Today I headed as far South as you can go on this globe, to the South Pole!! It was looking dicey as if we'd go today b/c of weather in McM, but we made it out. I'm heading down to sample water, wastewater, and help remediate some berm work with my boss Nate. Neal was also on our flight as he's going to the pole for the rest of the year.
Also on our flight were some DVs (distinguished visitors). The head of the NSF, the head of the Office of Polar Programs, and some others. So had to be on our best behavior! haha. Our plane was one of the LC-130s. The first part of the flight was overcast, and we couldn't see anything, but eventually we left the bad weather and had clear skies and could look down on the glaciated mountains and some absolutely monstrous glaciers. Eventually, as we got farther and farther south, the ice got thicker and thicker until it obscured all the mountains, and we were left with watching just the flat white ice sheet.
We landed to beautiful weather, and the warmest temperatures they've had all year (-17F, don't worry it dropped to -38F by dinner). The South Pole Station (known as the Amundsen Scott South Pole station) is at 90 degrees South and at 9,310 ft above sea leave; however, the pressure altitude makes it more like 10,500 feet. Thus altitude sickness is a real problem for people flying from sea level (which is me). When we arrived on station, we were first given a medical brief about high altitude sickness (they've had several med evacs from it so far this year). Most people chose to take diamox, a pill that helps speed of acclimatization, but I decided not to take it, as I've always done well at altitude. When then had a station brief and lunch. After lunch, Neal toured Nate and me around station.
It's a pretty sweet station. All enclosed in one building that is 2 levels high. There are several berthing modules within the building. Everyone has a tiny room (like a ship's room), but to ourselves. Just a bed, small window, phone, small desk, and some dressers. No tv like at McM. I like it though. I like small rooms that still have a lot of function and features. We do have internet connections in our rooms, unlike at McM. HOWEVER, we only have internet for a few hours a day. Because we are so far south, satellite coverage is poor. So we only have internet when a satellite happens to come our way.
That station has lots of amenities. A little store and post office. There's a fitness room with weights and cardio as well as a full court (but not full size) gym with basketball hoops. There's a small library, a band room, several lounges with big screen tvs for movies and an extensive DVD and VHS library. They also have movies in Betamax (the cassette type thing you used to watch movies on before VHS). There's a greenhouse where they grow veggies for the station. There's a couch in the station in case you want to sit amongst the greenery and get a bit of humidity. The station, because it is so high and cold, is quite high. Outside can be basically 0% humidity, and a good day in the building is 15% humidity. There's also an arts and crafts room and game room. There's of course a science lab, laundry, and galley.
It appears as though the food here is going to be quite good! Easier to make better food for a smaller population. The population maxes out at about 150, but is currently about 125, though we have some extras tonight as the flight that carried us and the DVs with us, wasn't able to leave to fly back to McM because of such bad weather at McM. It's really bad and tough for the plane to stay at such a cold place, but there was no choice. This means the pilots, crew, and DVs (they were just planning on visiting for a couple of hours while the plane off-loaded fuel for the pole) are having to spend an unexpected night here. The folks who drive the tractors on the south pole traverse also arrived today, and they'll be heading back to McM in a couple of days. In case you don't know, the south pole traverse carries, by a train of snowcats, tons of fuel to bring up to the South Pole station.
Maybe one of the best parts is that they have real ice cream here!! Right now they have chocolate, pistachio, and some pecan butter one. Neal and I both had big helpings of ice cream at lunch and dessert!
We had the afternoon off to rest, due to the altitude. I felt fine though, so I explored around the station.
12/5/18
Today was our first day working on our main project out
here. Basically, the jist is that over the years, materials and supplies have
built up out on the berms. The berms are where they store items. At the end of
the summer, they put the items high up snow berms to try to keep them from
being covered by the winter drifting and accumulation. They sort of let things
go and the berms got piled 3 high with crates, so that you have to dig over 20
feet down to get to the bottom. If you were to just leave these in the snow,
after several thousand years, they’d all end up in the ocean as the icecaps and
glaciers move. We’re trying to keep this from happening, so we’re digging them
out and then deciding which things should stay, which should be wasted, and
which can go to resale. There’s a guy in a tractor clearing snow and trying to
carry the crates on pallets. It’s our job to shovel around to help expose
crates, shovel snow off the top of crates, re-palletize things, organize,
determine the fate of the various pallets, etc.
It’s tough and very physical work, especially in the cold,
dressed in our full gear and heavy boots, and at altitude. The walk out to our
site is ½ mile, which we walk back and forth twice (for lunch and the end of
the work day), and it seems like forever after having worked hard, being
hungry, and in such heavy gear on the soft snow. I definitely feel tired by the
end of the day. The work is also sapp sucking a bit b/c it’s cleaning up all
this waste, just to make more piles since they can’t possibly fly all of it out
this year, since it’s at least 6 berms, piled 3 deep. And it’s crushing to see
all these perfectly good items that will just be thrown away, not to mention
all the fuel was used to carry them up here to not be used and then fuel to send
them back. Such a huge waste both financially and environmentally. But Nate and
I are working hard and getting along well.
Post work is relaxing though. The food is good and the
dining room is small and quiet. Then I sorta relax in bed doing some reading
and writing, drinking tea. Then I head out to exercise before settling down
into bed. Right now the satellites are lined up just right that we start
getting connection a bit before 8pm and it last until 11pm. We have internet
hook-ups in the room and the internet is faster here since there is so many
less people, so I’ve been able to do some things on the internet and even watch
some youtubes while I relax.
The station is cool though, and it’s a tight knit community
since it’s so small. Groups get together to play board games after work or play
in the gym (dodgeball, wiffleball, kickball, volleyball, basketball). It’s also
cool that the station is sorta like a boat or a space station in that it’s
completely enclosed, so once you’re done with work, you can get into your
relaxing clothes and just stay that way b/c you are indoors no matter where you
go. At McM, you have to get dressed up to walk to the galley or the library or
coffeehouse, or whatnot. And the big gym at McM is quite a long walk in the cold.
So here it’s nice because everything is super close to get to, and you can just
walk around in shorts and tennis shoes.
The ice cream is also a huge bonus to the station. Unlike
McM where there isn’t icecream (just something called frosty boy, which is fake
vanilla icecream), they have lots of real ice cream. And great flavors too!
Since I’ve been here we’ve already had moose tracks, mint chip, butter pegan,
cookies n cream, and rocky road. All some of my favorites. I guess I deserve it with all the hard
outdoor work, but I still feel the need to exercise.
I visited the physician assistant today because she said we
had to see her before we could exercise if we wanted to exercise the 1st
week we were here. She told me that I shouldn’t because I risked getting
altitude sickness and being sent back. Well, I was feeling fine, not out of
breath on the stairs, slept through the night, and am pretty in touch with how
I do with altitude (remember I often flew from sea level in FL to 9,890 ft at
Mt. Crested Butte, only to go higher to backcountry ski). So I went on the spin
bike and also ran a bit, and felt fine.
12/6/18
More work on the berms, which we’ll be doing pretty much
everyday. Temperatures have been hanging around about -20F with -40F windchill.
We don’t have a warming hut out where we are at, but there is an outhouse we go
into to get out of the wind every now and then. Despite the cold, I stay pretty
warm with all the cold weather gear we have and staying moving. The real tricky
part though is keeping your goggles from fogging while keeping your nose and
cheeks covered by a gaiter. If you have any exposed skin, you’ll get frost bite
pretty quick if you’re in the wind, so you have to keep covered. Today I ran 4
miles on the treadmill at a pretty good clip, and felt fine.
12/7/18
After my run and dinner, we went out to tour the modules of
the South Pole Traverse, which had arrived a few days before us. Then Nate and
I went to both the ceremonial South Pole and the actual geographic South Pole.
After that there was some volleyball and then an open mic night in one of the
lounges.
The grantees doing research at the South Pole telescope
invited everyone over to their building and telescope for a party and tours.
The tours from both the telescope people and a project called BICEP were very
interesting. They’re looking deep, deep into space to try and find the first
photons of light from the beginning of the universe. Very cool stuff. So Nate,
Neal, and I went early to take the tours. It’s a bit of a walk, and along the
way, there’s a huge pile of snow (40 or so feet) that has been plowed up, so we
did some tubing on the tubing run that has been built there.
The party’s theme was Middle School Dance Slow Song Ladies
night, meaning you were supposed to dress as a woman, and they played slow
songs that they used to play at my generation’s middle school dances. I dressed
up as the crazy librarian/chaperone that would have been in charge of making
sure hands were off the butts during the dances and to “leave space for the
Bible” between couples. The party was really nice because aside from the
dancing, they had really good cheese, lots of nice wines, and about 20 types of
fine chocolates that you could taste from.
They do Sunday brunch here too. It’s not as varied and good
as McMurdo’s, but they did have sushi, which was crazy to think: sushi at the
South Pole!
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing!
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