January 16, 2008
WAIS Divide camp Antarctica

Time: 6 am
Latitude: 79° 28.10’ S
Longitude: 112° 3.56’ W
Elevation: 1820 m (5919’)
Ice core: ~ 420 m (~1,260’)
Temperature:-13°C (8°F)
Wind speed: 25-30 km/h (18 mp/h- gusts to 25)
Wind Chill: -23°C (-10°F)
Visibility: 1.6 km (1 miles)
Clouds: stratus and ground blizzard still , but blue sky above 1000'
Wind direction: N/NE
Relative Humidity: 87%
Barometric Pressure: steady
Precipitation: - 0
Animals: 6 Skuas, 12 Weddell seals (all in McMurdo)
Breakfast: no hot chocolate
Lunch: shrimp and scallop in pasta, pesto pasta
Supper: Steak, potaotes, Asian noodles, veggies


As
I mentioned, we got a big storm starting two nights ago. It was (still is)a
good Antarctica storm with high winds, snow, and believe it or not –
blue sky and light clouds above ~1000’. It is kind of strange to get a
glimpse through the ground storm and look up to see blue sky. It means
that there certainly will not be a plane again today. It may seem that
I mention the planes too often but there are a bit of the blood around
here. It is the planes in “freshies”, people, and science supplies.
Though we are out of hot chocolate, more importantly we are running low
on some science supplies and waiting on a couple of key people to show
up. None of this is a real problem but it makes life in Antarctica
interesting. There is also something fun about planes and even if they
do not bring something special for you they add a bit of excitement to
the day. It is also the planes that will carry our ice cores and
personnel out of here at the end of the season, which is coming up very
very fast. We know that they will come but I would like to see them in
and out of here more often to reassure that I will get out on time. One
of the people we are waiting to see is Dr Charles Bentley, geophysicist
and professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr
Bentley is a real Antarctic explorer making his first trip here to the
ice in 1957 spending 25 months as part of the International Geophysical
Year(s) in and out of Little America that was an outpost on the edge of
the Ross Ice Shelf. He is truly one of the pioneers of Antarctic
science and during that first trip to Antarctica completed the longest
geophysical traverse from Little America inland to Byrd Station. Today
he is one of the world’s leading experts on West Antarctic ice
sheet and the principle investigator for the University of Wisconsin’s
Ice Coring and Drilling Services (our drillers here atWAIS Divide camp). Dr Bentley also has a mountain named after him, Mount Bentley, at 4,247 m (13,930 ‘) in the Sentinel Range.

Maybe
it is the lack of planes or maybe it is the low-pressure weather system
but we need another celebration around here. We have had holidays and
birthdays about every week but nothing to celebrate in a while now.
Karen did make some terrific looking cookies with sprinkles so we might
need to invent a reason to hold a celebration just for the cookies. If
you have any ideas on something we can celebrate please send them to me
right away.

Today's image is one of the entrance to the galley. You can see the size of the drifts that formed during the storm the last 24+ hours. If we had not been shoveling out the doorway each hour or so it would have been completely blocked.