On Monday, 6 amazing volunteers helped dig out the remaining 2 solar panels.
Avi and I realized that there was no way we could dig out the 2 still-buried solar panels in a timely manner without hurting ourselves. We emailed someone in McMurdo to round up a few volunteers for us though the "Morale Trippers" program. The volunteers get a day out of their typical work centers, and we get help digging. Although, we emphasized that this wasn't your typical morale trip and was just digging in the snow.
Despite this, six wonderful people volunteered to help us out!
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| Everyone (minus myself, taking the picture) digging! |
We drove the PistenBully up (with everyone stuffed in the passenger cab like a clown car). It was an incredibly foggy day, and we had to rely on the flags on the trail to see where to go. At some point, I could only see one flag in front of us. Pretty spooky. We had talked to the Weather Forecaster that morning, though, who said it was safe for us to go out!
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| Rime ice forming on PistenBully 314's mirrors. |
We were all able to dig out and raise the two 10-ft deep solar panels in just a few hours (as opposed to the days it likely would have just taken me and Avi).
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| Raising the last of the five total solar panels!! Hooray!!!!! |
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| We found a random disconnected cable in the snow. Here are 2 people digging it out. |
Another thing I did this week was locate more batteries. PASSCAL stores some equipment year-round in McMurdo in a bunch of different locations. Avi and I went on a search for more batteries to use for the stations on Erebus next season.
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| Some random boxes in the Art Brown Yard Annex. Most of these contain PASSCAL equipment that won't fit anywhere else. |
We found 120 additional batteries hiding out in boxes in the Art Brown Yard Annex (I don't understand the name, either). Woohoo! 9000 more lbs of batteries to move around and charge!
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| One of three nicely labelled crates of batteries. They didn't say what type of battery though (we have 2 main kinds), so we had to open the crates up to check. |
On Wednesday and Thursday this week it snowed!
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| Snow on Hut Point Ridge! |
I know, I know, I am literally in Antarctica, so this probably shouldn't be that exciting. But it was! There's something so peaceful and joyful about falling snow.
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| Snow on the ground between two of the dorms (207 and 208)! |
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| Snow on me and the McMurdo sign! |
I just wandered around station in the snow until I got too cold and had to go in to warm up. I love walking in falling snow!!
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| Snow on Ob Hill! |
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| Snow on Crary loading dock D! |
Hooray for snow!!!!
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