Local Posting Day and Time- Central Standard Posting Day and Time-
McMurdo Weather
Temperature- 34F Wind Direction- South Wind Speed- 15 MPH WindChill- 23F
Answer to Yesterday’s WATIZIT
Congratulations to Mrs. Robert's classes for knowing that the Mt Erebus is an active volcano!!!!
Today’s WATIZIT Picture
WATIZIT
WATIZIT
After a number of days of bad weather last week, we were finally put on the schedule to fly to some weather stations that needed some work. We were put on the flight schedule for three days and got bumped off of each of the flights. Today we were listed as back up, about 7:00AM George received a phone call that said we were flying in about an hour and a half. We got suited up and caught a shuttle out to Willie Air Field, which is on the Ross Ice Shelf.
Shuttle
We pulled right up to the Twin Otter Airplane. The pilot and copilot helped us load our gear.
Twin Otter
That should tell you this isn’t a regular airline flight. We strapped ourselves into the few seats and settled down with the cargo that was in the plane.
Inside Twin Otter
Our flight south took us over the Ross Ice Shelf (basically a group of glaciers that have slid into the ocean and are still attached to land) until we were close to 80 S latitude. The flight took an hour or so and once we left McMurdo there was no sign of anything human, until we returned. There was not even a runway, or anything else, the pilot just landed right beside the weather station on the snow. The ice shelf is featureless and completely flat in all directions.
Out the window
The weather station has not been transmitting data to the satellites and so it needed to be repaired. Jonathan and George did their magic and got it working fine.
Repairing Station
We also added a tower section and raised all of the instruments so they do not get buried in the snow. Even though it doesn’t snow much here, the snow never melts so it just gets deeper.
Raising Tower
Shelley dug a snow pit to take observations and measurements to help her with her research on measuring snow fall.
Shelley's Snow Pt
We were close to where Robert Scott and his men died on their return trip from the South Pole. Their bodies were found by a search party the following spring.
These are the last words that were written in Scott's journal...
"Had we lived I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale...We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker of course and the end cannot be far. It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more. For God's sake, look after our people."
We loaded back into the plane to visit Mary, another weather station. As you can tell I gain alot of weight.
Cool
T-Shirt
Just like at the first station, the pilot made a test landing, bouncing across the snow and then he took back off. He circled around and landed right beside Mary. We ran through the same basic task as at the first station. Here the scenery was different with huge mountains and glaciers fairly close by.
Mary
We flew parallel to the Transantarctic Mountains on the way back to McMurdo.
Mountains from plane
The view out the window made me think of this quote by the first person to reach the South Pole, Roald Amundsen. He was about a month ahead of Scott, and he and his men survived the trip back.
"Glittering white, shining blue, raven black, in the light of the sun the land looks ike a fairy tale. Pinnacle after pinnacle, peak after peak, crevassed, wild as any land on our globe, it lies, unseen and untrodden.”