Here is a picture of town from the Hut Point Ridge Trail from my way back from Pole (I didn't go up Ob Hill since it was far too windy... damn near got blown off the ridge into the ocean!). The blue building in is sort of the "main" building where a lot of offices, the store, the galley, and housing for transients (people passing through on the way to Pole or other field camps, like I was this year) are:
This is from 3 years ago, but I didn't get to go out on the ice this year (since it had broken up already by the time I was heading back) from the ice. It's not a great picture, but you can see to the left of the road what is probably the tallest building at McMurdo (built down a slope though...), the Crary Lab. On the second floor of the top module is the library, where grantees (people there on an NSF grant, like me, as opposed to contractors who are there to support the grantees) have the best wifi in all of McMurdo (actually, that's a lie, it's better at the long duration balloon facility). Here is more information about it:
https://www.nsf.gov/geo/opp/support/crarylab.jsp
The actual tallest building near McMurdo is probably the payload hangers at the Long Duration Balloon Facility. That's where I was 3 years ago working on my balloon payload (and yes, this is my balloon payload here... this picture is also from 3 years ago). LDBF is located somer distance away from McMurdo on the Ross Ice Shelf, close to Willy Field (where the skiers land and take off).
One of my commutes three years ago was interrupted by one of the other payloads launching. Serendipitously, some NYT reporters had just landed at Willy Field, which resulted in my 15 minutes of fame:
(credit: NYT, in this article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/19/i...ntarctica.html , although they've since reused the picture multiple times... note also that these reporters have much better pictures of McMurdo than I do!).
My back is partially obscured by the front right wheel of the Delta. Don't believe me? I have proof, in a picture I accidentally took of the NYT reporters. You can also see the "birds" of Willy Field here:
For a different type of bird, here's a picture of some Adelie Penguins that I took about 2 weeks ago (most of them were sleeping... but some would occassionaly wake up:
Here's a zoomed out picture of the scene (from Hut Point), including the US Ice Breaker which was busy breaking up the channel for the vessel to arrive:
Finally for today from McMurdo, here's a picture walking down from Arrival Heights (also from this year). Note the crane on the left. Work is beginning on a big modernization of McMurdo that will completely change the way it works and looks. You can learn about that by watching this video:
https://future.usap.gov/aims-video/ . Next time I get a chance, I'll post some picture of Pole
.