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Week 4 - November 18th to November 24, 2002
Date: 11/24/02
Latitude: 80 degrees, 21 minutes South
Longitude: 118 degrees, 12 minutes West
Temperature: −17°C( 1°F)
Wind speed: 4 knots
Wind Chill: −19°C( −2°F)
Wind direction: East
Meters of ice collected: 0
Notes on daily life:
Packing, securing the loads, some final farewells and we are underway at last! At 14:00 today we pulled out of the last real camp we will see for about a month, Byrd surface camp. Since arriving here by Hercules aircraft a few days ago we have had a chance to set up our experiments, test our gear and to make final adjustments to our shelters. All this work has taken place while we camped at Byrd surface camp, a small permanent camp where there is a Jamesway shelter for cooking and eating, an outhouse and several tents. This camp was the site of the first deep core in Antarctica and has been maintained ever since as a stopping point for scientists going into the deep field. The ITASE team's gear and sleds are stored at Byrd camp. We finished the majority of our packing and securing by 5 pm yesterday, which gave us time for a ski on the runway and time to relax at dinner in our relatively luxurious accommodations.
This morning we put the final loads onto the trains and checked over our gear one last time. Around 11 everyone was finished with his or her work, we gathered in the kitchen and dining shelter for one last meal. Spirits were positive and excited to be moving out into the big white emptiness. When the lunch dishes were completed Paul announced, "Who'd like to go the South Pole?" with a big grin on his face. The first two hands in the air were Jim's and mine. For almost a month now Jim and I have been traveling, packing and preparing for this moment. There was a good laugh, and the group suited up to head out to their places on the train. All aboard! The radio signal came we would be moving in 30 seconds, everyone sat down for the initial jolt as the tractors powered up to drag the twenty five thousand pounds of gear into motion. As we began moving I once again had the sensation of disbelief that I was really here experiencing this. We are driving to the South Pole! We pulled out of camp and moved for about 15 minutes. At this point in the trip we have heavy loads of fuel on our sleds and the tractors are struggling to pull us through the deep fresh snow. Several times just outside of camp, we had to stop and pull the small–track tractor train out of the snow with the wide–track tractor. We progressed all of about one kilometer in our first two hours of traveling! Then we switched tractors. We now have the wide–track tractor pulling the heavier train with the fuel loaded on it and are moving along at a nice steady pace of about ten kilometers an hour. We stop every 10 kilometers at pre–designated locations called "waypoints"; this allows us to check the Cats and sleds on a regular basis. At every other waypoint (i.e. every 20 kilometers) a member of the surface snow sampling crew (Dan, Susan, Paul, Eric, and Markus) walks 100 meters upwind from the trains and samples the top 2 centimeters of fresh snow. These surface snow samples will be returned to the U.S. for chemical analysis.
This leg of the trip will be 270 kilometers. At an average speed of 10 kilometers an hour we will be moving continuously now for the next thirty hours. While the train is moving we can sit in our bunks, reading, sleeping or watching movies on our computer screens. The ride feels a lot like being on a boat on the ocean, but with bumps! I am sitting in a bunk bed surrounded by down pillows and sleeping bags, with my slippers on. We have the stereo playing some mellow music; Susan, Andrea and Dan are reading books and magazines. We have had dinner and are relaxing before trying to get some sleep. Tonight's dinner menu included tuna sandwiches, cup of soup, carrots, hardboiled eggs, cookies, oranges, hot tea and coffee. Our shelter is also the kitchen module so we can warm things on the small propane stove we have in here.
There are two trains, each pulled by a challenger tractor. We travel one train in front of the other separated by about a kilometer. The front train is made up of the kitchen module where three of us sleep, the weather haven where tools are kept and another four team members sleep, a cargo sled of ice core boxes, another small weather haven with Markus' science experiments and the Polar pooper (our outhouse). The second train, traveling behind us is pulling the Blue Room a science lab and another sleeping shelter for 7 team members, the fuel sled, a sled with two snowmobiles, more science cargo and Brian's radar sled. Brian sleeps in his own small sled. Each train is equipped with rescue and safety gear for emergencies, iridium phones, and radios for keeping in contact with one another. We are a self–contained science camp gliding over the ice. My guess is there is nothing else quite like this in the world!
Date: 11/23/02
Latitude: 80 degrees South
Longitude: 120 degrees West
Temperature: −14°C( 7°F)
Wind speed: 8 knots
Wind Chill: −20°C( −4°F)
Wind direction: Westerly
Meters of ice collected: 0
Notes on daily life:
Dan Dixon writes:
This is my second year with ITASE and although the first day at Byrd was a bit of a shock (as my body adjusts to the environment), I am really starting
to enjoy my time here. I realize that I am lucky to be a part of such a historical trip. Not many people on this world will ever set foot near the
South Pole. I know the entire ITASE crew is eager to get underway. Yesterday we hitched up all the large Berko sleds with the Caterpillar tractors.
Today we continued to prepare the rest of the sleds and hitch them up to the trains. The remaining sleds are a fairly easy job, the hitching process
on these can be accomplished with snowmobiles or manpower. Amongst the other jobs completed this morning, the three–inch drill was tested. Mark,
Eric, Susan, and I towed the drill sled about 0.5 km away from camp and prepared for drilling. Once we had prepared the drill site we began to drill
ice core. The drill has a lot of complicated parts that need to be adjusted correctly in order for good quality core to be extracted. We drilled
about 5m of ice core before we had the drill set up perfectly. This 5m of ice core was not included in our core log because we were not wearing our
masks, gloves, and Tyvek suits while drilling, therefore the ice was contaminated and we threw it away.
The weather was absolutely lovely all morning. At around noon a cold air mass rolled in accompanied by a thick fogbank, this completely obscured the sun and the horizon in about 15 minutes. The air masses in Antarctica are so cold that moisture actually condenses right out of the air without needing any condensation nuclei. The ice crystals that form in this manner are minute and are called "diamond dust". After an hour or so the fog began to clear and the diamond dust left in the atmosphere created some spectacular visual effects with the sunlight. I was fortunate enough to see sun dogs, sun pillars, and sun halos. As I was photographing these spectacular solar effects the air all around me started sparkling like glitter, this glitter effect was caused by the sunlight reflecting off the diamond dust. The whole experience seemed very surreal.
Later in the afternoon, Gordon, Kirk, and I took a snowmobile and drove out to the site of old Byrd Station about 1 km away from Byrd Surface Camp. The old Byrd Station was set up in the 1960s and it was the site of the first deep ice core to reach bedrock in Antarctica. The length of the Byrd surface to bedrock ice core was 2263m. Today, the entire old Byrd Station is buried under snow apart from the tip of the drill tower. The old drill tower was over 100 feet tall and today only about 30 feet is left exposed. It was quite spooky seeing this tower looming out of the ice. As I leaned against the gleaming aluminum beams (still shiny after all these years) to pose for a photo I realized that I was in some way connected to the Earth beneath more than 2263m of West Antarctic ice.
Later in the evening we had a delicious slap–up meal prepared by Andrea and Susan in honor of Lynn's birthday. Everyone sang Happy Birthday as Lynn blew out the candles on his birthday cake (unfortunately we only had four matches, but who's counting !?!) and we all signed a card. As I write this we are sitting down in the Jamesway shelter and toasting to Lynn's good health. All our sleds are now ready and hitched up, tomorrow will be the first day of our long journey to the South Pole. Wish us luck.
Date: 11/22/02
Latitude: 80 degrees South
Longitude: 120 degrees West
Temperature: −16°C( 3°F)
Wind speed: 12 knots
Wind Chill: −26°C( −15°F)
Wind direction: Northeast
Meters of ice collected: 0
Notes on daily life:
Walking about in the foot–deep loose snow doesn't feel that different here than it does anywhere after a big snowfall. Except for two things. One, there is nothing but snow to see in all directions, other than a few flags marking the runway, a few half–buried shelters, the old drill tower where the Byrd ice core was drilled in the 1960s, and of course the ITASE traverse equipment. Everything else is flat and white as far as the eye can see. The other thing is when you stop and think about it, there isn't just a foot of snow underfoot, which is what it feels like! Imagine swimming in the Pacific Ocean, a thousand miles from shore, with 10,000 or 20,000 feet of water underneath you. That’s about the same scale we are experiencing: we are about 800 miles from "shore" (McMurdo Station) and we are floating on top of about 10,000 feet of snow and ice. To be exact, there are a few feet of snow, about 100 meters of old, compacted snow on the way to becoming glacier ice (this is known as firn), and another 2000 meters of ice underneath us. Brian told us this morning, after testing his radar system, which bounces radio waves off the bedrock at the bottom of the ice sheet, that it was 2200 meters total from the surface to the bed. He measures the depth of the ice by recording the amount of time a few fractions of a thousandth of a second it takes the wave to leave his transmitter, bounce off the bed, and return to his transmitter.
We found out yesterday that some bottles of chemicals (standards that Markus needs for his experiments) got left behind in McMurdo. As sometimes happens, this was lost in the shuffle of cargo in McMurdo, after it was out of our hands. Today, a Twin Otter was sent out to bring it to us. The Twin Otter is a Canadian–made plane that everyone loves because they are wonderful to fly even in bad conditions; they have a short takeoff and landing. Ken Borek Air, based in Alberta, Canada, flies them all over the world and are here every year to work for the National Science Foundation. It can be a bit costly forgetting things; quite a lot of fuel and personnel time gets used up on a 1600 mile round trip flight, even in the efficient Twin Otter. It was a good thing anyway, because our bicycle pump broke and this way we were able to get a new one. What would we need a bicycle for? See if you can guess from the photos on the web pages. We’ll let you know the answer in a few days.
This afternoon we hooked up the trains. First, Lynn took the big Challenger with the blade on the front and dug out the packed snow from around the Blue Room and the Kitchen. Then we all dug in with shovels to remove remaining ice and snow from the skis that these buildings sit on top of. Then Karl hooked up the other Challenger to the Kitchen and drove around in a big slow circle to get it in position. After that came the fuel sled, which is really heavy and took a while to get moving. To hook up the fuel sled behind the Kitchen, we crawled under the Kitchen with a long cable which is attached to a winch on the Challenger; the end of the cable was attached to the front of the fuel sled. This allows us to pull the fuel sled up into position right behind the Kitchen and hook it up. This all takes very careful maneuvering by Karl and Lynn, who have the greatest amount of experience with these heavy machines.
For dinner, we had tortillas with salsa, guacamole and just–caught Antarctic cod, which marine biologist Art Devries gave us in McMurdo. Art has been in Antarctica every year for more than two decades, studying the unique antifreeze blood that allows these fish to live in water below 2 degrees Celsius. Dinner conversation was a silly race to come up with the names of every candy we could think of. We got to 152 before giving up. Here are a few examples: Three Musketeers, Candy Hearts, Milky Way, Peeps….
Date: 11/21/02
Latitude: 80 degrees South
Longitude: 120 degrees West
Temperature: −20°C( −4°F)
Wind speed: 6 knots
Wind Chill: −28°C( −18°F)
Wind direction: Northeast
Meters of ice collected: 0
Notes on daily life:
The day started out with a superb breakfast made by Andrea in the Byrd Jamesway shelter: fresh eggs, kiwi fruit, freshly made bread… Jamesways are military green on the outside and a lighter green inside. They are made of wooden hoops attached to a wooden floor, with canvas covered blankets for walls and ceiling. This particular Jamesway has eight sections, making it 16 by 32 feet. That makes it somewhat crowded with all seventeen of us (including Mark Buckley the filmmaker and Kirk Salverson, who will be heading back to McMurdo shortly after we leave for the Pole). We’d better get used to it though soon we will have to combine kitchen with living quarters: the three women (Susan, Betsy, and Andrea) will sleep in the wooden shelter that is also the kitchen. Seven of the men (Markus, Eric, Gordon, Blue, Steve, Dan, and Jim) will sleep in the “Blue Room”, a 20 by 8 foot shelter that doubles as a laboratory for Markus and Betsy’s atmospheric chemistry work, as well as for weather observations and radio communication. Paul, Lynn, Karl and Mark will all be in a blue weatherhaven, a modern version of the Jamesway, with nylon rather than canvas walls. The weatherhaven serves as the mechanics’ workshop and storage area.
The weather this morning was beautiful; warm (minus 12 C), calm and sunny. We continued getting all our gear together and began to position vehicles and sleds so that we can hook them up to the Challengers. Lots of little things to do: mount the GPS antenna to the roof of the blue room, find the cables connecting the laptop to the weather station, sort out the food. Eric spent a couple of hours sorting through crevasse rescue gear. This is something we doubt very much we will need, but will need very badly in the unlikely event that one of our vehicles or, worse, one of us, falls into a crevasse. It is unlikely because we are traveling through areas where the ice is moving quite slowly, and is not likely that there will be any big cracks (crevasses); these tend to occur in fast–moving areas or where the ice is going around sharp corners or over steep cliffs. It is also unlikely because we will be constantly monitoring our crevasse detector: this sends radio signals into the ice that, if they hit a crevasse will bounce back and produce an obvious signal on our computer screen. If one of the Challengers were to fall in, we could not possibly get it out, but we would, use our ropes to lower ourselves down to the driver and get them back to the surface.
Paul, Mark, Susan, and Dan spent part of the day getting the 2” ice coring drill set up. This drill, which Mark designed and built, worked well last year but we expect it will be even better this year. Mark has put together a fancy new winch system that makes raising and lowering the drill much easier.
Later in the day, the weather became a few degrees colder and the wind picked up. It doesn’t really become unpleasant until it reaches 20 knots (nautical miles per hour) and snow starts blowing about. Still, the 10 knots it reached today is enough to make it feel a lot colder, especially on the face. We were all reminded that it will be very cold this year as we head towards the Pole.
Date: 11/20/02
Latitude: 80 degrees South
Longitude: 120 degrees West
Temperature: −13°C( 9°F)
Wind speed: not given
Wind Chill: not given
Wind direction: not given
Meters of ice collected: 0
Notes on daily life:
We were all rudely awaken this morning at 6:20 by phone calls, letting us know we'd better be at Hill Cargo (the check in "terminal" for flights out of McMurdo) at 7:00 a.m. We knew there was a real chance we'd leave McMurdo today, but most of us expected we would get have a leisurely breakfast and do our check–in at 9:15. No such luck. After rushing around a bit to make sure that everyone was up, we wolfed down a quick breakfast in Building 155 (the Galley) and carried our bags up the hill. Dan was the big hero for waking up Markus, Steve, Blue and Gordon, who hadn't received a phone call and were happily unaware they had to get packed and out the door. We were driven out to the sea ice runway and got a chance for a second, slightly more leisurely snack in the airport galley (fresh eggs and sausage!), before heading out to the C–130 (flight number T–009). We were in the air very fast and headed out over the Ross Ice Shelf. There wasn't a lot to see: most of the mountain scenery was either behind us or further to the north than most direct route to our destination: Byrd Surface Camp: 120 degrees West, 80 degrees South, central West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Byrd Surface Camp is called that because the original Byrd Station, set up in 1957, is buried under the snow. Although expensive equipment was of course removed, many of the original Korean–war vintage Jamesway shelters are still there, perhaps 50 feet down. The last time anyone went in was a few years ago, and they found it rather spooky: while they could walk around in the buildings, the ceilings were gradually caving in under the weight of the snow. It is unlikely that anyone will go in again, and it will be 100,000 years or more before these relics of the International Geophysical Year, crushed by the massive West Antarctic Ice Sheet, are brought into the Ross Sea.
The flight was uneventful, and more or less the same arrangement as our flight down from Christchurch: red webbing benches that fold down from the side of the plane. Landing was a bit more exciting though. When the C–130s land in the field, they open the back door and slide the cargo out as they taxi down the runway. All you can see as you look out of the plane is a swirling white cloud of snow. Once the plane stopped, we got out through the back, and the folks at Byrd (Andrea, Karl, Lynn and Kirk) drove out to meet us. We all worked together to get the cargo, that was loaded onto metal pallets for the flight, back to camp.
For some of us, this was the first trip to anywhere in Antarctic outside McMurdo Station and Cape Royds. For others, Byrd is an old friend. The past three US ITASE traverses both started and ended here. When we arrived it was quite warm by Antarctic standards: about minus 13 degrees Celsius; overcast but with some sun breaks here and there. It had been snowing over the last few days and there was about 30 cm of fresh, fluffy snow. Perfect skiing conditions no doubt. Eric, Markus and Betsy all said it reminded them of Summit, Greenland, where they spent about a month together last year. We all expect it will become much colder, and the snow quite a bit harder, as we traverse towards South Pole.
We spent the afternoon unpacking the gear that had been dropped off the back of the airplane as we taxied down the runway after landing. After a wonderful meal cooked by Andrea, who will be accompanying the traverse and keeping us well fed, we were all ready for bed.
Date: 11/19/02
Latitude: 77 degrees, 51 minutes South
Longitude: 166 degrees 40 minutes East
Temperature: −9°C( 16°F)
Wind speed: 13 knots
Wind Chill: "Old formula": −24 C / −10 F “New Formula”: −17 C/ 1 F
Wind direction: Northeast
Meters of ice collected: 0
Notes on daily life:
We are still here in McMurdo – waiting. The log book entries from prior days will give you an idea of how we are keeping busy while waiting and today was no different for the team. We have included a few more photos from our ski trip and the bag drag for you today. We are back on the manifest to depart tomorrow at 0900 hours. We are all anxious to get going!
I decided to make use of my free day to look into a question that we have been pondering, "What is wind chill?" Antarctica is the coldest, windiest continent in the whole world. Everyone knows that! But what does that mean for the people and animals who live here? How do wind and cold combine to make this such miserable place to live and work? The combination of wind and cold create what is known as "wind chill". Wind chill is not some special kind of temperature, it is a subjective term that tells us how we will perceive the cold in a given wind condition. For example, +9°F feels more like –18°F when the wind is blowing 55 mph. This term,"wind chill" was coined by early explorer, Paul Siple and Charles Fassel in 1939. The title of his research was "Adaptation of the Explorer to the climate of Antarctica". He experimented with containers of water. He did this by leaving them outside to freeze at different temperatures and wind speeds. He would record how long a given quantity of water would take to freeze in the conditions and from this he derived his wind chill equations. What he found was that the higher the wind speed the faster the water would freeze in the can at a given temperature. The wind helped to remove the heat from the can, but we know that wind alone does not cool. If it did then we wouldn’t need refrigerators. There must be something, such as moisture that helps with the heat transfer. So in some ways Siple’s formulas were flawed. They only worked down to certain temperatures and wind speeds, after that point the wind chill temperature actually appears to increase, which we all know by experience is impossible. In October, 2000 the Canadians decided it was time to research a new way to calculate wind chill.
So, in 2001 a new wind chill formula was derived by testing volunteers reactions to cold and wind in a climate chamber. This new formula, created by Dr. Bluestein and colleague Jack Zecher, tested humans skin temperature changes in response to changes in temperatures and wind speed variations. What they found was that the old formulas created greater wind chills (or colder temperature outcomes) than their experiments. In the graph posted below you can see the differences in the new formula and old formula’s results. You can visit the NOAA wind chill web site at: "http://www.erh.noaa.gov/er/iln/tables.htm" You will find a wind chill calculator here.
Why do we create wind chill numbers and talk about these things? Two reasons: first, it is very windy in Antarctica, and second, it is important to be aware of conditions that can make our skin freeze, better known as frostbite. Why is it so windy in Antarctica? Several factors combine to make this a very windy place. Unlike anywhere else on earth, the continent of Antarctica is surrounded by strong oceanic currents. These currents completely encircle it and help to create an enormous wind vortex circling the continent that spawns fierce storms. The intensity of these storms is due to the significant temperature and humidity gradient that occurs between the very cold continent and the relatively warm ocean that surrounds it. Cold polar air sinks at the South Pole and heads for the warmer ocean areas of lower atmospheric pressure. These winds are called Katabatic winds. Once the wind begins to blow there are very few natural windbreaks. So it is possible for the wind to build up to speeds as high as 327 km/hr (equal to 163 knots or 142 mph). Interestingly, there are also higher elevation areas of the continent that are not very windy, but they are less common.
People who work in Antarctica, unlike the penguins who live here, are not natural to this place and therefore not created to be in these cold temperatures for such long periods of time. At temperatures below −18°F human skin will freeze in fifteen minutes. This freezing is very dangerous for us and creates a medical emergency that can require evacuation. Therefore, we must be aware of how critical the conditions are outside before venturing out to work. One easy way to see this is by looking at a wind chill chart. I have posted one below that uses the new formulas. You can see that the temperatures and wind speeds combine to create these hazardous conditions.
Why then does McMurdo Station still use the old formula for wind chill calculations? I asked around McMurdo today and did not come up with a solid answer. However, my intuition is that using the formula that gives colder temperatures for the "wind chill temperature" encourages people who live and work here to be more safety conscious and dress for the cold rather than risk frostbite or hypothermia. The second reason could be that the "new formula" is only used in North America whereas the bases in Antarctica are in a more international setting.
But whatever the number, wind chill is just a calculated number, what is really important are the two factors that create dangerous cold, temperature and wind speed. One quickly learns this while in Antarctica, even a five–minute walk to the cafeteria can make your ears freeze if you forget your hat on a windy day. The Penguins survive long cold winters on the ice, by huddling together in groups and by using their bodies as a wind screen. They take turns being on the inner and outer circle of the huddle so that no one penguin has to endure too many hours of cold and wind. Humans have learned from the penguins and build windscreens around their working and living quarters. We also are now using modern wind breaking fabrics in our clothing and covering all of our exposed skin from the wind. So, I hope that this clarifies why one can find different wind chill numbers for the same temperatures and wind speeds.
The new formula for winds in mph and Fahrenheit temperatures is:
Wind chill temperature = 35.74 + 0.6215T − 35.75(V0.16) + 0.4275T(V0.16)
The old wind chill formula was:
T(wc) = 0.0817(3.71V0.5 + 5.81 − 0.25V)(T − 91.4) + 91.4
Source for both formulas: The National Weather Service . In the formula, V is in the wind speed in statute miles per hour, and T is the temperature
in degrees Fahrenheit.
Note: In the formulas, − means to subtract, + means to add. A letter next to a number means to multiply that quantity represented by the letter by the number. The standard rules of algebra apply.
Date: 11/18/02
Latitude: 77 degrees, 51 minutes South
Longitude: 166 degrees 40 minutes East
Temperature: −9°C( 16°F)
Wind speed: 11 knots
Wind Chill: −17°C( 2°F)
Wind direction: Northwest
Meters of ice collected: 0
Notes on daily life:
Well the big day is almost upon us. If everything goes according to plan we will leave McMurdo tomorrow morning and head out to Byrd Surface Camp to start the traverse. Luckily, everyone has been working hard for the weeks before this so there really wasn't much left to do at the last minute. But the charge of excitement in the air still bred a lot of energy. Containers and boxes that had been packed, checked, and rechecked were checked again as the reality of actually beginning our work gets nearer and nearer.
One fact that started sinking in amongst the team was that we would soon be leaving the comforts of McMurdo that we had grown accustomed to. When we departed for Antarctica we were all mentally prepared to travel to a harsh environment with few accouterments and little communication with the outside world. This would certainly be an inaccurate description of the comfort that is McMurdo Station. The knowledge that we would soon be leaving made us realize that we would not have easy access to phones, e–mail, showers, computers, or any of the numerous luxuries that characterize McMurdo. Team members spent much of the day taking full advantage of the time that was left. Calls were placed, that e–mail that kept being delayed was finally written, packages and letters were mailed home, and that two minute time limit for the showers was liberally superseded (one team member’s logic was that he was going to add up each of the two minutes a day of suggested shower time he would be missing while he was on the traverse and use it in advance.)
During the afternoon many people chose to enjoy the warm, beautiful weather we're experiencing in McMurdo to go for a ski or a hike. A few watched the last bit of TV they'll see for a while, and Jim finally mailed his grad school applications after having spent weeks having it reedited by anyone he could trap into the task. After enjoying what will hopefully be our last meal at the Mac town galley for a while we were off to begin the process of flying to Byrd Station.
Hopping an intracontinental flight in Antarctica is somewhat more complex of a process than just heading to the airport and waiting for the flight attendant to show you to your seat. The night before you are scheduled to fly anywhere in Antarctica you first have to go to Bag Drag. Bag Drag, as the name might imply, is not the most exhilarating thing to do on the continent. It involves packing everything – yes everything – that you will be taking or wearing on the flight to one of the cargo yards to have it all tagged and weighed. There is always cargo that needs to accompany a flight so the Air Force has to know exactly how much weight is going to be taken up by passengers and their luggage so that it can include as much cargo as possible to keep logistics running smoothly. So we packed our bags and donned all of our warmest clothes and headed to the weigh–in. Whenever you fly in Antarctica you have to wear all of your government issued outerwear (unless you get an exception to wear your own gear). This involves carrying a lot of bulky gear with you and sometimes being too warm. But as Paul observed "You'll want it all with you in case the plane has to, ahhhh, stop."
After Bag Drag, most people went back to their rooms to make sure they had everything and then headed over to Mark and Brian's room to watch a couple of movies and engage in apprehensive banter over whether we would actually depart McMurdo in the morning. With the demand for supplies so high in other parts of the continent and the weather so unpredictable, we can't be certain that we will actually be able to fly out. The ITASE team is ready to get started as soon as we get the green light.
