11 November, 2002

The Team is all here

Date: 11/11/02

Latitude: 77 degrees 51 minutes South

Longitude: 166 degrees 40 minutes East Temperature: Temperature: -3 C / + 27 F

Wind speed: Calm

Wind Chill: -3 C / + 27 F

Wind direction: N/A

Meters of ice collected: 0

Notes on daily life: Happy Veteran’s Day. The rest of the team has shown up on ice and the preparations for the trip have suddenly been thrust into high gear. The LC-130 that came in last night brought in not only the rest of the team (Paul, Steve, Eric, Brain, Gordon, Markus, Blue, and Mark) but also a lot of energy and excitement. Jim and Dan stayed up late last night to greet the weary new arrivals at midnight rations. After a quick late night meal and some greetings everyone retired to their dorm rooms to get ready for the busy day ahead. Today started off with Paul convening a meeting of all the team members not yet in the field. It was a great opportunity to get everyone caught up to speed on the preparations that had already been completed and assign the few tasks left remaining. The amount of work that Carl, Lynn and Andrea invested into getting things ready before anyone else had even left the continent was phenomenal and will preparations much easier on everyone now in McMurdo. However, there is always plenty to do. For the new arrivals the first destination was the PUSH class, a refresher from snow school that will prepare the veterans to deploy to the deep field. Everyone also spent a lot of time making final checks on the cargo that had been sorted last week by Dan, Jim, Betsy, and Susan. The addition of the new team members has already had an impact in the daily routine in McMurdo. Offices that were once barren are now crowded with laptops and briefcases. Veteran ITASE members have had the chance to get to see old friends from previous time in McMurdo and have also started to get to know the two new faces joining the expedition this year. The galley has had to double the amount of food prepared for each meal now that Blue has joined Dan and Jim on their raids of the food lines. Every one of the team members is chomping at the bit now as the realization that we will soon be leaving the comfort of Mactown and venturing out into the promise and potential of the unknown. If everything stays according to plan we’ll be on the Herc Friday morning bound for Byrd Station where we’ll rendezvous with Carl, Lynn, and Andrea and turn towards the uncertain excitement of the traverse.

the team assembles for morning meeting every day at 9