Five Days in the Wright Valley

Last Friday we flew to Wright Valley with the limno team and helped them sample Lake Vanda. After they left that afternoon, Cliff, Matt and I camped in these unheated walk-in freezer-like structures on the frozen shore of Lake Vanda. Normally used for summer research by New Zealand science teams, we opted for using them to cook and sleep in rather than tents. Our trip unfortunately coincided with the first cold snap of the season. Temperatures dropped to almost forty below Fahrenheit, with highs around twenty below. I think it was a blessing that we didn’t learn it was that cold until after we got picked up, and the helo pilot told us it was negative thirty-eight.

The wide U-shaped valley–with six thousand foot walls and buttes and glaciers sitting on top–was covered in snow and illuminated by hard, low sunlight. Both mountains and pebbles cast elongated shadows on the crystal ground, making the various short walks we took feel lunar. The photos I took barely turned out, and I will have to take more time to process all of this before I give a better report. The camera was ultra cold, condensation from my breath fogged up the viewfinder, the battery needed changing every few shots, and ice crystals formed on the lens. I guess I’ll get used to these conditions over the next few weeks, but it is a drastically different place to work from zero degrees to thirty below.

One cool thing about cold weather and low sunlight–nacreous (mother-of-pearl) clouds. Thin veils of moisture swirling around the ridges and mountains of the Wright Valley this weekend caught our attention when they emerged from the shadows and turned into fast-moving, prismatic orbs.