McBrr-do

We made it! The "ice flight" this morning down to McMurdo Station (head base of the United States Antarctic Program) was delayed a couple of times, but here I am. Qantas even managed to get my bags to me this morning -- I was worried they were going to be waiting for me when I went back through Auckland in February.

Today was a very nice Condition 3 day (Condition 2 entails lower temperatures and decreased visibility among other things, while Condition 1 requires that all personnel not leave the building they're in). The cold here today reminded me a lot of winter in North Dakota -- it's very dry, and with layers definitely not bad at all. We'll see if I'm singing the same tune once we get out into the field in a couple of weeks.

Living arrangements in McMurdo remind me of a typical college dorm. It's quite nice, actually.

Tomorrow morning, I am starting on a two-day overnight snow survival course out in the field. I think I'm going to call my parents to let them know I'm alive and then call it a night. I've attached some pictures below -- one is from the plane, one is on the ice, and one is a funny mix-up on name-tags.

Down under

Greetings from the Windsor Bed and Breakfast in Christchurch, New Zealand.

I'm waiting for my room to be prepared, having just arrived in Christchurch from LAX via Auckland. Lots of travel! My flight from Seattle to LAX was very late (who knew that fixing a seat could take an hour and a half?), so my luggage is still somewhere over the Pacific. Hopefully it will get here before we leave tomorrow morning for the ice!

Kenny got sick and Donovan got held up by bad weather in Montana, so it's just HC and me headed down. We're just about to head over to the USAP complex to get our gear.

Christchurch is quite nice, and the weather is warm (it's the beginning of the austral summer). Driving on the left side of the road always makes me feel a little disconcerted.

My room's ready. Until later!

Into the wild white yonder?

Well, tomorrow is the big day. Kenny and I are leaving Seattle around 4:00 and then are off to Christchurch, New Zealand via LAX (where we'll meet up with Donovan and Hans Christian, who make up another 40% of our party) and Auckland, New Zealand. We're meeting up with Maurice Conway, whom I haven't met yet, in Auckland. He'll be our medic and guide for the trip. HC and myself are the two rookies, while everyone else has already been to Antarctica at least once. I learned this past week that Kenny spent over 500 days in a row there once!

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. My dad, stepmom, and sister came out from North Dakota to visit me. We ate a whole bunch and I bought fancy socks at REI so I don't get cold feet. I am also now in possession of a digital camera, so hopefully I'll be able to upload photos relatively frequently. I also got a pretty severe haircut this weekend. I just didn't want to deal with my longish hair while out on the ice, so I chopped it all off. The picture below is my boyfriend, Matt, and me after my haircut. He's got more now than I do!

I had better get back to the makeup work I've been slowly chipping away at. Since I'm missing two weeks of classes, I have to try and get my assignments done in advance. I've got a lot left, and it's already 3:00 AM. It's looking like my last essay for debate will likely be mailed from the McMurdo Station.

Statement of Purpose

Hello out there.

My name is Vanessa. I am 20 years old, and this blog will be about my trip south for the winter.

Very south.

I'm a chemistry major at the University of Washington in Seattle, but from November 27th until sometime in February, I am moonlighting as a glaciology intern on an National Science Foundation-sponsored expedition to the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Dr. Kenichi Matsuoka, a faculty member here at UW's Earth and Space Sciences Department, is heading up the project. (You can read more about Kenny's work here.)

I heard about the project through the Chemistry Department advisors and applied thinking I wouldn't be selected because the project is outside of my major. Much to my surprise, I was notified in September that I had gotten the position. I had to get a massive physical and have my wisdom teeth taken out -- and get through the mountains of paperwork! But here I am, 2.5 weeks from deployment. I'm very excited, and not at all scared of the cold (I grew up in North Dakota! Come on!) but the whole idea of going on ice feels very surreal right now.

If you're wondering about the URL, it's a reference to the telegraph the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen sent to his rival, the Englishman Robert Falcon Scott, in 1910. Amundsen and Scott were racing to be the first to reach the South Pole. By the time Scott reached Melbourne, Australia, Amundsen had already set off for Antarctica, leaving word for Scott: "Am going south. Amundsen" Long story short, Amundsen won and Scott's party died on the ice. (I'm going to choose to believe that this only happens to intrepid explorers, not glaciologists).

Well, I suppose that's all for right now. I'll be updating more as prep work starts to ramp up.