South Pole!

I tried posting earlier, but it hasn't appeared yet. I'm still trying to work out the kinks in connectivity, so you may see another post saying that I am here.

We left McMurdo with no more delays, after seeing a few emperor penguins. Those are the penguins that is in March of Penguins, Happy Feet, and so on. They were just huddling by the road between the McMurdo base and the airplane runway. Photos to come soon.

The flight was amazing. We flew over the Transantarctic Mountains, then into NPX (the code at the runway at the South Pole!) for an extra smooth landing. I flew on a ski-equiped LC-130 with a few military personnel, a couple of winter-overs, the assistant station doctor, operations manager and eight or so DV's (distinguished visitors). I will write more on them later as they are doing pretty interesting jobs. And last but not least, our very own Charley Bentley from the geology department at UW, who spent 1957 - 1959 at the South Pole! In those days, you took a ship. You couldn't get through the ice until late summer when the sea ice had melted enough for ice breakers to get through. This is still the case today if you travel by ship. In fact, the first ship to McMurdo will arrive in the next few days. This meant that to get a full season of scientific exploration, you got to Antarctica in late January, spend the entire winter there, spend the summer, and come back if you can that late summer, or spend another winter, then come back. Wow! By 1957, they had giant snow cats etc. so they were able to bring in heavy equipment. They discovered some mountains along the way, and so, he has a mountain named after him!