Antz here,

What's happened since the last post… ?

The plane did finally make it down for us to leave, although it was at 4.00am when it finally got here.
We had some much needed time off back in the warm world, where liquid water, fast cars, too many people, biting insects, and small furry animals all grab your attention until you gradually get used to it all again.

Christine is keeping herself busy with some jewelry making courses back at home, and is not due back down here on the Ice with me until August. I got back to McMurdo a few weeks ago for my 8th winter-over. Counting this one I’ve spent 8 out of the last 10 winters in Antarctica now.
 
The sun set for the first time this year about a month ago for us. Right now it is spending about 12 hours above and 12 hours below the horizon. In another 4 weeks it will be below the horizon 24 hours a day, not to be seen again until the end of August.
Down at the South Pole, the sun has already set, and won't be back until September.
Temperatures are beginning to cool off from the summer highs of around freezing, and are generally sitting closer to -25 C / -15 F.

In my spare time I am busy processing the footage we got this summer, and constantly gathering more. I'm also going back through all my original photos and re-mastering everything in Hi-Def. Quite a mammoth undertaking.
By the end of the year I hope to have a rough cut of the film completed, with the final cut ready for release next year.

My regular job here that pays the bills in the mean time is working as the Satellite Engineer, keeping us in contact with the outside world.
The satellite ground station is a remote facility across the permanent Ice Shelf from McMurdo on Black Island. It is unmanned in winter, but I have remote control of most functions from McMurdo. It will automatically page me (often in the middle of the night) for most serious problems.
We have no helicopter support in winter, they don't fly in the dark, so when needed, I have to traverse out there in tracked vehicles across the Ice Shelf to do repairs.
It typically takes about 6 hours to get there. If the ice conditions are bad, it can take as much as 12 hours. Sometimes the weather will not behave, so we may be delayed a few days at either end before it is safe to travel outside.

 
The Black Island Telecommunications Facility.
There is a 7.2 meter diameter satellite dish in the dome on the left, an 11 meter dish in the big dome, and a 2 meter dish in the little dome on the right.

While they picked the best available location in terms of accessibility and satellite coverage for the facility, it is also one of the worst locations for weather out there. During the winter is normal to have storms blow through every week or two, typically with average wind speeds getting up between 80 - 100 mph (130 - 160 kph) . A couple of years ago there were winds of 157mph (253 kph) sustained, and the peak gust speeds are typically about 50% higher again.
Given that the highest officially verified and recorded wind gust ever on Earth was 231 miles per hour (372 kilometers per hour) on the summit of Mount Washington in 1934, do the math and it gives you some perspective on the winter conditions out there.
 

A camera set up looking north across the Ice Shelf towards Mount Erebus, smoking in the distance under the mid day sun.
McMurdo Station and Scott Base are at the base of the hill in front of Mt Erebus.