Arrival At Pole (Jan 3rd)
I arrived last night on my 2nd-attempt flight. Smooth sailing, and good thing we made it because the weather was turning for the worse and looks like it might be crappy for the next couple of days (plus tomorrow is Sunday, and there are no flights on Sunday).
The flight from McMurdo to pole is about 3 hours as I’ve said before, and covers a lot of different terrain… ok, well really 2 types, flat white ice and mountains covered in ice.
The Antarctic Plateau. Vast. White. Frozen. Windy. 
Inside the cargo bay of the plane. We had a pretty spacious ride, with only 15 passengers.
I started to feel some excitement as the loadmasters prepared for landing. There were low-hanging clouds as we descended, so I couldn’t really tell how far into the descent we were (and it’s hard to tell against a featureless landscape). But eventually I saw a red flag marking the edge of the runway and knew we were there!
The fanning of the rotors sound our every move, from the right turn into the terminal, to the full-stop, marking our arrival. I had expected it to be much colder, but in the height of summer with overcast, it was nearly single digits (negative of course). It was nice to be greeted by the current SPT crew, and to see recognizable faces of other people on station!
By the time we arrived, and watched the station video, it was about 11:30pm. So we hung out in the galley for a few minutes and then went to bed.
Jan 4th
Today I didn’t do too much as I’m still getting acclimated, and setup on all the computers/email accounts/ etc. I got to schedule some observations this morning which should last the rest of the evening. I’m learning how to check on the telescope’s scheduler program and look at emails from the pager which indicate potential problems.
It’s Saturday night, which is generally the ‘party’ night on station since Sunday is the one day off for many people. There’s apparently a dance party in the galley and a movie night in the gym (there’s a big projector screen in there). Tomorrow is the South Pole Marathon… a little bit sooner than I had hoped for, but maybe I’ll go out to cheer on and help out. Or maybe I’ll run it. Who knows.
Update:
I was able to upload some short videos I took during the flight. Check them out:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ImXGk_c-K0-Ss0N1i4yY_mddqJopg-ON/view?usp=sharing
and
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1doi49tujohjvYg7OaDQFU9MjJtkWWNZO/view?usp=sharing
Hopefully that works…
Allen's South Pole Winter-Over 2020 (+) 
Hood morning Allen, so glad you arrived safely. The photos are fantastic so I hope you can keep them coming. Even though you’re an old timer there, it’s still so interesting to see the view, the plane and the vast openness.
I’ve learned that there is a Vermont park ranger Kris or Chrissy there as a cook. My friend and caretaker in Vermont told me-you remember Karen from D&Ks General Store. I’ll see if I can gather more info but ask around!
Love you!
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