Hi Trekkers,

Hello from Byrd Surface Camp on the continent of Antarctica

Can you find Antarctica on a globe or on a map?

I am traveling with my friend, Gary Wesche. He is a Polartrec teacher

Have you been reading his journals? They have great pictures.

Byrd Camp is located on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

Antarctica has recorded the coldest temperatures on planet Earth.

Thanks to Mrs. Grantham's second grade class at St. Regis School in
Kansas City I have a big red coat to keep me warm.

We know this because scientists keep track of the weather all over
Antarctica using weather stations

Some of the data weather stations collect are temperature, wind speed
and the wind direction.

To communicate from camp we have to use a special phone that uses
satellites.

Antarctica is also the largest desert on the planet.

While it is very cold it is also very dry so you have to drink at 2
liters of water a day. It makes me laugh to think this is a desert when
our camp is on top of a mile of ice, but we get very little new snow
falling and it never rains.

To get water we have to melt snow.

I am helping my friend, Cricket dig up snow to melt for water.

It gets put in this melter and stored in this big tank for us to use for
drinking, cooking, and brushing our teeth.

Sometimes we melt it in big pots on the stoves that keep the buildings warm

Here it is very important to stay safe here in Antarctica. While we
have a doctor here in camp we are a long ways from a hospital. Green
and red flags are used to mark places that are safe to be.

Black flags mark places that are dangerous.

You should never go where there are black flags. You could get hurt.

This is my friend Hayden.

He is from the country of New Zealand and he is the camp mechanic. He
can fix anything.

Good thing too because there are many big machines here in our camp

Do you see me in this picture? Look really carefully.

I wasn't being safe around the equipment. Good thing I'm already flat.

Everyone has to be watching out for danger around big machines.

This machine is used to push show drifts and to help load airplanes with
cargo.

This week I went for a ride on a Ski Doo which is a snowmobile.

You have to wear a helmet but there were not any my size.

My friend, Logan, helped me with a helmet of my very own.

This is my science team.

They were having fun in this picture. Can you pick out the person on the
team who was the smart one for wearing the correct clothes for
Antarctica? His name is Chad.

My team works with radars that can collect information about the ice sheets.

They put the radars on an airplane and fly over the ice sheet to gather
this data

After the flight part of the team uses large computer processors from
Polar Grid to save the data in ways the team can then look at it.

The team uses graphs to understand their data.

This data will go to scientists all over the world to understand more
about ice sheets.

There are about 50 people here at camp and my friend, Robert, is one of
the cooks that feed us all

My friend, Chad, and I really like the food here.

I like the chocolate chip cookies the best!

I was here at Christmas time, and since there are no plants or trees
here on the ice sheet we built our own Christmas Tree out of metal scrapes.

We even had a gift exchange and Santa left us his hat.

In the evenings we often play games like cribbage which helps me
practice my adding.

I really enjoy hanging out with my new friends the flat penguins.

They say they may come visit me when I get back to Kansas City. I like
new friends.

I hope you enjoyed your tour of Bryd Camp

Love, Flat Stanley,

PS My friend, St. Regis Eagle, says hi too.