19 November, 1997

Hi Everyone,

I woke up this morning to the wind howling through my tent.   This was
early morning just after midnight.    Can you imagine trying to sleep with
wind howling like a train coming at you all night?    I looked up later to
see my tent starting to push toward me and my bed.   The snow had started
to push my tent in on one side and the wind continued to howl.   I finally
left my warm sleeping bag.   To my surprise the tent was really warm, it
was only the wind that howled through the tent camp.   I quickly got
dressed and reached outside to get my boots.   What to my surprise, my
boots were full of snow!!!   The snow had drifted and filled my boots.

When I finally crawled out of my tent, the other tents could not really be
seen.   The wind had blown the snow around to the point that you could not
see from one tent to the other.    The whole day has been blowing wind and
snow.   Sometimes, you could not actually see from  one place to another.
Since the weather was so bad, I spent the day helping in the dining hall
getting things ready for lunch and dinner.   Two of the people in there
were from Montana too.   I got to visit the outside storage area for the
food that is shipped here for the season.   Can you believe they do not
need a refrigerator here?   The weather allows everything to stay nice and
cool all year round.   They have a built in cooler under the ground to keep
things frozen.   They left things here last year that they are now cooking
up to eat.   Wow the food is really great here!!!!!

We also had to go and help take down a tent that the wind had blown down.
We placed a lot of snow around our tents so that they will stay closed and
stay up (hopefully).
The radio man said that the forecast is for more wind and blowing snow
tonight and tomorrow.   We will go back to work in the morning since the
core is suppose to be drilled in the morning.

With the wind blowing and howling, snow drifting and moving rapidly so that
one cannot see anything in front of you, then you believe that you are
really  in Antarctica.      Even with this happening the temperature has
risen so that it is -7 degrees Celsius (about 18 degrees Fahrenheit).