Group photo from our lunch site (L to R, also order of increasing beard quality: Scott, James, Ioannis, John).

Today was a perfect Antarctic summer day. Not a single breeze and a clear sky minus some wispy cirrus clouds. We set off around 09:00 to search more of the moraines and some blue ice we had only partially visited prior. The morning did not provide any cosmic fruit for our labour and we took a break near the edge of the ice field with a very scenic view. I had a delightful mix of chocolate bars and granola bars – the lunch of champions. James had semi-frozen left overs from from last night’s dinner where he made a delectable chicken saag – it was also our breakfast. After a group photo (see included), we set off to continue our hunt of the elusive space explorers.
We did find one meteorite in the afternoon and significantly improved our “bag and tag” time over our first attempt. But, unfortunately, that’s all the meteorites the day would provide. Towards the late afternoon, John noticed that the amount of snow cover provided a route through a moraine to a blue ice patch on the side of a mountain (Wisting). While the patch had nothing but solidified Earth guts (rocks), John took us to the summit to get an idea of what the scene would be like at Mt. Prestrud – our likely destination for tomorrow should the weather remain fair.
From atop the summit, the view was spectacular. We had a full 360 degree view of the area around us in all of its beauty. With the complete lack of wind, when we all sat to admire the scene, it was almost like your ears started making up sounds to compensate for the awe-inspiring silence. Even John, who has been coming to Antarctica for 36 years now, took pause in the splendor before us. That is a moment, I’m sure, none of us will ever forget.
We arrived back at camp and fueled up the skidoos for tomorrow’s long journey (weather permitting). In honour of my MER colleague David “duck” Mittlefehldt, I tossed on the swim trunks for a “beach day” photo as he had done for the first four of his trips down here. I’ll save the internet the site of me just in a bathing suit. You’re welcome.
After James’ fine culinary display yesterday, I tended to the stove this evening crafting what is generously called a stew but more accurately a slurry of veggies and beef – I attempted to emulate the great Ralph Harvey’s bootcamp dinner, but simpler. We invited John and Ioannis over but in a move that rivals that of a chess master, John asked that we do dinner together tomorrow. With James planning on cooking, John and Ioannis just got a free dinner upgrade. Well played lads, well played. On the plus side, with dinner down the hatch on our end, and only a couple dishes soiled in the process (score!), it appears a warm soup/slurry/stew hit the spot. With the lack of wind we were able to dine with the tent door open, giving us a wonderful view of the Antarctic – and the team’s poo tent nearly central.
I think tonight’s plans include James singing choir songs for the rest of the group (not really, but he can’t read the blog so I can give him little jabs here and there – it’ll be our secret… okay internet?) and the usual 20:00 gathering in John and Ioannis’ tent. In addition to attempting to contact Team A and see how they’re doing, John has been reading us journal entries from Amundsen and Scott during their race to the south pole. The stories have striking parallels given the close proximity of the(ir) traverse(s) to our location on these exact dates a little over a century ago.
We covered around 18 miles on skidoo today bringing our total odometery to approximately 35 miles.
Posted by Scott from Mt. Wisting on 2017-12-18 at 19:00 local.