Clothing, clothing, and more clothing — there is little doubt that when we arrive at the U.S. Antarctic Program's Warehouse in Punta Arenas, Chile, there will be ample gear to provision our students, post-doc, research technician, and faculty researchers.

Our gear will include the National Science Foundation's characteristic bright red wind jacket, multiple sets of long underwear, wool pants, wool socks, three or four pairs of gloves, a polypro zippered jacket, wind pants, caps, ear muffs, and water-proof boots.

These boots will be particularly important as we will spend much of our time at sea conducting diving operations out of small Zodiac boats. Ankle-high boots with their warm felt liners help keep toes warm under the wettest and coldest of conditions. With high winds and rough waters, the frozen Antarctic seas can give us a good drenching in our small boats. These coveted boots can mean the difference between comfort and severe chill.

Thank goodness we are getting our clothing allotment in Chile and don't have to carry all these clothes with us from the United States. Instead, here in Birmingham, I have been busy shopping: for camera gear; Dramamine (for the rough Drake Passage between South America and Antarctica); toothpaste; sunscreen and glacier glasses (there's lots of ultraviolet radiation in the Antarctic where the ozone hole figures prominently); and blue jeans — only we OAE's (Old Antarctic Explorers) fully appreciate the value of bringing a pair of these for life around the station.

We're also taking data books, various and sundry laboratory supplies (the vast majority have been ordered months ago and shipped to the station ahead of us), and a host of other odds and ends, many of which are the product of coming to know what is needed in such a remote location.

Fortunately the station has a laundry facility, so there will be opportunities to wash our salt-sprayed clothing, and there is even a small dispensary where one can buy shaving cream and a T-shirt for a souvenir. As I pack my bags for the trip, it dawns on me that yet another chapter of Antarctic adventure is looming, and after all these weeks of preparation we are headed back to "the ice!" Wish me luck!