antarctica: Winter at McMurdo

So it's been a while since my last post. Sorry, been busy. A few weeks ago the last plane left McMurdo station while those of us staying for winter watched while drinking champaign. There will be no other flights until late August, which means we receive no mail or fresh produce, and the 143 of us here are stuck with each other. All in all, there is a fun crew of people here this winter and enough activities to keep us from going completely insane. Every other Wednesday is trivia night, karaoke on Thursdays, and I will be hosting open mic night starting next month. There is a gym with basketball and volleyball nights and a lounge with shuffle board and pool. There is also a craft room. Multiple people host movie nights and we even have a radio station here where I will be DJ once a week. Many of the work centers host parties as well.

One of the more interesting things about winter is how quickly the days get shorter. When I got here in November there was 24hrs of sunlight. The first sunset was February 20th and since then we've been losing about a half hour of daylight each day. The sun will set for the last time in mid April and will not rise again until August. Kind of creepy, although I will get to see a fantastic display of stars and auroras.

There are four of us carpenters here this winter. Myself and another guy got hired on to finish the remodel project I was working on this summer, and to paint the interior of the helicopter hanger. I've spent the last few weeks up on a scissors lift scrubbing 40 years of grime off steel beams in preparation for painting. We had some strong winds the other day that were so cold that our cleaning rags were freezing to the inside walls. Speaking of freezing, we had our first condition 1 storm a few days ago. The weather here is divided into conditions 1,2, and 3. Condition 3 means there is no restrictions on travel. Visibility is greater than 1/4 mile, winds are less than 48 knots, and the wind chill is warmer than -75 F. Condition 2 means you are allowed to walk between buildings, but you need to check out with the fire house to go anywhere else. Winds are 48- 55 knots, visibility is greater than 100 ft, and the wind chill is -75 to -100. Everything is still business as usual as far as work goes. When condition 1 is called, you are not allowed to leave the building you are in. Winds are greater than 55 knots, visibility is often less than a few feet, or the wind chill is in excess of -100 F. Funny thing about the weather here, the last storm was condition 1 everywhere else on Ross Island, but magically went to condition 2 only within the area of McMurdo station during work hours. Here are a few photos taken around McMurdo this last month.