Dispatches from Antarctica

This morning I flew with my team from McMurdo, across the frozen sea ice of McMurdo Sound, to the Dry Valleys.  We were transported in a Bell 412 helicopter along with ~ 600 lbs of scientific and personal gear, all of which is weighed and tagged to help with weight distribution and fuel allocation for the journey.  The Bel 412 is the bigger of the two types of helicopters operated by the US Antarctic Program and flies with both a pilot and a helicopter tech, who helps with the loading and off-loading of cargo.   Bonney camp is the most inland and farthest from McMurdo of the four Dry Valleys field camps. We were treated to spectacular views of the mountains, hanging glaciers and all three of frozen lakes we will be sampling as we made our way up the valley.   I loved being able to see the system from above- because of the lack of vegetation it was so easy to see the watershed at work from that scale- streams running off of the glaciers running into the slushy moats of the frozen lakes.

Headed to the Dry Valleys today! We are flying to Bonney Camp, located on Lake Bonney, the farthest inland of the three lakes in the Taylor Valley. Over the next few days we'll be doing the second round of sampling on both the eastern lobe and the western lobe of Lake Bonney. More on that when I get in to the field!

I've arrived at McMurdo Station! I'm glad to be here after 5 days of delays. Our flight finally left Christchurch around 9am yesterday (Dec 6th) and landed on the ice in the early evening. We were greeted by clear views of Mt. Erebus (the world's southernmost active volcano,) the Royal Society Range, and lots of snow and ice. Life in McMurdo over the next week will mostly consist of trainings covering everything from field survival skills to proper chemical waste disposal in lab as well as some prep work for the field and lab work later in the season. If all goes to plan, I'll be heading out to the Dry Valleys on Tuesday.

Waiting for flight orientation and boarding! So far, signs point to flying to Antarctica today! If so, it will take about 7hrs to fly from Christchurch to McMurdo Station.