Final Days at South Pole

Well, I'm almost out of here, actually an entire week left but with the amount of work left to do, I think that will proabably fly by. I just hope I can get back in time for Thanksgiving.

Here is a little video I made of the trip down and from around the station. Enjoy...

Cool Websites

If anyone is interested in further info on the USAP program and Antarctic in general, check out my company's websites...

http://www.usap.gov/

This site has some cool photos:
http://photolibrary.usap.gov/

Our weekly Newsletter:
http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/

November 7, 2005

Here is another acronym you don�t see every day. DNF which stands for "Do Not Freeze". You put this BOLDLY on anything, obviously, you don't want frozen. This includes packages, luggage, cargo, etc with anything temperature sensitive. This could include computers, office furniture. Office furniture???? Yeah, the South Pole is a an ergonomic nightmare, all the office chairs that utilize pneumatic or hydraulics to raise and lower are permanently bottomed out and you feel like a midget reaching up to type at the keyboard. It seems that DNF sometimes needs to be a little bolder on some of that cargo.

After spending the entire day in front of a computer, I needed to get out for a while. So this evening, I ventured outside to get a breath of fresh air, so to speak. At -75 F with the wind chill, it was a rather brisk walk. It seems like we may as well be on Mars for how difficult it is to suit up for a simple walk outside the station, and clearly, I did not choose my gear wisely. I was only able to withstand a few minutes outside at a time. However, I did manage to capture a few shots of an incoming C-130, so I think. It is hard to tell because my goggles kept icing up and I could barely see through the viewfinder. After about 5 minutes, my right hand started to ice up with frost nip and I had to go back inside to warm up again. Undaunted, I headed back outside to get a few more pictures of the station, the pole and the old station dome as the sun had circled 180 degrees from the last time I was out there and would be at my back this time. I did manage to take some pictures without removing my outer gloves; I hope I didn't freeze my video camera too much.

While walking back to the station, there were a couple of guys outside building scaffolding so they could start putting the siding on the new station. I must say that I am simply amazed how these guys are able to work in that temperature. It seems pretty pathetic that it is such a huge ordeal for me to just walk out to the geographic pole and back inside the station while these guys are working out there for, I don't know, 15 to 20 minutes at a time, maybe more. Now that is hard core.

November 6, 2005

Sunday's are typically a day off for most folks at Pole. On this Sunday, John Carpenter's movie "The Thing" was shown in the new station. I believe it is a yearly tradition to watch "The Thing" at station opening (and maybe again at closing) every year. Interestingly enough, the version of the Thing at the South Pole is in betamax and the betamax player is likely kept around just for this movie. After some work getting the movie to play, it seems to have been played one too many times, we all sat down to enjoy this classic. I could sit here and pick apart the entire movie, but then, it is fiction. One funny moment comes to mind when the Thing first appears, someone says, "Mac wants the Flamethrower!!".

FlameThrower


Needless to say, the entire TV lounge breaks into laughter. They have a flamethrower at a polar research station, where fire is one of the primary concerns for everyone's safety? Not to mention the fact that everyone is walking around in the movie with guns, prior to any known danger? Anyway, it makes for a good movie, unfortunately the beta tape cut out just as the Thing was getting loose and wreaking havoc on the station. Fortunately, there is a shipment of DVDs on its way and "The Thing" is among them. So The Thing tradition continues...