Happy Thanksgiving from Ob Hill!

So, it has been a while since I've posted. Most of my days off now are spent doing random hikes and community projects, so I've been "kinda" busy. On top of that, I spent a week fighting the dreaded McMurdo crud, which involved a lot of sleeping and a lot of hot totties. Today we celebrate Thanksgiving, and I've received an additional day off this weekend. What a perfect time to post while I wait to line up outside the galley for an hour and gorge myself on... I dunno, not freshies though, no flights have been able to make in it all week.

I wanted to show everybody some of the cool stuff there is to do down here besides watching Kiwis drink and scream about rugby.

A few weeks ago, I signed up to volunteer for the McMurdo trail crew. There's a number of different trails around the station that range from 1-7 miles, and a lot of them cover some of the mountainous hills surrounding Mac Town. A couple of us residents signed up to shovel snow on Ob Hill and make sure the trails are actually still there. It was basically 4 hours of shoveling rock-solid snow on the tallest hill overlooking town.

This

Became this

HOLY SHIT!!! IS THAT DUDE SWINGING A PICK AXE??? That's right, trail work in Antarctica is fucking serious!!!!

The result of 4 hours work?

Boo-yah! Now take that view and spread it our over a quarter of a mile, and you got some serious cleared trail happening. The original picture was taken about 30 feet above where the actual trail was, so imagine trying to hike around Ob Hill in the snow at a 45 degree angle. That's some scary stuff, and better men and women than I have done it just to reinforce the fact that I am a sissy. No joke, it's posted right in the middle of Highway 1: MIKE IS A SISSY. The most popular name at McMurdo is Mike, so it may no be referring to me, but all of us Mikes share the burden...

I did get some cool shwag out of the deal. I received a trail marker and a bunch of stickers.

Oh yeah, we also some props from folks elsewhere, too. Fuckin-A we're tough wingnuts, we play with pick axes.

This was just my afternoon on that particular Sunday. I have a bunch of pictures from the rest of the day, and other days as well. So, hopefully, more postings soon.