Hard to believe it’s been a week already!
Weather has been fantastic – the best I’ve ever experienced here; a week of really calm and clear conditions. Winds have picked up today (though they’re still about average or even below average) and it’s supposed to get a little “stormy” this weekend as increased winds bring in blowing snow, and mix up the thermal inversion layer. Current temps -43F, with windchill near -70F.
Food has been great! I haven’t missed a meal, in case you were worried.
Not much exciting has happened. We’re doing some summer maintenance on the telescope, and trying to tweak the performance of our fridge cycle (the thing that keeps our detectors cold). Other than that, things have been running extremely smoothly.
I got out for a run the other day and went down the ski way. Problem was that my goggles froze up almost immediately so I had to run the rest of the ~5miles with my balaclava pulled up nearly up to my hat to avoid both the cold and the sun… gotta figure something else out.
I’ve been setting myself up to get work done, so now that training has calmed down I will attempt to do that. Perhaps write some more of my thesis… who knows?! Crazier things have happened.
Allen's South Pole Winter-Over 2020 (+) 