Thanksgiving day, Nov 2007

Summary: Tonight is the wind’s, and tomorrow I get a day off!

Tonight is the wind’s
We (Michel, Jin-A, and I) had signed up for this evening’s trip to Cape Evans, so Jin-A and I returned to McMurdo on the early shuttle to pack and prepare (our ECW gear, eat dinner, etc); Michel remained at LDB for the results of his CherCam muon run. Our LDB weatherman Ross also happened to be on this trip, and we met at dinner to discuss our sadness: the weather forecast threatened high winds and snow, both falling and blowing. It has been beautiful all day, and we were almost all disappointed. Michel returned from LDB with news that the data collection board for half the CherCam is not working. He will not be able to play again until it’s fixed. Luckily, he has a spare board, we have the tools, and he should be able to get in touch with his colleagues in France for any last minute assistance.
I couldn’t stand the idea of another night in my corner of room, doing more such mundane things as laundry (last night), so I asked Jin-A and Young Soo if they wanted to go for a walk. We settled on the hut that’s just outside our dorms’ back doors, braced by a ridge topped with two crosses: people died here. As we walked under gray skies around the iced-in harbor, I watched with interest as the snow began to trace the play of the wind over the land.
With pauses for pictures, we approached the hut. The wind began to cut through our clothes, stealing heat if not penetrating, so we sheltered on the lee side of the weathered wooden building. Its square, single-storied bulk is being slowly buried by snow, though the wind does its best to work some sides free. The cross on the point beyond was tantalizingly close.
We looked at each other, and I worked my face free of my muffler. If we just go up and come straight back, we should be ok. Young Soo nodded and we set out into the wind. Heading up the ridge, we hoped for a trail on the leeward side. The view down from the crest showed a whipped edge of snow curling over a steep drop to the Ice a little ways below. The wind nudged us. I crouched closer to the earth, trying to make my feet as heavy as magnetic space boots, as I pushed through to touch the gray wooden cross at the top of the hill. Making our way back down, the wind tried to help us defy gravity.
Returned exhilarated to our little shelter behind the hut, we found the trail home a whirl of white, blowing snow, with the poles and building a couple of ultimate fields away barely visible. Seeing McMurdo station required turning into wind and stinging snow, so I didn’t try it. We stuck together and kept our noses pointed towards the poles back the way we came, slogging on. With less loose snow beyond the buildings and the wind dropping off as we drew deeper into the crook of the harbor, we were able to look back at Hut Point. The cross above the hut flitted in and out of misty whiteness as snow flung itself at the hut walls, still seeking entry after almost one hundred years.
As we walked around the harbor back up the hill to McMurdo, we scooped snow out of our pockets. The wind picked up straight into our faces near the crest of the hill to town proper. I laughed, ran forward and jumped. I think, on the 3rd try, I might have gotten a little extra hang time. The clouds which just half an hour ago blanketed almost the whole sky, have retreated from the wind’s fierce assault, leaving only a small section (~30%) of blue covered by lurking gray. There, the sun turns their edges purple and their tops a brilliant soft gold.
A cup of hot chocolate has warmed my hands to match my heart.

Day off:
Tomorrow is exciting: we get a day off! Not, as one might suppose, because it’s a holiday back in the states, but rather, because the batteries got lost. Apparently you need something more special than scooping up a couple of truck batteries to store and regulate the solar power going to the instrument. Those special batteries left their home in Wallops Island, Va with the rest of the gear. Somewhere between here and there, they got rejected, forgotten, and disappeared to sulk in some quite corner of the world.
Unfortunately, we didn’t hear their tale of woe until we unpacked everything on the Ice last week and found them missing. The NSF/CSBF (balloon support) people here have been working hard to locate and console our batteries, to bring them to the Ice, but it’s looking more likely that the Wallops folks will have to implement their “the batteries hate us and we’re leaving them for another” plan. They’re taking the day off to give the previous relationship one last chance. So we’re taking the day off too. Except for poor Michel, and Young Soo who’ll be supporting his CherCam board replacement operation. On the other hand, they won’t have to worry about anyone getting in their way or barring them access to the instrument because some other test is running!
My first order of business tomorrow morning: sleep In. Wuh-hoo! No more 6am for me, no sir! (at least, tomorrow. :) Second order: drinking a nice cup of tea with real milk. There’s only powdered creamer out at the balloon site. Then I hope the weather will let me wander around, perhaps back out to Hut Point, up Observation Hill, and maybe even out to Scott Base, the Kiwi station ~1.5 miles from here. Unfortunately, I left my skis back at LDB (Long Duration Balloon site), not anticipating needing them before my lunch ski tomorrow. But I’m sure I can make do; maybe even walk out, ski around and then back to town. (McMurdo to LDB and back is the longest trip “allowed” here, at ~8mi.)
After work Sat, we’ll have our Thanksgiving dinner. I can only hope it’s as good as the lunch we had at LDB today: turkey, gravy and mashed potatoes almost as good as Mom’s, green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie. I had enough fun skiing before lunch, with fabulous views of Mt Erebus smoking above its cloud cap on the way out and the Royal Society Mtns emerging from theirs on the way back, that I didn’t mind too much that the fresh fruit was almost all gone. The honeydew melon left was ripe and sweetly refreshing.

For now, good night and Happy Thanksgiving!