It has been a fun weekend in McMurdo. Many parties and allot of good food. I have lots of pictures but I am out a camera cable right now and they are trapped. Hopefully the flood gates can be released soon.
I had arranged a hike with some new friends for saturday but one of the girls in the group saw an opening for the pressure ridge tour at Scott Base and signed us all up. It was a very beautiful afternoon. The ice is forced up out of the flat white into the sky at times 30 ft above our path. Our guide poked his way forward searching for melt pools under the snow that drifts into organic shapes around the ice before being carved away by the wind. Little coral crystals of ice creep up into the sky in places and unbroken ridges stress beneath our feet. We climbed a tall snow drift and found two seals not far from us soaking in the summer sun. One raised its head and flipped his flippers then slipped back into his nap. In the distance, at times framed by the ice, were Castle Rock and Erebus with a proud billow of smoke rising into the sky.
On Sunday I joined the ski school class. Too many people were suffering the consequences of a late Thanksgiving dinner and party so our class was small and only one other student showed up. Our volunteer teacher, Kevin from recreation, was awesome. I know he could have shot ahead but he stayed with us and ran different exercises to make us more aware of our skis. I was doing allot wrong my first attempt a week ago. My poles were backwards and I was fighting my skis. We fought the wind all the way out to the ice runway and then sailed across the ice with the wind at our backs for the ride home. It was a very succesful afternoon.
Photos?!
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