Week 1: Getting Settled

Arriving in McMurdo, trainings, and "temporary housing".

I had a safe flight to McMurdo with NO DELAYS (unprecedented in Antarctic travel)!!!!!

You'll be glad to know that my bags did indeed arrive the night before my ice flight (aka flight down to the ice aka flight to Antarctica)! I stayed up late repacking everything. To fly to McMurdo, we get 85lbs of checked bags plus our carry-on. The 85lbs includes any ECW (Extreme Cold Weather) gear we get in Christchurch, so you realistically need ~75lbs of personal items.

Outside the USAP building at the Christchurch airport.

The morning of my flight, I took a shuttle to the USAP (United Stated Antarctic Program) area of the Christchurch airport. I handed off all 85lbs of my checked bags, including a "boomerang bag", which is a small bag with enough toiletries and clothes for a few days. All the luggage is stacked on huge pallets and loaded into the back of the military planes, but, due to weather, sometimes the flight will be cancelled or "boomerang", meaning it takes off but has to turn around and come back to Christchurch. Most of our luggage is buried at the bottom of a huge pallet, but our boomerang bags are placed on top for easy access. If the flight returns and we have to spend a few more days in New Zealand, we'll still have some clothes and a toothbrush.

With the COVID protocols last season, I waited in the passenger terminal for several hours. But this year, I actually got to walk around before my flight! A group of us got pastries from a nearby bakery.

At 9am, right on schedule, we lined up to screen our carry-on bags and step through a metal detector. Since we are flying with the US Air Force, we don't have to go through TSA. Then we collected our brown bag flight lunches and boarded the plane.

Walking through "security". Really just a metal detector that everyone set off.

Last season, I flew down on an Italian C-130. This year, I got to fly in the US C-17, which is much faster and larger. It was only a 5hr flight!

We took a bus out to the C-17 plane.

Pictures from the flight below. I sat in one of the jumpseats running along the outside of the plane. There were a few pallets with more typical airplane seats in the center that other people sat in. I prefer the jumpseats -- less comfortable, but more legroom.

A picture I took while waiting for the bathroom (which "does NOT flush"). My seat was a jumpseat on the right side. You can see the cargo in the back.

I wore ear plugs plus my giant ear protection -- it's loud on these planes.

Looking towards the front while boarding. The C-17 is huge.

My jumpseat. The "lumbar support" is my emergency life vest.

We landed at Willy airfield and shuffled off the planes onto the giant tractor-bus-vehicles. I'll get a picture of one later. The whole drive back to McMurdo, I was thinking about how amazing it is that I'm back. Last time I landed (~13 months ago), I had no idea what to expect or where we were going, but this trip I knew exactly where we were.

That didn't stopped me from feeling overwhelmed my first few days back. They've been packed with trainings, and there are over 900 people on station -- nearly double the amount from last season.

Learning how to build a snow anchor in a 4hr field safety training, which is mandatory for those of us that will leave McMurdo.

I've also been in "temporary housing". There are so many people on station and one of the dorms is currently being remodeled, so I got placed as the third person in an already-occupied two-person room. I was at the top of a bunkbed and didn't have a wardrobe..... Luckily, this was only for a few days and I'm now in permanent housing.

Also of note: 10% of people on station have COVID, and it seems like the policies were completely unprepared for this. When we landed, we were told that our roommate might be COVID positive, because there are too many people to quarantine. In order to go to South Pole or the deep field, we'll need to test negative..... which might be difficult if your roommate has COVID..... I'll include updates on the COVID situation. Hopefully this improves...

View from my run one morning. Ob Hill in right foreground, Discovery Peak in middle background, and Black Island in left background.

Overall, I'm so happy to be back and I'm feeling optimistic for this field season!