Astrobiologist Dale Andersen Checks In From Novolazarevskaya Station, Antarctica

The following was received from Dale Andersen on 19 Vovember 2012 at 2:09 AM EST from Novolazarevskaya Station, Antarctica. Dale and his team will soon be deploying to their research camp at Lake Untersee.

“We have had a late start this field season mostly due to weather delays. High winds and blowing snow at Novo kept us in Cape Town an extra 5 or 6 days before getting to south. The day of our arrival was pretty nice with clear skies and relatively light winds, but that changed quickly and by the next day we had blizzard conditions with 50 knot winds and blowing snow. It has been like that up and down since our landing, yesterday being the first day with somewhat light winds (25-30 kts).

This morning we see some blue sky which is a nice change of pace, but it is still a bit windy. But we can work now and have most of our gear ready to go. The second flight from Cape Town to Novo made it in last night too, which is good as we have a few items onboard that did not make it down on the first flight.

With everything in place, we hope to start our move out to Lake Untersee tomorrow morning. Using three Toyota HiLux trucks and trailers we will take the first load of gear to the lake, off-load and then return to Novo. Its about a 6-8 hr trip one way if we do not run into problems along the way. After we get back to Novo, Alfonso and I will then drive two snowmobiles to the lake on Wed morning with the trucks following behind a few hours later with the rest of the field team and remaining gear. After that we set up the camp and get to work!”