Travel Rabble: Winter is here!

For the residents of McMurdo Station, Winter is not marked by a set day, but rather by the last flight of summer. On March 5th, we had a Champagne Toast as we watched the final flight of summer leave the continent. On April 24th the sun will set and won’t rise again for four months. It will start snowing, the stars will come out and hopefully we’ll see some Auroras. Both Jamie and I are excited about this coming season. This winter at McMurdo will be an entirely different experience from previous. This winter the USAP program will flying flights all season. There will be three before the usual “winter fly-in” flight in August: April, June, and July. This is the first year the program has done this and many people are sad about the loss of an isolated winter. Jamie and I, however, are indifferent as this will be the first and only winter we can compare it too. The station population right now is 168 and will go down to the 150s after April. I’m already beginning to recognize close to every person that comes into the Galley at mealtimes. Aside from a decrease in population the station is also moving into winter mode. Many dorms and buildings are being winterized and departments have started the long process of inventory and repair. Most Science has stopped for the winter. There is one scientist on station at this point in the year and a research assistant that will monitor the science experiments that don’t need a constant attendant. We can still go hiking in the winter but now we need to formally check out with the firehouse, carry a radio and go in pairs.

Right now the sun is setting and rising like a normal day. We can leave our shades open at night and in the morning the natural light wakes us up. It's not 100% dark when the sun "sets", it is more of a dark twilight time, but it certainly feels like a solar rotation. For awhile, I didn't' even realize the sun had been setting because I go to bed around 10pm and it's still light out so when I was up until 11:30 one night, my mind was blown because it had gotten darkish. Now, by 10 it's a dark twilight and around midnight it's almost truly dark out. Very exciting to see nighttime come creeping in!

If you have any specific questions about life here, post them in the comments and I'll work on answering them. I'm never really sure what people want to know about!