Traverses arrive at South Pole

Photo Credit: Al Baker

The Norwegian-U.S. IPY science traverse arrives at the South Pole.

The South Pole received a host of visitors recently. They didn't arrive by air, the regular mode of travel to the bottom of the world, but overland traverse.

The South Pole Traverse, an overland tractor train, arrived by a snow route from McMurdo Station after 52 days. The traverse reportedly had a tough slog through an area called the shear zone, a crevassed region. The traverse is a logistics operation that delivers cargo and fuel by sled using large tractors.

An altogether different traverse, the Norwegian-U.S. Scientific Traverse , arrived at Pole on Dec. 11. The science team is on the second of two field seasons, crossing a large swath of East Antarctica to take measurements on the ice sheets along with drilling for ice cores. The ultimate goal is to learn more about climate change and variability. [See article: Norway, U.S. team up for IPY traverse.]

During the 2007-08 season, the scientists traveled overland from the Norwegian Troll Station on the coast toward the South Pole, stopping at Plateau Station and the Pole of Inaccessibility along the way. Mechanical problems with the transfer cases on the vehicles stopped the traverse some 350 kilometers short of the South Pole.

But the traverse appears to be back on track, with the team expecting to spend about 10 days at the South Pole, reloading the sledges with supplies and equipment for the return journey, according to the expedition Web site. It will make its return journey to Norway's Troll Station across the Recovery subglacial lakes and the Dronning Maud Land ice sheet. The team expects to reach Troll Station in February.

Polies remain plenty busy supporting science at the station, with a record population of 279 tipping in on Dec. 13. A construction crew continues to install siding on the new Elevated Station. The IceCube project , an under-ice observatory to study neutrinos, has already drilled four holes for the kilometer-long strings of sensors.

Despite the long hours, station personnel find time for a little recreation. Activities include everything from yoga to pub trivia. Polies are showing their creative sides with an art show, an ice sculpture contest and fiction-writing competition this month.

New faces appear at Pole

Photo Credit: Kevin Torphy

The first plane to visit the South Pole in about eight months takes off.

Oct. 26 was a clear, sunny Sunday afternoon — a balmy minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit with low wind. About 20 winter-overs stood lined up along side our freshly groomed and flagged skiway, looking horrifically toward the skies to our left.

It appeared at about 4 in the afternoon. First, a tiny black dot. Then an unfamiliar moving object. Then there it was, on the ground, throwing contrails off the snow like mud off the back tire of a dirt bike at the starting line.

The much anticipated, and simultaneously feared, Basler airplane skied toward us at a brisk pace, came to a stop, and opened its doors. One by one, it unleashed 17 bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, orange-colored people upon the South Pole , a stark contrast to the toasty winter-over family of 60 who had just completed the long, harsh nine-month winter.

The skittishness and overwhelming feeling of the winter-overs quickly evaporated, however, by the appearance of bananas and oranges from the pockets of the strange beings from a foreign land. They come in peace, but just how did they know this particular offering would work? We didn’t care. We just snatched up the glorious fresh fruit — the first since the last plane left in February — and lost the ability to focus on anything but stuffing these delicious treats into our salivating mouths.

The next day brought another Basler flight and another 17 new faces to scare the daylight out of us whenever we see them walking down the hallway. Another couple hundred people are scheduled to arrive at Pole over the next month, and the ultra-busy and chaotic summer season will be in full swing. And the 60 of us will be blissfully unemployed, sitting on a beach somewhere in the world, sipping beverages with tiny umbrellas in them.

The Winter-over Ceremony, one of the great winter traditions at South Pole, occurred a couple days after the first flight arrived. Katie Hess, South Pole Winter Site manager, called each person up individually to receive his or her Antarctic Service Medals .

Congress provides the medals, a gesture of appreciation to anyone who has completed a U. S. expedition to Antarctica. The ribbon on the medal is symbolic of the changing seasons at the South Pole. The outer bands of black and dark blue take up five-twelfths the width of the ribbon, and symbolize the five months of darkness during winter. The middle bands of gradually lighter blue and white stripes represent the seven months of daylight, as well as the aurora australis that appears during the dark months.

Three words are engraved on the back of the medal. According to Public Law 600, passed by the 86th Congress in 1960, “Although the former rigors and dangers of Antarctic exploration have largely been banished by technology, the words on the reverse of this medal are yet a wise injunction to those who go to the Antarctic: Courage, Sacrifice, Devotion.”

Sun finally appears at Pole

Spring is the briefest of seasons at the South Pole, but the growing season is yearlong thanks to an indoor hydroponic greenhouse.

Polies celebrated the season with the first-ever Farmers Market in the station's South Pole Food Growth Chamber, coordinated by winter-over Greenhouse Technician Teresa Eddington. Participants could choose from an assortment of fresh, hydroponically grown vegetables such as broccoli, cucumbers, kale, lettuce, onions, and assorted greens and herbs.

Approximately 15 pounds of produce was harvested by Polies, which individuals used to flavor up their Sunday meals or drinks, such as salads and mint sun tea.

The year’s one and only sunrise is the big highlight in September at the South Pole. In the wee hours of the morning on Sept. 22, the sun once again appeared above the horizon, though its light had already been illuminating the sky for some time.

A week into September, we finally removed window coverings placed over all station windows during the dark months to protect light-sensitive science equipment; we also stopped using headlamps outdoors weeks prior to the actual equinox on Sept. 23.

Because the sun rises over several weeks, those of us lucky enough to see it witnessed quite a show. Some transitions of light that last just minutes or even seconds in places of the world where the sun comes and goes daily, will last for hours or even days at the South Pole, allowing us to see shades of color that most people have never seen in the sky before.

September and sunrise also marked the continuation of the wildly popular Pole Stock concert series, with the Mother of Pole Stock show featuring several groups for the two-day weekend at sunrise. Stations residents have rehearsed and performed gigs during off-duty hours all winter long.

Along with the return of the sun come high hopes and aspirations for travel plans. The winter-over crew will be departing the continent in less than two months, and the fact that the majority of us are contract employees means plenty of fun in the sun awaits. And we’ve already made plenty of travel plans.

Some of the adventures include rock climbing Down Under in Australia; hiking in the Andes mountains of South America; African overland tours; packing up the family and moving to Costa Rica; spending nine months training to be a scuba diving instructor; a motorcycle road trip from coast to coast across the United States; and soaking up some sun in Hawaii.

Of course, many of us will roam around for a spell in New Zealand, the main gateway for the U.S. Antarctic Program to Antarctica.

As the 2008 winter season nears its end and sunlight returns to our skies, the tired and sometimes burnt-out workers finally can literally and figuratively see that light at the end of the tunnel!

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