Thursday and American Night at Scott Base

It was a bit windy today and temperatures at MCM ranged from a high of -11 oC to a low of -36 oC. Tomorrow our group will attend snow school also called "happy camper". This training will give us the opportunity to learn and practice methods of survival while in the field. Activities include building snow shelters and navigating under zero visibility. This training will also give us a chance to test out our camping and sleeping gear prior to going into the field.

Thursday night was "american night" at Scott Base which gave us the opportunity to visit another permanent station on Antarctica. Scott Base is the New Zealand base on Antarctica and it is only a short walk from MCM. During the summer there are approximately 80-100 people on station (MCM has about 1000).

*note: click on pictures to enlarge


Where in the world is Scott Base??

View of sea ice in McMurdo Sound from Scott Base

Ice pressure ridges form in the sound

"Sunset" over the sound (notice the blowing snow)


We have begun our final preparations for the field. This includes fine tuning all of our equipment and gear (i.e., chainsaws, laboratory equipment, food pull, and the remaining safety briefs necessary to leave for the field next Friday). Snow school is a two day event and upon return to MCM on Saturday I will update you on this activity.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my supervisors (Drs. Skidmore and Christner), friends, colleagues, family, and especially Galena for all of the support thus far. A great deal of time and work has been put into this project and it would not be possible without your support.