Kate flying towards Wright Valley.

We’ve moved to our final field location, the steep-walled, purple-hued South Fork of Wright Valley. Coming from McMurdo, you fly across the Asgard Range into Wright Valley. The bedrock of the Asgards is striking, all pale oranges with dikes and thick sills. Long lobes of flowing patterned ground stretch along many of the valleys, adding a peculiarly geometric regularity to the place.

Asgards from the helo.

Patterned ground in the Asgards.

Lovely orange bedrock with dikes.

Just downhill of our tents is Don Juan Pond, the saltiest natural body of water in the world. Thus, I have had the pleasure of viewing Blood Falls and Don Juan Pond straight from the door of my Scott tent.

South Fork, and Don Juan Pond in particular, is one of Jay’s favorite places in the world. The rest of us are getting pretty fond of it too, as IT’S ABOVE FREEZING OMG. Miracle of miracles, the Antarctic summer has arrived.

Jay meditating on Don Juan Pond.