Season Glimpse

The season begins with very clean, tidy, and organized food shelves.  A day later, its like Erebus erupted inside our hut...packages ripped apart, boxes strewn on the floor, cans balancing precariously on top of each other...

The last of the sunsets at camp.  Now we have incessant light at all hours of the day.

Emperor penguins on the move at Big Razorback Island.  These random groups, probably all juveniles or non-breeders, are seen every season a-wandering across the ice.  They always look lost.  Which makes sense because they are about 10 miles from the open ocean.

Penguin head

We grow big eyebrow-cicles down here.

Mom-pup pair at the Turk's Head colony.  Pups are getting FAT these days.  About 70 pounds at birth, twenty days later...170 pounds!!!  Mom's milk is over 40% fat...highest in any mammal (that I know of)

Nearly every evening there is a dazzling light display in some form over the mountains.  This is looking from McMurdo onto the sea ice, where a line of snow machines are parked.

A sudden storm ("condition one" storm; ie the worst category) during a typical day of seal research forced us into our emergency "Scott" tent.  Visibility went to nill, the wind was whipping, and five people had to cram inside the "tiny, wet Scott tent" (as Jessica put it; she was stuck in there with four guys!).  It seems alright to hunker down in a tent, but the humidity inside the tent is terrible...everything gets wet.  And its cold.  And you can't move because there is no room to. And you are there for another 6 hours.  We had a Condition One Dance Party to keep us entertained (and warm) when we dared to leave the tent.

Can you feel the humidity and the cold?  Luckily I brought an Outside Bozeman magazine to keep us entertained.