Riebel Ninety South

29 Oct 2016

You'll notice there's a discrepancy between the stated date of this post and the posting date.  Due to the irregular internet down here, that's going to be pretty common.  Some of the below is now inaccurate, I finally got my luggage yesterday, 2 Nov.  I'm also feeling much better with the altitude.

Anyway, enjoy this slightly out of date description of the last leg of my journey to the best passport stamp ever.

I finally made it to 90 south on 29 Oct.  Arrival was a bit like a psychological crash landing.  We got word in McMurdo that our flight was a "go" for 07:30 at about 10pm.  We had to rush around the McMurdo bars (there are 3) to spread word of mouth to all our passengers.  We flew here on a Basler, which is a DC-3 (something like that, I'm not sure of the exact model number).  It's the plane Indiana Jones uses in all the travel cut sequences.  But wait you say, wasn't Indiana Jones set in the 1930's?  Yes, it was.  The flight was low, only about 2,000 ft above the ice, unpressurized, unheated, and with a nalgene bottle for a bathroom.  The seats were benches not large enough for my seatmate and I, both in full ECW.  We wedged ourselves in, and just endured for 5 hours. There were more than a few times during the flight I suddenly found myself very short of breath, just sitting in my seat.  We only got to take carry-on bags because the plane is so small.  When we landed, the pilot warned us it was -50 outside, and we stumbled out of the plane into the brilliant sunshine,  Our hoods block any peripheral vision, and we were greeted by most of the station staff, all of whom are bundled up just like you.  Then we all helped off load the plane, bucket brigade style and were ushered into the station, home for the next year.  It was dizzying.

Most of my belongings are still in McMurdo, hopefully arriving on a C-130 Herc tomorrow.  For the last three days, I'm living off my one shirt, one pair of pants and three pairs of underwear.  Actually come to think of it, I had to check my luggage when we first got to McMurdo.  I've been living off that for three days here plus two in McMurdo.  There's a reason we are known by the rest of the antarctic program as "dirty polies" I guess.

It's been -50 C (-60 F) since I arrived.  Before I got here, I admit I was a little intimidated by the prospect of temperatures like that, but I'm finding our ECW more than adequate for the task.  I'm quite comfortable on my walk to and from work each day.  The food is good.  My room is very small.  I'm restricted to very small messages on this account, so pictures will have to wait until the satellites are more convenient to my work schedule.  Team NOAA hit the ground running and on day 2 here we started our turnover process.  Both Sunday and today we did full 8-9 hour days.  With working a full day and dealing with the altitude, I can't stay up late for internet access right now.  Maybe this weekend.  I do notice the altitude, and find climbing even short stairs gets me a bit winded.  I'm sure that will pass eventually.