Yours truly, grabbing a last snapshot with the Transantarctic Mountains and Winter Quarters Bay.
Final departure from McMurdo Station happens more or less in the reverse order of arrival on…
Closing down a field season and "checking out" of McMurdo is a multi-day, orchestrated frenzy of disassembly, packing, shipping, and inspection. All of this needs to go.
Closing down a…
The team is lead out to our waiting Bell 212 "Twin Huey" helicopters for our flight to Granite Harbor.
McMurdo Station Helicopter Operations - "Helo Ops" for short - flies five vehicles…
Learn all about the Antarctic Treaty and sea spider research LIVE on Dec 1! Individuals and classrooms welcome! Pre-register here: https://www.polartrec.com/polar-connect/register
PolarConnect…
Navy Lieutenant Ned Goldsmith poses with the signpost at McMurdo Station in November, 1966 (photo courtesy N. Goldsmith).
In the austral spring of 1966, Ned Goldsmith was a young US Navy…
While there are thirty countries with research stations in Antarctica, it's still a big, lonely continent, so it's nice to have neighbors here on Ross Island. The Government of New Zealand operates…
To feed a traditional meal to more than 900 people is no easy feat, and the McMurdo Dining Staff went into overdrive for the event.
The American Thanksgiving holiday is as much a big deal here at…
The folds and cracks in the sea ice formed by the lateral compression of the ice floes can be breathtaking and dangerous, but what is visible on the surface of pressure ridges is only part the…
At the southernmost tip of Ross Island, Pram Point on the Hut Point peninsula annually witnesses a dramatic interaction between sea ice and land - the pressure ridges. Strong and persistent winds…
For non-divers the only means of looking beneath the ice is from a capsule sent from the world above.
One of the recreation opportunities uniquely possible on an island in Antarctica is a visit to…
"I thought, dear, that you would rather have a live ass than a dead lion."
-From a 1909 letter from Ernest Shackleton to his wife, Emily, on his decision to cut short his team's attempt to reach the…
