Jim’s preferred mode of travel during reconnaissance

Before: Despite being the last day of 2015 (at least it is in this NZ timezone), we went out for our first major hunt in the South Miller Range.  After a half day yesterday resting our sore bodies and minds, we were eager to finally get some meteorites from the South Range today!

We set off as usual at about 9:30 am, rank and file. The difference between the searches we would do now and the ones we had done up to now in the North Range is that we’re now doing systematic searches. Having the GPS coordinates of previous years searches, we would now focus our attention on the regions we have not searched. The up shot is we have camped near the search areas. No more long traverses! Our right throttle thumb thanks you!

As we drove a mere 15 mins to todays starting point, we could see the skidoo tracks left from previous years. As the tracks are cut into the blue ice, it takes a number of years for erosion to remove evidence of previous visitors. We executed a number of skirmish line grid searches, up and down the ice. Breaking for lunch, we tucked into hot soaps, meat or jam sarnies (sandwiches in the normal tongue), and beef jerky.

By 4 pm, we called it quits, having collected 23 meteorites, all ordinary chondrites we suspect. Although this might sound like an average days taking, most of these meteorites were large. One was at least 5-7 lbs I reckon. We also breached the 200+ mark as well today. With about 60% of our time remaining in the field, I suspect this number will grow substantially.

Tonight, we celebrate with home made, oven cooked pizzas! Yes, we still have a modicum of standards to up hold. Toppings will included ham, pepperoni, mushrooms, peppers and of course, cheese. Drinks will be… hmm… varied and …. hmmm…. strong…

–Posted by Con, south Miller Range,  last moments of 2015
Morning Air Temperature: -5 F Wind: 6 knots from the South
Clouds: Clear (None)
Visibility: Unlimited

ANSMET would like to thank USAP for the new, industrial-strength tooth whitener / brain disinfectant.

After:  Con had to take a break from blogging to come to the party, so I’ll just finish up by saying that 1) pizza was a really good call and ended up being delicious; 2) we also had the traditional ANSMET New Years quesadillas, which were also tasty as heck; 3) chips and dips were eaten in mass quantities and were immensely enjoyable; 4) good times were had by all until the wee hours of the morning. I managed to convince my delightful team members to wear the set of various false teeth I brought (because reasons), along with some pink mustaches for girls (you know they’re for girls because they’re pink, obviously). We would also like to give a very special shoutout to Cecilia for all of the wonderful gifts she sent to keep us happy here, such as tortilla chips, salsa, hot sauce, and booger candies (tastes AND looks like real boogers!). It was such a treat to have chips and boogers–thanks for thinking of us!!