A Little More About Helicopters

To respond to a request for a little more about helicopters down here, I pieced together two videos to show a fairly typical flight and a more scenic flight. Helos move everything to the Dry Valleys. People, food, gear, supplies, the camp buildings themselves–to and from McMurdo almost every day weather permitting. When I return to New York I plan to only get around by foot or helicopter. The video above describes something that happens frequently–a typical flight from Lake Hoare Camp to Lake Fryxell Camp, over the same route we hiked in the Canada Glacier walk video. The video below is composed of clips from a half-day flight Cliff, John Priscu and I were on the other day expressly for photography. The footage is from the last few minutes of the flight, where we entered Taylor Valley via the icefall above Canada Glacier. This icefall is visible in the first video.

In two days we head back to town (McMurdo), and the camps in Taylor Valley will be closed for the season. I’ll have much better communications from McMurdo and plan to post often from there. At Lake Hoare Camp the limno team just finished their last run this morning in nearly total darkness, and each of the last few nights has been clear of clouds, the sky brightly lit by a half moon, the Milky Way, and a faint but very much alive aurora australis.