As some of you may know, Tracy, one of the lovely ladies from Monday’s Class, headed out to Antarctica for over 2 weeks recently, and has just come back. Seeing as it is one of the few places that most of us will never go to, I thought it would be nice to hear from her about her travels

Why did you go?
 - Work! I am a physicist for the British Antarctic Survey and I run several atmospheric instruments at the British bases down there.  I went to Rothera base to setup a new all-sky camera that will determine cloud cover accurately and also to give my existing instruments a health check :)

What was it like the first time you stepped outside?
- We landed late evening and my first steps out of the plane gave a view of the surrounding mountains covered in snow.  It also was nice and cold (about -4), but sunny too.

What was the best part?
- The instrument install went smoothly!  I also got the chance to see Adelie penguins, so cool!!

Any worst parts?
- We had a few days of really bad weather and my instruments are located the other side of a small ridge.  So leaving to go back to base one day it was so windy I had to walk through the knee deep snow to ensure I wasn't blown over!!  Not the most pleasant walk I've ever done.

What exercise did you do?
Lots! :)  I managed to get one run in outside on the runway, other than that I used the gym for running or Carys style workouts.  They also ran circuits and insanity classes on the base which I attended.  I missed my family but it was nice having the time to train after work.