Thursday 15 October 2026

Last Friday, October 10^th, after a 3 day delay, Kara and I flew north from Antarctica to Christchurch, New Zealand on a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane. The C-17s don’t stay in Antarctica but rather complete a round-trip flight from Christchurch to Antarctica and back to Christchurch in a single day.

When I woke up Friday morning a low overcast cloud deck covered the sky and light snow was falling. Under these conditions it is hard to identify the horizon and visibility can be poor making landing an aircraft on the Phoenix ice runway dangerous. Low visibility conditions or strong crosswinds at the runway are the two weather reasons for Antarctic flights to be delayed. Given the poor weather in McMurdo when I woke up Friday morning, I was relieved to see an update on the McMurdo intranet at 10AM that the C-17 we’d be flying north on later in the day had taken off from Christchurch.

Even once a C-17 has left Christchurch weather can still cause a northbound flight to be cancelled. C-17s carry enough fuel that they can fly from New Zealand to Antarctica, circle briefly above the ice runway and then return to New Zealand without landing and refueling if the weather is too bad to land safely. If this happens it is called a boomerang flight and something people looking forward to leaving Antarctica will worry about until the C-17 touches down on the ice runway.

When we left McMurdo, around 2PM, for the 1 hour drive to the ice runway the weather was still lousy. Low clouds covered the top of Ob Hill and visibility was poor. It seemed like a boomerang flight was possible and we’d be spending at least one more night in Antarctica. So, it was a relief when 30 minutes after we arrived at the runway we watched as the C-17 kicked up a cloud of snow as it touched down.

During the 5 weeks Kara and I were in Antarctica the daily low temperature managed to climb above 0 deg F on only 5 days while just over half of the days we were there had a high temperature above 0 deg F. The temperatures we experienced during our Antarctic stay ranged from -41 deg F to a brief warm snap that topped out at +30 deg F just a few days before we left. In addition to these persistently cold temperatures we experienced winds stronger than 50 mph on about a third of the days we were in McMurdo, with the strongest wind gust topping out at a hurricane force 91 mph. The cold temperature and strong winds resulted in wind chill temperatures as cold as -77 deg F during our 5 week stay in Antarctica.

I’ve found that your body gets used to these cold temperatures quickly and as a result more reasonable temperatures, or even temperatures that would normally feel chilly, can feel uncomfortably warm. I found this to be the case on the one full day I spent in Christchurch before flying home. The day after Kara and I arrived in Christchurch the weather was cool and cloudy with some light rain. As I walked around Christchurch most people were bundled up against the 50 deg F chill while I found that even wearing a light jacket made me too warm.

I always love spending my first post-Antarctic day wandering around Christchurch. One of my favorite places to visit is the Christchurch botanic garden because the lush vegetation is such a stark contrast to the barren, monotone, icy landscape of Antarctica.

As some of you know I am an avid cyclist and I ride pretty much every day. Riding a bike outside isn’t an option during Winfly in Antarctica since the fat bikes that can be borrowed during the summer are still in winter storage. Instead, my only biking option is to ride a stationary bike in the McMurdo gym. During the 35 days I was in McMurdo this year I rode almost 700 miles in the gym. After that much time spent on a stationary bike I was really looking forward to riding outside once I got to Christchurch.

After flying from Christchurch to Auckland I had a 12 hour flight across the Pacific Ocean to Los Angeles. After a 4 hour layover in Los Angeles I boarded my final flight of the day back to Denver where my wife Liz and daughter Sabrina were waiting to meet me at the airport. Seeing the two of them after being away from home for almost 2 months was wonderful. Because my flight home took me across the International Date Line I landed in Denver around 8PM on Sunday evening, just 6 clock hours after I had taken off from Christchurch on Sunday afternoon.

I’ll end this series of blog posts by thanking Kara for her company and assistance as we navigated another Antarctic field season, this time with the drones we were missing last year. I’d also like to thank the National Science Foundation for funding our research and all the support staff in Antarctica that make it possible for us to safely and successfully do our fieldwork. Thanks to all of you reading this blog for following along with Kara and I. I hope you have enjoyed the trip.