In the beginning of December the traverse arrived from McMurdo. There were 10 guys who drove the ~800 miles in seven or eight vehicles, so of which you can see below. This is only the 6th traverse in history.
The main purpose of the traverse is usually to deliver fuel to the station, however, this traverse is on a mission to remove an abandoned station another 500 away from here, so they didn't have much fuel to spare. Usually the fuel come in the LC-130's, and it takes two gallons of fuel to deliver every one to the station. The traverse is much more efficient, it only takes one gallon for every gallon delivered.
It turns out that I knew two of the guys on the traverse. Cory, whom I had met in the North Cascades doing SCA crews, I knew was coming in, and we chatted about SCA happenings. The other guy was my NOLS instructor, Paul, from a mountaineering course I took in Patagonia in 2007. The last time I saw him were sharing a snow cave we dug into a glacier on the side of Cerro San Lorenzo during a Chilean blizzard. It was pretty awesome to run in to him down here.
These tractors are custom made for the traverse.
I think these are the best looking.
The fuel bladders.
