12/30/2010 Day 10: Going back to South Pole Station

The weather seemed to be ok when we woke up. This morning, we got an update from the Pole that our pilot would try to pick us up again. It was a good news but with a little disturbing news as well that if he missed the chance to come for us due to weather (it was ok here but they said the weather at the Pole wasn't very good) or whatever reason, we would have to wait here until Jan. 3rd because 12/31 and 1/1 are the New Year's holidays and 1/2 is Sunday. I really didn't want to stay here in the cold with only the two others in the middle of nowhere having nothing to do!! This was more or less a psychological challenge for me (probably for the others as well) but I noticed that we tried not to (or couldn't) show our feelings by not mentioning what the radio-ops just told us. We were just silent and trying to do what we were supposed to do for our pullout - taking down our tents, moving our camping gears to the cargo line, grooming the runway, etc.

 

First of all, for today's pullout attempt, we had to shovel our items that were covered by snow drift that happened overnight. 

 

 

We were surprised to find the pit where we retrieved our instrument almost disappeared due to snow drift.

The view of our camp site. It became very sunny and less windy (taken at 10:30am). 

 

The pilots left red trash bags filled with snow to mark the runway for their return when they left us here. This morning, we walked around trying to groom the runway (with shovels) for smoother landing. 

 

 We had a little bit extra time before the scheduled pullout time and heard from the ops that our pilots might not make it today, which disturbed us. Our mountaineer, Julian, was trying to entertain us by encouraging us to do some activity such as snow sculpture, which we didn't do.

 

At around 3pm, our plane finally showed up in the sky. It was a very exciting moment! We are going back home (the Pole, actually)!

 

Me in front of the Twin Otter before taking off. 

  

 Me with "Mustach-cicle"

 

 

Photo shoot with the pilots, our saviour.

 

 Me and Joseph in the cabin on the way back to the Pole. What a day!