And then there were...48...

The last flight out of South Pole was scheduled for Saturday, Feb 13, and the station started emptying out in earnest at the beginning of February. The station population, which had been holding at 160 or so for most of December and January, began to plummet as first the SpiceCore drillers and scientists, and then the carpenters, and so on, all began to clear out in groups of a dozen or more. By the beginning of the final week of the summer, we were down to a station population of about 110, and departures of 30 people on Friday and again on Saturday would be getting us down to our final winter-over crew. But then, on Tuesday, our power plant foreman quit, and that is not a position that can go unfilled for the winter. So the station management began scrambling for a replacement they could get here and get trained in a week or so, and it became clear that to make this happen at least half a dozen summer people would have to stay through the weekend.

On Friday, about 30 people, including SR, headed out as scheduled. So that was a very sad day for me. Someone got this shot of me waving goodbye as he got on the plane.

And on Saturday another 30 people left as planned, and the station started going into winter mode. SO WEIRD to go into the galley and have it be nearly empty, or to feel like you could roll a bowling ball down the hall and not hit anyone. And there was a musical chairs of rooms, as I moved out of the double I'd shared with SR, and a couple who got together over the summer moved into that room, and one wing of the station was shut down to save energy, and people who had to move displaced others with lesser seniority in desirable rooms, and so on and so forth.

But there were still six people--upper management, power plant trainers, and other key personnel--on station so we didn't feel like winter had really started. They were scheduled to fly out on Monday, and on Monday afternoon a Herc (with a crew as eager as we were to get Pole closed for the season so they could head home to the States) departed McMurdo for Pole, and arrived here....and did a flyby of the station...and circled overhead for more than an hour waiting for enough visibility to land. But it was a very windy, nasty day...

...and though we were all dressed up to go outside for final goodbyes and all stood by for that hour+ hoping to hear that the plane had managed to land....

...finally they reached their no-turning-back point with fuel and had to abort, saying they'd try again tomorrow.

Which they did, and on Tuesday, February 16, "Getrdone 21"--the playfully altered name of the plane that would usually be dubbed "Skier 21" (for the first plane coming in on the second day of the week) made skis down on the South Pole runway at about 2pm. (You can see in the background of this picture the cloud of snow the plane kicks up on landing.)

Then, you can see in this picture the couple of orange bags that are about to be passed off to me: the final bags of mail we'll receive until November! The mail came off, the 6 final passengers and their luggage were loaded on, and Getrdone 21 turned around and took off...

...and then before heading north for good turned around and did a beautiful fly-by of the station to say goodbye and wish us well for the next 8.5 months of isolation. (Thanks to Rachel for this awesome shot of the fly-over!)

And then there were 48! That is the number of winter-overs we've ended up with when all is said and done, including a couple of unexpected last-minute drop-outs and the normal attrition and replacement and attrition-again that happens over the summer season. So, 47 other people who I'll see exclusively and relentlessly between now and November. It promises to be quite an experience, no matter what.

Winter--at least in terms of station operations--is here!