Now it feels like December!

Another day at the beautiful Station 2, this time at Willy Field. Willy is the snow runway (called the skiway) that we had to move to last weekend because of the annual sea ice melting. From what I understand, the annual sea ice should be good for another 3-4 weeks before it becomes unsafe to travel on, but by moving the runways early in December, you don't have to worry about testing it all the time to make sure it's safe, and then scrambling to move everything when it starts getting too thin. It's 6 feet of ice over top of about 300 ft or so of water, so when it melts, it's dangerous. Remember, a human can walk on 3 inches of ice, and a car can drive safely on 6 inches of ice, so 6 ft is plenty thick enough. Pegasus and Willy Field are essentially on the glacier, which never melts, so it's not so much of an issue.

At least today we have power and internet. Though those of us out here are missing the big MCI drill in town.

The rotation to Willy Field is the same as it was when we were on Ice Runway, because as long as there are Air National Guard planes on the ground, the fire department has to be here. And the LC-130's stay here in Antarctica for the whole season. The only problem with Willy Field is that it is only for ski planes, so anything with wheels has to land at the ice (rather 'compacted snow') runway at Pegasus, which we only staff when there is a plane coming in.

Today, it is snowing. This wind isn't too bad, though this afternoon it has been picking up a bit. I'm kind of sad, because I had hoped to get some good shots of Mt Terror and Mt Terra Nova today, but I have the rest of the season to do it, so it's not a big deal. I'm sure I'll get out here again on a good weather day. After all, I'm here at least once a week, and it's fairly likely that I'll be going to Pegasus for the C-17 landing on Friday (providing the weather is good).

I'm not sure why the speed limit is so slow. I think it's because most of the time you're driving either on ice or fairly thick snow, so it's a safety issue. Plus all the different vehicles, and the bigger tracked ones like the dozers and fork lifts don't move very fast, so if you lose control of a wheeled truck or something because you're going too fast, they can't move out of the way very fast. In town, the speed limit is 15 mph, because there are so many trucks and large vehicles with little range of sight driving all over the place. Plus people can't hear a truck when they have their hoods up or it's windy so they have a tendency to step out in the way of the vehicles cause they don't know they're there.

Other than that, not much going on. It's feeling more and more like December now since it's been a bit colder than normal, and the past few days have been snowy at least at some point during the day. All they have to do now is decorate for Christmas.