The purpose of the trip to the "PG2" field site is to repair the system that was installed 2 years ago. We replaced a cable that we thought caused the system to fail to operate, which turned out that it wasn't the issue after we talked with Steve Musko at University of Michigan, who is in charge of the hardware construction and maintenance, via Iridium phone. So we decided to retrieve the entire system to bring it back to the States. First, we had to find a couple of sheets of plywood that covers the pit where our battery box and electronics are placed. Unexpectedly and fortunately, it took us only a couple of hours to dig the snow around and get a full access to the system in the pit although it took our hard breaths. The total snow accumulation for 2 years was about 2 ft. We finished all of work by early evening. Our mountaineer, Hanna, wanted to call McMurdo Station to request return flight tomorrow, which is one day earlier than originally scheduled. We wouldn't know whether the plane would come to pick us up until tomorrow but we were excited to come back to South Pole Station soon.
Joseph shoveling around the plywood that covers the pit.
I like the pattern on the snow, which is made by the constant wind.
The kitchen work is pretty simple(?) - our water is made from melting the snow around our camp. We barely washed our utensils and bowls because whatever food on them would never go bad and smelly!
This picture shows what I brought inside my sleeping bag to keep them warm while I sleep - balaclava, gloves, water bottle, satellite phone battery, sun block lotion, etc... because otherwise they would all get frozen!
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