Victoria Dunes &Turkey Day

On November 25, Kathy came from McMurdo to Lake Hoare for the combined purpose spending Thanksgiving with us and helping me out with part of my project. We headed up to the Victoria Valley to check out the sand dunes.

Neither of us had been there before, so we didn't know what to expect. What we saw where large-scale "whaleback" dunes just upvalley from the lower Victoria glacier. Interestingly, the ripples on the dunes and the dunes themselves indicate that the dominate wind-direction that forms them is out of the east. The predominant winds in the valleys come out of the west off the ice sheet and proceed downvalley. More investigation into this phenomena is definitely needed!
The dunes are an Antarctic Special Feature. This means that anyone wanting to visit or sample needs to inform the NSF environmental representatives beforehand, document our landing sites, and make a concerted effort to minimize our impact on the area. It turned out that this was easier than it seemed since the environment is so dynamic -- despite the day being warm, sunny, and with relatively little wind, by the time we left our footprints were already blowing away.
Our flight back across the Wright Valley and over the Asgard Mountains and down the Canada glacier back to camp went very smoothly.
All of the mountain ranges that separate the valleys are covered in glaciers that are part of the East Antarctic ice sheet. The view is kind of surreal and gives you the real feel of Antarctica.

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While we may be staying at a field camp in the Dry Valleys, that does not mean that we don't celebrate the holidays with a good show.














Thanksgiving at Lake Hoare is celebrated with gusto (and LOTS of food). Luckily, this year, we also got a load of freshies in a couple days before the festivities. Generally, any groups that are in the valleys are invited to partake in the feast. Our initial count was 28 people, but weather on Thanksgiving Day kept the helicopters grounded at McMurdo, drastically cutting our head count. In the end, 14 of us were there to eat the food of thirty. We had leftovers for days (which made lunch easy!), and the pie:person ration was 1:2. Excellent odds for those with a sweet tooth!