Palmer Station
Finally after all these years I have made it to Palmer station. This is the smallest permanent US station and the hardest to get to. There are no flights, arrival is only by boat. We arrived in the early morning and several of us went up to the bridge to watch the approach.
This is a stunning place, let’s say indescribable. I had no idea of the geography, I thought it was generally flat throughout the peninsula. But there are 8000’ peaks around the area. Glaciers and icebergs, dramatic skies, small islands full of birds, penguins and seals.
We had a tour of the station and were shown the start of the ‘backyard’, which is the Marr Ice Piedmont, also known as a glacier. In McMurdo, you aren’t allowed to walk around interesting areas, pretty much everything is off limits. At the south pole you can go anywhere but it’s a bit monotonous. Here you can walk around the the glacier, you can travel by Zodiac to visit islands. You can walk around the shoreline, you can even “touch the water and everything”. You can pitch a tent and live outside if you want. It’s still early in the season so there’s a lot of snow around, which limits shore walking.
We’re only here for a day or so, I will have a go at the backyard. I don’t have my trusty pair of Sorel Caribou’s and I’m a bit hesitant about glacier walking while wearing a pair of maritime deck boots.
From what I can tell, one of the research vessels from the Moss Landing marine lab came to Palmer a couple of times, so they added an arrow to the pole.
There are shorthand terms for the science groups, used by them and by the rest of us. The bird people and the krill people are leaving the boat today, to stay at Palmer for the summer. The diatom people are staying, theirs is the research going forward.