The Ice Stock setup at McMurdo. This year featured bands such as “Down with the House Mouse” and “NPQ”. One of our favorites was “Them Badgers” (who can be found on Spotify).

With the New Year the team is hoping to head out into the field this week!  Brian has already been in the field a couple days, along with Amelia from the BFC. News from the Davis-Ward field camp is good. Brian and Amelia have made progress digging out the cache, and grooming the skiway for the Basler flights; they’ve used the big teeth on the groomer to break down big drifts, and in some places already started using the comb to smooth out the snow for the skiway. Temperatures are 0 degrees F, with 15-20 mph winds (Note from RPH: a report from Jim via text by Minako suggests “….they’ve had some weather……”, which of course can complicate grooming a snow runway).

Also big news from Davis-Ward is the first meteorite find of the season! Brian found a small meteorite while walking near the field camp. The meteorite was found on the downwind ice edge where blue ice turns to white ice, where sometimes small meteorites are blown to by the wind  (Note from RPH:  The COLDEX folks at the Allan Hills icefield also report three possible meteorite finds so far; we provided them with a collection kit and instructions so they can recover them using ANSMET protocols).

Back at McMurdo, the team rang in the New Year on station. The McMurdo tradition is Ice Stock, a music festival featuring all the bands on station. This year it featured 14 bands playing for 11 hours leading up to midnight. As can be seen in the photo, it’s a big affair with lots of the station coming out and dressing in various costumes.

Erin, Lauren, Daniela, and Minako (from left to right) celebrating the new year under the midnight sun.

This week will hopefully see the rest of the team getting out into the field. Daniela and Minako are slated to fly out on the first Basler flight. The second Basler will carry Erin, Lauren, and Robert. The third Basler will carry Jon and Jim. Hopefully the three Baslers will fly Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, pending the cooperation of the weather and plane availability.

-Robert from McMurdo