Jase & airdrop

I have such a hard time even logging into my blog from here that I'm not going to dare to try to upload any videos. But Jase, one of our fantastic chefs in the galley here and a new friend of mine, manages to regularly upload videos onto his blog via Facebook. So for a new dimension if you're following this blog, I recommend checking out Jase's blog. 

The picture for this post is a C-17 aircraft--the kind that flew us from Christchurch to McMurdo, doing a fly-by of Pole back in November during a test run in which they were experimenting with making emergency rations drops here. In 2015, for the first time, there are going to be winter passenger flights in and out of McMurdo Station. But landing a plane at Pole the dark and cold of winter at 90 degrees south is still not a possibility. So just in case, it's comforting that they have now successfully experimented with a cargo drop (via parachute) that was retrieved from the far "backyard" of the station. And it was really impressive to see this plane make several passes over teh station one night.

Christmas at South Pole

Despite all of my vagabonding, this is actually the first time I've ever spent Christmas away from my family--a definite drawback to what would otherwise be a pretty flawlessly great adventure. For me, the holidays are pretty meaningless without my family around.

But there are definite efforts made at Pole to make the holiday season festive, and it ended up being as nice a Christmas as it possibly could have far from home. There is, for example, a tree made of "junk" out on the berms (storage area).

And, inexplicably, a cardboard cut-out Elvis in one of the lounges that someone added a Santa Hat to.

At the beginning of Christmas week, they set up a "mall Santa" display in front of the station store and recruited a good Santa and a bad Santa to pose for pictures. I had to run down during my dish pit shift so you get to see me in my dish-washing attire.

The next night, there was cookie-decorating in the galley, which was great fun, and satisfyingly colorful.

J. the Baker is a prize-winning gingerbread house maker, and usually at her bakery in Vermont they make enormous, elaborate gingerbread houses at holiday time. This year, without her back in Vermont, they made a South Pole station gingerbread house in her honor. And down here, she made a smaller but extremely intricate and gorgeous gingerbread house for us to appreciate.

And then on Christmas Day, most of the station had a day off and there were lots of festivities. In the morning was the "Race Around the World," a less-than-two-mile loop around the station area that went around the geographic pole so that technically, the racers went through all the time zones on the planet. People were encouraged to wear silly costumes, and they did.

I had to work for the day so couldn't participate but but to see everyone gathering to start from the window of the dining area. There was even a snowmobile pulling a couch. Sounds cushy, but it's better to be running than riding at these temps.

And then in the evening we had a really nice Christmas dinner.

There was lots of great volunteer help in the dish pit all day and especially in the evening, so it was fun rather than a hardship to be working on the holiday. If I couldn't be home, spending Christmas with the South Pole community was a pretty great alternative!

Red coats and berms

I am very happy to answer any particular questions people want to send me, either by e-mail or as comments to these blog posts. It will actually help give me ideas of what to post. So ask away! A couple Q/As to start.

F.M. from Portland, OR, writes: "I am hung up on how people find their coats after a trip to the coffeeshop. Is there just a mountain of red suits by the door? I kind of wish people had to have their names on their coats in regular life. It would help me out of a lot of awkward encounters."
So true, on all counts, dear F.M. At McMurdo, there were three or four alcove areas near the galley for people to hang their coats in, and it was just a sea of red, and several times it took me five minutes or more to find my coat after eating, as I couldn't remember where I'd hung it. Now that we're at Pole, it's not so complicated as the elevated station is ground zero for pretty much everything and lots of days I don't even go outside at all, so my coat just stays in my room. But it is super helpful, when people who have been outside come in with their coats on, to quick check their name tags to be reminded of their names.

To round out this post, I thought I'd offer up a picture of the "backyard" of the station, in particular an area called "the berms." this is basically a storage area, though there is so much kept out here that no one is 100% sure what is there and where, and there's someone working here this summer who has a job that half consists just of trying to figure out how to organize the berms. Kind of crazy, but also comforting that there are YEARS worth of supplies here to keep people going in case of an emergency.

 

It's a harsh continent

In most of the outside pictures I have posted, the weather here is flawlessly sunny and clear. And that is actually what it is like here 24/7, most of the time. Once in awhile, though, the wind kicks up or changes direction and something different blows in. The view out the windows looks mighty different when that happens.

(The plane in this shot is a tourist plane and the blue camp behind the flags is an NGO tourist camp; more on that later.) I love the thin stripe of blue sky visible just above the horizon on this one.

When the weather turns, it's a lot easier to understand the favorite slogan around here: "It's a harsh continent." That's the fallback excuse/explanation used whenever things get difficult or don't go our way down here. Through overuse, it starts to sound flat-out comical to me. But maybe it shouldn't, because ultimate it's just flat-out true.

Q&A & Zoinks

Q: From E.H. (Champaign, IL): “How many people are at the South Pole station, and how many of them are scientists versus support staff like you?”

There is a rotating population of nearly 150 people at Pole this summer. This (150) is the rooming capacity of the station, and in an effort to reduce human footprint here, there is a big emphasis on making 150 truly the max population. (In some past summers, Jamesways and other satellite housing has been used and the population has climbed to as many as 250 people in summertime.) I'm not totally sure of the science vs. support staff ratio, but looking at the list of people who are on base now, my best guess is that it's generally about 2/3 support, 1/3 science people. But it's usually the science people that are moving in and out (many are here for just part of the season) and that cause fluctuations in the station population and that ratio.

And, for your amusement: This is my fellow steward, Z, who has been affectionately nicknamed "Zoinks," likely based on her tendency to do things such as trying to convince the more gullible Pole residents that the electrician just installed special lights in the dish pit that require those of us working there to wear our goggles at all times. She only managed to keep up the ruse for an afternoon, but it was a pretty amusing afternoon.

Flatlands

Beside it being significantly colder at Pole than it is at McMurdo and the base being so much smaller (a summer population of 150 here as opposed to 1,000 there), one of the major differences between being at Pole versus McMurdo is that here it is flat, flat, flat--so different from the lovely mountainous setting of McMurdo. It has surprised me, though, that I find the flatlands of South Pole equally lovely. Doc Will (the station medical doctor ) said as he gazed out the window from the galley one day: "You can see forever...but there's nothing to see." That might kind of be true, but I really never get tired of gazing out the windows and remembering where I am and how completely amazing that is.

Shorts at Pole

Q: Can you go outside there?

A: YES!!! Actually, a lot of people who work here have jobs that involve them spending huge parts of their days outside. And we can all go outside recreationally whenever we want.

 

And you know those guys, those guys who wear shorts and t-shirts even when it's 0 degrees out in Wisconsin or elsewhere? Well, those guys come to Antarctica and do the same thing here. Shorts in -60F windchill? No thanks, but here's evidence of some people's determination.

Paying Respects

Out of respect for his family, we've been asked not to write all about it on social media, but it seems wrong not to even acknowledge that, very sadly, there was a death at South Pole about 10 days ago. You can read the NSF press release here. We all went out to honor the man who died (of natural causes) when they flew a coffin in from McMurdo and loaded his body to begin the trip back to the States.

So sad. I didn't know him beyond saying hello in the hallway, but he is only the fourth person ever to die at South Pole and it really sends shockwaves through a community this small.

Q: Have you seen a polar bear yet?

A: Polar bears only exist in the Arctic--that is, near the North Pole. No polar bears down here! There are, of course, penguins down here but I have not and will not see any, because South Pole is in the middle of the continent, far from any water, and penguins (and pretty much all other Antarctic fauna) are water creatures. Sorry! There is a CHANCE that when I go back to McMurdo on my way out of Antarctica, there will be penguins around. Fingers crossed.

In other news, check out the amazing thing that happens to people's hair (eyelashes, hair on their head, beards, etc.) when their breath creates moisture on it out in the cold!:

 

Ceremonial and questions from Aunt J

My camera finally unfroze, and on another weekend walk, got this picture of me (not that you can tell, but it really is me) at the ceremonial pole. That's the station in the background. So there you go.

In other news, I got an e-mail from my Aunt J in Ithaca, NY, that included the following: "I want to know such things as where your poop goes, how do you get exercise, are you teaching yoga, what are the other people like, what are you eating.  You know . . . All the nitty gritty."

Well, J, let me tell you:
1) Poop: there is regular-looking indoor plumbing here on this very comfy station. Unfortunately, answering where the poop goes is tied up with where we get our water from. But it's not as bad as it seems. As I understand it (though I probably should have asked the station engineer to write up a more accurate blurb), here's how it works: To get water at Pole is pretty easy since we're surrounded by snow that, when melted, gives us such incredibly pure water that they actually have to add minerals to it before we can drink it. To create the melting, they use a machine that I don't really understand but that is called a Rodwell; it heats the snow in a downward tunnel, and the resulting water is pumped out until the "well" gets too deep for the Rodwell to continue to operate. Then they start a new Rodwell system somewhere else and start filling the empty well left by the previous Rodwell with all the human waste created at the station. Which soon freezes solid and remains here forever. Gross. They're currently on the third Rodwell, and filling the well left by the second one. The first well of poop is pretty close to the "Beer Can" part of the station  (a cylindrical stairwell area with nearly 100 stairs connecting both levels of the station down to the vehicle maintenance and storage areas alongside/beneath the station) and creates an unholy stink in the Beer Can.
2) Exercise: Lots of people who work here work outside much of the day doing manual labor and get more exercise than they ever wanted--and we're all able to walk around outside the station whenever we want for some fresh air and exercise. There are also cross-country skis available, plus a little rock wall for climbers in a satellite building. But for those who want indoor activity at the station, there is actually a gym ("designed for all sports so perfect for none of them," I've heard said) and a weight room (plus treadmills, a rowing machine, etc.) that are available for everyone to use, 24/7 it's pretty great. And almost every night, there is an activity available to everyone, from volleyball to soccer to yoga. Which leads me to....
3) Yoga: I am teaching. Twice per week. So far it's been really fun, with 10-20 people attending the classes I'm teaching on Sunday morning and Wednesday nights. There's also a guy here who has been working South Pole summers for years and has long been teaching a Thursday night class, so I can also TAKE a yoga class once per week. Sweet!
4) The other people here are pretty darn fantastic. I cannot say enough about the galley staff that I'm working with; I'm having so much fun with these very interesting, funny, caring people. It's also fun to have people on base with such diverse skills/experience: cooks and scientists and heavy equipment operators and IT experts, all hanging out together three times/day for meals in the galley. Probably most of the people here are pretty atypical in their lifestyles and priorities compared with people who have more "stable" lives in the States or elsewhere, but of course this is right up my alley, and I love that you can sit down with any one of these people and probably be entertained with fantastic stories about life experiences, travels, etc.
5) If I tried to pretend that I am being deprived of anything, food wise, while I'm here, I would be mostly lying. Our galley staff of five chefs plus a baker take such good care of us. There are three hot buffet-style meals per day (yesterday, for example, there was Indian fare--chick pea stew, saffron rice, chapati, and so on) with left-overs available at all times in a communal fridge, fantastic eggs from New Zealand, "freshies" (fresh produce) coming in once per week or so by plane, and 24/7 juice, coffee, tea, cereal, toast, cookies, and more available to everyone. The freshies aren't always available, but there is also a greenhouse on the first floor of the station, so in another few weeks we should be starting to get some greens from there.

More soon, and feel free to post any other questions you want answered, o blog readers!