R & R
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).

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).

I walked home with this cardboard robot from the Halloween party…His name is Awesome-O (its a South Park robot)

This is either a mass spectrometer or a time machine. Either way its pretty impressive. Also noteworthy; its made in Massachusetts.

I hang my coat on the same hook everyday. There are usually a lot more coats than this in the coat room.

I wash my hands in one of these two about 90 times per month to keep from getting the “crud” (sickness).
The Return of the Sun
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
Fighting the Weather
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.
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
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