Antarctica 2014

Here are some photos from my 2014 season at the South Pole in Antarctica. Enjoy!

First, a few highlights:

NAMESAKE!

Someone brought a unicycle this year, so I rode it around.  Awesome!

Skiing "towards the coast," into the nothingness

Penguins!  (Near McMurdo, on the coast)

And now for the feature presentation...

Traveling into Pole

We were delayed in Christchurch, NZ, for one day by weather on the way is.  So we went for a hike.

Ben by a very large, old tree in Akaroa

Views down into the bay.  It was very windy.

Pegasus "airport" on the Ross Ice-shelf near McMurdo.  Mt Erebus and our shuttle bus.

Work at Pole

obligatory glory-shot.

Um, Kyle?  Kyle?  KYLE!? You can't look through a feed-horn, you plug in a coax cable there...

Partners in crime Ben and Tom

The SPT.  Ain't she a beauty?

The SPT dish, from up-close.

We travelled a few kilometers from station to inspect the polarization-calibration source.  Me in the middle of nowhere, like really NOWHERE.

What do you do in the middle of the Antarctic desert?  Eat snow.  Why not?

Looking under the skirt of the snout in preparation for the Black Hole Imager (BHI).

It was warm up there in the sun!  So I took a nap.

Dan (top) and Chris in the receiver cabin of the SPT.

Real scientists wear lab coats.

We rode the telescope boom as we lowered the dish into a flat position so we could push in the "panel gap tabs."

Self-portrait, chilling on the dish.

Ben, hard at work while...

... I take a nap.  zzzzzzz...

Martin Lewis, a fixture at the pole for something like 15+ years, heads for the plane and his retirement.  Thank for everything Martin!

Yup, the station still runs on fossil-fuels.  Research project, anyone?

Colin and the far-field-mirror mounting bar for KECK.

We helped the KECK folks put up this mirror so they can measure their far-field beams.

Martin!  Lueker, keeping it real.

self-portrait

Tom, keeping us all safe.

Chalk! at the pole.

Carp Party!

Shuffle-board, made of ice!

Horse-shoes in -20F

Keepin' warm

Recreation

The Carp Shop (Carpenters), the start to the frisbee-golf (folf) course.

Mr. Station Manager tee'ing off on the first hole.

Tee'ing off of a spool of hose.

One of the holes.  Get it through the yellow ring.  I think he missed.

In it goes!  Official folf basket.

Driving, through the abandoned tunnel

Ice Bowling

Skiing with nowhere to go

Our turn-around point

Climbing Castle Rock near McMurdo with Mike the Plumber, and Tom.

Tom sticks the crux traverse in sketchy conditions

Tom, topping out of the difficulties.

Penguins!  A group of ~15 emperors had gathered near the ice-road from Pegasus airfield to McMurdo.

Commute to work

The 2013 south-pole marker.

I don't know if I will be back to pole; this is the last year I will go as a grad student.  It's been a great 5 years!  Now time to focus on graduating!