I’ve heard from a number of you that I ought to update my blog and I apologize for not having done so sooner but it is that much harder to motivate the second time around. I’m having a fabulous season but it really is so much the same as the first.
However, last year I neglected to write about and show pictures of the work I do down here as much as I should have. Instead you saw pictures of toga parties and Christmas and such.
Following I’ve tried to include pictures of work and day to day life here at Pole and I hope to blog at least once more before leaving.
Picture in front of the Dome
Today (January 12th our time) we celebrated the dedication of the new South Pole Station. As many of you know, the old station, finished I think in 1975, was the big white dome. Inside that dome were a bunch of buildings that housed folks and offices and such. The new station, which has a capacity for about 150 people is close to being completed and so this year, the International Polar Year, some of the bigwigs from Raytheon and the National Science Foundation were brought down to celebrate. It was a pretty fun day, actually (I’m always a bit dubious of ceremonies); the station participated in the taking down of the flag from the top of the dome.
My fearless leader, Chuck Speidel and three others climbed to the top of the dome, took down the flag, brought it down where it was folded by some ex-military folks and then passed along a daisy chain of station personnel until it got to the pole (geographic and ceremonial).
The ceremonial pole was then moved to just in front of the center of the station and each of the twelve flags around the pole was moved by somebody with that nationality in their blood. The twelve flags represent each of the countries that originally signed the Antarctic Treaty. Finally, we passed the American flag daisy chain style again to the main entrance of the station.
We then cleaned and worked and ate lunch until the DVs arrived around 2pm after a 9 hour flight directly from Christchurch this morning. They were supposed to have been in McMurdo already but most weren’t there yet due to weather delays. They were welcomed and brought into the gym where speeches were made and people were thanked. I’m being a bit quick but they speeches were nice and they were short. This was followed by the raising of the flag on the new poles outside the main entrance and then the cutting of the ribbon and hurrahs. There were also many photos during the ceremony and during the tour of the DVs that followed.
We also got to eat a celebratory dinner of lobster and steak made by the awesome kitchen staff. Really, it’s amazing the quality of food you can get at the bottom of the world!
I was a bit suspicious but it really was great to be here for this celebration and see the reactions of people who have spent a good deal of their lives making this project come together. Some people on station have been down for ten or more seasons and have lived under the dome and experienced a whole other existence here. All and all, life is pretty good down here. Not a thing like those who were here in the fifties and totally alien to those explorers who first made it down. There were two mentions of Sir Edmund Hillary today as well, who passed away a couple days ago. His last visit to the ice was last year and unfortunately he was unable to make it to Pole. He did, however, camp out when he was in McMurdo, at some ungodly age. The dedication seemed like a very fitting place to remember the man.
.jpg)
Photo in front of the new station
Putting up the sewage outfall in summer camp
Building walls to cover the sewage hole (with the shirt of the best cafe in Gorham NH on)
Sliding walls of outfall into trench
Frisbee golf out the South Pole
Thanksgiving
Putting up the beacon sign
The beacon is a blinking light that is turned on to alert folks not the cross the skiway that planes land on. The skiway divides the main station are from the Dark Sector where much of the science including Ice Cube and the new Ten Meter telescope are located.
Our crew on the roof at MAPO (in the dark sector)
Me, Josh and Chuck in the shop
