South Pole or Bust

I survived survival training yesterday, which is always a good sign. In about 12 hours, I will be on a LC-130 "Hercules" plane to South Pole Station -- yup, the geographic bottom of the Earth. Because the station is located on an ice sheet (which is a large glacier that gradually moves over the land below it toward the sea), the pole marker has to be moved about 30 feet every year to remain accurate. Lucky for us, it was re-adjusted at the beginning of the year.

We have a full day, as we are flying on a three-hour flight there tomorrow early morning and returning late tomorrow night with many tours and scientist interviews in between flights. We'll be learning about the South Pole Telescope, meteorology and ozone research.

Temperatures at the Pole have been around -10 Fahrenheit for the past few days. However, today they dipped down to -20. We each have a full set of Extreme Cold Weather gear, as well as an overnight bag in case we get stuck overnight due to weather. Here's a Webcam so you can keep up with the current conditions. There is a brand new station there that was completed in 2007 and is an engineering marvel.

It was a beautiful, warm (well, relatively) and sunny day at McMurdo today. We saw some Adelie penguins nearby! In addition, we watched the southern-most rugby game in the world, played near New Zealand's Scott Base between the Kiwis and Americans. The Kiwis won, of course. It's funny to learn about the activities people living here do to stay active and combat cold and boredom. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to upload pictures in the next few days.

To the South Pole or bust!