More lounge memorabilia and a long hike on the Marr Ice Piedmont Glacier

Bill Spindler of SouthPoleStation.com tracks various statistics of Antarctic winterovers. According to Bill I am the 39th (or thereabouts) person to winter at all three American stations, what he calls a hat trick - McMurdo, South Pole, and Palmer (which is my 4th overall winter). The following is from SouthPoleStation.com. What's interesting is that the first name mentioned, Carol Crossland, is my wife Andrea's cousin.

"The first woman to winter at all 3 of the current US stations was Carol Crossland...she wintered first at McMurdo in 1991, then (after a few summers here and there) at Pole in 1998 and Palmer Station in 1999. As for the second woman to do so (that I know about), she's Wendy Beeler, who wintered at Palmer in 2006, Pole in 1999, and McMurdo in 1992 and 1998. Yubecca Bragg completed the hat trick at McMurdo in 2008. More recently, Rachel Javorsek finished a 2012 winter at Palmer Station...she wintered at Pole in 2011 and at McM in 2008. And the newest addition to this list is Clair Von Handorf, who was at Pole in 2014 after wintering at McM in 2009 and at Palmer in 2010, 2011, and 2012. As for the men...it turns out there have been a number of them. The most recent addition to this list is satcom engineer Mike Rice, who just showed up at Palmer for the 2018 winter after his most recent Pole winter in 2017. Interestingly, Mike showed up at Palmer along with FOUR other 2017 Pole winterovers! Additionally (in no particular order as I don't have all the data) we have at least Robert (Gumby) Carlson, Larry Mjolsness, Jim "Thumper" Porter, Al O'Kelly, Paul Lux, Jordan Dickens, Jack Anderson, Brad Kuehn, Paul Daniels, Jed Miller, Damien Henning, Bob DeValentino, Zachary Morgan...I understand at least 39 folks may have wintered at all of the 3 current stations so I've obviously missed a few."

The following is a picture tour of the Palmer Station lounge.

Whale bone.

Many boats and ships have made a port-o-call to Palmer Station.

Every Friday is new movie night. With a cartoon before the movie of course.

The Antarctic food chain.

Three of us took a Sunday afternoon hike around the Marr Ice Glacier.

The glacier is retreating. 

We hiked from the station into the "backyard" which is all rocks rights now, around the glacier and to Bonaparte Point on the left. Icebergs are right past the point. 

A molting penguin.

The end of Hero Inlet. There are two hikers on the glacier. 

Lots of mollusk shells, algae, and moss. 

Molting and nesting Petrels. 

Fur seals.

"Please come scratch my back."

A nice "dog" stretch.

It was a very challenging hike negotiating sharp and sometimes slippery rocks.

A view of Palmer from Bonaparte Point across Hero Inlet.

A large hunk of obsidian, volcanic rock.

Under the glacial face.

Melted ice flowing through a crevice.

Glacial "till", unsorted glacial sediment.

Returning to the backyard.

We spent four hours hiking from Palmer, around the glacier, to Bonaparte Point and back.