Any journey to Antarctica begins with a long trip by commercial aircraft. The GERG Team's trip began early in the afternoon on Thursday December 9,1999 boarding the first of several flights. The Team would ultimately spend close to thirty hours in airplanes and airports to reach New Zealand, the jumping off point for Antarctica. Stops included Dallas, TX; Los Angeles, CA; Auckland, NZ and finally Christchurch, NZ a Gateway City to Antarctica.

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During this time the Team crossed seventeen time zones, the international dateline, and the season changed from winter to summer. Christchurch is a beautiful city in the southern reaches of the South Island of New Zealand. Once in New Zealand the process of orientation, briefings and clothing issue begins. The stayover in Christchurch allowed the team some time to explore the city and experience the local cuisine and culture. Christchurch is known for the friendly and welcoming attitude of the local residents ( Maori ).

Clothing issue consists of an opportunity to try on the various clothing provided by USAP that is refered to as Extreme Weather Clothing (EWC). Proper fit of clothing is important for working and traveling in Antarctica. Any restrictive or loose clothing may result in heat loss and ultimately frostbite.

After briefings and videos about the Antarctic Treaty, safety, and various policies and procedures that relate to being in Antarctica, the journey is continued by military transport. The Air National Guard provides air transport using a ski equipped C-130 aircraft. Everything and everyone is weighed so that the plane can be optimally loaded with fuel, cargo and passengers. Flights into Antarctica are expensive and limited in number, therefore maximum use of each flight is mandatory. Once on the manifest for the next day's flight, you are scheduled for transport to the continent if the weather permits. All passengers are required to report at least three hours before scheduled lift-off to allow time for changing into cold weather clothing, security screening, and viewing of a safety video about the flight. The personnel are restricted to 75 pounds of luggage not including a carry-on bag and the clothing issue that one wears on the plane.

USAP Warehouse-Clothing Issue

The plane on which the GERG team deployed carried twenty-seven scientists, NSF staffers and ASA personnel along with several large pallets of supplies for the station. The passengers were positioned in cargo net-seats closely packed in the front of the plane. Due to the unpredictability of the weather at McMurdo, all passengers are required to be in full cold weather gear for the trip. The flying time was seven and one-half hours in a fully loaded and cramped plane. The flight was smooth and despite the bulky clothing and the warm temperatures in the plane, the Team landed on the ice at Williams field before they knew it.

As the Team stepped off of the C-130, one was struck immediately by the brightness and the pure whiteness of the ice and the snow-covered mountains. As many have said, a picture does not quite do the scene justice until you have stood there and seen Mt. Erebus spewing forth volcanic steam in the distance. The group was quickly loaded onto a bus and transported to the headquarters of operations at McMurdo Station, commonly referred to as the Chalet.

The GERG Team quickly established contact with a range of support personnel that would assist them in conducting their research. On the first full day on station, the NSF Representative arranged a Team meeting with the heads of various departments at the station to review the Support Information Package (SIP) that had been filed months earlier by the GERG Team. The meeting was intended to introduce the ASA staff that the Team would be dealing with and review the details of the science program to be conducted. The meeting included personnel from the laboratories, the motor vehicle pool, computer support, air operations, safety, survival training, and the ASA environmental group. In the next few days the team would attend training in snowmobile operation, safety, survival, and motor vehicles and tour the laboratory facilities . The Team was assigned laboratory and office space in the Crary Laboratory Facility. The laboratory facilities are state-of-the art providing an excellent base for conducting research at McMurdo Station. The competent and efficient laboratory staff quickly identified the equipment and supplies that had been requested and the Team almost immediately started setting up the laboratory and office. A further meeting was scheduled with the ASA environmental group to compare notes and to see how each group might assist the other. Once settled in, the team began to implement the research plan.

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