Update #2
2 Jan. 2005

Our flight to McMurdo Station from Christchurch went smoothly on Dec. 29.  We boarded the LC-130 at about 10 am and left by 11 am (below, left).  It took 7 hrs and we landed on the sea-ice landing strip at about 6 pm (below, right).  We were transported to the station in a large 'terra bus' that works well on the kind of snow, ice and rock terrain that occurs here.  We arrived the station within 30 minutes, right at dinner time, so we went to the galley and had a brief indoctrination to the station while eating.  Then, it was off to our rooms to get unpacked and sort out our things.  We were all tired, so it was early to bed that night after getting settled.

The next day, we organized the lab space we will be using in the Crary Lab building (below, right).  This is a large structure where all the scientific research is based when working from McMurdo.  Our lab in spacious and perfect for our needs to wash and sort sediments from abandoned penguin colonies.  Most of our lab and field supplies were shipped here ahead of us, so we found all the boxes and got everything unpacked and sorted.  We have computers we can use in the lab as well, with 24 hr Internet access (though the connection, by satellite, can be a bit slow at times).  So, communications and research can proceed about as fast as it does anywhere else.

Much of our time during the first two days here was spent attending briefing sessions and meetings, gathering together necessary supplies and field gear, and scheduling helicopter flights to field sites for next week.  Since Stephen had not been here before, he was required to attend a 2-day 'snow school' where he was shown how to survive in the outdoors, how to build a shelter with snow blocks cut from the packed snow, and other useful things for cold-weather situations.  This school also included a night out on the ice, sleeping in one of the snow shelters they built.  For the rest of us, we just needed to attend a 3-hr refresher course on all of these survival skills.  Stephen returned, though, happy for the experience and more prepared to deal with the climatic extremes we may face while working in the field.

The weekend of Jan. 1-2 was a holiday for most people down here, so we did not have much we could do in terms of research.  So, on New Year's Day, we went for a 9-mile hike to Castle Rock on the loop trail behind the station.  The trail is a flagged route across a glacier that is used for both hiking and cross-country skiing.  Castle Rock is  a rocky summit at about 900' elevation (below, left) at the most distant section of this loop trail.  The weather was fine that day and we had good views of the coastlines around us from this summit (below, right).  The long hike and fresh air was great exercise and a great way to start the new year.  Now we are ready to begin our field work.

On Sunday, Jan. 2, I spent part of the day preparing this update, but also preparing a study skin of a South Polar Skua that had died on station recently.  This skin will be used for teaching, just like the penguin skin I brought to your class last month.  These are beautiful birds and it's always satisfying to be able to preserve one in this manner.