Antarctica!

Punta Arenas, Chile: Phone call at 6:30 am: the plane is ready, and the weather is good.

Within half an hour we were dressed in our expedition clothes, had packed away our city clothes, and had stored our belongings, that we did not want to take with us, in the hotel's storage shed.

Excitement filled the lobby. At 9:00 am a large bus pulled to the curb, and we all clambered aboard, clunking up the steps in our heavy, insulated boots.

At the Punta Arenas airport we were instructed to leave our carry-on bags on the bus, and to proceed into the terminal.

The security check was brief, then we proceeded through Customs. After a last stop at the modern restrooms for everybody, we exited the other side of the terminal, and boarded the bus again.

In a couple minutes the bus pulled up alongside our aircraft. Soon we were gathered around the loading steps of the massive Russian cargo jet, the Ilyushin 76. The C130 parked nearby was dwarfed by the Ilyushin.

Teams snapped quick photos of each other, then it was time to climb into the immense belly of the Russian jet. To give an idea of the size, the new PH radio shack (which was actually a container), had been loaded previously, and it took up just one-quarter of the available space. Lined up in front of the container were five large bundles. Several more bundles took up the remaining space aft of the container. These bundles were mostly PH camp supplies for the three-month season. All of this had been loaded through the huge tail-end doorway. The last items loaded were the sleds and skis of the expedition teams.

This cargo area was about 25 feet wide. The fold-down bench seats lined the sides, which left only a narrow walkway running fore and aft. There were only a few small windows; all we could see outside was white or wings.

The flight was four hours, through the clouds most of the way.

The winds were building to 25 knots at PH, and the pilots almost turned back. But then the winds diminished to 10.

We landed at PH, as evidenced by much noise and shaking. After a long taxi along the blue ice runway, the plane came to a stop, as evidenced by complete silence. The door opened, and the piercing cold rushed in. We climbed down the ladder, and were greeted by the amazing view of stupendous mountains nearby. Welcome to Antarctica! The time was 1:30 pm Chilean time, and the temperature was -18 F.

The staff and crew got right to work unloading our sleds and gear. They knew we were all anxious to start our journeys. We put on our harnesses, clipped into our sled traces and walked the sleds .25 mi to the fuel hut. There we poured fuel into our 5 liter cans.

Next we had a short meeting with the camp operations manager, then with hugs, handshakes, and heartfelt farewells to our fellow expeditioners, we were off. The time was 5:00 pm.

We skied for three hours, heading north. We stopped to make camp in an area where the snow was not ice-hard. We set up camp. While we were moving, the light tailwind was not too cold, as long as we kept moving. Never mind my frozen beard, and our face masks that were hard as a board. But now in the tent, the cold was penetrating, even with most of our clothes on.

Jenny heated water for hot cocoa, and dinner, and melted more snow for drinking water. Then we closed the tent doors and the cold reduced by half.

Evening camp: S 80° 15.623' W 81° 06.017'