Week 41 at the Pole

planes
NSF/D. Larsen

After the sun’s arrival come the planes. The first of the season to reach the South Pole were a pair of Twin Otters, one of which appears parked in the image above. Behind it is a Basler plane—a somewhat larger ski aircraft—shown just as it was landing, a few days later. Snow melting operations to deal with recent water troubles have continued at the station—these planes didn’t bring relief for that. But they did show up with the always-long-awaited allotment of “freshies.”

And finally, although not quite finished, the machining project Ian had begun last week is taking shape—it’s a turner’s cube.

snowbuckets
NSF/D. Larsen
freshies
NSF/D. Larsen
turnerscube
NSF/I. Rees