Back from Field Camp

Actually, I've been back in McMurdo for almost a week now. I've been a little busy doing laundry and catching up with some other project work, but I finally have a moment to post some photographs from my last days in Granite Harbor.

Sunday, the temperature reached the melting point. 32 degrees feels REALLY warm here in Antarctica! I had a few spare moments to soak up some sun, after applying spf 70 sunscreen (don't forget that were living under the hole in the ozone layer down here). I spent most of the rest of Sunday collecting all of my smelly wool socks and tracking down my missing glove to pack for my return trip. I felt really sad about leaving my camp buddies and the beautiful scenery, but I was also really looking forward to a shower and clean clothes.

The first of two helicopters arrived at camp exactly on time at 2:20 carrying two ARISE educators- Robin and Ken. You might have read Robin's blog about hurting her back and the disappointment of not going out to camp with me. Robin and Ken are replacing me and Bob. I had a little bit of time to show them around camp while the helicopter went to get a sling load of fuel to resupply the camp. We climbed aboard when it came back- just in time because fog was rolling down off the glaciers.

The trip back was incredible. We flew over many icebergs. As they calve off glaciers they float out into the Ross sea and then get frozen into the sea ice during Antarctic winter.

I've been busy in my new role now helping out in the core lab. It's fun work, but also very important to the scientists. Read Joanna's blog titled Core Curating from 11/09 to get the details.