Saturday was spent moving to a new room, dealing with Science Cargo, and returning comms equipment. To retrograde our cargo for return by sea vessel, we had to weigh, measure, and bind all of our crates onto new pallets. We were almost finished with science cargo by lunch time and took only a half an hour to finish up afterwards. Saturday evening, there was a party at the Helo pad. While at the party, the Russian ice breaker, the Krasin, returned. It came in quickly and quietly. Sunday, part of our group walked down to Scott’s Hut. Jennifer saw a penguin [View Full Entry]

---

---

Friday the 13th, a day often associated with bad luck, turned out to be very lucky for our team. We left WAIS early (about 12 hours earlier). Due to bad weather at South Pole, WAIS received an additional flight. The flight did not take too long. Upon arrival at Williams Field, I was disappointed at the lack of support. We were not allowed on the shuttle so that Air Guard personal can change shifts. Since it was toward the end of dinner time, we had to eat at the Williams Field Galley. The food was good, but I would have expected [View Full Entry]

---

---

On December 30th, our team departed for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide Camp, the flight only took a few hours. We traveled by a LC-130 Hercules, operated by the Air National Guard. The Herc was equipped with skis, but unfortunately lacking the Jet Assisted Takeoff (JATO) rockets that were prominent on Hercs in Greenland. Upon arrival, we were greeted by the other members of our research group; they had traveled ahead to work on setup. If you have ever had the experience to visit a remote camp in the middle of an ice sheet, then you pretty much would [View Full Entry]

---

---

Tuesday morning, we woke up early so that we could make sure that we had time for breakfast. We were warned that we would need as much fuel as possible to keep ourselves going during Happy Camper School. At about 9am, we met the Field and Safety Training Classroom on the second floor of the science support center. We were introduced to our two instructors Trevor and Cecilia (CC), and then went around the room and introduced ourselves and our previous camping activities. We went through some discussion on staying warm and handling cold injuries. At about 10:15, we packed up [View Full Entry]

---

---

This morning Joel and I tackled Ob Hill. The hill has an elevation change of about 750 ft. This does not seem like much, but it was quite steep. Halfway up, the annual Obs Hill Race occurred and I was passed by about 18 individuals that were in much better shape than I was. Their times spread from about 7-13 minutes. I took about 30-40 minutes, but I made it none the less. At the Summit, I took some photos of the camp below. From the hill, I was finally able to get a glimpse of Erebus. Since it was overcast, [View Full Entry]

---

---

Much of McMurdo was closed today because of the holiday. Many people spent this time hiking, eating, and relaxing. In the morning, we spent much of our time using the internet to upload photos and perform various tasks. Our team decided to use our afternoon for tourism. We met out at Derelict Junction to catch a ride to Scott Base. Scott Base is the Kiwi (New Zealand) base about a mile and a half from McMurdo. Only the store is open for Americans most of the time. Otherwise, you must be invited to be at their base. We rode along in [View Full Entry]

---

---

After a nice breakfast, Jennifer, Joel, Jerome, and I took a guided tour of McMurdo Station. It took us about an hour. The tour introduced us to the various buildings that we may need to visit during our stay. One of the highlights of the tour was finally seeing Scott's Hut from a distance. After the tour, we attended a Outdoor Activites briefing, which informed us of the various routes about camp that we can hike, ski, etc. There are a suprisingly large number of hikes. However, many are now off limits due to the weakening sea ice. Apparently, our landing [View Full Entry]

---

---

We made it to Antarctica. The trip was surprisingly uneventful. We checked in at 6:30am. We were weighted with our luggage and then cleared for breakfast. At 7:20, we reported back for a briefing and baggage screening. Then, it was off to the C-17 cargo jet. The C-17 was much nicer than the LC130 Hercules in that it takes only 5 hours to travel to Antarctica instead of 8 hours. Their insides were quite comparable. Lots of head room, but our legs were crowded with such large hand carry bags. We were also given a huge sack lunch. About 5 hours [View Full Entry]

---

---

In the morning, we headed over to the Antarctic Center in order to familiarize ourselves with its layout, check our e-mail, and take the museum tour. The tour was quite enjoyable. At 1pm, we checked in for our cold weather issue. After watching a video, we went to the changing room to try on every piece of cold weather clothing issued for our travels. The clothing came in two large bags. The first bag is items that we need, but not required at all times or duplicate items. The other bag is our extreme cold weather carryon bag. We must wear [View Full Entry]

---

---

We continued to fly onward toward Auckland. The flight was rather uneventful, but quite uncomfortable. I tried to occupy myself with the movies available, but found the lack of comfort distracting. Finally, at 5:30am we arrived in Aukland. We had to move through customs. First, it’s the passport check. Agents review our arrival pass and passport then they give us the official stamp of entry. We then collect our bags. With our bags on trolleys, we proceed through agriculture declaration, then the final bag x-ray for those like myself, whom have nothing to declare. After clear [View Full Entry]

---

---