Week 41 at the Pole
The first planes of the season have arrived at the South Pole. Two planes landed last week, first a Basler (bearing gifts) and later a Twin Otter, shown in the image above. The arrival of the Basler was anxiously awaited. The photos below show that as it happened—first someone on the lookout, then a disturbance in the fog, then the landing, and finally the retrieval of the “goodies.” Three boxes of freshies, including apples, oranges, and carrots, were unloaded to the delight of those who’ve been waiting so long.
The station remains busy with summer preparations. For IceCube’s winterovers, some of their spring cleaning chores for the ICL (IceCube Lab) entailed raising flags along the flagline and shoveling snow on the upper decks. Although not much snow falls from the sky, there is considerable drifting and it does accumulate.
