Castle Rock
Temperatures at South Pole are still too cold so Joel hasn’t been able to
get out of town. Luci and I, for one reason or another, have been delayed
as well. In fact, we are not yet behind schedule. Our projected put-in date
is Thursday but we have been a back-up mission for days. Normally what
happens is that manifested passengers have to bring their bags up to the
movement control center the day before their flight. This is affectionately
known as “bag-drag”. We have had our bag-drag scheduled and cancelled three
times. These have all been for back-up missions. Tomorrow we should be a
primary and if it is canceled it means we will be offically behind schedule.
Joel has already bag-dragged and is still living out of his carry-on. At
least we still have most of our stuff.
Seeing as today was one of the first nice days with little wind, I decide to
organize a hike out to Castle Rock, one of the farthest hikes away from the
base that people at McMurdo are allowed to undertake. It is long and flat
for the most part but at the end is the extinct cinder cone that is Castle
Rock. It was the first time in her four seasons on the ice that Luci allowed
herself to be convinced to go out there. Obviously, it ws joels first time
as well. It was long and cold but we had a good time.
If we keep getting canceled I am going to start working over at the UT shop
where I worked the last season I spent in town.
Luke
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