To be certified to leave the safety of McMurdo base, Pat and I will be going through wilderness survival training, or ‘Happy Camper’. At some points in our deployment, we’ll be dropped off by helicopter in remote locations. If a storm were to come in and prevent the helicopter from returning to pick us up, […]
Most of our working hours will be divided between our laboratory (below) and a Field Staging Area (above), which is an indoor utility room with loading dock access. These rooms are part of Crary Science, an unusual building on a steep hillside. Three long, parallel structures run level along the hillside, while a hallway-like staircase […]
For the last day, eerie sweeps of fog passed over McMurdo. The photo above looks north towards the open ocean across thin sea ice. In the foreground, a curving crack reveals open water. In the photo below, the hundred-year-old Discovery Hut stands with a few modern structures faintly visible behind in the fog.
Lars and I took a walk on the evening of our first full day in town. We headed down to Hut Point, where the members of Robert Falcon Scott’s 1901 expedition built Discovery Hut. We peered through the small glass windows and could see shelves still stocked with ancient boxes of “Cabin Biscuits” and baking […]
