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Showing posts from August, 2019

Season 3: The Beginning of the End

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Once again, another year has flown past and I find myself preparing for another deployment to the ice. As with years past, I've been having to go through the PQ (physical qualification) process to assure NSF that I am healthy enough to travel and stay there. This requires a full physical, a trip to the dentist (no one wants to get a toothache down there) and a full blood workup (so. much. blood.). Our tentative dates are to be on the ice beginning November 4th and return to the U.S. sometime during the first week in December. As you might have guessed from the title, this is the last year of my three-year grant and the purpose of our trip is to remove all of our equipment and have it shipped back to the United States. Under normal conditions elsewhere, this might be a week-long endeavor, but nothing is ever that easy in Antarctica. Typically the first week on the ice is spent in training, most of which will be a refresher, to make sure we are safe on the ice. That leaves roughly