A week from tomorrow I will be flying down to McMurdo Station! The path that I will follow to Antarctica is much easier to follow than the one folioed by Shackleton and Amundsen on their race to the South Pole, but it is still not a walk in the park. Modern airplanes make travel a more enjoyable endeavor than traveling through boat, even with the delays at the airport and grueling security lines. We will spend 67 days at sea doing research, no need to add more weeks of sailing just to get there from the US.
Here is a movie showing the path that I will follow from home to McMurdo. I will leave on the afternoon of February 8th and arrive in the afternoon of February 10th. I will only spend a few hours of February 9; I will see it shrink as we cross the date line. Not only I will miss being with Diego's during his second birthday, I will miss the date almost entirely…
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And I am glad the trip begins next week and not this week. Here is what the US looks like today according to the weather service. 17 inches of snow on Wednesday will prevent any plane from leaving the Madison area. I hope for a nicer weather next week!
Weather map with warnings and watches for January 31, 2011. I am glad I am not traveling this week!