April 2nd – Day 93 on Ice

Weather: The weather has cleared nicely today, and winds have slowed a bit. Temperature has dropped to -80F, with winds nearing 10mph. I’m not sure what the windchill is but probably nearing -120F.

The sky is getting dark; the first planets and bright stars have become visible. It’s strange. It is finally feeling different here. It feels like late evening when I go out to the telescope, although I generally go out around mid day. Even with the weather clearing, only a handful of bright sources can be seen – probably Jupiter, Saturn and some bright stars at high elevation. We are all waiting for total darkness to arrive, so we can see the Milky Way in it’s full glory, and see auroras galore!

I’ve been spending some more time in the climbing gym, trying to get a certain route – green with black stripes. One difficult part of the route is the small, crimpy handholds which I’m not particularly good at holding.

The climbing gym has been staying toasty warm, and is a nice place to work out as well as climb; it’s less crowded than the gym on station and you can blast music and sing without fear of being judged! The only annoying part is walking there and back through the cold!

I also do some work sometimes, too.

I sometimes even go out to the telescope to do rounds, or to grease or fix something. My shoes don’t like the cold too much though, and are starting to crack.