Airdops and Traverses and Sky Divers, oh my...

Okay, So I've been wicked busy the past couple of days...I know not really a decent excuse; but there has been a ton of activity down here. This week we had the C-17 airdrop. They dropped food and other random cargo from about 1,000 ft above the station in a semi-combat off load. It was cool to see such a big plane fly overhead and drop 14 huge boxes with parachutes. The C-17 can't land down here due to its mass and the way we built our ice runway. This type of air drop only happens once a season down here, so it was very neat to witness. They drop the supplies a little far from the station, so one must walk to the edge of the station property to see it. Usually the parachutes open up and in theory all the crates land gracefully ontop of the snow...but there have been issues years past of the crates sinking a couple feet into the snow.

Another neat event that happened the same day was that the South Pole Traverse showed up. The Traverse is a group of bulldozers and such that drag basically several large bladders of fuel. The were able to complete the 800+ miles (from McMurdo) in roughly 28 days. They brought about 110,000 gallons of fuel with them. This helps out greatly because the only other way to get fuel down here is via the LC-130's. The LC-130 typical fuel offload is around 2,000 gallons or so. The Traverse also drag bathrooms, living quarters and a showers, so that way they are fully operational. I must say that it is a very cool job. I mean who wouldn't want to road trip across Antarctica? They were able to complete it fairly quickly because they have been using this same route for 2 years or so, so they know that it is crevasse free.

This morning (Saturday) we also had a group of sky divers jump down to the station. We'll not really close to the station, aroudn 25 miles out...but they did eventually visit the station. I guess this group has done this before...though I heard a rumor that 2 jumpers didn't make it last time. They aren't with the USAP program, it is a private company...so I imagine that kind of trip is major cabbage to do (like around 30 g's).

That covers the major events thus far. Be prepared Christmas should be wicked entertaining and I'll have a lot to blog about. Take care everyone!