November 4, 1996

The Chapel at McMurdo Station.

The day began with a light snow around MacTown--a gently falling coverlet over all the buildings, vehicles and people as they headed to work and to the Galley for breakfast. As odd as it may seem, it does not snow very often here; Antarctica is one of the driest places on earth and some of the snow is ancient. Volcanic dirt mixed with tire and track treads to a churned, mocha grey; it squeaked beneath my feet. There was little wind, but the feeling in the air was that a Herbie was indeed on the way. Flights to Pole and Cheech (Christchurch) had already been canceled and there were no helos flying out to the McMurdo Dry Valleys.

I had checked in with Ron Nugent to see if I could get my snowmobile training course in and he added me to his list for 9:00am at the Mechanical Equipment Center (MEC). In additional to the general orientation, we were given a number of insightful tips on emergency repair, troubleshooting and maintenance. For many of us, we would be using these machines in adverse conditions with nobody around to help if we ran into trouble. Dealing with a frozen fuel line, a clogged carburetor, a broken fuel pump, electrical problems and replacing the drive belt were all covered in detail by our veteran instructor.

As we left the maintenance shop for test driving around the back lot, the weather had closed in and visibility was down to less than 300 feet. The wind had picked up considerably and it was snowing horizontally. It was looking less and less likely that we would be going back out to Big Razorback to the Weddell seal colony.

I made the rounds of Berg Field Center, where I took stock of my Scott polar tent and assorted field gear and then walked over to MacElex to sign out a VHF radio and spare batteries. Don and Tom said to check in later in the day to discuss a possible evening departure...it didn't happen, and plans were made for the following day.