We made it to the ice!

We made it!

Last night, Byron and I went to dinner then went back to the hotel for a nap before our flight. I went and knocked on Byron’s door at the prearranged time so that we could leave for the CDC but no answer! I went back to my room and had the front desk connect me to his room. A very groggy voice answered and I told him that we needed to go!

We still made it to the CDC on time. They had already gathered a ton of stuff for me in my size based on a form I filled out. However, I still needed to try everything on. It felt like a mad dash since we were told that I only had 30 minutes. Besides trying on clothing, I was also supposed to be getting dressed for the flight and organizing all of my bags.  A lot of the clothing that they give you is extra stuff to layer or pick between your favorites, like gloves. I think I have 4 pairs of gloves now!

However, there are a few essential items that comprise your Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear: a hat, goggles or sunglasses, a huge parka, snow pants, gloves, and ‘bunny boots’, which are huge white boots. Your ECW gear has to be accessible within seconds for all flights by plane or helicopter.

My goal was to end up with 4 bags: one was a checked bag (my suitcase), another was a different checked bag with the cold weather gear I didn’t need for the flight, the third was my ‘boomerang’ bag that would carry all of the essentials in case our flight had to turn around, and the final one was my carry-on bag which needed to contain my backpack as well as the extra ECW gear that I didn’t want to wear. I’m grateful that Byron was there to help me sort out everything because it was very overwhelming for a first-time participant.

After that, we went to go check in at the U.S. Antarctic Passenger Terminal next door. The first step was to show them my passport and declare that I didn’t have anything hazardous. I then dropped off my checked bags to be weighted, screened, and loaded on a pallet. I had to be weighed myself along with my carry-on bag. We waited around for a little while in a waiting room before we had a quick orientation and video about the flight. We waited some more and then we were allowed to go through screening ourselves. This screening was a basic version of the U.S.’s security screening. All of our stuff was xrayed and we passed through a metal detector. They don’t worry about liquids and taking off your shoes and all that stuff. Finally, we boarded a bus to take us to the plane.

As we got off the bus, we were handed a water bottle and a sack lunch for the flight. We climbed aboard and waited for what felt like an hour. I don’t really know what we were waiting for. We had another orientation, this time with safety information. The oxygen masks are quite different from the ones on commercial jets. You are supposed to pull this plastic bag over your head and hope that oxygen gets to you! Our plane finally took off at about 12:50 AM.

 

Waiting for take-off

The flight was pretty uneventful. I was seated along one of the walls of the plane in a jump seat. It’s interesting to be flying in the middle of a cargo hold of a plane, but we all survived! The pallets of stuff in the center of the plane would shift slightly back and forth as the plane moved.

The highlight of the trip was when I got to go up in the cockpit! I knew that the pilots sometimes allowed this, so I was paying attention to see what happened, and sure enough, someone went up to ask one of the crew members and he was allowed to go up (you literally have to climb up a steep staircase to get to the cockpit in this plane). I wasted no time in requesting my turn, camera in hand! When I looked out the front window, I had my first glimpse of Antarctica straight ahead of us! I took pictures and one of the crew members was kind enough to take my picture as well. I told the crew that they should keep flying south. I’m glad I went up since the line got pretty long after that.

Standing in the cockpit of the C-17

My first view of Antarctica from the cockpit!

Finally, it was time for touchdown. It was really smooth. It seemed to take a while for the plane to stop, but it was a heavy cargo jet landing on an ice runway so what do you expect? I'm excited to finally be on the continent!

Byron and I after the landing at Pegasus Runway, Antartica