WAIS Divide, Antarctica, Jan. 20, 2010 — Today the drill reached approximately 2400 meters! After work, I decided to go skiing across the ice sheet. The conditions for skiing, especially skate skiing, are excellent right now. One of my favorite things to do is to head off across the ice sheet, either walking or on [...]

WAIS Divide, Antarctica, Jan. 12, 2010 — After work today, I helped to dig a snow pit. This is the third snow pit we’ve dug out so far this season. A snow pit consists of one main large rectangular hole in the snow, about 6 to 7 feet deep and wide enough for several people [...]

WAIS Divide, Antarctica, Jan. 11, 2010 — Drilling has been going very smoothly lately and we are averaging just over 30 meters of core a day. A round trip drill run at our current depth takes about 2 hours to complete, and typically produces an ice core that is ~3.2 meters long. We have been [...]

WAIS Divide, Antarctica, Jan. 10, 2010 — I have had many people ask me how we get our water and whether or not we can take showers and do laundry. So I thought it was time to talk a bit about this subject.

We get all of our water at WAIS Divide by melting snow. There [...]

WAIS Divide, Antarctica, Jan. 9, 2010 — A driller named David Ferris cooked a big Middle Eastern Feast for us tonight. It was a lovely change in menu and good timing as we just received a bunch of “freshies” on a Herc this morning (this is only the second Herc to make it to WAIS [...]

WAIS Divide, Antarctica, Jan. 6, 2010 — I have been talking about events that happen every day but I have not given an overview of a typical day in Antarctica.

“A Typical Work Day at WAIS Divide (from a science technician’s point of view)”

As a member of “Shift 1,” my day usually starts around 5 a.m. [...]

WAIS Divide, Antarctica, Jan. 4, 2010 — I am still recovering from stomach flu. The worst part about getting sick in Antarctica is trying to live and especially work in such a cold environment on little or no food. Eating properly makes an amazing difference in your ability to stay warm. There are a few [...]

WAIS Divide, Antarctica, Jan. 3, 2010 — I was not feeling really well today and later in the day realized that more than just packages had arrived from McMurdo on the last plane. Apparently a stomach flu came in with one of the passengers and is currently finding its way through camp. I was given [...]

WAIS Divide, Antarctica, Jan. 1, 2010 — Today was a regular day of work starting at 7 a.m. and finishing around 4 p.m. Much like our December 25 celebration, we had a big dinner to celebrate New Years Day. Appetizers started at 4 p.m. followed by a wonderful dinner featuring shrimp scampi, prime rib and [...]