Blizzard at Taylor Dome
The weather in McMurdo has deteriorated considerably, as has the weather at Taylor Dome. The crew at Taylor Dome have been confined to their shelters, they are trying their best to stop the camp from getting drifted-in. As a result of the bad weather, all flights are on hold. Steve and Dan B. are attending crevasse rescue training out by the Silver City Ice Fall, this weather will help to make the simulation seem all the more real. Gordon and Paul are working hard on paperwork while I have been running around station gathering bits and pieces and getting them checked into the cargo system
No Improvement at Taylor Dome
The weather in McMurdo seems to be much better today, but out at Taylor Dome there has been no improvement. The crew there have been confined to their shelters for the last two days, only venturing outside to excavate the snow drifts. Brian checked in this morning and relayed a few more items for the shopping list via Iridium.
A C17 managed to land at the Sea Ice Runway despite the conditions and I received two new roommates. I did more shopping for bits and bobs around the base, spent some time at Science Cargo, and then walked to Scott Base with Steve and Paul. Scott Base has a nice shop inside, although small, it offers many things that the McMurdo shop does not and is well worth the 3km walk over the hill to get there.
Date: November 22nd, 2006
Hello Rick
Thankfully, the weather at Taylor Dome is finally beginning to clear, a Twin Otter was able to fly in and extricate our camp manager and chief mechanic, Rick Schneider. Rick is a highly skilled welder and fabricator with many many years of operating experience at high Arctic latitudes. When he arrived from Taylor Dome, the first thing he did was take a shower and eat some lunch.
After lunch the team members in McMurdo sat down with some key Raytheon and NSF personnel to have a planning meeting. We have several new pieces of equipment this year and the purpose of this meeting was to hammer out some kind of standard operating procedure for the traverse.
After the meeting, we all chatted with Rick a bit more and then we drew up an action plan for the rest of the week. Rick is in town to use the welding and fabricating capabilities at the McMurdo Heavy Vehicle Facility. There are a few repairs to be made to the sleds before we can get underway and we hope to have everything done by next Tuesday.