Antarctica, Day 49
Time is warped here in non-obvious ways. It hadn’t felt like I had been here that long until I passed a researcher in the hallway that I had first met when we were both standing in line at SFO airport checking in for our flights to New Zealand and onto Antarctica. We had been giddy to meet others headed to Antarctica on our flight and sharing in the struggle of pushing around a larger-than-normal amount of luggage through the airport. That was December 7th of last year.
Tomorrow marks 50 days here. It feels a little surreal to be writing day forty-something in my diary. Something about crossing beyond day 39 suddenly feels weighty. Maybe it’s because my last expedition to Antarctica was 36 days. Or maybe just moving beyond a single month commands a different kind of attention. The brief summer weather I’ve experienced here is already beginning to wane. The days are feeling colder, the skies less often are blue, snow is more often in the air, and the sun is beginning to dip lower in the sky, though there still won’t be a sunset until February 20th. Outside my window in the lab, a huge trough of open water that had been formed by the Coast Guard’s ship breaking through the ice has already begun to freeze over again in just one night.
If the weather cooperates, this week I’ll venture once more into the field for the last time on this expedition. I thought my time in the Dry Valleys for this season had come to a close in my last dispatch, but there’s one more valley for me to visit before I redeploy off the ice.
This week I’ll also be giving a talk live from Antarctica on Zoom which I’d like to invite you to attend! Internet-willing, I’ll be showing some of the footage I’ve shot while down here. There will be Q&A, so show up with your most pressing questions, be they silly or serious. Feel free to share widely. Here’s the details:
Ariel Waldman live from Antarctica
Friday, February 3 at 7pm Eastern (4pm Pacific)
Register to attend
Since my time in the field is coming to a close soon, I thought I’d share a few shots of where I’ve been sleeping while in Antarctica – or at least that was my plan until the internet today slowed to a crawl. I was able to at least get one to upload below.
Camping in the Dry Valleys in a way a connects me to some the early explorers in Antarctica. Not the guys who were here over a century ago, but specifically the first women to be “allowed” where I am today. The first woman to lead a U.S. scientific expedition wasn’t until 1969, at a time when women had been barred from the continent by the Navy. Under the condition that her team be all women and that they not stay at McMurdo Station (essentially, no intermingling with men allowed), Dr. Lois Jones and three other women spent four months camping in the Dry Valleys studying its geology. To put it as plainly as I can, camping in the Dry Valleys for four months is hardcore. There’s very few people who stay out there for that long anymore. Most teams will be there for just a few weeks at a time during the peak of summer, and with more infrastructure and support than there was 50 years ago. After Jones' expedition, the Navy officially began accepting women on station.
One of Dr. Lois Jones' team members, Terry Tickhill, emerging from her tent in the Dry Valleys in 1969. Even though I'm not big on camping and there can be some miserably cold days, getting to sleep in the Dry Valleys does feel this glorious.
Credit: The Ohio State University, Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center Archival Program, Lois M. Jones Papers
Where I slept at Lake Hoare. Best view hands down. Our tents are staked down and tied down with local rocks in case of extreme wind events which often happen a few times every season.
<3
Ariel