Field Prep

So far, we've been living on station while we prepare ourselves for our field work. Now, the lab is set up, we've collected all of our gear, and we're ready to head out to the field! Tomorrow we will fly by helicopter to Taylor Valley for our first week of field work. We will be living at a field camp while we work there.

Over the past two days, we packed up all of the equipment we will need to live and work for a week. We've packed tents, sleep kits, clothing, food, hiking gear, and our science equipment. It's a total over over 1,000 pounds of gear! We loaded everything up into the truck today and drove it to the helicopter hangar.

At the helicopter hangar, we load everything into carts that will be used to carry our gear to the helicopter tomorrow morning.

We also had a special visitor today. We hosted Flat Madison from Mrs. Melin's class at Lee-Jackson Elementary School in Mathews, Virginia (my home town!). Flat Madison toured McMurdo and is now on her way back to Virginia.
So, if all goes well, we will be flying tomorrow across the Ross Sea to Lake Fryxell in Taylor Valley. We will then spend the following week collecting samples, making measurements, and trying to stay warm! Let's hope for good weather tomorrow!