling up here because it was so much fun.