Antarctica 2024/2025

What do you know, I actually waited OVER a month between updates this time!  Well I'll start out by saying happy pi day to everyone reading this. It's March 14th, and winter has definitely started to show itself here at McMurdo. The transition period between summer and winter crews on station has began to subside and the fresh faces are beginning to settle into their schedules and routines. The annual cargo vessels have unloaded and disembarked, heading back north with a years worth of garbage and old decommissioned equipment. On their return journeys back to Port Hueneme, California, they will make a few stops to unload the garbage and start staging for next years voyage.  Life on station has been quieting down nicely. The vast majority of the summer employees have headed home, and we are down to a population of 348 as of writing this. There are a few more flights scheduled over the next few days to get the last of the summer folks off station before winter season officially ...

 Hello everyone! I apologize for the delay in updates. You know what they say, time flies when you're having fun!  In all honesty, It's hard for me to believe we are already more than a week into February. January seemed to happen in the blink of an eye.  So, what all has been going on in the last month since last I wrote you may be asking? Let's see, the weather for the most part has been wonderful up until about a week ago. January was sunny and warm with temps hovering around and above freezing most days. Occasionally we would get a bit of fog rolling in off of the ocean which would blow across the hills surrounding the station, giving a very surreal view. There were also the occasional snow flurries to blow in of course, but they typically only lasted a few short hours and then the sun would come out and melt away the dusting of snow they would leave behind. The snow also sublimates almost as fast as it melts, which doesn't even leave the ground wet after the snow d...

 Merry Christmas everyone! I am writting this on Christmas day here in Antarctica, and while it may be summer, there is still cold temps and a little snow on the ground. There have been a handful of Christmas parties around base the last few days, as everyone was given both 24th and 25th off to celebrate, and on Christmas day the base held it's annual softball tournament. Teams were generally made up from individual departments, and at the time of writting of this, they were down to the last two games of the day. I was on the utilities team and we were unfortunately beaten in the first round by the defending champs, the fire department. It was still a fun game even if we ended up losing. The rules are changed slightly to accommodate so many games in a single day, like games are only six innings and there is an hour time limit per game. Needless to say, with that short of a playing time, most games don't even make it to six innings.  Outside of the holidays, everything else is ...

Hello everyone. I'll start off by apologizing for the delay in any updates since I know there are a few of you out there who have been wondering what I've been up to over the last month. Time is flying by, and I didn't even realize how long it had been since my last post. While I've been down here, I have also been trying to keep a personal journal, and I keep getting surprised by how the time between entries is slowly increasing as well. I'm not sure why time seems to be moving by so fast, the day to day is nothing extraordinary. Work is the constant to my whole schedule, and when your working from 7:30am to 5:30pm, fitting in meals, and then making sure to get enough sleep to avoid burn out, it doesn't leave a lot of time for much else, but that doesn't mean it's all work and no play. No dull boys here.  I guess the first thing to cover is that Thanksgiving was celebrated, turkey and stuffing was eaten, and parties were had. Due to our light employment...

 Welcome back to this installment of my blog where I try and articulate my life as I work and live at McMurdo in Antarctica. I have typically been trying to find some kind of general topic for each my posts, mostly to keep things somewhat organized in my head, but for this post I think I just want to write of the top of my dome and let everyone reading know what kinds of things I have been up to since my last entry. Halloween has come and gone in Antarctica. Celebrations were had and there were many a costume to parade the halls of the dorm buildings. I actually mean that in the most literal way possible. On the Saturday night that most closely aligns with the holiday, people dress up in whatever costume they can manage. Most are fashioned out of thrifted clothes but for the most dedicated, they sacrifice some of their precious luggage space to bring something with them to the ice. I saw way to many guys in dresses that were too small. There is then a parade though the main dorm bu...

 Hello and welcome back to the second installment detailing some of my life while working and living at McMurdo. I know the burning question that may be on your mind after reading my previous post is did I get my laundry done? The answer is YES! It was a fairly painless procedure. the dorm building I live in, Building 155, has a small laundry room equipped with 6 washers and dryers. No money needed, and all the detergent is provided. I have decided to make Sunday's my laundry day, cliche I know, since it is my day off. I was worried that would be most people's same plan but to my surprise, I had no issues getting a machine. I was even able to do two loads! So, luckily for my coworkers and roommates, no smelly clothes in sight.  Speaking of roommates, I figured I would use this second post to go over what the living arrangements, and the day to day is like outside of work.  I live in what is known as Building 155, the largest dorm building on base which also contains the g...

 October 19, 2024 - McMurdo, Antarctica Hello to anyone and everyone who is reading the inaugural post to my new blog. The intentions of these posts, which should be semi-regular over the next 12 moths, is to keep friends and family up to date with my world as I live and work at McMurdo on Ross Island in Antarctica. I intend to use this space to give updates on what I am up to, as well as to write down my thoughts on any topic I feel may come of interest to those who know me.  This blog is actually a very postponed sequel. Some who read this may remember another blog I wrote with similar intentions around 15 years ago while I lived in Santiago, Chile. I plan on making this one similar, and though those old posts are now lost to the endless void of the internet (unless you can convince my mother to lend you the printed copies), this new space I'm hoping will last a little longer. That's assuming Google, who is hosting this blog, doesn't end up the same way MSN did, where my ...