The day after Raytheon Thanksgiving (held on a Saturday to accomodate the work schedule), I woke up to find 4 inches of fresh snow on the ground. The Turkey Trot fun run which I had planned to run (5 km from the chapel out to the ice runway and back) was postponed to the following week, when I was in the field. The weather remained unflyable for the next two days, meaning that our eventual camp put-in day was three days later than we'd hoped. It was worth the wait though as you can see from this picture taken on our way from McMurdo to Marble Point, a refueling station between McMurdo and the glacier. The weather was absolutely beautiful. The mouth of the Taylor Valley spans most of the center of this image and the valley continues off to the left behind the ridge. The foreground shows the ice edge. Dark open water on the right, white sea ice covered with snow on the left. Cape Royds is behind and to the right of the helicopter at this point.

This is the beginning of the hypothetical trip to the glacier to install a weather station and then put in the first camp. I'll try not to bore you with all the details of the many flights we made to get everything done. Instead, I'll try to hit the highlights and the beautiful moments.