Christmas at the Bottom Of The World

Cargo Strap Christmas Tree created by the Materials/Logistics Team

Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years are the only two day weekends we get while we’re on the ice.

Friday night was just your average relaxing Friday night… dodgeball in the gym with 15 co-workers, then watching some movies in the lounge.

Saturday, December 24th

Christmas Caroling to the other stations and field camps.

On Saturday at noon, all US Antarctic stations tuned to our High-Frequency communications frequency to serenading the entire continent with Christmas Carols.  As we gathered around the communications office, we belted out the tunes while one of us held the mic open.  At the end of each song all of the other stations around the continent would cheer to let us know they had heard the song. 

The Dinner Menue

Christmas Dinner - Lobster Thermidor and Beef Wellington

Good Company

Saturday Evening was the formal Christmas Dinner, Beef Wellington, and Lobster Thermidor.  All of the food was fantastic!  It wasn’t home cooking, but it was incredible for being at the South Pole.

Christmas at Grandma's House

Live Christmas Rock Music

After dinner, the festivities commenced with a rock concert/Dance Party at “Grandma’s House” (the gymnasium). No photos were taken at the dance party to protect the careers of the innocent.

Sunday, December 25th

A few hours of sleep, we were off to the races with Sunday’s Festivities.  December 25^th is when the residents of the south pole compete in the “Race Round The World.”  The race is approximately 2 miles and can be done on foot, ski, snowmobile, or just about any other means possible.  My good friends Shelly, Adam, and Doug were already competing with some couches being rigged a snowmobile so they hooked up a tow rope and found some skis so I could join in the fun.

As a special treat, we were invited to the camp of some tourists about a kilometer from the station.  Hannah and Ricky were nice enough to write a song about living in a tent next to a government funded research station.  Hannah has skied from the coast to the pole six times and currently is the camp manager.  Ricky was the camp cook, and I've yet to meet a bad cook on contenent. 

Current Weather:

Temperature

-25.1 °C (-13.2 °F)

Windchill

-35.2 °C (-31.3 °F)

Wind

7.8 kts Grid 106

Barometer

689.6 mb (3,130 m/10,268 ft)

We Pick Things Up Then Put Them Down

I love Cranes!  There, I said it, are you happy now?

Crawler Crane at the South Pole

Crane Operator: "Hey Safety Guy, how old are you?"

Me: "30?"

Crane Operator: "Good, young enough to pick up that 8x8 beam and follow me!"

Today I spend my afternoon attempting to earn the respect of the crane operator.  Little did he realize, I wasn't afraid of a few hours of (cold) hard work and was willing to not question his every move (not a common trait of safety professionals). Not sure if I pulled it off or not, but now he knows I do understand basic rigging and can at least be helpful.

While I'm not in the field all day, spending 3 hours at -40*F helping someone who has avoided you like the plague for the past three weeks certainly breaks the ice.

When he went to the shop to get some more slings I busted out the camera (I didn't want him to see I was enjoying the experience).  While I was taking some pictures of the block and the crane from different angles I noticed a SunDog!

SunDog Behind The Block

The SunDog is caused by ice crystals in the atmosphere.  Behind the block of the crane is the sun and a 22-degree halo is created.  The picture does not do the experience justice.

JNIII

Edit:

1) Forgot to mention, final grades came in today, I have maintained my 4.0 GPA in Grad School!

2) Part of my Amazon Prime order from 12/1 came in today ( Baby Wipes, Nalgene Flask, Cat Crap Anti-Fog Polish, and Trident Chewing Gum).

3) Double Rations for both Tonight and Friday this week due to the Holiday!  (I'll explain how much alcohol we get per day in a later post).

Science Lecture Sunday

Once a week the educated individuals on station like to present their work to us lowly peasants (who only hold Bachelor's Degrees) during the weekly Science Lecture.

NOAA talk on Ozone depletion

This week's talk was on the status of the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica.

NOAA Corps "Tall" Gavin dropping some science on us.

The crowd was that excited.

It's really interesting to learn more about the various science project we support and the role they play in the scientific community.

My Day Job

South Pole Station Center with the Logistics and Vehicle Maintenance Arches buried on the right.

Center in the photo is the South Pole station with the "Arches" to the right.  The arches are buried structures that contain the power plant, materials warehouse, 450,000 gallons of fuel storage, and the vehicle maintenance facility.

Widening the Ice Tunnels.

 One of the never ending projects is widening the Ice Tunnels.  Originally dug in the early 2000's, the tunnels have been slowly shrinking over the last 15 years.  The tunnels are not actually through ice, but rather really packed snow called Firn.  This firn has about 60% of the density of regular ice so the blocks are lighter.  The tunnels range between 30 and 60 feet underground and are designed so that a C-130 could land on top of them without collapsing.  The average temperature is between -50*F and -60*F and there are about 1300' of tunnels on the station that serve to transport water from the rod wells and sewage to the old wells.

The blocks are cut with electric chainsaws, then knocked out with sledgehammers.  The blocks are then loaded into sleds and pulled out with winches .

Hauling out the ice blocks on a sled.

Once the ice blocks are pulled out of the ice tunnels, they end up in the utility corridor. This corridor is where all of the utilities go from the power plant to the main building.  From here the blocks are dragged to the logistics arch, where they are hooked to a snowmobile and dragged outside.

Escape Ladder.

Due to the fact that the Firn is shifting at about 30' per year, we'll need to re-work some of the escape hatches.

Coldest Selfie Ever (-60*F).

Part of the challenge here is that most air monitoring equipment is only rated to -10*F so we have to come up with some pretty creative ways to make sure the tunnels are safe to enter.  The little plastic hose sticking out of my jacket is connected to a four gas meter that is reading the Oxygen, Carbon Monoxide, Hydrogen Sulfide, and Lower Explosive Limit of the atmosphere.  In addition to my body heat keeping the monitor warm,  the sample tube is wrapped in hand warmers to attempt to warm the air coming into the unit. The tunnels are cold and smell like poop, but I can verify that the atmosphere is safe to enter.


JNIII

After Work Adventure

After work today I decided to go for a little adventure off base.  It was a really nice day, it warmed up to about -15*F with just a slight breeze. I went out one of the summer camp building and found a pair of cross country skis and off I went.

First Tracks

There is a loop that is "Set" but as you can see it's really just some old tracks.  We're free to leave the station if we want, we have to radio into communication to let them know where you're headed and what time you'll be back.

The loop is probably about four miles long with a warm up shack about halfway.  I really didn't need to warm up but I did want to see what was inside.

No Hills Here

Inside the Ski Shack

There was no heat in the shack but the back exterior with plexiglass panels acted like a solar panel and warmed the shed up to 60*F.  In the shack, I found a logbook with entries that started in in January of 1996.  It's incredible to think that people were skiing out to this shack when I was 10 years old.

Shelby from 2009 Sums up the South Pole Experience

"The Shack: The once place I smell a fart and appreciate : because I KNOW it was mine"  ~Shelby

Fart jokes aside, the shack is an amazing place to get way from the buzz of the station.  The view is really humbling.  It's an amazing place to relax, I know I'll be headed back out again.

Enjoying Solitude

Around 21:30 I decided that it was time to head back to the station for the night.

The thought of being able to ski for thousands of miles and not have to deal with another person is pretty relaxing (and tempting).

Beard Update

Hope everyone back home is doing well.  I miss you all (but I'm having a great time)!

JNIII

Update

Sorry for the lack of updates, I have two final papers for Grad School due Sunday so that's been taking most of my time.

Some upcoming posts to look forward to:

• -60*F Ice Tunnels
• Thanksgiving Feast
• Bumping into Buzz Aldrin
• Amazon Prime in Antarctica
• Progress Report on the Beard

JNIII