Traverse

SPOT1, SPOT2, and SPOT3 are the three annual (well, this year there are three) South Pole Overland Traverse operations, which are basically tractor pulls of fuel from McMurdo to South Pole. SPOT1 reached Pole in late November and its ten-person crew of mechanics, mountaineers, and other specialized personnel invited us Pole station folk out to tour their operation. They parked in the station "backyard"...

 

...in roughly the same configuration they'd used throughout their 3+-week trip from coast to pole.

It was fascinating to see the route they took from there to here and hear about the scenery along the way (which sounds amazing)...

...see their portable galley, where their team made dinner and watched movies each night...

...and especially to hear about their waste capture techniques. Because of the environmental protection measures put in place by the International Arctic Treaty, it's basically illegal to just pee out in the snow, here at Pole or anywhere else on the continent. So like anyone doing anything in Antarctica, the Traverse folks have to keep their bodily waste with them, which involves a special toilet called an Incinolet. You put a little paper liner on the inside, do your #2 in it, and then when you flush it down, the toilet alights and your poop is incinerated on the spot.

Except for the ash, which has its own bucket.

 

In addition to the portable galley unit, there is also a sleeping berth, with five rooms of bunks to accommodate the 10 traversers.

 

And #1 can't go down the Incinolet without repeatedly putting out the flame, so everyone has his/her own pee bottle, which can be emptied periodically into the big pee barrel that one of the tractors pulls.

Most significantly, though, they were pulling fuel: 140,000 gallons of it (though a good chunk of that was used getting here) in these black bladders, pulled on very low-friction plastic mats.

Totally incredible. So now, of course, I am obsessed with working on the traverse some year, mostly for the experience of seeing the scenery involved in overland Antarctic travel. Just have to work on getting some heavy equipment operation experience. Hmmm. If only I'd grown up on a farm driving a tractor...