It's snowing!

For those of you who have been to McMurdo, you know that it is not often when the town is covered in white. We've had flurries on and off over the past couple of days with no accumulation. This morning started with flurries, but then turned into a beautiful day. I was working outside without a coat for most of the afternoon. After dinner, I was up on the cargo line preparing tower sections for the field when the weather changed quickly and the snow started. By the time that I headed back to my room, about an hour later, the ground was covered. Of course this amount of snow is considered nothing for the northeast or the mountains of Colorado, but for McMurdo in the summer it makes things quite fun. There were quite a few happy people outside taking pictures.

In the mean time, Jonathan, Lee and I have been working hard to get our cargo prepped and shipped to the field camps. Lee is scheduled to fly to Byrd field camp on Tuesday and Jonathan and I are scheduled to fly to CTAM (Central Transantarctic Mountains) on Wednesday. We have to have our cargo into the system at least two days in advance (and Sunday does not count). We got the Byrd cargo loaded today and we're working hard to get the CTAM cargo loaded tomorrow.

The other exciting news is that the tall tower project (installing a 30 meter tower in the middle of the Ross Ice Shelf) might be a go for this year. We've been trying to get the tall tower installed for the past 2 or 3 seasons. Each year we have trouble getting the riggers out to the site to install the tower due to bad weather. Without fail, this year has been the same situation with bad weather and busy flight schedules. Although, the planners have developed a new plan. This includes sending the riggers and equipment out to the site using the Traverse road. The Traverse is a two thousand mile trek made from McMurdo to South Pole. It is used to haul cargo and fuel to the South Pole. Here is a blog from someone who was on the Traverse and took some amazing photos

http://beyondthebackyard.com/Adventures/SouthPoleTraverse/SouthPoleTraverseJournal5.html

I would estimate that the Tall Tower site is about a days drive (on a track vehicle) from McMurdo. It will be very interesting to see if this project goes through. If the riggers are able to install the tower, we'll fly out in February to install the instruments. Here's to keeping our fingers crossed.