ob-servations

Three weeks in Antarctica and it feels like I've been here a year! I am becoming familiar with my surroundings and smiling with each new opportunity or experience I have here.

I took this picture of Mt. Erebus yesterday because, if you look closely, you can see the moon hovering above the mountain. All things "night" seem very foreign to me right now, so the last couple days that we've seen the moon out bright with the sun, I've taken special note.
Marty & Michael jumped in my Ice Runway Shuttle a couple days ago and we contemplated the time we have had here so far and where we will go from here. None of us have a certain idea of what we will do upon our return to New Zealand, but we have fun speculating occasionally. Our little group that met up in Denver has stuck so far and we hope there will be an opportunity to travel for a week, or two, at least around the South Island of New Zealand before we go our seperate ways.

I climbed Ob Hill again yesterday. It was a frosty climb, illustrated below. It doesn't take much for sweat and breath to condense and freeze; especially with less than -20 windchills. The weather has been warming up here. In one day, at 12 degrees, we saw a significant loss of snow. On the warm buildings it melts, on the volcanic hills, it evaporates. It's starting to feel like summer!

Word is out that there has been a Skua siting (they are a Seagull-like scavenger), and in some of the further reaches, there are penguins about. I hope for an opportunity to see them soon!