2nd Place, John E's Birthday, and More Snow: January 14-15, 2013

The last couple of days have been pretty routine here in McMurdo. Thomas and Sean have nearly completed the packing that needed to be done out at LDB. Monday was JohnE's birthday. Monday night/early Tuesday Morning when leaving Crary after our monitoring shift, we found ourselves in the middle of a snowstorm. Here's what McMurdo looks like in mid-summer:

In general, the weather has been pretty windy. No penguin sightings, either.

Tuesday evening we officially passed CREAM V for second place in the Antarctic LDB Science Flight duration records. Our flight track has been interesting the last couple of days, as our balloon has remained in an interesting holding pattern over the Trans-Antarctic Mountains between 85 and 86 degrees south. We'll see how things go in the next couple of days. Every time it looks like we might get out of it, we turn around and go in a circle again.

The few days we've spent in this area are piling up on our overall course map: