The team had a day off today.  If all had gone according to the best case schedule, we would have had our first group deploy to the transition area tomorrow.  But, as it often happens here, we have been caught by weather delays.  A runway grooming team was supposed to fly out Monday to assess and groom the runway that we will be using to haul in our gear.  They did not make it out of McMurdo until today.  We are hopeful that we will hear a favorable report from them on the status of the runway tomorrow.

In the meantime, we wait.  Because we are in this holding pattern, we pretty much had a free day today.  Most of us took advantage of the time to do some of the shorter hikes in the area.  This morning Devon, Christine, Vinciane and I hiked up “Observation Hill”. I am not sure how tall this hill is, but getting to the top is a reasonably steep climb.

In the afternoon Brian, Ralph, Ryan and I walked over to the New Zealand Scott Base and back.  Scott Base is about two miles Sent from my iPad

Photo 1:  Devon, Vinciane and Christine climbing Observation Hill.

Photo 2:  Vinciane after conquering the climb.