It is Sunday, April 24, 2005. The sunset is happening today at 1:26 pm and the next sunrise will not occur until August 19th. The fiery golden orb that sustains life on this planet is finally moving north, below our horizon, suspending us in darkness and kicking off the cold, dark Antarctic winter. To celebrate, Scott Base hosted a large barbeque and the first of three Polar Plunges. The Polar Plunge is just what it sounds like - A large hole is opened through the sea ice, a ladder is installed and everyone takes turns jumping into the frozen ocean. There is a heating shack, which is about 30 paces from the hole, where everyone undresses and stashes their warm clothes and waits for their turn to jump. When your turn comes you find a photographer ... read more

Hello from Antarctic! The last few weeks have been action packed and very competitive. I have started getting into the proper mindset for winter down here - I have accepted that I will not be able to do the stuff I want to do and, though I feel like a kid chained to a bench in a playground, I have decided to have fun. The sun is spending less time with us every day and there have been quite a few great sunsets and sunrises. The stars are getting more brilliant every night and the search for auroras has begun. We have had a few days of stormy weather with fairly strong winds and blowing snow, but, despite promising forecasts of 70-knot winds, we haven’t had a storm outside of the ‘normal’ condition 3-type weather yet. ... read more

I thought that all of the boats had left for the season, but then, on my way to lunch, I looked out in the frozen channel, past all of the slumbering seals, and I saw another large icebreaker. It was a Russian ship, but it was not the Krasin, which had been gone since the supply vessel left. This ship was here on an entirely different mission than the previous three icebreakers - it was a tourist cruise ship! Leaving the lunchroom, I was greeted by a hallway full of tourists wearing large yellow coats with the name ‘Quark Expeditions’ embroidered above the front left pocket. When I stepped outside, I asked two of them, a British couple, what the name of the ship was. They replied, “It is the Kapitan Khlebnikov” and proceeded to ask ... read more

The past week has been a very busy one here, because of the supply vessel offload. During offload many peoples’ jobs shift to suit the needs of the station and the structure of the town changes - there are new off limits areas, the traffic and noise have greatly increased and most of the recreational activities have ceased. There are trucks and forklifts running twenty-four hours a day carrying the supplies that will be needed to run the station for the next year - food, maintenance materials, construction supplies and any thing else required for work or for fun, it all comes on the supply boat. The incessant, roaring drone of the trucks and heavy equipment, most of which are relics from the early Navy days, and the constant ‘beep, beep, beep’ of the back-up alarms ... read more

The majority of the participants in the US Antarctic Program do not get the opportunity to leave the area directly surrounding McMurdo Station. Safety is the number one priority, which is a good thing due to the remoteness of the town, so, with the exception of scientists and a few lucky people who’s jobs take them into the field, there are virtually no ways of getting out and exploring and seeing things such as mountain tops or wildlife, unless they wander into town. To help combat the boredom and restlessness that someone with a yearning for adventure experiences when they are surrounded by an amazingly beautiful, but off-limits wilderness, the National Science Foundation has allowed a few recreational trails to be made into the surrounding hills and they occasionally offer morale trips to visit some of ... read more