Frozenly arrived!

McMurdo Station: wind chill -32°C and -26°F, 20 knots wind.

After our "ice flight" was delayed by three days (caused by bad weather at the McMurdo station airfield), we departed Christchurch yesterday. We lucked out and had the luxury of flying to Antarctica on an Airbus (complete with in-flight coffee, meal service, passenger seats, and windows), instead of the typical military C-17 that lacks passenger windows. Our flight took us over sea ice, across the trans-Antarctic mountains, past Mt. Erebus (an active volcano), and finally to the McMurdo ice runway.

The arrival

We started our field season by attending introductory briefings, touring the base, and finding our temporary office.

The team!

View from the base

McMurdo Station

To stretch our legs after the 5-hour flight, we took a short walk through town to the historic Discovery Hut. This wooden building was erected in 1902 by the British as a shelter and storage facility suitable for Antarctic climatic conditions. They intended to use the base for the Discovery Expedition lead by Sir Robert Falcon Scott. Unfortunately, the hut was unbearably cold and windy - so much so that the crew refused to use it and continued sleeping on the ship or in tents outside!  

The Discovery Hut

We then ended our first night in Antarctica by watching the sun set behind the distant Mount Discovery. This will be the one of the last sunsets before McMurdo experiences 24-hour daylight during the Antarctic summer.

On Sunday morning we had the legendary "Sunday brunch" and started to plan our fieldwork… In the coming days, we will go through a series of additional training exercises that will prepare us to fly over the ice - and find the emperor penguin colonies!