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.

First full day of work today

Okay, that's me with a large wrench, extreme cold weather pants and boots, but just a heavy fleece on top, and a helmet on my head. It's an active construction site, so you need to wear head protection. The wrenches are for other folks' work though, we spend the day indoors working on electronics instead of large bolts.

In Christchurch

So, I made it here, but haven't been online much. The hotel network is expensive and keeps kicking me out. Am in a little Internet cafe down the block from my hotel.

That's my hotel, the Novotel, in the background. In the foreground, building construction. There's a lot of construction and repair work going on in town due to the earthquake back in September. Earthquake damage and repair photos coming soon...

Going to get my cold weather gear tomorrow, and then fly southward the day afterwards.