Still at WAIS

We are now in our third attempt at leaving at WAIS. The originally scheduled departure flight was for Wednesday evening, leaving on a flight arriving at 8:30 PM. By late afternoon we were notified that it would instead be about 12:30 AM. Around late evening we were told they were having mechanical issues on the herc and it would be more like 2:15 AM. Finally, at around 11:30 PM we were notified that the flight was cancelled. On Thursday, there was another scheduled flight arriving at WAIS around 8:30. This time around they took out the drama and by mid-afternoon the flight was cancelled due to “crew availability”. That leaves us with today (Friday) evening and two possible flights, a primary and a backup.

Our turn-around time in McMurdo, if we get out on the next flight, is roughly 2 1/2 days. We had hoped to get in another helo flight or two in between returning from WAIS and heading north off-continent. Those flights are now no longer doable. We can handle one more day of delays and still make our scheduled flight to Christchurch for Monday. If we don’t get out by Saturday then my return to Colorado will also be delayed.

The good news is that we have been able to get in two Twin Otter flights the last two days as we wait. On Wednesday we went to Brianna AWS where we removed the AWS installation. The overall AWS network is capped at around 60 sites. In order for a new site to be installed an old site has to be removed. This site, Brianna AWS, was determined to no longer be necessary. It was a fairly quick removal and we were on to Erin AWS. The plan was for us to “raise the station” at Erin. However, when we arrived we saw the site was still about 16 feet in height and there was no need to add another tower section. We moved around some of the equipment and then called it a day. The plan was to get back to WAIS for our flight to McMurdo. Clearly, that was not necessary.

Brianna AWS when we arrived at the site. The AWS was originally installed 21 years ago.

The hole left behind after the removal of Brianna AWS.

The delays in getting back to McMurdo have thus far been taken in stride. The WAIS camp is a very nice deep field camp and I have been having a good time getting to know many of the 29 people at the camp. A science lecture was given by another science group Tuesday evening and Wednesday evening another person at camp shared a “travel log” where they share pictures and stories from a recent travel adventure. For all of these activities, around 20-22 people of the 29 at the camp have been attending. WAIS is definitely a much closer community than McMurdo. The delay is starting to wear on me with my hope to get back to at least limited internet connectivity.

One of the advantages of being at WAIS is the occurrence of some very impressive atmospheric optical phenomena. In this picture is a sun pillar, extending downward from the sun. Two sun dogs are located at the same height as the sun and on both sides of the sun.