It seems like we will stay for a couple of days here at McMurdo Station on the coast of Antarctica. McMurdo is the largest of three permanent United States stations in Antarctica, with about 1,000 people working at once every summer. There is also Palmer Station in the Antarctic Peninsula—which is supplied from Chile—and the Amundsen-Scott Station at the South Pole, where the IceCube Neutrino Observatory is located and where I am headed likely tomorrow. Since McMurdo Station is located about three-fourths of the way from New Zealand to the geographic South Pole, anyone traveling there will stop first at McMurdo for a day or two.
Writing a PolarTREC post at the computer room of building 155 in McMurdo Station
Our flight to the South Pole has already been cancelled two times, and even though we are looking forward to our final destination, we are fine here. We reported to transport both at 3:15 pm and 4:15 pm, but to no avail. Travel in Antarctica depends strongly on external factors such as weather, so plans and schedules have to be flexible. While a regular person would start getting uneasy about losing a flight, for us this is actually part of the fun, and we even like it that way. That is a requirement for people traveling to Antarctica: to see the brighter side of things, and take and enjoy things as they come. Since the beginning I knew it would be like this, so I was prepared for the challenge. I also recall the words from my mentor, Dr. James M. Madsen, early on in the project, to be ready and prepared for the unexpected.
Hans, James and Armando.
I had previously told about two other members of IceCube before, so I will take a moment to introduce them formally. They are Hans Niederhausen from Stony Brook in New York, and James Casey from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Hans has deployed to the ice to install an all-sky camera, while James will do some calibration work at the IceCube Lab.
Main hall (highway #1) at building 155 in McMurdo Station.
Our stay in McMurdo has been first class, and I cannot put it any other way. Awesome in every sense. The station is large, modern and well equipped, with comfortable living quarters and good food. Today they had a Mexican buffet and I finally had my Mexican fix. We have had lots of time to walk around, and even get some rest, which was good, as my last full 8-hour night had been December 31st!
Enjoying dinner. Left to right: Jamie, Me, James and Hans.
Today we also experienced some –4 to –1 °C (30 to 25 °F) weather combined with like 100 km/hr (60 miles per hour) winds at Scott's hut here in McMurdo. This combination yielded a very strong windchill, which was quite amazing. Now I see what the poor Scott had to endure on those last days of his return trip. I have read the story like a million times, and knew all the facts, and had also learned about the area and the climate patterns there. But now I've got a real life experience that puts everything into perspective and allows a better appreciation of everything I had read so far.
We also got to see a penguin! What we saw was an Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae), which we found while hiking at Hut Point, just outside of McMurdo. There will be no penguins at our intended destination (i.e., the South Pole), so I feel this sighting has been one of the highlights of my stay here.
An Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) at McMurdo Station. Credit: Hans Niederhausen.
We will report again to transport tomorrow (Thursday, January 8) at 7:15 am as we might finally catch our plane to the South Pole. Naturally I am looking forward to my arrival at the IceCube Lab! That is the ultimate, definitive goal.
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