This season I was lucky enough to have a several week gap in between our two projects and was able to spend some time in New Zealand with Becky on the North Island in between my two contracts. The first project was called SIMPLE (see the following link for information on the project)
http://schmidt.eas.gatech.edu/simple/
I am currently in Christchurch, New Zealand waiting to fly south for part two of the 2014-2015 season and the conclusion of the WISSARD hot water drilling (see http://www.wissard.org for updates on this season’s work).
South African Air L-100
Glow Worm Caves
Imatge of an Octopus taken by the ROV SCINI
Images taken by Stacy Kim while on a science dive (SCUBA) under the ice.
The start of hole #1
This may or may not be a bathroom.
SCINI-One of the ROVs that is being sent down the holes that we are drilling.
Apparently Pringles are a fire hazard.
A plane that went down in the 70’s at Pegasus Airfield
SCINI Pilots
Footage from SCINI underneath the ice shelf
Cape Royds Penguin Colony
A weather station outside Shackleton’s Hut
Shackleton’s Hut
Volcanic black sand beach
Seal Tracks
This is actually a mummified seal. I thought it was a piece of wood at first.
Barnes Glacier
FAA jet inspecting the ice runway.
Mt Erebus
Hiking up to Arrival Heights
Seal Pup
We finally got our Generator back today and have power.
Digging out drill camp. We have finally gotten a break in the weather (rumor has it that there is another storm due in tonight at midnight).
The wood dump. Another place we occasionally go dumpster diving.
I walked home with this cardboard robot from the Halloween party…His name is Awesome-O (its a South Park robot)
McMurdo’s fleet of snowmobiles
This is either a mass spectrometer or a time machine. Either way its pretty impressive. Also noteworthy; its made in Massachusetts.
Trans Antarctic Mountains
“Highway 1”-also the hallway to the galley
I hang my coat on the same hook everyday. There are usually a lot more coats than this in the coat room.
Stairs up to the galley
I wash my hands in one of these two about 90 times per month to keep from getting the “crud” (sickness).
After 5 days of storms the sun has returned. We have yet to complete a full day of outdoor work due to weather. Hopefully tomorrow we can get outside all day.
The Beverly Hilldrillers
We have had unseasonably poor weather, even for Antarctica this year. Since the 18th we haven’t had good enough weather to do much more than shovel out all of our drifted equipment. Above is a picture in town in Condition 1 weather.
Drifts covering our drill sled.
Even more drifts to shovel
More drifts to shovel
Inside the Arctic Oven
Towing our truck back to town.
Part of coming to Antarctica every season is taking safety and training classes…lots of them. The Cold Weather survival course is taught by some pretty experienced mountaineers. Many of them guide on Denali in the off season.
Snowmobile training class
These used to be seals
Antarctic Dinosaurs
lemarctica 
