The team digging out one of the Scott tents. From left to right: Daniela, Minako, Jon, Robert, Jim, and Erin. Brian was repairing a snow mobile (not pictured).

After several days of beautiful weather and productive meteorite collecting, the wind finally caught up to us. It was an impressive scene, with blowing snow and sastrugi (wave-like structures formed by wind sculpting of the snow surface) stretching across our campsite like the tentacles of a kraken. The wind was howling last night, but seemed to lessen this morning, so we were optimistic that we could get out for an afternoon of collecting. Unfortunately the weather turned just as we were gearing up to get out. It started snowing lightly, and visibility was poor, with no distinction between the sky and ice. Days like these are not good for searching for meteorites, so we decided to postpone searching and spend the day doing some camp chores to prepare ourselves for upcoming work. The wind brought in an impressive amount of drifted snow, so we dug out a few of the tents and fuel cache, resecured the guy lines, and uncovered some of equipment that was buried in several feet of snow. We also dug out some of the old food cache that has been stored at Davis Ward for many years (our season is intended to complete the work at this site so we want to clean up the current camp stash). It was entertaining to find some food products dating back to 2012 in here! Many thanks to previous ANSMET teams for leaving these surprises that we’re now enjoying.

The team gathered in the science tent – so yellow and so cozy! Clockwise: Jim, Brian, Daniela, Jon, Robert, Erin, Minako, Lauren.

Since we were back early today, we decided to celebrate a belated Christmas in the field (we had originally planned to be in the field over Christmas so we all packed small gifts to exchange – which ended up buried in cargo when we were delayed at McMurdo). We all gathered in the science tent in the evening to enjoy a group meal of nachos, some warm beverages, and exchange presents and holiday cheer. Meanwhile light snow was falling, so we appreciated this delayed white Christmas. But what we really want for Christmas is clear weather and many meteorite presents waiting for us in the morning!

-from Robert at the snowy Davis-Ward icefields.

Note from Ralph:  Based on that pic alone,  I think the 2023-24 team is ready to reboot the “Friends” series in a unique location.