While trying on some of my expedition weight long underwear, this woman poke her head into the Men’s changing room and says, Anyone going to South Pole, come meet me in the office. Since I’m heading to the Pole, I go see what she wants. She tells me she is here to hand out our drugs. I say I don’t need any drugs but thanks. She says to take them just in case. It turns out that she was giving everyone acetazolamide which is used to combat altitude sickness. So, I take the bottle thinking it may be useful the next time I go to Nepal or something, I mean, big deal, South Pole is around 9000 feet and I live at 7000 feet. Well, it turns out that despite being 9000 feet, barometrically, it fluctuates anywhere between 9000 and 12000 feet as a result of the extreme cold. Think of it like a low pressure system when a storm is coming in. Pole has an extremely low pressure system simply due to the colder temperatures. I figured if it was around, 12000 feet, the altitude at which I start feeling altitude effects, I may need the pills since you cant really “descend”, the number one cure for altitude sickness.
After successfully checking out all my ECW gear, I was told to report back to the CDC the following morning at 0630 for my “Ice Flight”, formerly known as the “hurt flight” because it is so painful. However, this year, the bulk of the Ice Flights are conducted by a new behemoth of a cargo plane, the C-17 Globelifter. Needless to say, with all the cargo and limited number of passengers or PAX as they are called, the flight to Mcmurdo this will be the easiest and most comfortable flight most people have taken to the Ice all year. To pass the time in Christchurch, I strolled around the city and tried to get a few video shots to document the trip. With the bulk of USAP folks already on the Ice, Christchurch was a little quiet.
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