almost a month

Well, starting tomorrow I will have been in Antarctica for an entire month.  Sure doesn’t seem like it.  I think the continuous grind of working 9 hours a day 6 days a week and then trying to do something outside as well as keep up with emails and this blog makes the days disappear into weeks and the weeks quietly transform into months.  It feels like I am still new here.  During that month a lot has changed.  I haven’t shaved or cut my hair for one, but I also haven’t had a single soft drink in that time.  For those of you who aren’t aware, I used to drink 2-3 Diet Mt. Dews every day.  I drank coffee the first few days I was here, but since then I haven’t had any caffeine other than what is in chocolate (which I’ve also cut back on lately).  So that’s something.  I don’t feel any better or worse for it, I just think it’s noteworthy.  I bought a 6 pack of Diet Dr. Pepper today but haven’t cracked one open yet.  It won’t be long before I do. 

Just to fill in a few of the details of yesterdays trek.  When I said there was a fixed rope, it was there as a guide.  I tried not to rely on it at all on the way up.  The Kiwi’s that were at the top when we got there had full-on rock climbing harnesses and gear which was a little intimidating, but we just had our hands and tried to follow the rope up.  It was actually useful coming down because I basically was able to hold on to it and back down against the rock.  Pretty nerve-racking at some parts when I couldn’t see where I was putting my feet.  But I made it, and I’ll be more comfortable doing it next time. 

At a warming hut, we met up with some people that knew what they were doing.  They had beer and booze in their packs and were more than willing to share, but I declined.  This is one of the lady’s 31st season.  She was coming to Antarctica before I was born and has continued every year I’ve been alive.  Not all of them went to the top of Castle Rock but opted to do the whole loop with their cross country skis.  One guy did go with us to the top though.  It is his 5th year in a row and he was an awesome guy.  And very knowledgeable, which was great because he was able to point out and name a lot of the features we were looking at.  Of course I don’t remember them all, but at least I KNEW what I was looking at.  So the three of us walked back together, the other guy was a scientist I met in LA on the way out here (to my envy, he lives in Boulder, CO and is headed back there this Wednesday).

I need to make a correction.  What I have been mistakenly calling a “sun dog” (only because I was told that’s what it was) is actually just a sun halo or ring.  A real sun dog is quite different and I haven’t seen that yet.  Look it up if you’re interested or wait until I do see one and try to get a picture of it.  And I finally trimmed my mustache.  That was way overdue.  Feels a lot better, but right after I did it I had a bunch of mustache hair in between my teeth.  I don’t know how that happened, I didn’t have my mouth open while I was trimming them.  It was odd though.

I uploaded and captioned a few of the small pictures from the Castle Rock trip HERE.  The one guy I was with was really into photography and so I’ll try to get some pictures from him also, they’ll be a lot better.