A view of our newly formed camp. My personal favourite is the bend in the bamboo flag directly out front of the tent of John and Ioannis.

Hello from Nødtvedt! We were welcomed with blistering winds so loud you can hardly hear the person speaking on the other side of the tent. The pilots remarked they were likely 50 mph or so (and gusting on top of that). Today was a long day. John and Ioannis went on flight 2 of 4 to start setting up and organizing our Nørdtvedt camp. James and I took down Wisting and hopped on the fourth and final flight to Nørdtvedt (at 15 minutes it was the shortest flight I’ve been on I think) to set up two tents and help with finishing touches. It was quite an experience taking everything down and setting it back up all in one day. After John and Ioannis left, it was a unique feeling just being the two of us with the winds increasing and visibility falling. Would we need to set our tent up again? I’ll tell you, that snow shelter was sure nice to watch the plane land from. The wind here has made keeping the tent warm more challenging. It took us a solid 60-90 minutes to get sleeping level above freezing with both burners running. That being said, everyone’s spirits are high and optimistic that Nørdtvedt Nunataks (NN from here on out) will outdo Wisting and have us bagging and tagging with greater frequency. The crud has all but been abolished by the couple of us who have been fighting it since McMurdo. For those of you unaware, “the crud” is not the name of a bad horror movie like “The Human Centipede”, “Sharknado” or “The Notebook”; it is a nagging bug that can be acquired in close-quarters living like in McMurdo and is hard to shake in a cold and dry place like the deep field of Antarctica. If this wind persists (it has picked up since we set up camp – there’s essentially a fast-moving river of snow flying by at the moment and our upwind side of the tent is pushed in considerably) it’ll most certainly be a tent day tomorrow. But on the bright side, first chance the weather becomes fair, we have a whole new area to search and optimism abounds.

Posted by Scott from Nødtvedt Nunataks camp on 2017-12-23 at 22:00. 

Editor’s note:  Now I’m jealous.  I’ve wanted to get to Nødtvedt for many years and came within a few feet last year (during a test landing of the Twin Otter) before we moved on.  The view is northward from Nødtvedt to Mt. Bjaaland, named after Olaf Bjaaland,  the “pro” skier that helped Amundsen be the first to visit the South Pole.  He’s one of my heros from the exploration age, competent and witty.  His journal from the South Pole trip was recently translated and is a great read;  see Roland Huntford’s “Race for the South Pole”.  He was the only one from Scott or Amundsen’s trips to live to see Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station built.  And he bears a strong resemblance to our good friend Jesper Holst,  the Dane we took into the field in 2011.  Jesper,  if you read this, grow a giant handlebar moustache for goodness sakes.