Pull-out update

Barb (right) and Juliane (left) cuddled up in their Big Reds leaning against the sleeping kits waiting (and freezing) in their empty tent.

 Today is the most beautiful day we had all season long. Barely any wind, brilliant blue skies, no clouds to be seen in any direction of the sky. We can even see the tips of mountains to the north (Davis Ward?) so clear is it today. The temperature is very cold but makes the snow sparkle like gazillion tiny glitter particles. We got up at 7am this morning to learn that our pull-out was on hold till 8am because Shackleton Glacier Camp was under a fog bank. At 8am conditions at Shackleton remained the same and we were delayed until 10am. So we had a pleasant breakfast instead and slowly started packing our belonging together that we hadn’t packed the night before. At 10am we got the news things were still not looking good but that we might get pulled out in a haste with just 45min warning. That’s very little time to break camp. So we packed everything up, stored the stove away, rolled up our sleeping pads and sleeping bags, cleaned out the tent, just to learn at noon that snow w as now falling at Shackleton Camp and the Twin Otter would not fly. Now we have to wait and see if conditions there clear up in the afternoon. It is the most beautiful day here and so hard to imaging bad weather elsewhere. Right now Barb and I are sitting in our empty and very cold tent, tucked up in our Big Reds, leaning against our sleeping kits, reading and waiting. Our water bottles that we filled up with the last drops of hot water this morning are now warming us a bit. For lunch we had cracker, frozen cheese, frozen peanut m&ms, and left over Pringles. I hope we hear soon what is going on so we can either unpack, get the stove going and have real food (I’m hungry as always), or get pulled out. More updates hopefully soon, so stay tuned!

Juliane, Mt Cecily, Antarctica, Jan. 15th at 2pm.