Flying in style

I've come down to Antarctica many times now, and it has always been on an Air Force plane. However, the United States Antarctic Program has started a contract with Australia to fly commercial Airbus passenger flights to Antarctica, and I was lucky enough to take one. The above photo shows me stepping foot on the ice for the first time this season, with the Airbus in the background. While flying in first class was awesome in itself because of the posh seating (yes, I am fully reclined in my seat!), the real treat was having two huge windows to look out of the entire time. With the Air Force planes, you have a teeny little round window the size of a grapefruit, and you can't look out of it while landing, so having a giant window to peer out of during the entire flight is an incredible luxury. I saw views of the continent that I have never seen before. Huge, broad expanses of the mountains (because we were flying so high), incredible sea ice formations, features to the north outside of our normal work region, the Italian base (I couldn't actually see the base, but we flew right by the location), basically all the way from the coast along the spine of the mountains to the U.S. base on Ross Island. The photo at left is just one of many from the flight. It shows a section of the Transantarctic Mountains and the frozen Ross Sea in front. The wind-blown snow on the dark blue ice made for a surreal image, and was an effect that I have never seen quite so spectacularly. I was giddy the entire time. Awesome experience.