by Dave Costa, CIRES and NOAA

Gloves...they gave us some decent gloves, but for me to do real work, I have thin liners and big mittens with mega hand warmers. I can work a bit out of the mittens, then quickly put my hands back. This might be only a few seconds if I have to touch metal, or longer if I'm moving wires or cleaning instruments. The wind is the real game changer. Windy is bad; there's no chance to radiate any kind of bubble. I cover all my skin. 

In the picture, I'm wearing a dust mask with a breather valve. I try to get as much of the moisture from my breath away from my face and goggles. Ola (Persson, right) and I flew out in the helicopter to add fuel, clean, inspect, and replace the wiring and fan for one of the radiometers. I took this picture while we were waiting for data to download. It was cold and went slowly because we had to warm our hands often when trying to do detailed work. The repair was a success and we are happy to se the fan continue to operate. We could concentrate on our work because we had Hans Honold (back) as a bear guard to keep a look out and scare any bears away.