Tag: woman scientist

Life of a Desert Field Scientist – Mindi Lehew

November 27, 2017 / Allison Cusick

Mindi Lehew is an Environmental Scientist working for the US Forest Service. She has been hiking the Sonoran Desert and Coronado National Forest for more than six years and absolutely loves it.

Check out the video below where Mindi explains the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area, the unique desert ecosystems, including the iconic Saguaro cactus, and her work as a field scientist.

Keep reading to learn more about how Mindi first became interested in science.

What is your earliest memory of being hooked by science?

Growing up in a small town, playing in nature was my every day adventure. At the time, I didn’t understand that was the beginnings of scientific exploration and a lifelong conservation ethic. I spent my childhood in the desert, hiking with my dad or riding my horse with my mom. Our family spent a few weeks every summer visiting different national parks. I remember carrying around a notepad in Yellowstone National Park taking detailed notes and keeping a count of every plant and animal species I encountered. I was probably 10 years old at the time, but I still have the little notebook today, and I know now that was field science at its finest!

What did you think a scientist did before you became one?

I thought all scientists worked in a lab and wore a white coat. It wasn’t until I started college that I realized you could make a career out of studying the environment (and get paid to play outdoors!). Now I know scientists also wear cargo shorts and hiking boots!

What keeps it fun?

I never get tired of the landscapes. Since I was little, I’ve always been humbled by nature and the evolution of our planet and all the species that exist on it. Nothing beats the feeling of summiting a peak and being rewarded with a panoramic view for hundreds of miles in all directions. As an environmental scientist and public land manager, it’s rewarding to know I play a small role in protecting those natural places.

Is there anyone that inspired you?

My dad! He is a pharmacist by profession, but a conservationist at heart. We always joke that we’re both scientists, the only difference is that he helps the people and I help the planet. For as long as I can remember, he’s had one mantra: leave this earth a better place than it was when you got here. He inspired me to make that mantra my life’s mission!

Let’s learn more about the region:

Desert Range

This region of Arizona, California, and Baja hosts a convergence of many types of desert ecosystems that span from Mexico all the way up into the Rocky Mountains.

Saguaro Cactus

The Saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) live on rocky terrain and do not occur anywhere else in the world. Many people mistakenly think the tall cactus in Baja are Saguaros, but they are actually look-alike cactus called Cardón (Pachycereus pringlei). The Cardón resembles the Saguaro in growth, but can grow to be much more massive, and is not as frost tolerant as the Saguaro.

The average lifespan for a Saguaro cactus is about 200 years. As they grow taller they branch arms and extend their radial root system. Even though the root system is very shallow for such a tall, heavy plant, it provides a sturdy base allowing the cactus to absorb water from the occasional desert downpours.

I had always thought, if lost in the desert, I could survive by drinking water from the cactus tissue. As if cactus were giant rain barrels storing an oasis of refreshment. I surely would have died! It turns out succulents create toxic products from photosynthesis including Malic Acid and Oxalic Acid. If ingested, Oxalic Acid combines with calcium in our bodies to produce calcium oxalates which are harmful to our kidneys. While a human may be able to survive off small amounts, ultimately dehydration would take over.

Mindi shows us there are some edible parts to the cactus; She delicately plucks a barrel cactus fruit and gives us a taste. Sour! Like a granny smith apple.

Thank you for taking us through your kind of desert Mindi Lehew!

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Writing Your Dreams into Realities

September 17, 2017 / Allison Cusick

They say those who write down their goals and dreams have a higher success rate of turning them into realities.

I recently found a very artistic goal book I had made in 2001, sixteen years ago, during my 11th grade English class. Thank you to Mrs. E for giving us time in class to create these visions! Flipping through the pages, I realized that a lot of the goals I had written down, I have now accomplished. You can also tell which song was popular at that time…

“Watch a sunset in Africa.” In 2014, I traveled to South Africa co-leading a group of undergraduate students on a Big Cat Research trip. I made sure to watch every sunrise and every sunset, imprinting the experience in my mind. I was able to travel back to Africa at the end of 2016, this time watching sunsets in Botswana and Zimbabwe (look for future posts to come).

“Swing on a vine in the rainforest.” I have this strange obsession with the rainforest. I’m not sure if it comes from gazing at all the National Geographic magazine spreads of the Amazon canopy, the film documentaries I watched as a kid, or from my visits to the Rainforest Exhibit in the Woodland Park Zoo. I remember the day I arrived in the Amazon and reached the summit of a hike I did near Aguas Calientes in Peru. My heart fluttered as I looked out over the canopy. I’m here! I’m seeing this in real life. I can’t believe it. I’ve been to the Peruvian rainforest a number of times now as a tourist and as a volunteer biologist with Earthwatch and the Tambopata Macaw Project. On a regular basis, I daydream of the soonest time I will be able to return. I find it interesting I’m on the path to becoming a polar oceanographer, because I’ve always had a vision of myself as a rainforest biologist.

“Jump off a tall cliff into water.” Why did I want to jump off a tall cliff?! I have no idea. After college I traveled Europe with my best buddy Kristina Ciari (she hosts an awesome blog called An Adventurous Life and works for The Mountaineers). We did one of those canyoning adventures out of Bern, Switzerland and at one point had to jump off a cliff into a narrow section of the river. Terrifying to say the least. I hesitated before my jump and got reprimanded by the guide. “YOU JUST HAVE TO JUMP!” he said, “Do NOT overthink this. Now, GO!” It really is a life metaphor if you think about it. Years later, she and I visited Smith Rock near Bend, Oregon for a climbing trip and found this beautifully tall cliff. The guide’s words still rang in my ears, “Now, GO!” We all jumped 30 feet down into a wide calm river. Some of us came up with nose bleeds. I luckily did not. But I think I cured my desire for jumping off tall things.

“Scuba dive in exotic waters.” I grew up in Washington’s Puget Sound. A beautiful location for diving. However, scuba is an incredibly expensive hobby and I never found the means to get in to the activity until 2013 when I finally had saved enough cash to get my Open Water Certificate. I spent the next two years working to get certified in Advanced Open Water, then Dry Suit, and Rescue Diver. My progress stalled when it came time to buy my own equipment. I couldn’t pass that next financial hurdle. One day, I was talking to a science colleague while working in the lab, and he said that he got funded to dive during his graduate program. I vowed to myself that if I ever went to graduate school I would find a way to dive for science. When I found out I was going to be attending Scripps Institution of Oceanography for my Master of Advanced Studies degree, I immediately signed up for the Scientific Diving course. I then spent my loan money on nearly $3000 worth (probably more) of gear so that I could be independent of a rental shop whenever I wanted to dive. I have yet to dive in exotic tropical waters, but I did manage to snorkel in the frigid 2°C Silfra fissure of Iceland. Some day I do plan to dive in the polar oceans, namely Antarctica. Because I’ve already written it down, I know it will happen!

“Stay in an igloo at the poles and watch the Aurora Borealis.” Ok, so the igloo part hasn’t happened yet but I have made it near to both poles and seen the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) and Aurora Australis (Southern Lights). In 2013, I was sent to Antarctica aboard an icebreaker for a two month research expedition. During one of the nights, we all went on deck to gaze at the Southern Lights. Dazzling ribbons of green, electrifying the sky. The only time I have seen the Northern Lights occurred while I was in Seattle, funnily enough, about 14 years ago. One evening I was driving home from college around midnight and I saw funny clouds moving high in the sky. As I got closer to my house I realized those funny clouds were the Aurora Borealis and I raced inside to wake my parents. They ran out, mom in a nightgown, dad in his flannel pajama set. We all gazed up as the green lights danced above us, flickering, sizzling, then moved out of sight. It was magical. Seeing the full curtain of blues, greens, purples, and pinks — from an igloo — is still on my To-Do List.

“Walk the wall of China.” This still needs to be accomplished! Asia has been a region of the world I haven’t devoted much time. Malaysia was the first international country I visited back at the ripe age of 15. We traveled to Kuala Lumpur and to the small island of Penang. Growing up, our family hosted over 25 Japanese exchange students, so I have every reason to plan a trip to this side of the world.

I knew at a young age I was an adventurer. I have that Wanderlust. That Travel Gene. I have visited 35 countries and all 7 continents. I had no idea at the time of my 11th grade English class assignment, that I would actually end up traveling the world, for curiosity and for science, fulfilling the goals I had written down in that little book.

I’ve been writing goals ever since, many more of which have come true. I have dozens of notebooks and journals scattered about my room.

Apparently, if you just *think* about your goals and dreams, its not enough to make them real. Dreaming and imagination occur in the right hemisphere of the brain. Writing taps into the power of your left hemisphere, or logic-based side of the brain. When you operate the two together, you send your consciousness a signal that says, “I want this, and I mean it!” Throughout time, its as if your subconscious mind then orchestrates those visions into realities.

Seeing this book, and reflecting on the accomplishments I’ve made over the past 16 years, I’m convinced I need to keep writing down those dreams and goals so that some day they become reality!

What are the dreams and goals you have written down wondering if they would ever be achieved? I’d love to hear in the comments below!

Thank you for reading and following Woman Scientist! As always, feel free to share with a friend or young scientist!
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Kathy Barker: Scientist, Writer, Activist

April 26, 2017 / Allison Cusick

When I was a new scientist starting work in the lab I purchased the book At the Bench, by Kathy Barker. It became a well-read manual I referred to when questions arose about living and working in the laboratory. As I gained experience over the years, moving into more responsibility overseeing high school and undergraduate interns, I bestowed upon them this same book for reference and peace of mind.

I had no idea that nearly a decade later I would have the chance to get to know the author.

We met at an event co-hosted by the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) and Hutch United at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. There was to be a discussion on Social Media and Activism in Science with distinguished panelists :

Kathy Barker, PhD –Scientist, Author, ScientistsAsCitizens.org, @ScienceActivist

Jennifer Davison –Program Manager, Urban@UW, @JenEDavison

Sharona Gordon, PhD –Professor, UW Department of Physiology & Biophysics, @ProfSharona

As a young scientist active on social media, I wanted to hear the opinions of more advanced researchers and the voice they use online. (If you want to know my opinions, read this post.)

Kathy was the first person I met before entering the building. It was dark and raining, as per usual in Seattle, and we were both lost. Together we ventured in to what we thought was the correct building and as the house lights illuminated our faces I saw she had a streak of red dyed hair. As someone who sometimes worries about whether or not I’ll be taken seriously with my turquoise dyed hair, I was glad to see another scientist rocking the look.

Kathy has a PhD in microbiology and spent time as an assistant professor in the Laboratory of Cell Physiology and Immunology at Rockefeller. She currently consults and writes on science management and communicating science to society. She has authored two books At the Bench and At the Helm.

Kathy gladly agreed to participate in an interview to share with us her diverse set of experiences and gained wisdom:

What is your earliest memory of being hooked by science?

Volcanoes, animals, rockets, and infectious disease. There was scant information around in those pre-web days, but I devoured all the books in our little library.

What did you study during undergrad? Did you know what you wanted to study before beginning?

I was an English major for 2 years of college, with no interest in science. After dropping out for a few years to travel and work, I returned to college and got hooked by a tour in a basic biology class of a scanning electron microscope and a view of an insect eye. I ended up doing a double major in English and Biology.

What was your first science-related job?

Breeding mice as an undergraduate. I should have thought more carefully about animal use at that time, for it troubled me for the 4-5 years before I realized I should just say no to animal work.

How did you decide to go for a higher degree?

Entropy.

Did you have any preconceived notions about science, or scientists, and did that change once you explored your career in science?

Not knowing any scientists until I was in my 20’s meant I had a cartoon image of what a scientist was, and didn’t realize the absolute power I had to make much more informed and better choices. No one can tell you how to be a scientist. You get to be an activist, or take time off, or have no kids or a zillion kids (I had 3), or do “descriptive” science, etc etc.

Has your work allowed you to travel? If so, where have you gone and what were you doing there?

Yes. The writing turned into giving workshops on running labs, and I traveled all over the country. It is great fun, and I meet wonderful people.

Could you expand more on your experiences working in different sectors?

After my postdoc, I was an assistant professor for a few years. I found it interesting that many of the problems encountered by people in the labs were communication problems, and were common to all. I wanted to write about it, and contacted a publisher. He thought it was a good idea, and I left the lab about 6 months later to write.

Writing was hard at first. It took me a while to build up colleagues, and expertise, and until I had a finished product, my ego took a hit. I hadn’t realized how that title ‘scientist’ gives you a sort of pass in life, as people assume you are doing something valuable….even when it isn’t true.

I’m currently hooked up with a group of public health academics, and together we are writing a book on the primary prevention of war. Three of my lives came together here: the scientist, the writer, and the antiwar/antimilitarism activist. It feels good!

Have you experienced any big compromises or struggles making a career in the sciences?

Compromises or struggles…I can’t quite come up with anything. Not everything went well, but that is probably because I wasn’t as thoughtful about my scientific life as I should have been, not about the field I was working in, or about my future.

What keeps you motivated when you’re feeling the drudgery? What keeps science FUN for you?

Even making buffers in a lab was fun for me- I loved everything about the lab, every single day. I never felt drudgery…except with writing. I wouldn’t say it is fun every day, but I am very happy.

Was there any one person that inspired you?

Not really. The big sister of the girl next door and a microscope, and I thought both she and the microscope were absolutely cool.

What are some inspirational materials you’ve used along the way?

Natalie Angier’s “In Search of the Oncogene” is one of the best books about how lab science is done.

What are some key points you wish you knew or that you remind yourself of during your science career journey?

I was too independent- I wish I had had a mentor. Even having a role model would have meant I was thinking about the strengths and weaknesses I had. It meant I would have known when I needed help.

What is your big dream?

I would love to be part of a movement that convinces scientists to think about war and nonviolence, and to choose their careers and paths with consideration of the effects of their work for all of society.

~~~

Thank you so much, Kathy, for sharing your career journey!

Make sure to follow Kathy’s newsletters and feed on Twitter.

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Exploring the Okavango Delta Botswana – Savuti Part 2

January 20, 2017 / Allison Cusick

“Knock, knock, knock…”

“Helloooo…”

“Good morniiiiing….”

…It’s dark…

I sleepily open my eyes to the 5a.m. wake up call.

“Good morning!”

“We are awake. Thank you!”

In thirty minutes the sun would rise, which gave us just enough time to roll out of bed, throw on clothes, grab our bags, and slug back a cup of coffee and light breakfast before heading into the vehicle for our morning game drive.

In the wilderness, if you want to have the best opportunity for animal sightings, you wake up when the animals wake up . And sunrise is actually one of my favorite times of the day. It always feels like you are in on a secret the rest of the world doesn’t yet know about.

Elephant and a saddle-billed stork

Four of us piled into the rover eager to start exploring: Our guide and driver, Tops, a lovely German/South African woman named Eva, and my mom and I.

There is never a real agenda when you are on safari. You go where the animal signs lead you.

Tops began the morning meandering along the main roads, keeping an opportunistic eye out for fresh animal tracks.

Even when we didn’t see big game, there were plenty of other animals and birds to keep us occupied. Botswana has 75 larger mammal species and 593 bird species have been recorded. Because of the Delta’s dynamic watery woodlands, amphibians are also abundant.

Helmeted Guinea fowl

Coppery tailed coucal

Lilac breasted roller. My favorite.

White faced whistling ducks

Marabou stork

leopard tortoise

african bullfrog carcass

Southern carmine bee eater

Another lilac breasted roller

Sable antelope

Kudu

They joke that warthogs are part of Africa’s “Ugly Five”. A play on the sought after “Big Five” game animals: African lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, African leopard, and rhinoceros. I found the warthogs to be endearing and my favorite site was them trotting off into the bush with their tails held high. A signal to other hogs to say, “Follow me if you want to live!”

Warthogs typically live in family groups of a female and her young. Female warthogs only have four teats, so litter sizes are usually confined to four young. Each piglet has its own teat and suckles exclusively from it. After about 4 months, the young switch to receiving most of their nourishment from grazing.

Mama warthog and piglets

Baby impala

side striped jackal

Blue Wildebeest

Pair of jackals

A playful zebra

Giraffes are probably one of my favorite animals. They’re so tall and slow. If you’ve ever seen a giraffe running, you know what I mean. They’re operating on a different timeline and for good reason. They have some of the longest nerves around. The sciatic nerve, which runs down each of its legs, is several yards long, so responding to a stimuli actually takes longer.

Wilderness Safari’s Savuti Camp is located in the Linyanti concession. This 125,000 hectare area is rich with mopane woodland, floodplains, and riparian forests. The year round water source from the Savute Channel attracts wildlife including herds of elephant that can reach very high densities in the drier winter months (July/August).

“Never trust a hippo,” they say.

Here, you really get to appreciate the full circle of life. From the living, to the dead, as well as the breakdown process of decay. Everyone is hard at work surviving.

Tops holds up a Cape Buffalo skull. This was a female which you can tell by looking at the helmeted cap on the head. Males have larger more fused plates which help them in combat.

Tops explains to us the importance of elephant dung in the ecosystem.

Dung beetles ready for action.

Skin of an elephant. This one probably died naturally. Signs of poaching involve removal of the tusks and Botswana has a shoot-to-kill policy against anyone suspected of doing so.

One sign that decay is close by, is that of the Scavenger of Death. The Vulture.

Vultures are not known to kill their own prey. Instead, they wait near the scene of the crime for their chance to gorge. If you’re out driving and spot vultures circling on the horizon, there is a sure chance you’ll find something exciting if you get close.

Perhaps a lion has just made a kill? Or a pair of cheetahs has finished feasting on a zebra?

One day, we saw vultures circling around a tree, so we decided to investigate.

As we got closer to the tree, we noticed many of the vultures were sitting in its branches staring at the pond below.

Then, we saw it.

A dead hippo in the water!

Trying to get a better view, we decided to circle around the pond. Attempting to cross a water way in the rainy season is always a risk. Depending on the soil type, the ground can turn into sticky mud within minutes.

Our effort to get closer immediately failed. The mud pulled us in.

Tops revved the engine trying to force the Land Rover free. We didn’t budge. The mud was too slippery and grabbed us, pulling us in further.

There was no escape.

That’s when we knew we were really seriously stuck. At first, I tried to play calm. Stuck? Its part of the Safari experience! … right?!

Then my mind started working. Vultures. Dead hippo just lying there. Nowhere to go.

I couldn’t help think the lions would be there soon. We were goners.

Tops radioed for help but we were more than an hour outside of camp.

As we waited, he cheerily offered us all coffee and biscuits. Coffee? Biscuits?? How can we eat right now?! WE MIGHT DIE!

“But Allison, if this is your last meal, you might as well enjoy it!” Eva said as she crawled to the back of the rover and lit up a cigarette.

“Mom? Are you scared?” I asked.

“No! We are fine,” she smiled. Calm. Too calm, I thought. A sure sign of denial regarding the imminent doom we were facing.

I felt a mix of high anxiety and thrilling adventure while my mind played thoughts of lion attack. I also knew I could trust our guide, Tops. He grew up here. Surely getting stuck has happened before. Right!?

Tops distracted us with jokes and stories while we waited.

And waited.

The team, enjoying our last meal.

Finally, after an hour, our help arrived!

Pahlana and ST showed up with another vehicle and long tow straps.

After several attempts, a shovel, and lots of wood jammed under the tires, they eventually pulled us out and my nerves subsided.

We circled around to get a better look at said hippo. That’s when we discovered it’s face had been chewed off, the entire body was bloated ready to explode, and we had luckily gotten stuck upwind from the wretched stench.

An adventure to remember for sure!

I definitely slept well that night.

This post ends here. To keep reading, click here for part 3.

***

To get immediate updates the minute new posts go live, please subscribe to the newsletter in the field at the top of the site! And as always, if you know someone who may be inspired by the articles on Woman Scientist, please share it with your network!

Stay tuned for more stories of my adventures in Botswana and Zimbabwe….

If you missed the beginning of this journey, click here to start from the beginning.

*****

All information obtained through personal conversation with Wilderness Safari guides.

Photos by Allison Lee and Cynthia Cusick.
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Beyond the B.S. ~ Career Panel Pop-Up Event

April 22, 2016 / Allison Cusick

Woman Scientist and Pop-Up Science have partnered once again to bring you Beyond the B.S. – a series of free informal panel discussions for women in science, technology, and engineering looking to find their place in both life and work.

Beyond the B.S. seeks to provide women aged 15-30 a welcoming place to learn about their options, share their stories, and support each other’s career goals. Each event features two female panelists and an open Q&A which aims to give students a more creative understanding of the job opportunitites that lie before them.

There’s a lot more out there than just bench research and medical school, ladies! Join us for a night of straight talk on science, STEM careers, and life beyond the college degree — by women, for women.

Gracious Event Location Host:

Ada’s Technical Books & Cafe – Capitol Hill in Seattle, WA

Download and share the Flyer here . Hope to see you there!
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Its an Ice Life |Field Diaries – Weddell Seal Team

March 7, 2016 / Allison Cusick

The sixth post in the Antarctica: Weddell Seal Team series comes to us from Erika Nunlist.

If you haven’t yet, be sure to read the first post in this series for more background on the project and the team. You can also read the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th posts if you missed them.

If you would like to help support this project, head on over to their campaign on Experiment! They only have 4 days left to reach their goal!

The Ice life

November 25, 2015

Life and work are still moving right along down here on the ice. We only have about three weeks left which seems absolutely crazy. I can’t believe it’s been going so fast!

First off, I had a question from someone asking ‘what is the overall objective of this project and how is it going?’ I’ve been caught up in the day-to-day activities so maybe I should take a step back for a second and briefly say a little more about the project as a whole.

The overall objective of this project is to study the long term population trends of Weddell seals. This project has been going on since the 1960’s which presents a unique opportunity to look at multi-generational data on a population of large mammalian carnivores. The oldest seal the project has had so far was 31! She was here last year but didn’t return. I believe the project has documented her with 23 pups, some of which have already had their own pups. She had her first pup in 1990, and only took 1993, 2010 and 2011 from having pups. This is an extreme case though and most of our pup moms are between 10 and 18 years old with many fewer pups to their name. Just an interesting history on an individual to help give you a sense of the information we can get out of the data this project collects!

Our short term or seasonal objective is to work hard, document all the animals in our study area, tag all the pups, and stay happy and healthy!

As our pups get older, they start to molt their ‘lanugo’ fur in favor of their adult pelage. They can have some interesting and comical molt patterns. This guy with his mohawk reminds of some kid out of an inner city punk rock band.

Another photo of the same pup with his mom. Notice her red tags and his yellow temp tag and blue normal tags. Both their tags allow us to document their association. You can also see the pup’s splotchy molting pattern again.

One thing I was surprised with was that the seals have claws. They aren’t very sharp and kind of look like dog claws. What I’ve seen the claws used for is traction on ice and scratching themselves. The molting pups especially scratch themselves a lot. Must be pretty itchy molting all that fur!

I’ve been up in a helicopter two more times recently. Both were attempts to get to an isolated seal colony. One of the flights was abandoned because there was too much wind at our destination, the second attempt was successful. More on that later. Our first flight was commissioned out to the New Zealand base, or the kiwis. This is a photo of the kiwi AStar-B2 helicopter picking us up at our camp.

We had to bail on our first flight out to White Island, where the remote seal colony is, but we did a reconnaissance flight instead. This is a shot of the kiwi base as we flew over. McMurdo is just on the other side of the wind turbines you can see in the top right.

Sea ice and multi-year ice can be under a lot of pressure and can have some interesting shapes. This is actually a picture of ice on the ice shelf (which is a floating glacier – very different from sea ice) under pressure just outside Scott Base in the shape of large ‘rollers’. I think they look like something you might see in a desert but formed entirely differently.

A view from the helicopter of one of our larger colonies at Hutton Cliffs. We had a lot of pups born here this year. Every other day we walk the entire colony and check every individual. This photo covers around a mile left to right.

Another aerial view of one of our colonies – this one is called North Base.

Mike and I in the kiwi helicopter.

On our second attempt to White Island, we had a AStar-B2 helicopter out of McMurdo. You can see John, our pilot, enjoying himself. Often the pilots just fly and don’t get the opportunity to get out and walk around. He went with us to check out the seals. This picture also shows Mike and Terril putting our gear in the carrying cage.

White Island is unique and very interesting for multiple reasons. First off, it is the most southern mammalian resident population in the world. It is also an isolated population very few individuals – last year our project saw less then 20 seals. This small population was isolated due to an event in the middle of the last century when the ice shelf broke out unusually far allowing a small subset of the seals to be trapped afterwards. The seals themselves didn’t seem to different to me, but apparently (and obviously) they are very inbred. One interesting side-effect apparently might be more female pups born than usual. No clue as to why, but an interesting observation non-the-less.

I’ve had some questions on the weather we experience down here. I have to say, it really hasn’t been that bad. We had some colder, windier days to start the season off but since then we’ve had a lot of beautiful days. Recently, the temperature has been steadily climbing. Lately it’s been in the low 20’s which is warmer than places in the states! James told me it was around -10 degrees F in couple nights ago in the Centennial Valley which was about 30 degrees colder than it was here when we were talking. This is a photo of one day that the weather wasn’t good enough to work in. It was snowy, windy, and low visibility.

Later that same day we hadn’t been able to work, it cleared up into beautiful day. Sound like a familiar weather pattern for any of you living in Montana? We didn’t end up working that day even when it did clear up so we had some free time. Running is another thing that some of us do when we have the energy and time. This is a photo of Kaitlin running back from Little Razorback – around 1.2 miles from camp. Each of those bamboo flags are 50 meters apart for some depth perception. There’s also another out and back that adds up to 3 miles round trip. If you add both out-and-backs you have a nice 5+ mile run.

Terrill and Kaitlin ‘hi-fiving’ in front of camp. They both did the same run but in different directions. Good way to blow off some steam and enjoy Antarctica when you’re not working! Our crew plans on doing the Turkey Trot for Thanksgiving in a few days, excited for that!

We routinely drive our sleds around on rough terrain. Because of this, we have had multiple sleds break down on us. Mostly its our suspension systems breaking because of all the ‘streugy’ (rough icy molgul features on the ice) we drive over. When a sled does break, it’s a pretty painless routine. We put the sled on one of our siglands and tow it with another sled back to McMurdo. In McMurdo we have great mechanics that seem to be able to fix anything. Usually we’ll have our sleds back in a day or two depending on their work load. These are pictures of one of the broken down sled scenario.

Mike getting the gear together in the morning.

Eric on a survey of another colony we call South Base.

Blueberry peach pie from scratch with our event number. Pretty tasty!

No rolling pins around here, had to make due with a Coors Light can. Worked out great! Photo by Ross.

Our first adelie penguin! We haven’t had any more emperors lately, but we have had loner adelies run through camp, yes literally run. They are just as curious as the emperors but less comfortable hanging around.

One afternoon when we finished work early we went to check out a snow cave about 10 minutes away from camp. Here’s Ross with sunglasses and a headlamp – an unusual combination around here!

Mike entering the snow cave.

Inside the snow cave. Photo by Ross.

Icicles in the snow cave.

B-009. First time fooling around with light painting. Cursive by Kaitlin with a headlamp!

Kaitlin and Mike in another, shallower, snow cave (thus the brighter blue background).

Looking up into a crevasse. So beautiful!

Hope everyone enjoyed the update!

-Erika

Thanks for reading!

Stay tuned for the seventh and last post in the series, coming tomorrow!

If you would like to help support this project, head on over to their campaign on Experiment! They only have 4 days left to reach their goal!
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