Today we go! The weather has held and both McMurdo weather and WAIS Divide weather are permitting us to fly! Soon I will board a C-130 Hercules and fly 4 hours (about 1,000 miles) to the middle of the West Antarctica Ice Sheet.
My bags are packed for the last time for a while (phew!) and I am certainly itching and ready to go. We had a great Thanksgiving here at McMurdo, with the highlight being the 5K Turkey Trot Race. I ran it in the cape and outfit Mrs. Peterson made for me and I won the women's division! I think it was the cape. Check out Ms. Dier's post for a silly video of me at the race and update on the delicious food at Thanksgiving (see the journal titled: Dissolved Organic Matter in Antarctica). Despite really missing my family, it was a great holiday! I am looking forward to Christmas and New Years out on the ice!
It was great to be here in McMurdo hiking and meeting people who work here and getting closer to those who will be my peers and colleagues out on the ice. Now the real challenge begins. We all have to say goodbye to daily warm showers, heated buildings, great internet connectivity and warm beds. At WAIS, life will be a challenge as we will be working non-stop, sleeping in tents and sleeping bags and have minimal heated structures to retreat to when it gets really cold! Thankfully we have all had lots of training now and were issued lots of gear so we will have the skills to survive and stay warm!
I can't wait to send my next post from WAIS! I hope everyone had a very Happy Thanksgiving! Hopefully you'll all hear from me soon!
Midnight sun illuminating McMurdo Station.
Goodbye McMurdo Station! See you in February.
A late evening cargo flight made it to our WAIS Divide field site, and we were out to watch its return to McMurdo.
Today I will be on one of these C-130 airplanes on my way to WAIS Divide!