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.