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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s nice to have opportunities to see and do things you didn’t think you
\nhad time for, especially when you’re in as unique a place as McMurdo
\nstation, Antarctica. At least that’s what we tell ourselves when we’re
\nfaced with more delays! Minako, Brian and I were bumped from the flight on
\nMonday, but luckily Jim and Alex made it out and are probably home now. So
\nthat night, I decided to ski to Castle Rock, which has long been on my
\nlist, but that I’d never found time for. It’s about 10 km round trip, is
\nacross a nice, wide snow field that approaches Mount Erebus, and has a
\ngentle rise on the way out. The day was so clear that we had amazing views
\nof the volcanoes Erebus, Terror, the two islands out in the sound, and
\neven Cape Evans and possibly Cape Royds in the far distance. We dropped
\nour skis and scrambled up to the top of Castle Rock for even better views
\nand the chance to sit on a warm(ish) rock. With a low sun, I had to remind
\nmyself that we didn’t have to hurry home before the sun would set (my
\nfriend said we’d have some pretty big problems if we arrived that late!).
\nReturning home from a nice evening ski at 11:45 pm with the sun still well
\nup was a treat.<\/p>\n
We’ve also been doing some volunteering around town, to help out the
\npeople who have worked so hard to get us into the field. My favorite place
\nto do this is in the BFC, preferably around the food! But I also love
\nhelping put away or sort through all the field gear. And then there are
\nmovies, eating, talking with the interesting people around town, more
\neating… ok, maybe it’s time we got going from here. We will likely fly
\nhome on a C17 aircraft, which means the flight time is only about 5 hours
\ninstead of 8 on the LC130. But the rumor mill (which turns out to be valid
\nnearly 100% of the time around here) has said the runway is not yet cold
\nenough – so we may still have a little bit of a wait. This is NOT a
\npicture of the runway – the sea ice has broken up around the edges,
\nallowing more seals, and we were hoping for penguins but not yet, to come
\nup and lounge on the ice. And the cargo ship comes in just a few hours, I
\nsaw it from the beautiful, black-and-white terrain of Arrival Heights, so
\nthe town’s all abuzz. It will be fun to see how things change when you add
\nabout 1\/4 more people and stuff to town! But I will also start thinking
\nabout which trees I’ll hug first when we finally get to fly north.<\/p>\n
– Jani
\n25 January 2017<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s nice to have opportunities to see and do things you didn’t think you
\nhad time for, especially when you’re in as unique a place as McMurdo
\nstation, Antarctica. At least that’s what we tell ourselves when we’re
\nfaced with more delays! Minako, Brian and I were bumped from the flight on
\nMonday, but luckily Jim and Alex made it out and are probably home now. So
\nthat night, I decided to ski to Castle Rock, which has long been on my
\nlist, but that I’d never found time for. It’s about 10 km round trip,<\/p>\n