The McMurdo Dry Valleys are ~30 miles away across sea ice and awesome
glacial shaped mountains, so helicopter is the only option for
transportation. I had my first flight Wednesday! You have to wear all
your gear (Big Red, snow pants, bunny boots) which isn't bad because it
gets cold in there fast. Then you fasten your seat belt which is as
complicated as a child's car seat. Each helmet has a microphone so you
can talk to each other and the pilot, and you can hear the pilot
communicating with his team on the ground. The flight is about half an
hour and the sights are beautiful- I only wish the commute was longer.
We
can request how much time we would like on the ground, but ultimately
it depends on the helo schedule. Most of our trips will be day trips,
but there are members of our team that go out and camp for a few days,
and there are members who camp the whole season. There are huts set
up at the major sites so camping there doesn't look too rough, and they
are equipped with everything except running water.
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Ruth enjoying the ride |
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| Helicopter preparing to abandon us in the field |
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And he's off! |
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Martijn using this time for a much needed nap |
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Dr. Ross Virgina catching up on some sleep |
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View of MacTown from the helo. That giant blue building is my dorm! |
The field work is really fun and most of my time is spent staring up at the mountains and glaciers. It's crazy to look out and not see any life, but know that we will find hundreds of nematodes in our soil samples.
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Camp site at F6 |
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Adding water to one of the experiments |
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Dr. Diana Wall |
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Behind me is my Master's project |
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I was really excited to see my project |
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Ruth at F6 |
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| | Learning how to collect samples |
I wish you could see how beautiful it is here- my photos just don't do it justice. In addition to being a poor photographer, the bright skies and dark sunglasses make it impossible to see the camera screen so there are a lot of blind point-and-shoot pictures...
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