95 Years Ago Today...

...Robert Falcon Scott reached the South Pole after months of hiking, having hauled all of his food and gear on a sled. Unfortunately, when he got here, he found a tent and a flag already set up at the Pole: Roald Amundsen had beat him by a month coming on skis and with dogsleds. I can't even imagine how shattered he must have felt. They sent an email around the station today with this photo and qoute from Scott:

“The Pole….Great God! This is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward of priority….Now for the run home and a desperate struggle. I wonder if we can do it.”

Of course, they didn't. They got caught in a terrible month-long storm, ran out of food, and eventually froze to death one-by-one. It's hard to imagine how far we've come in 95 years, when a lazy-ass like myself can sit drinking tea in a nice, warm room within view of the geographical Pole, typing away on my laptop and reading emails. I think Scott would roll over in his grave.

My First Shower in 11 Days

It was all I hoped it would be and more. Thanks for the advice Ann. I took my week's worth all in one go. A lovely 4 minutes. Of course, putting the same clothes on again afterwards sort of negates it all, but I'm going to look on the positive side. I'm in the process of switching over to the day shift for a couple of days, so I only got three hours of sleep last night. I'm hoping that shower will get me through...

My First Really Real Antarctic Day

So for the last couple of days, the weather took a turn for the worse. One of the worst summer storms in years hit the Pole. When it gets stormy here, it doesn't snow, it just gets windy. Really, really windy. And the wind picks up snow and ice and blows it all over the place. The other night we were out working, and when we came out, you could only see about 10 feet in front of you. They were telling people not to walk outside because of the possibility of getting lost. I wish I could capture the feeling of standing on a sled, being pulled behind a snowmobile, and just driving into a wall of white. Pretty insane. The roads were all drifted over, and we had to navigate by flags they stuck in the snow. One by one. I tried to take some video of what it was like that night.

Anyway, they of course couldn't fly any planes in or out in that weather. And for some other reason the satellite connection was down. So for the first time down here, I really started to feel claustrophobic. I realized I was trapped and completely isolated from all civilization, at the least 8 hours from New Zealand (which is, arguably, civilization...) Best not to think about these things...

I took another video of me snowmobiling down here. Also, here are a couple more photos. The the view down one of the holes we drill in the ice, and me at the actual South Pole...