Luana Lins

We woke up to a clearer sky and no snow, visibility was definitely better and we can see the mountains on the continent. After packing up all our outdoor gear, we headed to the Science Support Center to leave for our first day on the ice. It’s still part of the training, but the atmosphere among us was of excitement! We hopped on the vehicle that would take us to the ice, a Hägglund, and we went to the first hole in the ice that we will be sampling from. We got instructed on

Today the weather started to change; I woke up to the first snow since we have been here! And while the temperature is only a little lower than the other days, with the wind it started to feel colder. The snow is not much but it did change a lot of the visibility. I guess today it looks more like what I expected from Antarctica. We had a full day of training indoors. The support is very good, they have very experienced mountaineers as part of the search and rescue groups and

It has been another day full of training. The safety training was very fun, we got to practice lighting the camping stoves that are the survival kit and pitching the tents. The tents are a very cool one layer Gore-tex shell. We have learned a lot about preventing frostbite and hypothermia too. Although we have had very mild weather so far (today was even in the positives (2 C)), the weather here can change very quickly and this is the main factor to be aware of! Especially wh

Full day of presentations, which has been hard for us because we are mostly very tired from the flight. At the same time, it’s very nice to know what the other people work on and to get to know their science better. It seems that from now on our days will start at 8 and won’t finish until 9pm (…at least!). I have had a constant headache since the flight, so I am drinking as much water as I physically can today! Dehydration is an issue here! Sundays seem to be a fun day on the

We finally left! We had an early morning with check-in at 6:30. The whole process was way easier than I expected! The flight in the Hercules was quite nice. I was expecting horrible conditions and even the bathroom was fine! Seeing the sea ice for the first time, when were about 2h away from the continent was very exciting! Some minutes later we were able to see part of the continent! It was a funny sight to see most of us lining up in front of the window to have a glimpse an

We were supposed to be deployed today! The plans were to check-in which includes putting most of your outdoor gear and stand on the scales holding all your carry-on. Managing the weight is one of the challenges of these flights, we have not only people with luggage for 1 month – 1 year in the ice, but also there is heavy scientific equipment that has to go with us too! Our deployment time has changed two times yesterday, and today when we were all ready to go to the check-in

Warm city and cold weather clothing! After a reasonable night of sleep, we headed this morning for the US Antarctic Program Clothing Distribution Center (USPA CDC). We brought all we have there, to make sure our carry-on would fit in the specific box it has to, to try on our outdoor gear provided by the program and for some induction too! Trying on all the outdoor gear during the summer in Christchurch was a funny experience. First layer is merino wool thermal underwear, next

The journey from Pullman to New Zealand was epic, with long periods in airports and flights. But I ended up getting a very good seat on my long flight to New Zealand (13h) and could have some rest! I had some hiccups early in the day to check-in due to my long name, but it was all solved and the NSF support team was very helpful. I only met other participants of my course when we got to Auckland, it was very nice to finally meet other people and get to know them. Today it is

Today is the last day of the year and the last day until I leave for my journey to Antarctica! Tomorrow I will be taking the flight to San Francisco, then to Auckland in New Zealand (NZ) and then finally, Christchurch (NZ) where we will be for two days. I will meet the whole group in Christchurch and we will leave there on the 5th of January. The unusual thing, at least for me, is that we are flying to Antarctica. It’s a military flight which will very cool, but not necessari