Sunday, November 16, 2008
Shackleton Centenary
From the 15th and 16th of November:There are these three guys, descendants of the early Antarctic explorers, who decided some time ago that they would like to re-create Shackleton's failed attempt at the Pole to celebrate the 100th anniversary. In order to do this, they had to start from Cape Royds, about 18 miles from McMurdo which meant they'd ski right by us. Luckily, my friend Kevin had told me that they were in the vicinity (even though I thought he was playing a joke on me at first). I watched the guys check out Vince's Cross at Hut Point from my dorm lounge window, and then after dinner I walked down to check out their campsite (not visible from town) with some friends. That night Kevin and I ran around town trying to find the girl who checks out the Hut keys as I agreed to take the guys into the Discovery Hut as their Hut Guide. The next morning at 8:15am, I met the three gentlemen at the Discovery Hut and accompanied them inside. Pretty unreal being there with three descendants of the early explorers. I pointed out the things that I remember about the hut and had them sign the guestbook. An hour later a crowd gathered to see the guys off. Kevin told as many people as possible the night before and that morning and even made a poster advertising the send-off. The guys skied over to talk with us a bit, and we even got to take turns holding Shackleton's compass. Then we cheered for them as they skied off towards Willy Field, one of our runways.
To see my photos:
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| Shackleton Centenary |
Some pictures of mine that were posted on their website:
http://www.shackletoncentenary.org/the-team/more-photos-from-hut-point.php
The expedition's website:
http://www.shackletoncentenary.org/
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Today Show Filming Here Again
The Today Show will be airing another segment on Antarctica on November 18th. They'll be doing a live interview with Dr. Stacy Kim, a benthic ecologist, whom I've had the pleasure of getting to know over the last two seasons on the Ice. Tune in!Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Great Antarctic Photo Link
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/11/scenes_from_antarctica.htmlMy buddy DJ is the one with the frozen beard, and I know a few of the other photographers. Some pretty amazing photos in that collection.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Ice Photos
A few Antarctic photos from the season so far. Hold your cursor over them and a description will appear.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Flat Stanley Dives McMurdo Sound!
A week or so ago, I asked one of the scientists in the lab if they would take Flat Stanley diving with her the next time she went out. She readily agreed, and I put Flat Stanley in a dry suit (aka laminating). He actually got to go twice because the first time the camera broke!These are all the sea creatures I get to see... an aerial view of the Touch Tank in the Crary lab.
And this is what Flat Stanley gets to see:
Oh, to be made out of paper!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Flat Stanley
The courier dropped off a piece of mail the other day addressed to "Science Team". It was covered in stickers of sharks, and the return address was to Laguna Vista School in Oxnard, CA. I opened it to find a Flat Stanley who had been colored and cut out by a kid named Joseph, a letter from Joseph, and a letter from the teacher of the class. The letter from Joseph was SO adorable. It started out "Dear Antaredca, Hello How are you?..." The letter from the teacher explained the story of Flat Stanley and listed their website. When I checked out their website, I noticed their Flat Stanleys did quite a bit of domestic travel, but I didn't see any internationally traveling Stanleys. I could just picture this kid Joseph being laughed at by classmates when he said he wanted to send his to Antarctica. I've made it a personal mission to get this Flat Stanley out and about. My coworker Robyn and I took some photos of him right away, and I sent one back to the class with a paragraph explaining how we ended up with Joseph's Flat Stanley. I also asked if we could laminate Stanley and if we could keep him for awhile so he could have some adventures here. Both of the teachers wrote back to me in two separate emails telling me how excited they all are that he made it here and will get to see and do lots of things. They said Joseph carried the printed photo we sent around with him to show all of his classmates. So yesterday my friend Jen took Flat Stanley out on a balloon recovery helicopter ride. She read Joseph's letter over the mike for the three other people in the helo, and while they were out at the dormant volcano Mt. Terror, they snapped a few photos of Flat Stanley!The first photo sent back to Joseph and his classmates
Mahesh the scientist, Marco the helicopter pilot, Flat Stanley, and Kevin the mountaineer
Saturday, October 11, 2008
I'm Here Again
Yep! Back in McMurdo. Day seven, if you count the half day when I arrived. Our plane touched down in the afternoon sometime at the Pegasus airfield last Tuesday afternoon. Austin (aka Poopsie Starfish), a bandmate of mine, was ready to jump on that plane after spending a year on the Ice. He gave me some amazing words of advice, and I chatted with two of my co-workers from last season who were only in town for the month of Winfly. If we wouldn't have been delayed in Christchurch for a week, I would've gotten to spend at least two nights hanging out with them before they left. But looking back, that week in Christchurch was a great time to unwind.I've been back to work a whole week now. Getting settled in includes getting the computer all set up to see the folders on the shared drives that you need to see, remembering how the phones work, and tracking down missing contact lists. We've got about 50 grantees on station as of today, and things are only going to pick up soon!