Antarctic hero shots

So, hero shots are those pictures of yourself in fabulous locations, doing great deeds, and are inevitably posed pictures. So here I am in Antarctica, being a hero...

In McMurdo, on a previous ANITA balloon campaign, with the ANITA solar array.

At the South Pole, in drill camp with a number of large wrenches (none of which I used for anything other than photo props). Good clue as to the posed nature of the picture is the fact that my clothes are clean and there are no icicles hanging from my face.

With the Pisten Bully (name comes from the German term "piste" as in "off-piste skiing" and not piston from the engine) in front of the IceCube Lab.

At the Geographic South Pole, a location which is resurveyed each year as the ice moves over the bedrock (far) below. (Thanks to Peter Gorham for the photos.)

Arms around the Earth. At the Ceremonial South Pole, where the flags and barbershop pole reside. South Pole Elevated Station is in the background.

Departure of the drillers

Group shot at the South Pole departure lounge.

Driller panorama...

...with Herc in the background...

The IceCube and ARA drillers have packed up all of their equipment, placed it into storage, and are now headed home. It's the best group of ice drillers in the world as far as we know. They did the hot water drilling for IceCube and ARA as well as RAM drilling for ARA this season. It'll be a far smaller crowd next year for the small-scale ARA deployments. But in a few years...