The South Pole

     It’s been a few days since I last posted, but I’ve been at the South Pole for about 48 hours now (as of writing this – I have to wait for the satellite to come back up tomorrow morning to post).  So much has happened already, and with the sun up 24 hours a day I’m already having troubles keeping events from the two days apart, but I’ll do my best to fill you all in on the good stuff.

     Before I get to what it’s like at the South Pole, I should post a few more pictures from McMurdo.  The day I landed it was overcast so I didn’t get a chance to really see the surrounding view.  Well, transport to the airplane for my trip to the Pole the following day wasn’t scheduled until 2:30 PM, and it was a beautiful clear day, so some of us walked back out to Discovery Hut to take in the view.

The view from Discovery Hut on a clear day. Much better!

Liz taking pictures of the view.

     After the hike, we returned for lunch, then packed up and headed out to the airfield.  There are several airfields at McMurdo, and we flew in and took off from the Pegasus Airfield, about an hour bus ride from the station (but it’s maybe only 10 or so miles from the station).  When we got back out to Pegasus we had to wait for the aircraft (a C-130 Hercules) to fuel up and pack cargo, so we had an hour or so to kill in the airfield galley.  It was really sunny and warm, so we went outside and took pictures of the view.  Mount Erebus, a volcano that formed Ross Island, was visible from the airfield, smoking slightly.  We even had a snowball fight.

Me in front of Mt. Erebus in the background.

     Finally it was time to board the plane and take off, the last leg of a long journey.  This flight was relatively short, just over 3 hours, and we landed around 10:00 PM, Tuesday Dec 6.  When we landed we were greeted (following tradition) by colleagues already at the Pole.  They gave us a warm welcome of handshakes and hugs and carried our bags into the station for us.  The barometric pressure at the time resulted in a physiological altitude of 10,700 feet, so we were all a little winded coming up the two flights of stairs to reach the first floor of the station after coming off of several days at sea level.

On the C-130 Herc.

     So, what it’s like at the South Pole?  It’s totally featureless minus the station, it’s cold, and when the sun is shining it’s really bright.  The temperature has been pretty mild so far, though.  Both days have been between -20 and -15 F, with windchills between -30 and -35.  With all the gear they give you, it’s really not bad at all.  I’ve certainly experienced worse growing up in northern Michigan, but then I didn’t have to walk kilometers in that.  As you’ll see in a little bit, the telescope is about a kilometer from the station and we generally walk that back and forth two or three times a day.  While I’ve been using the Carheartts and red parka (affectionately known as Big Red), gloves, neck gaiter and sunglasses/goggles, it’s been warm enough for me to wear a nice pair of socks and my usual everyday shoes back and forth instead of my big boots.

     24 hour sunlight is definitely a little strange, but thankfully it hasn’t disrupted my sleep too much.  It’s kind of nice because the station is built so that one side points towards the sun when it’s roughly noon in New Zealand.  Since we keep New Zealand time here, it gives a nice way of telling time if you’re outside for any length of time (which hasn’t been the case yet, thankfully).

     I was lucky and got a room in the station.  Most of the time scientists get rooms in the station, but when the population gets high in the middle of the summer season, sometimes you’re put out in “Summer Camp.”  (The population is currently 239, and pretty much peaks at 300.  In the winter the population is about 60).  Summer Camp is a bunch of half-barrel shaped buildings a hundred yards from the station or so where people get to rough it a bit more.  Have to go outside to use the restroom and use extra pairs of thermal underwear to plug drafty holes in the wall.  But besides the limit of showers (two two-minute showers a week), there’s just no way you can call living in the station roughing it…

The Amundson-Scott South Pole station. Next week marks the 100th anniversary of Amundson reaching the Pole. Scott reached here a few weeks later.

Summer Camp. Glad I don't have to sleep out there.

Instead, I get to sleep here!

    The station has just about everything.  It’s got a full court gym, weight room, music room (complete with a theramin), arts and craft room, game room with a pool table, darts, foosball table and what appears to be several hundred books, a sauna, two or three rooms with relatively big televisions for watching movies, a greenhouse, a station store, and a post office.  Oh, and I forgot to mention several conference rooms, a computer lab, and a science from which we can monitor our experiments remotely.  We even have internet, at least when the satellites are up.  It’s incredible the infrastructure that exists mere feet from the actual South Pole.

     This post is getting really long, so let me end with a few pictures of the South Pole Telescope (known as the 10-meter down here since there are several telescopes and observatories).  The first picture below is the view of the 10-meter (the big white structure) attached to the blue lab we all work in, the Dark Sector Laboratory, or DSL.  (The land around the station is separated into several sectors, all used for different types of experiments.  The Dark Sector is kept, well, dark.  No extra lights (not that you need them in the summer anyway) or extraneous radio communications that could interfere with the observations of the telescopes out there).  As you approach the 10-meter it really hits you how enormous it is.  Besides the station, it’s the largest structure at the South Pole.

The view of the 10-meter at DSL as you get close.

SPT close up. This thing is just plain huge.

The back side of the telescope.

     We’ve already done a ton of work, but I’ll leave that for another post.  I do want to give a sneak peak, though… here is a picture of me holding up the partially assembled camera.  All seven modules I worked on are installed in the center, and most of the other pixels are also installed, (currently taped off).  I’m a little biased, but this thing is gorgeous!

The back side of the camera, (partially assembled).

Me holding the partially assembled camera up. I've been working on the seven gold modules in the center for the last couple years.

Mactown

     The ice flight to McMurdo was a success!  No boomerang for us.  We also learned why the call time for our flight was so ungodly early.  Turned out there were a bunch of penguins on there way back to Sea World in the States and the C-17 cargo plane we took down to Antarctica needed enough time to get back to Christchurch with them on the same day.

     We got picked up from our hotel at 2:00 AM and headed back to the CDC to get into our ECW gear and check our luggage for the flight.  Here's a picture of me in my Carhartt overalls with all of my bags and ECW gear before the flight.  I got a bit of sun during my stay in Christchurch.

Me before boarding the plane.

Like I mentioned earlier, we were taken down in a C-17 cargo plane.  The number of passengers depends on how much cargo they ship down.  We only had about 50 people this morning - the rest of the plane was filled with cargo, everything from a giant refrigerator unit to pallets of coke and Coors Light.  There were a few seats at the front that were just like a commercial airliner, but most of us sat on canvas seats on the walls of the plane.

I was on a flight taking Coors Light and Coke of all things to McMurdo and the South Pole.

Most of us sat on the walls of the aircraft.

     The flight to McMurdo from Christchurch takes a bit over five hours, and we took off around 4:30 AM. I slept quite a bit on the flight, but I woke up just in time to look out the window and see the edge of the line of ice and icebergs marking our rapid approach to the continent.

The view out the roughly 6 inch diameter window on the C-17. Starting to see some ice...

  We landed about an hour later and made our way to Ivan the "Terrabus," a big school bus-like vehicle with treads that took us from the Pegasus airway (one of several landing strips at McMurdo - also the furthest from the station) to the station proper.  McMurdo Station is known as "Mactown" around here.

Disembarking from the C-17. Antarctica in the background! We landed on the frozen ocean, and McMurdo is built on Ross Island, so I haven't technically set foot on the continent yet.

     After sitting through a Station orientation, grabbing linens to make our beds, and sorting some luggage, we decided to take a quick hike out to Scott Hut.  It's an old wooden hut made back in 1902 during the Scott Antarctic expedition.  The hut is in remarkably good shape.  It looked to me like it was made only a few years ago.  I guess it's sort of perserved by the dryness and temperature.  Hanging out near Scott Hut on the ice were a bunch of seals.  Sadly, I haven't spotted any penguins yet.

A cliff on our hike overlooking the ocean. I hear the view is spectacular on a sunny day. Maybe on my return trip...

Scott (Discovery) Hut, made during the 1901-1904 Antarctic Discovery Expedition

Seals hanging out on the ice.

     It's almost dinner time, and after that we have bag drop (we check in our bags for the flight south to the Pole tomorrow morning), so I'm going to finish up here.  I'll leave with a picture of me standing near Scott Hut with Mactown in the background.

Me and Mactown.