The weather improved today and the flight from the Union Glacier basecamp to 89 degrees was a GO. The team reached 89 degrees around 4 pm local time* and skied 2 nautical miles. It was quite cloudy but the winds were less than 3 knots and out of the north. The snow is quite soft.
The crew is very excited . They made camp and were wrapping up their dinners when they sent their dispatch.
*What is local time at the South Pole? That's a great question. Technically it can be any time of day because it's one of two spots on the planet where all the time zones converge into one location. The South Pole station, which is run by the United States Antarctic Program (USAP), runs on New Zealand time because they coordinate a lot of work and logistics with McMurdo and with the USAP staging center in Christchurch, New Zealand. Our team is on going on Chilean time because their logistics and their travel schedule is based on the Union Glacier basecamp and Punta Areans, which are both on Chilean time.
Check back tomorrow for another update from the team!