Since the first flight of the spring, there's been a constant arrival and exodus of folks from station. Carpenters, camp staff, and the blur of science groups. But the small core of the winter crew has remained stable.
That changed at the last flight. About two weeks ago, my four winter cohorts departed. We'd been a self-reliant team during the challenging cold months of station opening. And we'd had a heck of a good time together. On the day of their departure, I walked out to the flight line, said goodbyes, and watched Phil, Guy, Jason and Yuki file aboard an LC-130. A few final waves across the taxiway, and they were gone, probably shuffling around inside the cargo plane, finding jump seats and strapping in. I walked some ways down the flight line. After a long wait, the four big engines rose from their idle into a roar, and a tremendous blast of spindrift rolled across the taxiway and billowed over me. In the overwhelming wash of noise and ice, I suddenly felt the impact of my friends' departure--it'd be a different station without them. Their plane was soon miles down the skiway, still struggling to gain speed and sending up an immense plume of snow from its skis. It seemed just at the threshold of takeoff but had nearly reached the end of the skiway. A tremendous tension began to build. It was shared by the other folks watching the plane, because at the fuel station 100 meters away, I heard Shannon yell, 'up!', and saw Rick cast his arms to the sky in exhortation. We all felt this desire for their plane to just make an exit, not take ten passes as sometimes happens. Spread out along the flight line, we stared down at the end of the skiway. Then, a moment of silent release, the plane rising from the surface, the churn of snow disappearing, an arc to the west.
As my fellow science techs, Jason and Yuki were my collaborators in all sorts of work. We constantly looked to each other for help and shared a lot of hours. We spent evenings outside watching aurora, goading each other through our pull-up workouts, and just enjoying this place where were were living. We also got out for some great off-station projects. I have a quite a collection of photos of these guys at work and doing strange stuff. Here are a few of them at their best! The three of us out with the '86 Tucker to set up tents at a drilling camp. Heading back from MSF in the blowing snow, right before we decided to call off outside work. Walking out in Tyvek suits to dig a pit and collect snow samples. Celebrating the recovery of an ozone balloon payload, a speck in the expanse of the ice sheet. Clowning around in our heavy winter gear, while on the ICESAT traverse, a monthly GPS survey away from camp.
Jason and Yuki are both out enjoying some post-contract travel--a great pair of science tech partners.
