Just a short message to let you know that we arrived safely and are now based at McMurdo Station on Ross Island. After a day of rest in Christchurch, New Zealand, we were sent to the US Clothing Distribution Center to be issued our Extreme Cold Weather Clothing. This was basically lots of hats, gloves, socks, coats, etc. The best parts are the big red parka and the so-called bunny boots. These are huge, white rubber boots that look ridiculous, but are supposedly very warm.
We flew across in a large military jet (C-17). There were about a hundred of us, along with quite a bit of cargo. We sat mostly in jump seats, which were surprisingly comfortable given the flight time of about 5 hours. The crew allowed us to visit the cockpit when we flew over the Transantarctic Mts.
Since arriving on Oct. 5, we've been setting up our workspaces in the Crary Laboratory in preparation for the arrival of the first sediment core. We're living in dorm rooms and, yes, Chris and I luckily got a room together. We weren't sure ahead of time that this would happen.
Tomorrow we're off to what is called Happy Camp. This is a two-day snow survival school. We'll be building snow shelters and then will sleep in them overnight. It's supposed to be fun.
The temperature today is 15 degrees below zero Fahrenheit with a wind chill of 36 below. It's supposed to be a few degrees warmer tomorrow. With that I'll sign off until our next update. I hope everyone at home is keeping well.
