Down to the wire ... the end of the beginning

The past week has been a blur. As of last Thursday morning, we were still trying to get to Tall Tower to get the last of the work done at that site. Friday was our planned departure date to begin heading north for the long trip back home so this was our last chance to get everything done. By 8am Thursday morning, we were the backup mission for the Twin Otter, with the primary mission headed to the South Pole. The weather at the South Pole wasn't ideal though, so they delayed the flight decision until 10am. At that time, they would re-evaluate the weather at the South Pole. If it still wasn't good, we would get to go, otherwise, we would be cancelled and the primary group would head to the South Pole. All the other Twin Otters (there were a total of 4) had left for other camps around the continent so this was the one and only chance to get to Tall Tower. At 10:15, the weather had cleared enough at the South Pole that our flight was cancelled. At that point, we began to make plans for the people from UNAVCO (who had been helping us and had designed and installed the power systems) to possibly finish the installation for us in January when they could again make it to the site. Otherwise, the rest of the site installation would have to wait until we made it down again next fall. We also had turned our attention to determining what of the remaining items we had would either be shipped back to the U.S. or would be placed in storage in McMurdo.

At 11am, Mark was talking to the Twin Otter coordinator and they gave us another option. There was another Twin Otter used by the New Zealand base that had finished their mission that morning. Normally the Americans couldn't use their Twin Otter unless the New Zealand group had no plans for it. The pilots confirmed they had no other plans for the afternoon so we were asked if we wanted to use it. We agreed and then had a frantic 30 minutes to get lunch, get everything together we would need for the trip to Tall Tower and put on our cold weather gear. By 11:30, we were on our way to Willie Field. We took off around noon and arrived at Tall Tower under clear skies and 12 knot winds ... brisk, but not unworkable like the prior Tuesday. It took about 2.5 hours and we had the rest of the site completed.

The completed Tall Tower site (with our two towers on the left and the original Tower on the right).

Me standing next to the precipitation gauge.

We quickly loaded back into the Twin Otter and were back at McMurdo by 5pm. Then began the rush of getting dinner and getting our personal stuff packed before Bag Drag at 8pm. "Bag Drag" was the term used for officially dropping off your checked bags and checking in for your flight to Christchurch. This was similar to what we did in Christchurch on the flight down where everything was weighed, including us. After Bag Drag, the rest of the evening was spent sorting, packing and preparing the remainder of the equipment for either the trip north or for storage on station.

The next morning, we were told to be ready to head to the airfield by 7am for our planned departure at 9am. We were somewhat lucky that the aircraft had arrived the evening before. Typically, the aircraft does not stay overnight and you depart when it arrives in the afternoon, which means you get into Christchurch in the wee hours of the morning the following day. The weather was clear and the winds were light so we all boarded our transport to the airfield. This time, we got to ride on "Ivan" the Terra Bus (or "Ivan" the Terror bus as I nicknamed it since any bumps we went over meant the people in the back risked hitting their heads on the ceiling).

"Ivan"

Our northbound aircraft was a C-130 turboprop that was operated by the Royal New Zealand Air Force. The C-17 aircraft had stopped flying down a couple weeks prior.

The C-130 we flew to Christchurch.

Because this plane was a turboprop and not a jet, it flew slower so the flight to Christchurch took almost eight hours to complete (as opposed to the five hours it took to get to Antarctica on the C-17). As an aside, this aircraft was definitely not designed with human comfort in mind ....

The game of Sardines we played for eight hours on the C-130.

We finally arrived in Christchurch around 4:30pm to thunderstorms and 70+ degree temperatures. It was a welcome experience until I realized I was still in my layers and was beginning to melt into the pavement. We quickly boarded the transport bus, which took us to the airport terminal where we had to clear customs, get our bags and then go drop off all of our loaned cold weather gear back at the Clothing Distribution Center ... the same place it all started. I finally got to my hotel at 6pm, had a final dinner with Mark, and then returned to my hotel to finish packing and experience darkness again for the first time in over a month. The next day, my first flight left at noon for my long return flight home (via Auckland and Los Angeles) and after nearly 24 hours of travel, I was back in Denver by 5pm Saturday evening. It seems surreal now to be back home after having been on the go day after day for nearly five weeks straight. (I'm still adjusting to the sun disappearing every night!)

I am incredibly thankful to have had this opportunity and even more thankful for the National Science Foundation funding this research and giving me this extraordinary opportunity to travel to a continent that only a small fraction of the human population ever gets to visit. I also want to thank all of you who have followed along on my adventures and have reached out to tell me how much you have enjoyed my posts. While it was a bit challenging to keep up with, I'm happy to hear it was well received by so many people. And while this is the end of my first trip, this is not the end of this blog. As I mentioned earlier, I still have two more trips to take over the next two years and plenty more to write about. While I must now turn my attention back to my other tasks (not the least of which is completing my PhD), I will still occasionally post to my blog before updating it again more frequently next fall with my next trip. I have hundreds of pictures to still sort through and will likely do a "highlights" post to showcase some of them at some point in the future. There will also likely be opportunities for me to give talks on some of my adventures and research in the coming months and I will post updates here when those occur in case anyone is interested in attending.

While the first trip is over, this research and the adventures that go with it are just beginning .... stay tuned for more to come!