What to wear?

Many people ask what I wear when I'm working in Antarctica.  Luckily, the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) provides warm clothes for everyone who is traveling to the ice for the U.S.  Everyone headed to MCM has to stop at the CDC in CHC and check in with the USAP, where they are issued their ECW.  People use lots of acronyms down here... MCM is Mactown, or McMurdo Station.  The CDC is the clothing distribution center, which is located in Christchurch (CHC), a city in New Zealand.

ECW = Extreme Cold Weather gear

Bunny boots

Essential clothing items in Antarctica include the Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear.  My ECW includes a big red parka with my name on it... this jacket is appropriately called "Big Red."  ECW also includes hats, ski goggles, a balaclava, gloves, wind pants, and bunny boots.  Bunny boots are white rubber boots that are really warm, really big, and quite difficult to walk around in.  We are required to wear our ECW, or have it close at hand, whenever we traveling to/from Antarctica, or traveling around on the continent.  I also brought some of my own clothing, like my favorite wind-proof fleece and hiking boots, which are more comfortable, but not quite as warm.

My "Big Red" from 2010	Me (left) and Adam (right) in the Clothing Distribution Center in Christchurch , NZ at the beginning of the 2011-2012 field season
Hats and gloves provided by the USAP	Wind proof pants and long-underwear

We just got in to Christchurch, New Zealand last night. We get to spend some time in Christchurch before we head down to McMurdo. Downtown Christchurch is much different than last year because of the earthquake in February 2011.  I'll see if I can post some pictures when I have more time.

...and we're off

We are about to head out. Right now I'm in Blacksburg, VA, where Virginia Tech is located. We will be heading to the airport to embark on a long journey to New Zealand. We will arrive in Christchurch, NZ on December 3. The USAP will equip us with cold weather clothes in Christchurch, and then if the weather is good we'll fly to McMurdo, the research station on Ross Island in Antarctica.

Stay tuned...

LINK TO POST QUESTIONS

For some reason, I can't get the link (above) to the "questions" page to work. I think it is an issue with Blogger, so here is a link to the "questions" page. I'll try to fix this later, if I can.

CLICK HERE TO POST QUESTIONS

Check out Science Friday on NPR - discussion of the first explorers to reach the South Pole

Follow this link to listen to the show.  They talk about the race between Scott and Amundsen to be the first explorers to reach the South Pole, which happened 100 years ago!  Thanks to my good friend Andrew for bringing the story to my attention.

New blog format, where/how to ask questions.

If you followed this blog last year (when it was "Eric in Antarctica"), you are probably noticing that I have changed some things.  Here are some answers to questions you probably have.

WHY DID THE TITLE CHANGE?
I changed the title because I am hoping to get other biologists to contribute to the blog.  I will be traveling and conducting research with Jeb and Adam this year, and they have volunteered to answer questions and post entries.  Jeb has been doing research in Antarctica for about a decade, so he has lots of stories and knows a lot about the history of Antarctic research.

HOW DO WE ASK QUESTIONS?
This is a work in progress.  I anticipate getting questions from a few different schools throughout the country, so I had to change things a little bit so I can archive the questions in an organized manner.  If you want, you can post questions on any blog entry and I will try to respond.  For example, if I post an entry on mummified seals you can post a question related to that topic in the comments, and I will answer post in the comments.  However, if you want to ask me or any of my colleagues a question, any question you want, unrelated to anything I have posted, you can use the "Ask Questions Here" tab.  Under that tab, I will have created a post for the current month, and you can ask your question in the comments.  I chose to do it this way so that questions will be archived by month.  Also, if you are particularly curious, and would like me to post a blog entry on a specific topic, this is the place to ask.

OTHER QUESTIONS???
Please feel free to go to the "Ask Questions Here" tab and ask away.

WILL THERE BE MORE CHANGES TO THE BLOG?
It's possible.  I may add pages and try to organize things better.  I'm not a web designer, so things may change as I learn more about how blogger works.  I will try to make things easy on you, the reader.  Also, I will probably add a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page at some point.

See photos on Google Earth or Google Maps

This took me much longer than it should have...

Here are links that you can use to view some pictures from the 2010 field season in Antarctica in Google Maps or Google Earth.

Link to photos in Google Maps


To use the Google Earth layer you will need to have Google Earth installed on your computer.  The link is a .kml file that you can download.  If you open this file it will open Google Earth and the layer with the photos.

Link to photos in Google Earth