Chilean's make it to Patriot Hills

I have resorted to writing my blogs offline and updating them when the satellite times allow. So posts with pictures will take awhile. Here is the thank you email we received from the Chilean Polar Expedition. It sounds like they made it ok and had a good time while on station. I'd bet on another expedition in the next two years. And I guarantee they use two tractors next time.

-----Original Message-----
From: Centro de Estudios Cientificos [mailto:polo@cecs.cl]
Sent: Monday, January 03, 2005 2:44 PM
To: Marty, Jerry; Marty, Jerry; Grant, BK
Cc: Cusp Lab; MCM-NSF Representative; Borg, Scott
Subject: Back at P.Hills


Dear Jerry, BK and all our new friends at South Pole,

Above all our warmest gratitude for the fantastic hospitality and your
essential collaboration at South Pole, including our never ending
“shopping list” (by the way the toilet paper has proved to be a precious
asset of superb quality). All of us had a truly unforgettable experience
at Amundsen-Scott. Please convey our gratitude to your colleagues and
collaborators at South Pole since I do not have all their email addresses.
For example Martin (who welcomed us at South Pole and collaborated at the
garage-workshop), Al Baker (who helped throughout and said farewell –
“vaya con Dios” the last day), Kathie for her help with glaciological data
and kind hospitality, Brenda for the valuable GPS data, Paul Sullivan,
Patrick McClure for help at the computer room, the Ice Cube people, the people
who fixed our heating system, the cargo chicks, the people at the store,
at the bar, and many other new friends.

We successfully made it back to Patriot Hills, arriving 31 December, in
time for New Year’s eve where we had a wonderful celebration both at the
Chilean camp and at ALE’s camp. The science on the way back went really
well, firn drilling down to 30 m to 46 m every 2 degrees of latitude,
gravity measurements every 20 km, GPS measurements of stakes every 20 km,
surface snow samples every 10 km, kinematic GPS every 5 seconds and snow
accumulation radar records every 1 second.

Claudio and Andres had an excellent trip back to Chile via
McMurdo-Christchurch –Auckland, thanks you so much for arranging the
flight.

You are ALL most welcome to visit us in Chile, .attached are our contact
addresses. Looking forward to meeting you again in the near future,

Gino Casassa, on behalf of the Chilean South Pole Scientific Expedition 2004

Boondoogle

I had promised to update various goings on here but instead I had my first unexpected adventure (boondoogle). "Master" David Bates and I climbed the Dome to raise the flag to full staff here is a link to the pictures of me risking my life on top of the Dome.

The satellite is going down earlier everyday. It is going down at about 11a but does not come up until 11:30p when I am asleep or no where a pc. So updating is becoming quite an issue. I will continue to write off line and add when I get a chance.

Race Around the World Pictures

As promised here are some picture from the Race Around the World. Like I said there is only one I found of me actually running. There are hundreds more but most of them of various people running or being dragged around the course.

The Russian AN-3 repair team had a successful test yesterday. I'll will relate the whole story shortly.

Lots to catch up on...

New Years come and gone and I have neglected the blog for a couple of days. But fear not, I have updated the format of the McClure Xmas link and made the pictures available in full size by clicking on them. I also added a background and font scheme closer to the rest of the blog.

Here is the promised link to the local Ice Sculptures from Christmas. I did not really help with any of these but I did patronize Due South.

I still have race pictures but have not put them all up. Lots of pictures of me before and after but only one of me actually running. You'll see these posted pretty soon.

As expected the New Years party was huge, four live bands a go-go cage combined with "slushies" and a UT (Utility Technician) warm up party it was quite a night. I'll put some pictures of this up as well.

Saturday was Brenda Everitt's birthday party and I attended. Brenda is a science tech I see all the time and I was happy she invited me. It was held in Skylab, the orangish tower behind the Dome.

Sunday, I laid in bed the entire day. I had the day off from the store so it was my first day off since I got here (I did cover a shift in the store Saturday night). I watched a couple of movies on the office's iBook... Yes, I used MAC for something other than a doorstop. It actually does a good job. I got caught up on sleep and hopefully will have the energy to close out my time here.

My departure date is one step closer to being set. I was informed an hour ago that I scheduled to leave February 9th for a STRAIGHT through flight from Pole to Christchurch (we do refuel in McMurdo). But fog, weather or mechanical issues can change that very quickly. My plans for after I arrive in Chch are still undecided.

Other things I'll post soon, Russians and the AN-3 Antinov saga, the Chilean Expedition Update, some funny things on station, live weather feeds from the pole, snazzy new shirts, the broken Ice-Breaker and the R&R replacements which are arriving shortly for the winter-overs.