Shopping in McMurdo
Today, Gordon, Paul and I spent a lot of time visiting the various operations departments of McMurdo. We started out with a visit to Flight Ops and Fixed Wing to discuss flight plans and passenger information. Then we paid a visit to Mac Ops to discuss our communications strategy during the traverse, followed by an in–brief at the Chalet. After the in-brief Gordon and Paul had to attend their snow school refresher course at FSTP in the SSC
Dan B. continued work on his density measuring machine and I prepared for a shopping spree based upon the needs of the Taylor Dome contingent of the team. Brian relayed the shopping list to me via Iridium phone during the morning check–in. The list included: generator boxes (to keep the blowing snow out of the important generator orifices), powdered laundry detergent, extra–heavy–duty dish gloves, plastic milk crates, aluminum foil (extra wide), bungee cords, unused large trash cans (for transporting snow to melt for water), chocolate bars, and two 20lb propane tanks. It took me most of the day to collect up all the gear and get it safely packed and labeled.
We are expecting some Twin–Otter activity between Taylor Dome and McMurdo tomorrow, but the weather forecast does not look very promising. If the flights get cancelled it may end up delaying the traverse by several days. Such is life in the frozen southern continent.