It Really Can Be a Harsh Continent

In case we needed any reminder that this is a pretty harsh place, we all got a bit of a scare the other day. I was out working in a lab with my coworker Tim at about 4:30 in the morning. All of the sudden we hear this loud alarm go off. We look around because we're freaked out that it was something we did. Then this scary voice comes on and says "Attention. There is a medical emergency at DA. There is a medical emergency at DA." DA is one of the entranceways to the main station. We ran outside to see what we could see, but we were about a mile out, so we could only see some vehicles off in the distance. We figured we had better just go about our business.

We walked to another building where our coworker Sean, a grad student from Madison, was supposed to be finishing up some stuff. He wasn't there, and his work hadn't been done. We cursed him out under our breath and got started finishing the work. Slowly, as we talked about it, it began to dawn on us that the medical emergency could have been Sean. He was in that area of the station. He hadn't shown up where he was supposed to. And he didn't have a radio to let anyone know if there was a problem.

Eventually, someone called and let us know that it was indeed Sean. We hopped on a snowmobile and raced to the station to find out what had happened. He had been out riding a snowmobile, and he hit a deep rut in the ice. He lost control, and somehow his leg got caught and pulled up into the treads of the snowmobile. It was so far wedged in that he couldn't get it out. It was the middle of the night, and he didn't have a radio, so he just laid there in the snow for at least ten minutes, until someone happened upon him and called in the alarm.

Basically, Sean was incredibly lucky. He was hopped up on morphine when we got to see him, but he didn't break his leg, and he hadn't cut himself. If he had torn up his leg and spent ten minutes in the snow before anyone found him, he would have been in some serious trouble. Now he's just got a nasty bruise and is walking around on crutches, all the better for impressing the women when he gets back to New Zealand.

All's well that ends well, but it freaked us all out at least a little bit. We're so far away from anything here, that when something goes wrong, it has the potential to go really wrong. Under the best case scenario, it takes about 24 hours to get to a real hospital in New Zealand. A driller on my experiment was seriously injured a few years ago and it took them that long before they could operate on him in Christchurch. Everything ended up well with him too, and he's actually back down here this season working again. Some of these guys are truly crazy.

In the meantime, I'll say a prayer and knock on some wood just in case. Oh, and I'll be careful too.

I just found out that an article I wrote from down here is going to be in next week's issue of the Economist. It's called "Snow Place Like Home" and it's on the new station dedication. Check it out if you get the chance...

The New Station

The last few days have been pretty busy around here. Saturday was the official dedication ceremony for the new South Pole station (you know, the fancy new facility that I get to walk back and forth to from my tent every morning and evening). The weather had been really crappy and all flights were being cancelled, but luckily it lifted just in time for all the special visitors to make it in. These included the director of the National Science Foundation (the primary US science funding agency), a few more congressmen, and all sorts of officials from the State Department and Homeland Security and the military. In general, it's annoying to have these people down here, since all work basically comes to a stop so that they can be catered to and given tours. But the ceremony actually turned out to be pretty cool. We took a group photo in front of the old station, this geodesic dome structure you can see in the photo of my coworker Ryan and I below:



Then, the US flag on top was lowered and passed from person to person to the new station, where it was eventually raised. It was generally a pretty moving ceremony, since a lot of people have put in so much time and effort down here to make the new station a reality. It really is light years better than the old facilities (which weren't even heated), and it's the state-of-the-art as far as Antarctic living quarters go. Here it is:



On the other hand, the whole nationalistic thing with the flag and the government officials was a little bit ridiculous. To me, it only underscored the fact that no one can really ever own Antarctica. It's too big and it's too harsh. People can have a toe-hold here, and that's great and really useful for science. But it's not part of the US, and the US can never really own it. We put our flag here, but it's in no way ours.

If you're interested in reading more about the station, you can check out this Chicago Tribune article (thanks Ann!). It's a little misleading, since the dateline makes it seem like the guy is actually down here, which he doesn't seem to be...

In other news, yesterday I got to take part in a live webcast to the San Francisco Exploratorium (kinda like the Museum of Science and Industry or the Adler Planetarium, for my Chicago friends). It was pretty fun. Sorry I didn't let y'all know in time to see it live (I only had time to let my SF friends know) but if you want to check it out, it's still online. The webpage is here and the direct link to the realmedia webcast is here.

Damn. I'm Getting Old

So as you would expect, I've stopped shaving so that my burly mountaineer's beard can provide some measure of protection against the harsh elements down here. Now that's it's growing out, I'm discovering that I have a bunch of gray hairs in my beard. What the hell?!?

Shower Counter

For those of you keeping track at home, I took my first shower in 10 days last night. And oh was it sweet...

A Real Post From the Pole

Well, the windchill is -40F, but I'm sitting inside with some tea and finally have a free minute of satellite time to sit down and write about the last week. Let’s start all the way back at last Wednesday. On Wednesday, we flew down to McMurdo, about a five hour flight from New Zealand. The flight was actually perfect—smoother than the flight across the Pacific to New Zealand was. We landed at McMurdo on the frozen sea-ice, and it was so smooth we weren’t even sure when we touched down. Here's me just after getting off the plane:



I mentioned before that there was a congressional delegation on our flight. They were mostly members of the House Science Committee and the Ways and Means Committee as well as the Deputy Director of the NSF. It’s funny how well these people get treated. They get shiny brand new bags, while ours are all faded and beat up. They don’t even have to carry their own bags (I think you can see someone picking up their bags in the photo above). They board at the last minute, and they get the nicest seats up front. They continued on to the South Pole with us, so we actually got to talk to them quite a bit. More on that below…

McMurdo was nice, but nowhere near as amazing as last time. First off, let me just get this out of the way. I didn’t see any penguins. Zero. Zilch. So there will be no penguin souvenirs. Maybe I'll be luckier on the way out. The chances are better then, since the icebreaker will have come in and cleared a channel already. So keep your fingers crossed for me. Second, the souvenir shop was closed. What the hell. I came all the way down to Antarctica and couldn’t even buy a f*ing t-shirt.

Thursday morning we left for the Pole early. There were maybe 30 people on our flight, about half of them from this congressional delegation. Most of us got a chance to shoot the shit with them. Nogg, I spent some time talking to one of your representatives from the fair state of Nebraska. There was a woman from Cali and a few stereotypically dirty congressmen from Tennessee and Louisiana.

It was funny though. A bunch of us had just been discussing how badly science fared in the recently passed budget. High energy physics (including Fermilab) got crushed, and they actually pulled the US out of an international treaty for this big fusion energy project. So a couple of us asked the congress-people about this. And none of them knew that it had even happened. I might not expect your average congressman to be up on the science news, but these people are one the science committee, for God’s sake. What are they doing with their time if they don’t even read the bills they’re passing?

Well, we found out the answer when we got down here. They were more interested in playing golf than in their two hour whirlwind tour of the Pole before they got back on the plane. The guy from Tennessee reacted to the altitude so badly (we’re at 10,000 feet after all) that he had to be put on an oxygen tank. That didn’t stop him though. He was out there, golfing away, oxygen tank and all. The medical people were actually really concerned since his oxygen tubes were starting to freeze up. Guess that explains why they couldn’t be bothered to read the science budget…

Once again, I'm staying in a Korean-War-era tent (think MASH) a few minutes walk from the main station. I had a little trouble getting acclimated to the altitude (some lightheadedness, dizziness, etc.) but I already feel better acclimated than I ever did last year. At least I can walk up the stairs. And things are actually a little bit more relaxing this year than last. I have less to do, and I know what to expect. So I think I'll be able to get my Economist side projects done without arousing the suspicion of my bosses down here.

One last photo. It may be hard to see, but there's a beautiful rainbow around the sun from floating ice crystals:

Yes Mom, I'm Still Alive

Wow. It's been a long time since I've posted. I know you've all been waiting with bated breath for my next report. It's been an eventful few days, including my flight to McMurdo and then on to the Pole (among my co-travellers was a distinguished congressional delegation. I've got much, much more to say about that...)

Unfortunately, you'll have to wait just a teeny, tiny bit longer for the full story. There have been problems with the satellite connection at Pole, so I've been without the luxury of the internet for awhile now. Fortunately, the problem seems to be fixed, and I'm in the process of transitioning to night shift, so I should once again be basking in the warm glow of the Internet soon. I'll give a more full report (with pictures) sometime tomorrow...

P.S. I just found out that I'm getting to write a five article series of diary articles for the Economist's website. Should be fun. And should be a good chance to recycle some of the material from this blog...

Stopping to Smell the Roses

Today was a pretty relaxing day, culminating in a stroll through the botanic gardens. I figured I'd better get a whiff of the roses since I'm about to enter the land without smells. Well, I should say the land without pleasant smells. Of course there are plenty of disgusting, unshowered human smells.

We're supposed to report at oh-six-hundred tomorrow morning for the flight down there. If all goes well, I'll be writing next from Antarctica...