Tomoko Arai, 12th January, 2013, Szabo Bluff

Hello, everyone! I hope everything is going well. Inconceivably, we have been tent-bound for six days! We originally planned to move to a different campsite prior to heading back to the Klein glacier, where we landed and stayed for several days in the beginning of the season. However, we are now forced to change the plan and going straight back to the Klein ready for departure back to McMurdo station. Every morning we were told that a Twin Otter flight has been cancelled due to the bad weather. We could not even go out to meteorite search because the low surface definition due to the overcast sky and/or high winds. All we could do each day is just stay in the tent , being ready for move, and praying for a perfect weather in the next day morning, because our fate solely depends on the weather. The weather out here changes quickly and appears to be never stable even for an hour. We can only get out of here, only if both the weather and the weather forecast are good-to-go for a Twin Otter flight to come and get us. Both requirements are hard to fulfill, when the extremely variable weather here is considered. Anyway, we are hoping to move to the Klein glacier anytime soon, though we are not sure how many more days of meteorite hunting we will be able to do.

The picture shows a rainbow like ring around the sun, where the sun light is refracted by ice crystals high in the sky.