snow and sickness

You know how sometimes when it's a cloudy day, everyone seems to get a little blue? Here in McMurdo, we've had about a week of cloudy gray days and the station's immune systems got knocked out from under us. Combine some snowy days with an influx of personnel on station and we end up with a whole heap of sick people. The flu is the prevalent force right now; if you get it, you're quarantined to your room between three to five days. I am lucky enough to only have a cold, officially known as "the crud" in McMurdo (perhaps my flu shot earlier in the season is working). When disease gets down here, it spreads quickly since we all use the same dining facility, bathroom, and bedrooms. It's amazing how close we indirectly become when we work, eat, and live in such a small place together!

Despite the general health on station, we are pretty enchanted by the massive snowfall. This much snow is pretty peculiar for the month of January and while it has hampered our flights and delayed the distinguished visitors (DV's) from coming down as scheduled for the dedication of the new South Pole Station, it's a beautiful white way of making our operations station appear clean and beautiful. Typically, this part of the season is reserved for running, biking, and the annual New Zealand v. USA rugby game. The game will go on, but running in drifts and digging bikes out of snow isn't as fun as it might first appear!

The Swedish Icebreaker, The Oden, just made it to our Ice Pier today as well. This ship cuts the path towards McMurdo to clear the way for our fuel tanker, cargo container ship, as well as a couple of research vessels arriving in town. It is a strange sight to see a boat pull up in the area that was once an airfield, and has been covered with flat sea ice for a few months.

The great part about the boat churning up the ice, is the wildlife that may visit our station. We already had a group of Adelie Penguins come to visit and explore last Sunday afternoon, but I missed them while I watched a movie. We hope the sea ice blows out this year allowing the seals, whales, and penguins easier access to our bit of island here.

My pictures are of an icy ditch. When the weather is warm, we make ditches to control erosion and direct meltwaters to the sea. Recently, these streams cooled down again and made amazing designs and shapes in the water. The shadows and sun gave me an opportunity to take some really cool pictures!