At McMurdo Station, there is a large airfield built upon the ice which is used for resupplying the equipment, food and supplies used by the roughly 800 people who reside at the station during the summer and the 100 or so who overwinter. The airfield is used by C-17 aircraft, mammoth transport vehicles that deliver the heaviest loads. Now the airfield is covered by roughly a foot of water and it has become impossible for the C-17s to land. Resupplying by air must be done by a smaller plane, the Hercules. Unlike the C-17s with standard wheeled landing gear, the Hercules are equipped with skis. The Hercules are thus able to land on the runway despite the flooding.

Scott Base, the New Zealand Antarctic station stands adjacent to McMurdo Station. Since establishment in 1956-57, the base has always surrounded by ice. But this year has been different. The entire Ross Sea is now almost completely free of ice, all the way down to Scott Base at the southern end. No one has ever seen so little ice. Around 6:30 in morning on January 31, 2014, the last residual ice pack broke away and floated out to sea, opening up the beach to direct access from open water. Our party, arriving at 1:30 pm was the first group of humans in recorded history to set foot on the land at Scott Base directly from the sea.

David