8:30 a.m., Nov. 24, 2007--Editor's note: Over the next few weeks, with support from the National Science Foundation, a team of University of Delaware researchers will be at work in one of the iciest, coldest, most austere places on the planet: South Pole, Antarctica. Currently stationed at the South Pole are UD researchers Thomas Gaisser, Stoyan Stoyanov, and James Roth of UD’s Bartol Research Institute, who are working on the IceCube neutrino telescope.

Their Antarctic blogs will appear on UDaily and on the Wilmington News Journal’s Delaware Online Web site through a partnership between UD and the newspaper.

Yesterday, 20 Nov., Tom, Stoyan and I completed our Snowmobile training. Snowmobiles are crucial to our daily operations here! They are used both for cargo and personnel transport. IceCube is a big project and as we continue to add to its construction, we are working farther from the station. Our center of operations is the “Drill Camp.” The drill camp is currently located nearly a mile from the station. When the temperature rises to above -35 degrees, there will be a shuttle van available to take us to our worksite. Until then, we either walk or catch a ride on the snowmobile. Transportation to and from our worksite also involves crossing the skiway; our runway on the snow. Often we have to wait for an arriving or departing C-130. There is a crossing beacon that tells us when we are cleared to cross.

--James Roth, UD Antarctic Research Team