I went skiing on Christmas at McMurdo!
Everyone at McMurdo gets a two-day weekend (instead of just a Sunday off) for Christmas. I went with a group of 4 to ski on the Ross Ice Shelf.
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| Me on my rented cross-country skis! |
We hiked (carrying our skis) down by Scott Base and out to Willy Road (marked LDB road on this map), had a quick lunch stop, and started skiing! The first part of the road (before the large curve on the map) was extremely slushy. But once we got out on the straight part, the snow was perfect for skiing.
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| Please note that this is my third time ever on skis (my first being a few weeks ago..). |
Two people in the group were on skate skis -- they took off, leaving me and the other person on touring skis in the dust (or snow, I suppose). They made it all the way to the emergency shelter on the map insert; we made it about 1.5km shy of that.
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| This was also the first time I actually felt confident on skis. Not fast or skilled by any means, but I at least didn't feel like I was constantly about to fall over. |
All told, we spent 5 hours on this adventure and covered about 18km total (including the hike there and back). The weather was beautiful. I was extremely surprised that no one else was out, but it was just our group.
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| Wheeeeeeee!! |
Once we got back, I took a shower and then joined another group for Christmas dinner. The galley went all out. There was so much delicious food and the galley was even decorated for Christmas!
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| Mt. Erebus was making a little puff of steam while we were skiing. |
I also decorated my room for Christmas! I am going to leave the lights up until I leave -- they are so happy (and help my room feel like it's actually nighttime instead of constant daylight outside).
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| Christmas lights! |
This was the first time I really missed my family. We always have Christmas with my extended family in Alabama, and this was the first year I missed out on it. I still had a great Christmas, but it wasn't the same. I am looking forward to seeing them when I fly back in February.
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| Mt. Discovery got Christmas snow (the top is now completely capped in white!). |
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