Back in McMurdo...

It’s weird to be back in a group of 1000+ again after being in the intimate and quiet environment of a camp. Here is a picture of the C-130 Hercules aircraft, or Herc, that took us from Patriot Hills back to McMurdo. (I’m posing with some toy horses that my sister and brother-in-law sent to me-you guys rock!). We also arrived at Patriot Hills in a Herc. Hercs are the largest aircrafts with retractable ski-wheels (you can see them in the photo) and they are frequently used in Antarctica because they can carry so much weight but are still capable of short takeoffs and landings. It’s something incredible to see them land up close. When we landed at Patriot Hills, we did what is called a combat offload (although I’m supposed to say that they “drifted” the cargo because combat offload sounds too reckless or something). Basically we chucked a bunch of giant pallets of cargo, each about 3 meters cubed, out the back of the Herc just after the landing. I actually had no idea it was going to happen. We landed, and then all of the sudden the back of the plane opens up and all of the pallets start to tumble out onto the ice. The pallets are nested in these sort of grooves on the floor of the plane, so when you load and off-load they hook in and slide along the grooves, like how a roller coaster car slides along a track. Normally it’s a slow process, but to see it happen while moving, with these giant pallets just sort of gently crashing out onto the ice is shocking. My mouth dropped open and stayed open the entire time. It was fantastic.