Just before dinner tonight John and Brian called me from McMurdo Station.  They report that they arrived in McMurdo late on Wednesday after limited delays (just a few hours) in Christchurch.  Yesterday they experienced a gateway event for all Antarctic Science groups,  the In-Brief.   This is basically a very quick meeting between representatives of the science team and the various McMurdo-based support personnel, meeting and greeting each other to make sure they’re all in tune. Brian’s been getting trained on reporting the weather (something remote field camps have to do, and the meteorologists here and back home would like to trust them). Meanwhile both John and Brian have been assembling kitchen boxes (think pots and pans) and later today they’ll be sitting down with the fixed wing managers that help us get the air support we need.   They said everything’s going very smoothly and they should be ready for the rest of the team when we arrive in McMurdo in about 12 days.

Which reminds me of a funny story.  About a decade ago I got really fed up at an in-brief when I was handed a pager and manager after manager said it was so they could contact me immediately if they needed me (who worked for whom, I wonder?).  So the following year at the in-brief I walked in with a paper bag and handed each of them a pager,  telling them it was so I could contact them immediately if I need them.

I never got handed another pager.

I asked John and Brian for a picture to accompany this post-  this will give you an idea of what I’m dealing with…….

Our key to success in the field, carefully packaged.

-From Ralph in sunny, snowy NE Ohio.