McMurdo

Yesterday evening we made it to McMurdo, which will be our home base for the next month. What is McMurdo?

McMurdo Station is an American base by the Ross Ice Shelf and is one of the two stations into which USAP personnel and scientists fly before being dispersed elsewhere on the continent. So, for many, McMurdo is the first real glimpse of Antarctica - and to be honest, it's not a very pretty one. Being near sea level an at a (relatively) low latitude, McMurdo is near freezing during the austral summer, and the constant freezing and thawing turns the dark volcanic rock it is built up into an unattractive mixture of ice and mud, which is then churned up by the off-road tires and tracks of vehicles.

Add to this the dated aluminum buildings and heavy equipment necessary for life and scientific operations here, and it looks more like an old mining town and less like the picture you get of Antarctica from documentaries. If you ask most newcomers what they think, the response is almost universally a disappointed "I thought it would be more white/snowy/picturesque."

HOWEVER, as unattractive as McMurdo itself is, the views from it are spectacular. From different vantage points you can see the Ross Ice Shelf, numerous Mountains in the distance, various species of penguins, Weddell seals, and the famous Mt. Erebus. There are some pretty great trails and sites in the area, and I hope to post some pictures here as I explore them during this season. Very different from my trip last year, which was almost entirely spent at the South Pole, where venturing two miles from base on foot was a potentially life-threatening endeavor, even in the best of circumstances. If you're curious, you can check out the webcam of the station here. The big blue building on the right holds the mess hall (as well as other things). The tan building above it is where I work, and my dorm is in one of the long, thin buildings on it's right.

Life since arriving at McMurdo hasn't been especially exciting. Our days have been spent mostly in training. Due to delays and complications with our project that are ongoing in another location, we are unlikely to start doing field work for another week. So, during the next couple posts, you are likely to hear an awful lot about living in and how to occupy your time in McMurdo!