Mainbody's Arrival

So after our peaceful first six weeks here, mainbody is starting to arrive. At the beginning of August, a period of time called "Winfly" starts, when a few hundred people come down, some winter-overs go home, and the station starts up to prepare for all of the people coming for the summer, or "mainbody". I arrived on the second flight in Winfly, and now we have 3 flights from mainbody here. The population is increasing (it will eventually double and hit 1200) and it is definitely getting to be a more hectic place.
We are getting more dining attendents, so its nice to have new faces around. And, fresh food should be coming in soon, so that will be a treat. But I think the best part of the summer season officially beginning is that we can hike to more places.
Another exciting change to happen down here is the sun. When we arrived the sun wasn't even up yet, and now it hardly ever goes down. I was out hiking around 10pm and it was still really light out. Soon the sun won't go down anymore, but just go in circles around, and dip a little down towards the horizon.

Pictures!

My new Antarctica friends, waiting to get on the plane- note the awesome gear we all get to wear :)
McMurdo, and the surrounding ice from the hike up observation hill
Nacreous clouds. They are caused by pollution and very cold air, and are evidence of ozone depletion. But are so very cool.
The view looking back from hut point at night. The little white dot in the upper righthand corner is the NASA dome, and to the left of the person is ice.
Us after just arriving in Antarctica, on "Ivan the Terra-bus" going to the station

Recent Updates from Antarctica

So I haven’t posted in awhile, so I thought I would give some general updates. Not much has changed here. Yesterday was my day off, so that was great. It was the first one that I have had that the weather was decent, so I hiked out to hut point during the day. It was very pretty, and I got a better look at the hut itself, which is really cool. There is a dead seal outside that is still pretty much intact 100 years later.

I got to sit out there for a while and just look at the mountains and the ice, which is starting to crack a little because it is getting warmer (relatively speaking) and the sun is out.

Ah yes, the sun. It is on its way up for good- they say in a few weeks it will be up for the duration of my time here. It’s very bright- I got to use my sunglasses for the first time yesterday, which was fun. It’s strange that its up at all to me…a month ago when we got here it was 24 hours darkness. Soon enough we will have 24 hours of daylight. I might become a night worker- but with this 24 hours daylight I don’t think it would change too many things. Plus getting to go out hiking more will be awesome. At the same time, I want to get in as many night hikes as possible before we go to permanent daytime.

One night last week I went hiking up Observation Hill, and watched the sunset. It was gorgeous. In my opinion, hill is a bit of a misnomer. It’s quite a climb, but was totally worth it. There is a cross at the top to memorialize Scott and the rest of his party who died on the way back from the pole. That night there were also some impressive nacreous clouds (these clouds that are evidence of ozone holes, and come up due to pollution and extreme cold), which were cool to see. Another night a few weeks ago I walked out to Scott base looking for auroras. Although we only saw one, it was incredible.

So besides seeing cool things and hiking and getting outside a lot, things are business as usual here. We switched work shifts, so now I work 10am to 8pm. I am enjoying the change for the moment….its nice to sleep in past 5:30am for once. Everyone is getting ready for mainbody to arrive in late September- when about 500 or 700 more people come and fill up the station, and more science stuff gets going. At the moment however, there are about 525 people here. Its nice, and calm. There are a few scientific projects going on at the moment; lots of atmospheric balloons and a group studying how weddell seals eat during the Antarctic winter.

Its weird to think I have been here a month. In some ways its just strange to think its been that long, and in some ways I feel like I have been here forever. It will be interesting to see what happens when mainbody arrives. But at the moment, this place is pretty great.