A Christmas Reading from John and Jim

After making rather merry during our Christmas celebrations last night, our spirits were higher than the wind, so we got out and searched all day today. A storm was pushing in from the east, over the Ross Ice Shelf, and this competed with the southern katabatic winds for control of the MIller Range, sowe had alternating clouds and sunlight. This makes for interesting searching, because on one hand, rocks stand out very well against the dull ice surface. On the other hand, all rocks look dark, like meteorites, so we had to recalibrate. Some little presents from Cecilia, Linda, and other JSC folks (those who curate the meteorites, and thus open every single package we wrap up from Antarctica) even sneaked their way to the ice surface and posed as meteorites (thanks for the treats, ladies!). We ended up searching mostly on the Big Ice, where basically every rock we see is a meteorite, and we collected 45 on the day! This morning was windy and very cold, and it looked as though the katabatics were going to win. By evening, however, Johnny noted a gentle easterly wind, and soon thereafter, we had snow.

Here we are filling up our skidoos before coming in for the night. Luckily we got in a rare game of frisbee just before everything went white. Cross your fingers that the snow will fall sparsely, that the winds will blow, and that we’ll get out again tomorrow.

A morning pic of Steve and Alex and a Christmas journal reading pic of Johnny and Jim (can you tell we’re on a mountain of gifts and tasty food?) rounds out the compendium of pairs portraits for the team. We’ll continue to show our increasingly rosy cheeks as the season progresses.

 (editor’s note:  these pics didn’t come through, I’ll try to add them later)

Thanks to Cecilia, Linda, and Ann for the awesome Christmas prezzies and cards, and to Cammie for the text!

-posted by Jani  (edited by rph)