Palmer 2011 Winter Crew

The start of any season is always the busiest time. There's the normal turnover with the previous crew, the adjustment time to each other, and crazy amounts of work to keep the science going down here. The boat left a few days ago and things have calmed down, to say the least. It's been a time to catch our breaths just as it's being taken away by the sunrisets (my term for the sun rise that morphs into a sun set, which is what happens here because the sun never quite gets above the glacier this time of year). It's always sad to see so many friends leave on the ship at the end of summer/autumn, but it's always great to get the winter started with the tiny winter population.

There is an unexpected and eclectic mix of personalities down here for the winter. Every season is different from all others and this, my sixth on the ice and fourth here at Palmer, will prove to be different from all of the others, I'm sure of that. Our ragtag crew is just enough, I think, to prop each other up, push each other forward, and drag each other along for the fun.

We were just milling about earlier, conducting Antarctic business as usual when this photo was accidentally taken by a camera left on a tripod.

Us.