5 December, 1997

Friday Dec. 5

Hi Everyone,

Wow what a night. I told you it was cold and it was last night. In order to not put up my tent I decided to sleep in the snowmobile shed out on the lake ice. I think that I picked the coldest night so far to do that. I have usually just been using my in bag "fuzzy" and using the real sleeping bag for a cover. That did not work last night. I needed everything that I had and still used my parka for another blanket. Once I was in and warmed up it was fine. I like the shed for the fact that I can stand up and put my pants on. With those small tents, I have to lay on my back with my feet in the air trying to get my pants on. I'm not quite as young as I once was. Keith and I stayed until 9:30 to help Craig, Scott and Amanda load up their helicopter. They were going to another lake and needed to take all their gear. For some reason they were using a New Zealand helo for transportation. It was a big one with a three person crew including a load master. We loaded all their heavy gear( they took two ice augers) and lots of other equipment. Nice that we had a full loading crew. Keith and I then loaded up the ATV and went surveying. Did a couple of streams and simply froze out. The wind was so bad I could not hold the stick steady. Come home and did a lot of camp chores that needed to be done. Filled up the tanks of the ATV, snowmobile, hut furnace and diesel generator. Not easy to roll 55 gal. drums on these rocks. Waited supper until the three returned from their project and then finished up that excellent meal that we had last night. Left overs are great when you are hungry. Think I will try the snowmobile shed again. Anything is better than setting up a tent. Should get back to McMurdo tomorrow. I did not get much done with my project. The streams were simply not flowing at all right now. Hope for warmer weather soon. I'm fine, Doing OK. See ya