Author Archives: Victoria

Whoa. 18 days left in Antarctica. Am I ready to leave?  Am I ready to rejoin the hustle and bustle of every day life? Yes and No.  To both questions. I’ve seen/done some amazing things over the past 384 days and have gotten to know some incredible people.  And since I’m a serious blogging slacker,Continue reading “18 days…”

Dearest Delaney, Laurel, Reba and Edison, The four of you mean the world to me.  I am the luckiest Aunt in the world because I have the four of you in my life.  You’re some of the coolest people I know. You’re getting to the age in your life where you are probably thinking thatContinue reading “An Open Letter to my Nieces and Nephew”

Today is Monday, June 18th, 2012.  I’m currently sitting in the toasty warm dispatch office in the fire house.  I’ve spent the last hour trying to think of a fun catchy blog title to use while writing about the polar plunge I participated in over the weekend. Wait.  What the what?  Tori are you insane?!?!Continue reading “Midwinter Polar Plunge”

While things are great down here on the Ice, I do miss some things.  Things that I used to take for granted.  I don’t miss them to the point where I am homesick, but I miss things like: My family My friends The sweet, earthy smell of freshly mown grass The metallic smell of rainContinue reading “Things I miss.”

So a while back, I posted what my typical work day is like and I wrote that I would also write what I do on my days off.  Well, being that I’m an extraordinary procrastinator, I’m finally getting around to doing just that. It depends on the day of the week and what is goingContinue reading “Days off – part 1”

If you recall (and if you don’t, you can read one of my early blogs) I spent some time during Winfly looking for Auroras.  When most people that I know think of auroras, they think of two things.  1, they think of Sleeping Beauty (you know, Princess Aurora), or the aurora borealis, the Northern Lights.Continue reading “I like the night life, baby”

April 24th, 2012 marked the last sunset of the season.  I was worried that the weather that day was going to mimic the weather from the day before, when we were borderline condition 1 weather.  Condition 1 weather is classified as “Windspeed over 100 knots (60 miles per hour)Visibility less than 100 feet (30 meters)WindContinue reading “Goodbye Sun!”

I had an odd thought cross my mind while walking to work yesterday evening.  It was approximately 1750 and I realized it was already getting dark.  Granted we’ve been having sunsets for about a month now, it really occurred to me that the 24 hour darkness is approaching quickly.  With the darkness the winter willContinue reading “April has arrived”

And out of those 153, there are 39 women at McMurdo for the winter. The jobs that the women of McMurdo work vary.  We have fuels, recreation, human resources, finance, galley staff, FEMC schedulers (FEMC basically is the umbrella over all of the different crafts/trades (plumbers, electricians, fire technicians, etc.), field camp prep people…. all female.  Marsha andContinue reading “153 souls on station for the season”

Hey everyone, So yes.  I am wintering over in Antarctica.  I still can’t believe it. I started inquiring about wintering over back in November.  I spent several days speaking with my supervisor and co-workers and other people that have spent the winter season down here.  I received almost 100 percent positive feedback about wintering and overall,Continue reading “Recap of R & R and other lessons learned (In babbling style)”