McMurdo Station as viewed from the Our Lady of the Snows shrine (looking south)
It’s one of the three quietest saturdays in the McMurdo summer season; the community normally works six days a week (with Sunday off) but this week for the Thanksgiving holiday, Saturday is a rest day. Breakfast is simple fare, and the big meal gets offered in four sessions; 3 pm, 5 pm, 7 pm and midnight (for the night shift workers). John, Brian, Duck and I have reservations for the 7 pm session. Duck has promised to wear his tuxedo if he has time to get it pressed. I offered to iron John’s only shirt if he can get it off.
Our pace of preparations is correspondingly leisurely, though there is some work we should do. John and Duck are still on the schedule to fly out to Elephant Moraine on Monday, and Brian and I are scheduled for a long Twin Otter flight to Shackleton Camp on Monday as well. Basically we’re working passengers on a flight that’s got other tasks to do (delivering fuel to Ascent Glacier, returning samples from somebody else, and at least one other chore) and when that work is done we’ll fly over the recon sites, get some pics and notes and GPS positions of good landing sites, and then end the day at Shackleton Camp. We’d then return to McMurdo on Tuesday via whatever aircraft we can get on.
Meanwhile the remaining four of our team (Jim, Jani, Alex and Minako) should be leaving the states tomorrow. They’ll get to Christchurch on Monday and are scheduled to get to McMurdo on Wednesday. Brian and I are scheduled to be back by then but we also know delays are the norm, and if all goes as planned John and Duck will be away. So we are trying to get ahead on main season chores and leave some clearly delineated tasks for the new arrivals to tackle in case they get to McMurdo and find the rest of us missing.
I’ve also been struggling with some personal mysteries. I last left McMurdo (in early 2015) in a huge hurry; I got out of the field about 10 days later than hoped for, and was given only about 9 hours from the time I arrived in McMurdo (about 9 pm) to get everything packed away, get some sleep and get on a northbound plane at 6 am the next morning. I made it, but I had to leave a lot of gear-cleaning chores and storage tasks to the kindness of our friends in the BFC . They did an outstanding job- but I had no notes or charts or any documentation to remind me what things I left in McMurdo and where ultimately they were stashed. That was two years ago, and this season I’ve spent quite a few hours digging through storage trying to find my things, including my sleeping bag, snowmobile tools, outerwear, socks, and much other fine stuff. So far everything has been found, though some things took longer than others. Right now the only thing still missing that I’m really pining for is my leatherman tool; my tools in general had been dispersed and that’s one bit I haven’t found yet. Luckily it’s not a critical item and I won’t waste too much more time looking for that one singular possession. And the good news is that I’m finding lots of things I didn’t know I had, and either making use of it or passing it on to someone who can.
Finally, let me just say “Hi Scout! Hope you enjoy Fantastic Beasts! Mama will gladly let you hide in her lap at the scary parts.”
-posted by rph from McMurdo