Last Day on the Ice

It is a beautiful, sunny day and the winds are not super crazy. What a great day to fly out. I'm excited and sad all at once. Everybody has been so nice and some are sad to see us go. I can't believe the adventure on the ice is almost over. It is going to be a like a dream and never happened after I leave.

Wed night we watched Blazing Saddles and then I did some laundry. Thursday was a crazy busy day. We were up early. Finished packing up the lab. Then we had to pack and clean our rooms for room inspection. Then back to the lab to pack our cargo and clean the lab. We were checked out and it was off to finish packing our room. We had to clean our offices and then dropped our bags off at bag drag.

After the craziness and being super busy. Leslie and I met up with Rich at the coffee house and have drinks. Several drinks in fact and we stayed out past 11 pm. More people met up with us there and it was a grand ol' time. We went for a late night Frosty Boy (ice cream) run and took showers. I was up past midnight, yeah I know, getting wild and crazy. :) Leslie and I were laughing because we were out so late for us.

Today has still been busy, we had to get our cargo to where it needed to be, papers needed to be signed and now I can sit for a bit because I think we are finally ready to go. I still need to turn in all my keys.

I took some random pictures again.
This is taking our last load up to Cosray yesterday morning. Turns out it was condition 2 weather.
Looking off the road to where the ice shelf is
Remember Ob hill? This is it in nice weather...
Ob Hill, same spot, next day, Condition 2 weather...
Crazy Antarctic Weather.

Later that night, it was beautiful. Here is a couple pictures taken at 11:30 pm after we got out of the coffee house. Remember it is night, it is time for sleeping...
Holy brightness
The moon
This is how it looks all night now. Nice and bright.

I think we've come to the end of my Antarctic journey. We'll eat lunch and then get ready to head off in the C-17 this afternoon. Fly 5 hours and land in Christchurch where my New Zealand adventure can begin with my mom. It has been a great trip and I'm glad I could share it with you. Next time you hear from me, I'll be in a warmer and wetter place. Good bye from Antarctica!!! See you in New Zealand!!

Cheers!!!

Packing

Things are winding down here on the ice. We have been packing up things in the lab and putting everything away in storage. We took two van loads to Cosray to put in storage. We were returning things, gathering millions of empty boxes that we have somehow collected over two months, taking inventory and lots of lifting. Busy, busy. We got a lot done today. I was taking some pictures as we went through the day. Here is a bunch of randoms.

I've titled this one "F**king with the antenna", it is a bit of an inside joke.
The van
Science support center
After stopping at Cosray, we took a little detour so I could get a picture by the Scott base sign. Scott Base is in the background.
Looking out from the building 70 road
Ob hill, but I'm going to call it a small mountain. Ob mountain.
Looking down at the Cosray building from the road
The orange and white ball on the hill.
Ob mountain again
Coming back down into town.
And a really good rule to live by. I found this in Cosray. It made me smile.
In case you can't read it, it says "First Rule of the Arctic, Shut the Door!" :)

Tonight I think it is a Blazing Saddles night and enjoying some time with friends. Speaking of friends, these are guys are ready to head home. These are the looks I get while trying to get work done in the office. Impatient little guys.
Otis and Milo.

Cheers!

Last Balloon Launch

Only a couple days left on the ice. We were not able to launch a balloon on Sunday but we decided to go for it on Monday morning. It was another rubber balloon. These are a little different than our big plastic ones. We are able to fill these inside and then just walk the balloon out and let go. These really sucked at first but I think we have it down now. I took a couple pictures so you could see the difference.

Leslie is holding the balloon as it fills with helium.
After we fill the balloon, we tie it off and add the ozonesonde. Mahesh is holding it while we finish getting it ready.
Then we open the door and take it to the launch site.
Here we are just before we let it go. We waited for a Delta to pass by but he decided to stop and take a few pictures himself. It was a nice photo shoot then we let it go.
This one was named Sirius (Black) Sonde and he did very well. We filled it perfectly again and he made it to 8 millibars, which is just what we want. I went up to Building 70 and finished my book. It was a very successful launch. The data wasn't great because we were on the edge of the vortex, which isn't what we want but oh well.

Didn't do anything cool the rest of the day. Leslie and I watched a movie, The Hunting Party, it was an excellent movie. Crazy but really good. Today, we started off the day by packing up a bunch of stuff in the lab. We have to sort it out whether it is going home or being stored here and where. Takes some time. Our lab looks pretty sad now, boxes and packing stuff everywhere. Guess the adventure has to end sometime. Other than that, I'm trying to write and thinking about my vacation in New Zealand.

I will leave you with a little artwork of Leslie's. Something I rather enjoy. Cheers!

Observation Hill

It is my last Sunday in McMurdo and so far, it has been pretty good. We slept in and relaxed this morning, then had our last Sunday brunch. Fantastic as usual and I ate what I shouldn't as usual. We are supposed to try and launch a balloon today but so far we are waiting because of vortex issues again. Maybe later this afternoon if the stars in the universe align in just the right way and everything is perfect in the atmosphere...

After the Scott's hut tour on Friday, nothing else big happened. We went to the coffee house where Leslie whooped Mark's butt in Othello. We played some other games and then those two played battleship. I was suppose to be helping but I was too busy playing with Leslie's sunk ships.

Saturday was a day. The morning was alright. Then I took a fantastic nap to get up to a not so great email. So I was crabby for awhile and ready to go home. After dinner we decided to climb ob hill since it was one of the last things on my list of things to do before we leave the ice list. It was a nice night for it, little wind, it was sunny until we started walking. Overall very nice. This is how nice ob looks from town, innocent and inviting.
Everything was joyful and happy as we started out. We walked out of town and up the street to the road leading to that green building in the middle of the last pic. We start trekking up this nice level road to the trailhead and I'm already tired. But alas, we make it to the start of the major uphill journey and we are officially one third of the way up.

So we start climbing, Mahesh is like a mountain goat and just cruises up the trail like he is walking on a cloud. Meanwhile, Leslie and I are struggling up the slippery rock trail, carefully treading over the snowy places because one slip and we are goners down the side of this "hill". Many breathing breaks later we make it to the two thirds way post. I had a good picture but for some reason this stupid blogger will not load this one picture and only this one. I'm amazed I got this far and I look up to see the steepest part of the trail ahead. I take a deep breath and continue up, slipping on rocks, picking out the best way up. Of course, Mahesh is already up there waiting. Some of the trail is steep enough that I put my hands out just a little and I'm grabbing rocks on the trail above me. After a few harrowing spots and some minor rock climbing, I make it to the top. Of course I yelled out a cry of triumph and happiness. This is the fantastic view I had.
Scott's BaseMcMurdo and Hut point
Across the sea ice to Mount Discovery
It was pretty awesome. I was proud of myself for making it up there. I made it all the way without hurting myself or falling to my death, just to slip off a rock at the top. Luckily, I just jarred my knee and didn't fall over the edge. Little scary for both Mahesh and I, but I was ok. Of course there is a cross up here, like a lot of places in Antarctica. This one is for Scott and his men who died on the way to the South Pole.
Mahesh took my picture above McMurdo
And then the famous picture of myself by myself. Now I'm not sure why I had this face. I'm just a dork.
Yay I made it to the top and it was cool...

Then I had to go down the mountain. Coming up sucked and going back down sucked more. I ended up just sliding down the majority of the way on my butt, over snow and rocks. Didn't matter, I wasn't risking my life by walking. And yes it was that steep, I'm not making this up because I'm a whimp. Ask Mahesh and Leslie, they slid on their butts too. Finally I made it back down the to the road. I was exhausted and my legs didn't want to work anymore. We went and had a strong drink after that.

Whoever told me that it was an easy hike that will take you about 45 minutes if you go slow... lied. Maybe for super in shape people who climb mountains for fun but this lovely trip took me about 2 hours. It was one of those things that I'm glad I did but will never do again.

Have a great weekend everyone! Cheers!

Scott's Hut

Happy Friday! I've got a couple things for you all today. First, we were finally able to launch a balloon yesterday. It was super windy all morning and then we just decided to do it, wind or not. The temperatures were warm enough in the stratosphere to launch a rubber balloon which I think we all handled very well. We had to wait for the C-17 to land after we had filled the balloon but over all it was a good launch. We were able to get really good data and it went nice and high. So long Sophie!

It was also Leslie's birthday yesterday. We attached a note to the balloon and made it her birthday balloon. There was even cake at lunch and some super good banana chocolate cake at dinner. All of us went to the coffee house after dinner and Rich bought a bottle of wine to share. There were good games, good people and good drinks. It was fun and I think Leslie had a good time.

Today, we took a tour of Scott's Discovery Hut. It's that hut I took pictures of before, the one with the dead seal. It was pretty neat inside. There were lots of old tools, cooking supplies, food cartons, clothes and random dead things.
The main room. I say main room but it was really one big room with blankets hung up to make rooms. Kitchen area
Some typical clothing
Shelves of random things
Some really really old biscuits Everything was labeled special. These are special dog biscuits
Oh my god it's a ghost!! Haha just kidding. That is what happens when you breath while taking pictures. Took awhile to get used to holding my breath to get good pictures.
Now for some really, really old dead carcasses. Mmmm ready for dinner, it's seal tonight! :)
Cool box label
Here is the ceiling, they built the entire place with no insulation. They used an Australian design and it was a bad idea. The design was supposed to keep the place cool in the summer and I have no idea why they thought it would keep it warmer in the winter. Didn't work that way. Since it was so cold inside all the time, they never really used it as a living hut. It was used for storage mostly but they did have to live in it once for about 5 months when they were stuck there for a winter.
the hut
I am amazed and impressed with the old explorers. They lived off little food, ate their dogs and somehow stayed warm and alive through all their adventures. Well most of them. They were all crazy I think.

So that was my morning, I've just been analyzing ozone data and transfering it to Terry for the rest of the day. Tonight I think we are going to the coffee house to hang out again. We only have a week left so we are trying to see some people before we leave. Cheers!

Hehe this is the troll that lives under the bridge between Crary and 155. :)

Weather Update

The weather has decided to remind us that we are in Antarctica. The last couple of weeks have been super nice with temperatures hovering around 0F. We've had windy days but nothing extreme. Today, the cold is back. It is -18F with winds of around 15 knots with some nice gusts making wind chills of -40F or lower. Brr!

I can hear the wind whipping around the building and carrying snow and dust with it. This is how lovely it looks outside.
Ob hill is almost completely gone.
Looking out the other side of the building, you cannot see the mountains across the ice or even the ice for that matter.
Looking at a snow drift below the window. Lots of snow moving around.
Oh Antarctica, yes I remember you are a cold, windy, dry, lonely place.

Enjoy your warmth everyone!