Docked on Sea Ice

Today we arrived at McMurdo, an American research station that hosts Antarctica’s largest community—about 1,000 people during austral summer. To get here, a US Air Force cargo plane picked us up in Christchurch, New Zealand, and landed us on the ice nearby.

Today is a balmy summer day of 30°F, not much colder than the weather in New York. We are sweating in the heavy-duty parkas that we picked up in Christchurch. The Oden is currently docked at the edge of the sea ice, waiting to guide a cargo ship out to open water. In the meantime, we visit the ship in a truck designed to travel over ice. In a few days, we will load the last pieces of our equipment and start our journey east.