Byrd Surface Camp was constructed during the 1999-2000 Austral summer season to serve as a base camp for several experiments being carried out in the area. It is situated on the West Antarctica Polar Plateau at 80^oSouth and 120^o West.

The camp has served as a base for the ITASE group which stands for International Trans Antarctic Scientific Expedition.

Note: This mail is believed to be the first identifiable mail from this camp.  Mail is know from previous Byrd Camps situated in similar locations but this camp is basically a new one being constructed from scratch in 1999. After being cacheted mail  was signed   by Steve Niles, the camp manager and then flown to McMurdo for postmarking and onward forwarding to Christchurch.

Steve Niles is shown at left.

The view at left shows the Byrd Surface Camps Tucker Snowcat which was used as the basis for the Camp cachet used at the base.

The Snowcat is used to probe the ice ahead and take ice cores which are used for weather studies. The ice cores include ice formed from snow which fell centuries ago and studies help understand past weather patterns.

The above photo shows a Air National Guard ski equipped Hercules aircraft at Byrd surface camp on November 21st. This aircraft flew the above covers back to McMurdo Base on its return flight.

An interesting story and more photos of Byrd Surface Camp during this period can be viewed at Irma Hales web site which can be found here.

Note: This cover is also locally addressed to McMurdo but has a smaller McMurdo datestamp compared to the two previous covers.