Bot house thwarted

 By Kristof Richmond

This morning, John, Josh, and I went out to the field site to help the carps (construction folk for those of you who haven't been following along) finish setting up the bot house.  The weather has been poor again for the last few days, preventing any progress on construction at the field site, but it seemed there was a clearing this morning as we toodled out in the Pisten Bully. 

Beautiful sunny, calm day on our way to the bot house. (photo: Kristof Richmond)

But Antarctica decided to be Antarctica, and about 1/2 mile before we got to the field site, we ran into a band of wind and blowing snow that engulfed the Pisten Bully and the site. The carps we there, valiantly shoveling snow and organizing materials, but there was no was we'd be able to pull the tarps forming the bot house shell over the skeleton in this weather. We all decided to wait it out, as there was some hope of the weather lifting. 

Visibility was reduced at the field site due to 20-30 knot winds blowing the snow on the ground (though there was still blue sky above). (photo: Kristof Richmond)

We waited for almost two hours, but the wind was just getting stronger and stronger, so we called it a day and headed back to town.

Almost as if to mock us, there was still a transition from windy to calm at almost the exact same spot on the road as on the way out, and the flags on the poles marking the way were limp or lightly flapping most of the way back. Ah, life in the Antarctic.