The Holidays

The holidays brings us here at the south pole two, two day weekends in a row, the race around the world, a snow sculpting contest, fashion show and of course some great meals cooked by the folks in the galley.

Christmas has come and gone. There was lobster tail and beef wellington served for dinner. So far the best meal I have had while here. After dinner there was dancing and general socializing. In the couple days leading up to the holiday there were many smaller parties held within work groups.

The day after Christmas brought the great Race Around the World! At 10 AM scores of polies dressed in everything from bikinis to flags gathered to run the 2.4 mile race that circled the dome, new elevated station and of course the geographic south pole.

The race includes floats pulled by bulldozers, snowmobiles and other vehicles. The floats consisted of a hot tub of beautiful women being pulled by a dragon spewing steam from its snout, a Roman chariot made of cable spools,an around the world themed float that showcased a Russian hot air balloon basket that was abandoned here and a stationary bike being pulled by a snowmobile.

Winners of the race were Curtis Moore (17:17) and Emily Thiem. Runners faced the brutal conditions of the south pole. The most difficult aspect being the cold air, second to that was the slippery loose snow surface. The loose surface made traction very difficult and forced runners into a more forward position. Despite the challenges over 20 people finished the 2.4 mile race.

Saturday evening there was a guest presentation from the photographer Stanley Greenberg. His current work and business at the south pole being physics machines and telescopes. The photographs covered fascinating subject matter bringing to light many of the labs and machines held deep within the earth or in the basements of universities.

The current work week will carry us into the new year with another two day weekend that will feature bands and a wearable art fashion show.

Dome Top Removal

This morning December 18th, 2009 at approximately 5am the top section of the old south pole station dome was removed. A single crane make the pick after a team removed a ring of panels and rivets holding the frame together.

The top section that was removed has been requested to be saved for the Navy SeaBees museum in Southern, CA. Originally the section to be removed was going to be larger. However, the maneuver would have required two cranes at alow angle this was too great a risk to attempt. The SeaBees were the people that built the dome in 1975. According to a USAP informational handout, the dome was only supposed to be used for 10 years. 34 years later it is finally on its way down.

A small crowd of onlookers gathered to watch this icons first section be removed. For many the event is a powerful one. It signals the end of an era. Many people here had spent long winters being sheltered under the dome.

Photography in the Cold

Photographing here at the South pole can be quite a grueling endeavor. With temperatures that range between -80 and -9 degrees F the photographer runs into many problems. Everything from cameras freezing up to frostbite.

The cameras down here seem to last about an hour to two hours before the actual shutter mechanisms begin to freeze up and stick open in the case of my film cameras or begin to make a horrible screeching noise in the case of the digital cameras. My understanding is that this is due mostly to freezing lubricants. My lenses and tripod head become very stiff as well.

Outside the photographer has to deal with the cold while being able to operate a camera. This often means that some of your ECW (extreme cold weather gear) has to be removed. I have found this to be brutal on the fingers and face. In fact the tip of my nose and a spot right above my eyebrow is constantly raw or scarred from the skin touching my camera body and freezing to it. Fingers become cold because of wearing thin gloves so I can manipulate camera controls. This is on top of simply trying to stay warm while standing still to take photos.

When I can no longer photograph, I take a short break before coming inside to place my  camera gear inside a plastic bag that I twist shut. This keeps the cold metal and glass cameras from having condensation form on and in them. It is the same effect as pouring a glass of ice water in a warm room. Not so bad on a glass of water or beer but horrible for electronics!

While photographing outside here at the pole has its difficulties it is an incredible opportunity to make photos of frontier station and the scientific work being performed

Summer Camp

Here at the pole many of us stay in what is affectionately known as summer camp. Summer camp is two rows of Jamesway tents and three buildings in between the rows. The camp is only open during the summer months allowing station occupancy to rise for the busy summer season.

The camp is about 1/4 mile from the new elevated station or a five minute walk. There are two lounges one a smoking lounge which was recently described to me as “the seedy trucker bar”. The second lounge is a non-smoking lounge that is often host to dance parties. Inside it hosts a second room with a large screen T.V. Before the construction of the new elevated station these lounges were the gathering places for the entire station. However I have been told that, with the new station being complete the numbers have dwindled.

Summer camp is also equipped with four bathrooms, the new arrival luggage hold (Alti Meadows) and a store room for pillows and blankets. These are just not that exciting but very necessary, especially the bathrooms, which are cleaned daily by different tents. The bathroom cleaning is called house mouse. Every one on station participates in house mouse. We leave work a little early to do the cleaning when it is your house mouse day.

My favorite part of summer camp is the bouldering cave and work out room. The cave is humble. Made from plywood and 2x4’s with plastic handholds it is a work of love and is maintained by volunteers who set routes and carry out repairs when necessary. The workout room has free weights, treadmills and a stationary bike. All great things to have at your front door.

The Jamesways themselves are a half dome wood framed tent that has a insulated canvas cover. They are heated via a forced air furnace that looks very similar to something you would see in a typical suburban house. The big difference being the fuel that they burn, these burn jet fuel. The tents are divided up inside with drapes or plywood. Most are divided into 12 or 14 rooms allowing each person to have some degree of privacy and personal space. Rooms vary in layout and luxury. Some previous inhabitants put a great deal of effort into creating a comfortable well functioning space, while others are equipped with a bed, metal closet and a curtain wall. For the most part the tents are warm, comfortable and have lots of character. They feel well lived in, warm with a honest rawness that disarming.

There is a level of exposure people living in the Jamesways have to work with. While we all have our own rooms the tops of most rooms are open and sound travels very well. With people sleeping 24hours a day respecting the quiet is a big deal. This also means that when the LC-130 cargo planes fly in you hear it quite well, and when the bulldozers clearing snow come by, it is as if the world is crashing around you. But these are minor things that once here for a little while you get used to.

To live in summer camp is to experience life at the south pole with closer relations to the environment and each other.

Some General News

 With nearly a complete crew of 255 people and snow being removed from buildings and materials projects projects are kicking into full gear. The dome is being cleared, ICE Cube has its generators running and the siding crew is making steady progress on completing the siding of the new station. This week also heralded the opening of the remote AGAP field camp.

All the activity brings with it lots of flights! Up to 13 or 14 a day.  Always an amazing sight, the LC-130’s are the primary aircraft. They bring crew, supplies and fuel while removing waste and transporting crew back to McMurdo. We also see two small Twin Otter planes and a Bassler DC3 outfitted with Turbo Prop engines. The smaller planes are generally used for transporting people and supplies to field camps.

One of the big events on station in the past couple of weeks has been the food pull. Food was being moved from the old station dome to the LO arch. This is where food and materials will be stored from here on out. The LO building is a large steel arch buried in the snow. Inside of it is two rows of new shelving making it one very cold warehouse. The front of the LO has a materials handling building that is heated. This is where new materials coming in off the planes can be sorted and then moved out to storage.

The purpose of moving the food from the old station dome is to clear the site for deconstruction of the dome which should commence sometime this week. Snow has been being removed around the dome and Sky Lab for the past two weeks. There is now a solid ring around both structures and the two mini arch “tunnels” are now exposed and  almost ready for removal. Saturday, a crew was removing the utility conduit from the mini arch that connects the dome to Sky Lab. The goal is to remove both mini arches so that the cranes can drive around the dome with no obstructions.

The very top of the dome is going to be removed as one piece for a museum back in the United States. The removal is going to require the use of a crane to pick it off the top. The rest will be removed in sections from top to bottom using the crane as well.

As one can imagine sentiment is high for this legendary structure. As of now, the entire structure is being disassembled and returned back to the states. It is unsure what will become of the old dome. There is rumor that several groups are interested in rebuilding it for a museum stateside.

Around station there was a Emergency Response Team Drill two weeks ago that ended in an actual fire alarm during the drill de-briefing. Ironic as it was the all emergency teams were right there ready to go. It was quite a sight, the entire galley stood up and rushed to their positions. A perimeter was established, crew was evacuated and sweeps were done by team two fire fighters. In the end the alarm turned out to be a malfunction. But all alarms must be treated as real. An actual fire down here could be disastrous, particularly in winter.  It was an erie feeling to be hearing the alarms going off and watching the firefighters gear up. It was a strong reminder just a precarious life is down here.

A Strange Place to Live

It is a strange thing to become accustomed to such extreme conditions. But the human is a hardy animal and we can adapt to most situations. It has been two weeks for a lot of the folks here including myself. People are settling in and life here is feeling more normal. People walk to the bathrooms from the Jamesways in shorts and sandals or in my case bare foot.

No doubt it is cold here still. no matter how accustomed you become the cold is a powerful force that will remind you at the tip of your nose, ears, hands, feet and sometimes even the core. But this even becomes routine and you simply learn how to deal with such issues. Chemical hand and foot warmers and the suffocating balaclava or neck gaiter are some solutions. But in the end the human must be hardy and simply endure. A beautiful thing.

Even though conditions are cold here we are all pampered beyond my imagination. The food is amazing and there is never a shortage of hot drinks or any other amenity for that matter. The store is always stocked, there is an incredible assortment of movies, two work out rooms, a bouldering cave, a gym, video games and a music room with an incredible assortment of instruments.

This is quite an amazing place to be. Probably one of the few, where construction workers mingle with great minds of physics and astronomy. A place where great people come together to live and work helping to establish a greater understanding of our universe through the advancement of science.

Soul Food: My Home at the South Pole

Living at the South Pole has sunken in and it is wonderful. I feel quite at home in this harshest  of harsh environments. Soul food, is daily life. 

Last monday marked my first full day at work. It was a mellow day after a station tour that took us into the underground ice utility tunnels and we spruced up the non-smoking lounge.

Our work has to be mellow for at least a few days so we can acclimatize to the high altitude, which has been hovering around 10,400ft the last few days. The extremely dry air is something else that continually effects you. There is a constant need to be drinking water. Which, by the way is some of the purest and ancient water you could drink. All being made from frozen ice. 

The ice is melted with hot fluid from the large diesel engines that heat and power the station. Ice is melted down forming a long cylindrical shaft that once empty will be turned into a human waste repository. This has been the method for storing human waste for a long time if not always, but there are plans for a waste treatment facility sometime in the future. 

Frostbite is something we all deal with here. It can be difficult to be covered up all the time. on Wednesday after shoveling snow all day clearing out drilling equipment for the Ice Cube project, I had a white spot on my nose. There was little that could be done, but after work when taking photos my nose froze to my camera and tore off the skin. So double bonus! But, I am pleased with the photos so it was worth it. 

The week has been a hard week of shoveling snow off and around various buildings and equipment. The weather has been fluctuating from the balmy negative 13 degrees to negative 43 or colder. Today has been windy with wind speeds up to 25 knots. This makes being outside a bitterly cold experience. 

Sundays are most peoples day off. So the station has a much more relaxed atmosphere and there is a lot of movie watching and game playing going on. Most people end up sleeping a lot as well. Something about being down here just wears you out a little. 

Arrival at the South Pole

Friday November, 6 I arrived with my fellow travelers at the South Pole via an Air Force LC-130 cargo plane. The trip over from McMurdo was surreal. The plane handled smoothly floating through turbulence rather than shuttering as jets seem to do. We all sat in two rows that ran the length of the plane. These jump seats were made of nylon and rigged in place. Large pallets of cargo were stored in the middle on rollers. The landing was so soft many of us were shocked that we were already on the ground. 

As the plane taxied to a stop we all gathered out belongings and zipped up our extreme cold weather gear. We were here! The air of excitement was overwhelming. As we exited the plane the crew instructed for us to exit to the front and right of the plane so we would not get to intimate with the propellers. 

The bottom of the stairs confronted us with the bold reality that we all faced for the next four months. It was bitter cold and dry. I couldn’t help but cough a little with my first few breaths of the frigid air that seemed to bite a little when it hit the lungs. Instantly my breath began to freeze in my beard. There was a short walk over to the new station where we were greeted and given an orientation before we were released for lunch and rest. 

After an great lunch, I headed out to summer camp, which is a cluster of Korean War era heated Jamesway tents. Inside the half round tents, there are dividers giving each person staying there their own little personal space. The tents are comfortable and surprisingly warm. The little room I call home has a window and is at the end of the tent. A nice quiet spot. Many of these rooms have been upgraded by their inhabitants with desking space and artwork. The room I inherited will require a little work to become more functional, but this work will be a benefit to all those who stay there after me. How exciting!

Extreme Cold Weather Gear

Yesterday afternoon it was our turn to head out to the Clothing Distribution Center and collect our Extreme Cold Weather Gear. A shuttle picked us up from the fancy and well designed little hotel and took us out to the airport. At the aiport is the Antarctic Center where there is a tourist museum/experience center and then the practical buildings for the folks heading down to Antarctica.

After a briefing from the kiwi Raytheon rep we split up by sex and went to our respective rooms to go through out two orange duffle bags that were filed with our neccessary gear. After completeing an inventory we tried on all our clothing. Anything that did not fit needed to be exchanged now as there is little inventory on the ice.

A geneneric gear list includes:
Parka
Balakava
Hat
Glove Liners
Insulated Leather Work Gloves and Mittens
Goggles
Socks
Expedition Long Underwear
Insulated Carhart Overalls and Jacket with Hood
Extreme Cold Boots

All this must packed back into two duffle bags one will accompany us on our flight down with a basic cold weather setup we will wear and any cary on items such as computers or books. We are all geared up now and simply waiting for a flight to get us down to the ice.


Photos are not coming along as I had hoped. I am taking plenty but my computer is not functioning properly. I plugged the charger into the wall with an adapter and the lights began flickering. Now my computer will not charge. I hope to have the issue resolved soon. For any future travelers New Zealand does not use 110 voltage!

First Stop Christchurch

Every great journey starts somewhere. This one started in Denver where my co-workers and I attended orientation and afterward led me to Christchurch, New Zealand. The 30 hour trip down here went quickly and was surprisingly comfortable. In fact it went so fast that I felt as though I had not earned the distance traveled. Staring down at the great ocean below I couldn't help but think how tremendous it must have been to finally arrive at land after a long tiring boat journey. One must feel the true distance between lands. How great it must be to savor the new lands. But, that was not my journey, not this time anyway.

Ironically, later that evening I sat in a indian food restruant and it felt like I was sitting in Sante Fe or Taos, NM. The wood floor had the look of old pine floors from the western U.S. and the colors were earthy greens and oranges, it felt as if I had only taken a flight from one state to another in the U.S. However once leaving the aiport I felt on guard and tense, like I felt in South Africa. I believe it is the amazing physical/ cultural infrastructure similarities between the countries. I soon came to find that this place is nothing like South Africa. The people here are kind, friendly and it seems to be very safe.

Today I am headed out to the CDC (the Clothing Distribution Center) to get issued ECWs (Extreme Cold Weather Gear).

Preparation-Anticipation

Today has been a fantastic couple of days with two close friends here in the Rockies.  Rock climbing and mountain climbing has been good soul food. But, with a departure date set for Saturday, I am beginning to feel the crunch of schedule and the excitement of leaving.

There is a lot to think about before leaving to such a remote place. Passwords to change, bank accounts to close and setup for international travel, storing personal belongings, deciding what to pack and of course visiting with friends and family.

By now most of this list has been taken care of but I am still waiting to receive some camera equipment and -150 F insulated safety boots. Little details that stack up quick with time counting down.

The anticipation for leaving is building with each day. The feelings are a mix of nervousness, calm and a little twinge of caution. Yesterday I talked with a former Antarctic worker and her told me about the point of no safe return. Which is basically the point where the plane flying you from New Zealand to McMurdo doesn't have enough fuel to return to New Zealand and must continue on. If there is an accident and the plane goes down, you freeze to death in 8 minutes.

Things to mull over a bit, but that is a little risk that makes the adventure all the more exciting.

A New Blog for News Direct From the South Pole

Hello friends and curious readers, this blog will be a chronicle of my adventures and learning's while working at the South Pole over the winter of 2009/2010.

I hope to report on some of the scientific research that is going on there and give an idea of what life is like upside down and on ice.