I just got off the phone with John Schutt,  and here’s the latest news from McMurdo.  John and Con’s flight to Elephant Moraine is the priority for today,  so as long as the weather holds (and it looks passable) they’ll be flying out later today, maybe just a few hours.  this was kind of the “drop dead” day for them;  if they didn’t fly today we’d probably give up for the season.  Basically in the last week of January McMurdo transitions from doing science to preparing for winter,  so flights out to the field get harder and harder to justify.

Meanwhile Jim and Brian are still out at Miller Range, basically guarding our gear against all threats.  They are the backup target for John and Con’s flight, so if the latter don’t fly, maybe the former will.  Jim and Brian managed to snag a few more specimens- season count is now 569.  Nice prime number, I like that.

Meanwhile everyone else was in McMurdo sleeping.   Seems they had fun at Scott Base last night (see previous posting).

-posted by RPH from snowy Cleveland, Thursday 21 January.