Disclaimer: These blogs are usually a joint effort. I put in a rough draft…then Andrew fixes it up and makes it pretty. Andrew is on his own adventure right now, so this blog is all me and not as pretty.

I spent 3 fantastic days camping with penguins at Cape Royds! How cool is that? Three days camping in Antarctica with penguins and a historic hut… Really it doesn’t get much cooler than that.

Cape Royds camp is spread over volcanic rock. The yellow tent in the foreground belongs to the soil researcher. The Soctt tent (pointy) in the background is a permanent camp fixture. The rack tent (blue), is the communal tent and has power. Solar panels allow the researchers to charge their laptops daily. You can't see it, but there is even an antenna tower for internet!

I visited LDB (the Long Duration Balloon facility), which is located out on the Ross Ice Shelf. What is an LDB?  Essentially they are made of the same material as grocery bags, are HUGE, and can stay aloft for weeks at a time. Its a NASA thing. These gigantic balloons carry telescopes or other instrumentation packages that can weigh up to 5,000 lbs! It kind of makes me rethink how strong those grocery bags are.

BLAST exiting the instrumentation barn. You can see how large the payload (BLAST) and the instrumentation barn are. These folks don't mess around with their balloons.

Wow! Wow! Wow! That pretty much sums up my trip to the nearby pressure ridges. I was so awestruck. Pressure ridges occur where the sea ice meets the ice shelf. They push together and the weaker bits of ice, typically from the sea ice side, break out and up into amazing formations. There are often seal associated with pressure ridges. All of the shifting ice means that there are ready-made breathing holes for the seals.

Mount Discovery is in the distance. It is wearing a little "cloud hat", perhaps its peak was cold? Actually it is quite common for the peaks to have little cloud layers associated with them. I haven't seen that phenomenon anywhere else. I am use to seeing a cloudless or a cloud covered peak. These little "hats" crack me up.

Ross Island, in McMurdo Sound, has been the base of operations for Antarctic expeditions since the Heroic era. Scott’s Discovery Expedition (1901-1904) built a hut on Hut Point, Ross Island.

Scott's Discovery Hut at Hut Point

Do you here that thump-thump? That is just me patting myself on the back. Over the last few days I have had several opportunities to make Antarctica cleaner, and I have taken them all. That’s right I have picked up garbage.

Go, team go! Clean that continent.

Yesterday did not go at all how I expected it to. But sometimes that can be a very good thing.

I could totally be a Weddell seal! No difference at all.

I have been in Antarctica for a week and a half now. My hair keeps looking better and better (yeah for super low humidity), but my hands keep getting more and more chapped (boo for super low humidity). Big thanks to Kari for the huge tub of moisture cream; I carry it around with me wherever I go. I have been making friends by sharing.

The survival cache atop Mount Newall is filled with food, fuel, and other supplies to help you last out in the cold for several days. Survival caches are placed where there are semi-permanent facilities. All vehicles carry smaller, but similar, survival bags.

For those of you waiting on the edge of your seat… my flight came in. I left Pole and arrived back in McMurdo on Saturday. I did what Scott and his team could not do. I made it back to coast from the pole. To be fair my only hardship was a rather cold 4 hour flight on an LC-130. I was allowed up on the flight deck for take off which amazed me. Unfortunately it was a very cloudy day and I couldn’t see anything. Still it was very nice of the flight crew to let me up there. On the upside I made it back to McMurdo in time for dinner.

LC-130, my ride back to McMurdo. The "L" means it has skis.