Weather!

Since the wild weather has made the past week VERY different from what we had expected, I thought I'd make this week's extra post a few fun pictures and videos of the elements.


Here's a video I took out my bedroom window during the first storm that came through at the beginning of the week when summer season was supposed to be starting:

And then here is one when a few of us were walking home in Condition 2 weather that was about to turn to Condition 1, so the station management sent us all back to our rooms to hunker down for the afternoon:

And in between these two lovely weather events, there were these amazing skies....

Oh, Antarctica....

Weekly snapshot #32

Things are a wee crazy over here. Remember how last snapshot I said that by the time I posted the next one, summer season would have started? Well...I love that Antarctica has the power to foil the best of plans. The start of summer season has been significantly delayed and there are currently several hundred Ice-bound Americans spinning their wheels in Christchurch while some wild weather has roiled Ross Island this past week. Monday's flight was delayed till Tuesday, and then Wednesday, and so on...and at this point the soonest we'll get a flight is Sunday, but word on the street is we're more realistically talking mid-next week. A 10-day delay to the start of Mainbody season in McMurdo is a really big deal! In New Zealand the program is booking out empty ski resort hotels more than an hour outside of Christchurch to try to find space to house all the summer folk that have been flying in. Down here, everyone is trying to figure out when exactly they should actually start packing and strip their beds and--once again--cancel or delay their vacation and return-home plans.


My own departure--originally scheduled for this coming Wednesday the 10th--will very likely be pushed back, as it's looking entirely possible my replacements will not even have arrived by then. That's okay--I hadn't made any reservations for off-Ice, just in case this happened, and every extra day I stay is an extra day of pay that can go to eventual travel. So I'm just waiting this out and we'll see how it all goes!


In the meantime, I have a fun snapshot for today. It's actually two snapshots. We're in what the weather folks are calling a "pinwheel" storm, where one second it's completely nice out and the next you can't see 50 yards away. Case in point, here's the snapshot I took at 12 pm today, as everyone was coming in to lunch:

And then here's what everything looked like one hour later when people were trying to head back to work after lunch:

So Antarctica is dishing it up till the very end for me. I wouldn't have it any other way!

Crater Hill

One of the things I love about Antarctica is that it's a place where the word "boondoggle" is used in everyday conversation. AND I got to go on a short-but-sweet boondoggle last week! It was to Crater Hill, a high point above town where a bunch of IT/Comms equipment lives, and several folks from IT needed to go up to do some maintenance and had a couple extra seats to invite others along. I was really happy to be one of those others. (And especially happy that the trip finally actually happened before Mainbody started, as it was delayed day after day for almost a week due to weather and/or Pisten Bully availability.


Totally worth the wait, though. The views were amazing, the wind formidable, the PB ride an adventure, and the trip out of town: very refreshing!


When we got to the top of the ridge, the wind was so strong I could just lean back into it and it was holding me up.

There were spectacular sun dogs going...

The view back to town made it look very small and far away....

I got some satisfying ice crystals collecting on my eyelashes...

You can see Castle Rock in the background of this photo, just to the right of my jacket hood flap. And if it hadn't been overcast, you'd have been able to see mighty Mount Erebus behind that.

That's me on the left way out on that ridge. Sooooooooo beautiful!

Weekly snapshot #31

This week a dozer with a snow bucket was doing its thing directly in front of my snapshot--kind of funny! Hopefully you can tell from the background that the weather is overcast and getting iffy. Things are pretty crazy here right now, as the "Mainbody" (summer) season is supposed to officially start on Monday, with 118 people arriving that day and an average of 75 more arriving every day after that for the rest of the week. Just the thought of it makes me dizzy. But a five-day forecast yesterday predicted a possible Condition 1 on Monday, so the chances seem high that all these flights will not go exactly according to plan.


In any case, I imagine that by next week's snapshot, at least a few planes will have made it here and even the "fake winter" shoulder season will be officially over. And until my own flight is delayed, next week's snapshot will be my last from here, at least for the foreseeable future. Having a hard time wrapping my brain around that, but the days are ticking by frighteningly quickly, and it's all happening whether I'm ready or not!

Weekly snapshot #30

It's a GORGEOUS day at McMurdo. The sun is shining (so weird to feel sun on my face, and I can't stop squinting every time I go outside, but at the same time I can't force myself yet to put on a pair of sunglasses) and it's breezy, but the breeze actually feels WARM. Wow.


And activity is really ramping up, as the summer season bears down upon us. You get a bonus 'dozer heading back to work after the lunch-hour in this week's snapshot!