After two hectic days of wrapping up the academic semester and collecting our issued extreme weather gear in Christchurch, our group—Dr. Xinzhao Chu, Kamen Schaefle, and I (Shay Mayer) —finally arrived at McMurdo Station on the evening of December 21st. We arrived on a C130 and were lucky enough to watch a beautiful flight over Victoria Land near the end of the flight.

Pictures from the flight to McMurdo

We finally stepped on the ice at around 6 pm and quickly made our way to station. During the first night, we were able to take in the famous late night summer sun at McMurdo Station and to meet with some familiar friends on the ice – the 2025 winter-over team. Ari Diddams (winter-over lead) and Jack Iribarren (lidar engineer) have been here for a few months preparing for the important winter to come during the solar maximum and both have been collecting summer data with both the Fe Boltzmann and Na Doppler Lidar systems at Arrival Heights.

Group Arrival to McMurdo Station. In order from left to right: Shay Mayer, Kamen Schaefle, Dr. Xinzhao Chu

Because Kamen and I are first time “McMurdans,” the first morning was spent by becoming familiar with the Crary Science and Engineering Center and our storage lab within. After a quick lunch, Ari, Kamen, and Shay went to the Arrival Heights Lidar Laboratory and finally saw both lidar systems in person and Ari ran us through our first “start-up” procedure. It was such a beautiful day that the group spent some time outside taking in the view of the McMurdo Sound until dinner time rolled along, where the group spent some time discussing various important lidar-related topics with Dr. Chu and learning more about our systems. After dinner, the whole group attended a lecture by Dr. Steve Emslie for the weekly “Science Talks,” where we learned more about Adelie penguins and the interesting 65,000-year history of their colonies in the local region.

The next day was once again spent up at the Arrival Heights Laboratory, where Ari, Jack, and I were able to help troubleshoot a maintenance plumbing repair for the PAL laser system. At the end of the day, Dr. Chu was finally able to come up to Arrival Heights and checked on the lidar systems for the first time since last March while the whole group reported to her. It was amazing to see the expert of the laboratory in her element as she troubleshot optimizing the output of the lasers. Finally, at 11pm, Dr. Chu and the “day shift” technicians (Ari and I) headed back down to station while the “night shift” technicians (Kamen and Jack) stayed up to collect data for the night.

Group Arrival to McMurdo Station. In order from left to right: Dr. Xinzhao Chu, Kamen Schaefle, Jack Iribarren, Ariel Diddams, and Shay Mayer

Today was cloudy, so the group decided to work from base. I am writing this from the lounge in anticipation of Christmas dinner on station, a show of the wonderful community here at McMurdo Station. There are a variety of people with all different backgrounds, from the scientists to the “Stewies,” that come together to keep this station afloat and it is truly inspiring to see. As I write this from the small lounge surrounded by the laughter of newly made friends on their days off for the holidays, I cannot help but feel more connected to others in this remote landscape than I did in Christchurch or even Boulder. This community’s united work ethic and passion to drive science forward on the ice is heartening and leaves me excited for my days to come on “the ice.”

Out from the bottom of the world,

Shay Mayer (Undergraduate Researcher)