Back by popular demand, a long awaited update to my blog. 

Time has somehow flown by the last few months. Please excuse me for my absence, I promise it was not deliberate. We will just say I was attempting to channel my inner bear and practice the art of hibernation through the last part of the Antarctic winter to maintain my energy stores. Ha.

The most important thing to report is that the sun has finally returned to McMurdo. Our first official sunrise was on August 19th, but due to McMurdo's location surrounded by hills, the rays didn't actually hit the station until today, or at least they were supposed to. Unfortunately, they were obscured by clouds. You could still almost feel the vitamin D. 

We are currently undergoing Antarctic spring which means two things. First, is what is called Winfly. This time of year, the station begins its transition to the summer research season, bringing the first of the years flights and some personnel transitions. Mostly new people are coming down to start getting the station ready for the majority of the summer staff who arrive at the beginning of October. Or that is what would normally be happening if it wasn't for the second thing that happens this time of year, which is the most unpredictable weather of the year. We have been getting weekly storms, which paired with a multitude of mechanical problems with the C-17's, this has meant only one of four of the flights scheduled over the last week and a half have actually made it to station so far. This has caused delays not only with personnel movements to and from station, but also delays with the much desired cargo. For me personally, it means I am having to adjust my water treatment processes as a critical chemical resupply for the plant is supposed to be arriving on those planes. More "dramatically," the people who were scheduled to depart McMurdo for civilization are left just sitting and waiting for a plane to finally show up. Some of them have been here on the ice for well over a year at this point and they are justifiably getting grumpy with all the delays. As I have been told time and time again however, is to expect these kinds of hold-ups. I think it is getting me better prepared for the possibility of what may happen when it's my turn to try and leave.

The storms have been a highlight for me though. Not only do the low pressure systems bring slightly warmer temperatures hitting a blistering eight degrees above zero, but they are also bringing a good amount of snow. I know, eight degrees is still cold, but when you have gotten used to negative twenty degrees with wind chills regularly around negative forty, eight degrees feels tropical. It means you can go outside with only three layers on instead of the typical five! When you add in the 12-20 inches of snow that might fall, it finally turns into the Antarctica I originally came here for. 

Looking back, it's hard for me to believe I haven't written anything here since May. So I will attempt to recap some of the events that occurred over the winter. In June we celebrated mid-winter, which is the halfway point of the winter season, by having a formal dinner prepared by our galley staff. The tables were decorated and covered with real table cloths and the night was commemorated with a toast given by our station manger. It is a tradition that goes back to first station that was here in the 1940's. All of the different research stations across the continent also send and receive cards (electronic nowadays) with greetings. No matter where on the continent you are, you become a member of an exclusive club by being here at mid-winter, as few people who have ever been alive have been able to experience it. 

July saw a lot of darkness and cold. It is the time of year where people really put their heads down and work hard to pass the time, or at least that's what I was doing. By keeping a regular sleep and exercise schedule, I was able to make it through the brunt of the darkness with a level head and good attitude. During the darkest part of the winter, the station will choose nights when the sky is supposed to be particularly clear and initiate a "dark-sky" protocol for a day or two. This means we turn off almost all outside lights on every building on station so that star gazing can be done without the light pollution the station produces. I was able to capture some amazing images of the milky way which I will put at the bottom of this post. We were also lucky enough to get a plethora of auroras over the winter, which is a sight to be hold and I am so thankful to have been able to witness and capture so many of them.

That finally brings us to August, which has been spent mostly preparing for employee turnover in our plant since we are swapping out our operator. I have worked with our departing employee for the entire time I have been down here and am honestly a bit sad to see him go. Fortunately, he is taking a job about two hours south of Grand Junction back in Colorado. So it probably won't be too long before we are grabbing a beer together back in the states.

Planning ahead, I believe this will be my penultimate post to this blog while I am still on the ice. I am planning to write my final entry in the closing weeks of September, so stay tuned! I would like to wrap up this blog with some parting thoughts on my time here on the ice.

I will leave you all with some pictures of the Antarctic winter and spring.

The Ross Sea as seen from the Water plant during one of our Dark-Sky events. The lights in the distance are the airfield runway lights with some faint arouras overhead. 

The milky way and a shooting star over Observation Hill.

Aroura Australis seen from station.

Annual photos of our winter SAR team and our utilities department crew.

And finally a photo of a recent sunrise on Mount Discovery just to prove that the sun did actually return!