Mark phoned in from the field early this morning - here it is:



- Brian

Checking In

Hey folks,

For anyone who doesn't know me, i'm Brian, Mark's brother. I've been given the task of updating over the course of his trip, so i thought i should get started with the updates.

Sadly, i don't have too much to report! In the course of cooking dinner last night, i missed Mark's phone call for the second time in a week - however, our folks heard from him on Monday night, and said all is well, despite super-high winds.

He should be sending me photos soon, and once i receive them, i'll post them here.

'Til next time,
Brian

Weather delay #2...

So we got the call to head to the helo pad - we got all of our gear weighed, got our helmets on, and were about to head out to the helo, when the fog rolled in again and our flight was put on a weather hold yet again. So, we're now hanging out, checking our email again, and updating our blogs. Hopefully we'll get out sometime in the near future (my hopes is before noon local time - it's 10:35am now), and start this season already!


Mark

Weather delay...

Our flight has been delayed due to fog. We're hoping to get out in a few hours, but that all depends on how long the fog sticks around. My guess is that our flight will get out in the early afternoon, but I really hope that all of our gear can make it out today as well. If not, we may be spending a pretty chilly night in the dry valleys before the rest of our camp gear can be brought out to us. Pray for clear skies! Talk to you all in a few months!


Mark

Goodbye for Now!

Just got the helo schedule for tomorrow - we leave McMurdo at 8:45am for our first camp location in Lower Wright Valley. We should be in Lower Wright for a little over a week before moving on to Victoria Valley, which is one of our primary research sites for the season. There are some spectacular sand dunes in this region, and we hope to be able to sample some of them to better characterize the material that they are composed of.

After Victoria Valley, we head to a transition camp in a valley called Bull Pass. This is where our other two team members will join us, in addition to our big group splitting camp into two smaller camps. We are only going to be in this location for a little over a week, but while we're there, we have a trip planned that will take three of us (I'm one of those three) out of the valleys and onto the polar plateau. We are going to a small nunatak (an island amongst a sea of ice) that is about 2 km by 2 km large, where we will collect samples. This is cool because it will be my first time up on the plateau - I'm sure the views will be spectacular (pictures to come!)!

Then, well finally all move to Taylor Valley, which is the "busiest" of the dry valleys. While we'll still be camping, there are several established and permanent camp sites in this region, so we should hear our fair share of radio chatter and see quite a few helos fly in and out of the valley on a regular basis. We'll be here for two weeks at the most, before we head back to McMurdo to clean our gear and get back to the US!

Anyway, I'll miss you all, and I'll be sure to post as soon as I get back. In the meantime, let's see if Brian remembers to update you all with my status!

Best,

Mark

PICTURES!

Just adding some pictures for your entertainment!

The USAP logo at the airport in Christchurch.

Just after de-boarding the aircraft. Mt. Erebus, the world's southernmost active volcano, is the large mountain in the center of the frame. You can also see the patterns etched into the ice to help the aircraft grip the runway and tarmac better.

We've been having some bad weather at McMurdo the past few days. Nothing too crazy, but cloudy skies, low visibility, and moderate winds have kept helicopters from flying.

This is Sylvain, our stereotypical French team member. He took a liking to the touch tank in the science building's aquarium. He liked to touch everything. Sylvain is a lot of fun and will make the field season a really fun experience.

I can't have Antarctica pictures without including at least one helicopter picture! This was one of the first helicopters to take off after the weather started to clear, but you can see all of the snow being kicked up by its rotors.

I'll try to add some more pictures later! Bye for now!


Mark

DELAYED

Our flight out to our first campsite was delayed 24 hours because of weather, despite the fact that currently the sun is out and the visibility is > 20 miles, and we're more than 36 hours away from our originally planned departure. It turns out that we were bumped because the weather has been bad, not because it is bad or it will be bad. A bunch of different research groups were delayed over the past few days, so they get to fly out before we do, and as it is currently scheduled, that would put our camp move into Tuesday morning as opposed to sometime on Monday. I'd normally be mad, and I really do want to get out of McMurdo, but an extra day to sleep in and relax just sounds so good at the moment!

More updates to come soon - that's just the latest.


Mark