Home On The Ice

November 15, 2008

This morning, I stripped the linens off my bed, stuffed all my belongings in two orange canvas bags, and headed to the helicopter pad at McMurdo Station with Michelle and Kirsten: the penguin crew. The flight to Cape Crozier, our summer field camp, was scheduled for 3:25pm.

We were lucky – good weather! Boxes of food and bags of gear went into the aircraft, leaving just room enough for the three of us to squeeze in past thick cargo nets in the back. It was my first trip in a helicopter, and lived up to expectations. Actually, the flight was smoother than I thought it might be. Maybe that was because the infamous Antarctic winds were calm today.

On arrival at Cape Crozier, we jumped out onto frozen lava rocks, and, with rotors spinning, briskly unloaded the helicopter with a human chain. A quick radio call back to McMurdo Station confirmed that Crozier had established ground communication, and, as the pilot revved for liftoff, we lay flat, face down across our pile of unloaded gear to make sure none of it blew away across the snow.

Three of us will live here, at Cape Crozier, until the end of January. We have a small, heated, wooden hut, with a makeshift kitchen but no shower. It took us an hour and a half to dig platforms in the snow and set up three Scott tents within a hundred yards of the hut, which will serve as sleeping quarters. More on living arrangements later – it’s time for a good night’s sleep!