Yeti Arrives at Mt. Erebus

After a frustrating 5-week delay, Yeti has finally arrived at LEH.  Due to a series of very unfortunate events, he's been stagnant at various locations since his "arrive-by date" of November 22nd.  Just this last week he's spent on the helicopter pad at McMurdo Station, waiting for weather to clear.  Since the only way to get up the volcano is by helicopter, we are completely at the behest of weather.  For some reason, it seems that the conditions are always opposite at LEH and McMurdo.  Most of the time, the weather up on the volcano is beautiful and clear, and we are above the clouds, and McMurdo is "hot," cloudy and snowy.  We rarely get any snow up here. 

It seems so long ago that Jim and I packed up Yeti in his box.  He is really easy to helicopter in, because he's exactly square, and can be slung by a helicopter.  Below is Yeti's arrival this morning.

This was our first helicopter in over a week, and we were also very happy to get butter and some "freshies."  We also said a sad goodbye to our UNAVCO friend Marianne Okal, who was doing some LiDAR of the crater and surrounding areas.

First look at Yeti in more than a month!  We asked the helicopter to drop the sling near the "RAC tent," or rapid-assembly-something tent, which ended up being the science staging area.

Yeti's first steps on Mt. Erebus, his flag blowing nobly in the 20 knot winds. 

Today Drea and I will go to Warren Cave to set up a tent so we can watch Yeti surveying from relative comfort, and so the laptop will continue to function.  Yeti's first survey will be around LEH to get him warmed up, then to Warren cave, for which we also have LiDAR data.