A few flying pictures from this past summer.

I'm back in McMurdo. No one got into my stuff over the winter, so thats good news. It's -10F and windy out.

It's getting close to time to head back to Antarctica again. Westword published an article about working in Antarctica. It does a pretty good job of covering the good and bad.
Read it here

The salmon are in

The King Salmon are starting to trickle in. I caught this 43 pound fish a couple days ago.

The new Champ is done and flying. We took the fleet out in formation a couple days ago and made sure to get the Mountain in the pictures. Photo ship was a Maule M7.

UH OH...

A couple guys almost ate it a few days ago, ran out of space landing on a mountain top, tried to make a hard turn at the last second and ended up dangling off the side. Both made it out by climbing out the left side, no injuries. They were rescued in a short time by a local pilot. This was just a few miles away from Talkeetna. Airplane is a Taylorcraft.

Update...

Lets see where did I leave off...I zipped up to Arthurs's Pass, New Zealand for a few days, one day up to the top of Avalanche Peak.




A few days later I was in Brisbane. I stayed with some locals through www.couchsurfing.org then spent a few days in Surfers Paradise, on the Gold coast hanging out and one day of surfing, but I seem to have not taken a single picture of these days. Then a bus ride up to Fraser Island for a 3 day walk. Lots of critters around.



A monitor lizard, about 1 yard long.


Dingos, despite what a few people tried to tell me about dingos being a meter high at the shoulder, or taking your children, or whatever I could never get one to get close enough for a picture. They always ran away, were very skittish, and all were about the size of a small coyote.


Okay, thats all I have for now. I'm back in Talkeetna. The snow is melting and the summer season is starting to get going.

A Little Update...

I Left McMUrdo on an Airbus


And Went down to Stuart Island, a tropical island south of New Zealand's south island















I stayed in a few towns, rested up, and then wandered up into the young valley, over Gillespie pass then down through the wilkins valley with Roy, my roomate from McMurdo







Okay more to come, the internet is slow, leaving for Australia in the morning. Back in the US on the 10th, back in Alaska the 14th. Cheers.

I arrived in Christchurch today. It's 75, sunny and humid.

The ice breaker 'Oden' and the fuel tanker 'Gianella' have come and gone. The fuel tanker delivered five and a half million gallons of Jet fuel, diesel and gasoline this year.



The cargo ship 'American Tern' also came and went. The field camps have all pulled up stakes, the helicopters have stopped flying, South Pole Station closes tomorrow, and I have 8 days left on station.

Some of The McMurdo Internation Film Fest:

Only in Antarctica. Warms temps make vehicles get stuck. Even Ivan has been having trouble.