IceChaser: Chasing Snow in Antarctica

I said I wouldn't be updating my blog again until I got to Antarctica, but enough has happened since then to warrant a quick post. First, a couple of updates. Mark has joined me here in Christchurch and we met up Saturday evening after he got in. Last week's flight to McMurdo did not happen as planned and the group that was supposed to fly down on Friday was delayed until today, which is the day we were supposed to fly down. That meant we were also bumped a day and are now scheduled to fly down tomorrow. Mark and I briefly spoke to some of the people who arrange the travel here and they said there were problems all the way back in September with getting people to the ice that has continued to have a rippled effect until now. (One of the first groups was apparently delayed getting to the ice for nearly two weeks.) The good news is that all of our equipment (all 11 crates and palettes) has shown up here in Christchurch and was scheduled to fly down to the ice with today's fli...

My deployment date to Antarctica (October 30th) is nearly here and I have arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand (a little early to see a few sites before heading down to the ice). I've had a few people ask how you get to Antarctica so I thought a short post on how to actually get there would be appropriate. Our main base of operations will be out of McMurdo, which lies roughly south of New Zealand. The U.S. also has a few other stations around Antarctica (notably Palmer Station, south of Chile and Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station at the South Pole). The only viable options for getting to Antarctica (aside from the cruise ships that leave out of Argentina) are to take a military boat or aircraft. For our purposes, we will be boarding a ski equipped Air Force LC-130 aircraft that will depart from Christchurch and land approximately 7 hours later in McMurdo (assuming we don't have to turn around and head back to Christchurch halfway through the flight if weather conditions turn ba...