The rest of day 1

I decided to break up the rest of the day into a different post, hopefully shorter.

We rode to Mactown (McMurdo Station) on ‘Ivan the Terra Bus’ which took an hour to travel the 15 miles. Once we finally got to the base, we went straight into an orientation. We were assigned our rooms. We dropped off our laptops so they could be scanned for viruses and approved for the network (we technically use the military’s satellites for our internet so they’re pretty strict). I am with a randomly-assigned roommate but he seems pretty nice. He’s working on a project where they release weather balloons to collect data as they rise through the atmosphere.

Ivan the Terra Bus-- our ride to Mactown

I went on a short walk with a few other people down to a place called Scott’s Hut. It is an extremely well preserved hut that has survived from the early Antarctic exploration days. We saw some seals out on the ice as well.

Scott's Hut (also called Discovery Hut) with McMurdo in the background

On Hut Point with the Ross Sea in the background (and a mountain range in the distant background)

Weddell Seals as seen from Hut Point

Some scientists were out collecting our first samples of the season today. We expect them to return in about an hour and we’re going to process those samples later on tonight.

This afternoon, we scheduled our first field collecting trip for Thursday! We are going to Lake Hoare in Taylor Valley. We had to make our helicopter flight request, go to radio communication training, and go pick up our radios for our field work.

In order to go out into the field on Thursday, I have to do my “happy camper” school tomorrow. It’s a full day training where they teach us how to survive if we were ever stuck out in Antarctica in inclement weather or due to equipment malfunction. We have to spend the night in a tent or a snow ditch too. I’ll let you know how it goes!