Stars on a Clear Night

Stayed up really late to see the stars! The clouds ended up coming in, but I did get to see the star for a little bit!

First Penguins of the Season

 Yep, this view isn't going to get boring, not in a million years.

 These penguins arrived and checked out our pump house. I could see them from my dorm room. They hung out for a few hours and then headed off to do whatever penguins do.

 The brown lumps on the island are elephant seals, when the wind blows in the right direction you can hear their strange noises.

 The little black patches on the island in front are three groups on Adelie penguins. They migrate here to breed, when the wind blows from this direction you can hear them calling to each other non-stop. No smell yet though.

A really beautiful day after snowing 12 cm in two days. 

Fixing the Glacier Flag Line

 I am part of the GSAR team, which is the glacier search and rescue team. As our first task we replaced missing flags on the glacier which mark the safe travel areas.

 To put flags into the glacier you need a a giant powered drill.

 It was a beautiful day and very strange to be on a snow mobile where everything wasn't flat and you actually had to use the brake.

The glacier is beautiful. I love this ice. 

Settling In

Palmer around sunset becomes even more beautiful. The colors are amazing!

For my job I have to go for walks in the back yard and make sure instruments on towers are still operating normally. I also sure snow accumulation stakes every day. The building in the top left is my office/lab. It's called Terra Lab.

An ice arch!!

A pretty iceberg sitting in Arthur Harbor. 

Same ice berg.

Another ice arch!!

Last weekend (wow it's already almost been a week), I slept out at the Rec Hut with some friends.

Here is the Rec Hut, which you can reserve for a night to camp in.

It's over a hill from main station so it quiet and sitting looking out into Arthur harbor.

Out the window in the door.

Out the door!

The mountains to the South East, I can see these from my building on top of the hill.

More mountains. I love topography!!

Early morning colors on islands and icebergs in the distance.

The wind is starting to blow the sea ice out of our harbor. Very excited to get above freezing and see the seasons change.

This is my room. For now I don't have a roommate but once the next boat gets here I will.

Here is the Palmer web camera.

Arrival

 This is a Sheath bill, they are scavengers and are not afraid of landing on the ship for a bit.

Palmer Station is located on the south side of Anvers Island on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula. To arrive at the station we traveled through the Neumayer Strait which is lined with huge glaciers and steep walls of mountains.  Most of the passage was clouded in, but the little that I was able to see was amazing. Hopefully I'll get luck with some sunny weather on the way out, although it may have been more dramatic this way.

 It's hard to keep a sense of scale with the ice and mountains around here. Those black things in the water are seals. 

 This ice berg was massive.

There are two birds flying in this picture, for scale. They are in the first and second "valleys" of the iceberg.

 This is a juvenile leopard seal, known for being very large and aggressive. He floated by on a piece of sea ice looking very confused by our passing. 

 Wow wow wow I have no idea how big that is, but it's majestic!!

 Then it started to snow, which was a bit eerie.

 And then the open water ended and we entered some unbroken sea ice.

 Plowing through at about 5 knots, engines at 100% power.

 Crab eater seals "running away". 

Still chugging along in the ice.

Another crab eater a bit confused.

Palmer is on a point in the top left, we are coming down from the top right. 

 Clouds.

Penguins on the island to the right.

First glace at Palmer!

My new home! 

My office has a deck out front and this is the view from that deck. 

Office window view. 

 The glacier across the harbor.

 The Gould in the an amazing sunset. 

After a week for every one to learn their jobs the winter crew got on to the ship and left the station to us summer people. 

 One of my duties is to be a line handler, so I help with 5 other people remove the lines from the bow when the Gould's captain tells us to do so.

 There it goes!! Very slowly through all that ice.

 I went for a walk up the glacier in the back yard of the station for the sunset with the summer Doctor, a super cool lady from Alaska. 

 The glacier has a flagged safe walking area. 

 Right now the glacier is covered in snow and pretty easy to walk up and over.

 More beautiful mountains come into view from the other side of the glacier. 

 The Doc.

 All of station is on that peninsula to the left. 

The ice is starting to break up.  

Palmer is a pretty majestic place. I'm very impressed with the station facilities and the scenery is more amazing then I had imagined. More pictures of station and my work place to come later, but for now we are all caught up!