Happy Halloween!

There hasn't been much work as we are are still waiting on our cargo to show up. It seems they are having a hard time getting through the backlog of flights and it could be another week before all of our cargo gets here. I don't mind the short days, but it means we will have to work harder once the gear gets here.

I don't have any real Halloween plans. Apparently the Halloween party was on this past Saturday. Most of the people in McMurdo work 6 days a week, with Sunday off. Obviously a lot of people have to work different schedules because the base does run 24/7 but Saturday nights are the popular nights for many of the parties.

Here is a photo of the launch vehicle. There were no balloon flights last year due to the sequester, but some CSBF employees came down to swap the 3,000 pound transmission on "the Boss". It was parked on a berm which was 4-5 feet above the surrounding area, now you can see the berm and part of the the Boss are buried. It will mean more work for people to get it out so they can check it out and replace some of the tires.

The next few photos are from the ride back, which is fairly bumpy, so it makes getting good photos difficult. Here is some the equipment being prepped for the traverse to South Pole.

It is a bit a weird to be reminded of how much snow accumulates in parts of Antarctica. Here you can see how the older flags are getting buried by the rising level of the snow.

I went to Scott Base, the kiwi base, last night for American night. The base is open to Americans only by invite or on American night. I forgot to bring my camera, but noticed there were seals out on the ice. Again this is with a bit of zoom, in a bumpy vehicle, so I hope to get better shots at another time. The skuas haven't made it this far south yet, so the seals are the only wildlife I have seen on this trip.

Here you can see seals hauled out. The line running across the top of the shot represents the edge of the open water last year. The past couple years have seen a lot of open water around McMurdo and Scott base. I'm hoping it opens up again as whales and orcas come in. Last season large pods of orcas were seen rubbing against the seafloor in pretty much that exact spot.

In this photo you can see LDB, where I work, on the horizon in the middle of the photo. It is about two and a half miles further out this year than two years ago. The ice sheet moves about 300 feet a year in that area, so they wanted to return it to it's original location to see if they get better weather for launching. You can also see the line in the ice/snow representing the edge of the open water running almost parallel to the horizon.