Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

This Week in Pole brings changes, station opening, the official arrival of the summer season, new people... none of which have to be dealt with for long (fortunately) as it also means us winter-overs will soon (or already are) leaving the ice.

The first Herc of the summer finally reaches the Pole

New people and cargo are all brought to the South Pole from McMurdo via LC-130 (Hercules) planes operated by the Air National Guard. This year they set out from their base in New York with five planes, and subsequently left a trail of broken planes on their route to Christchurch/McMurdo. A week ago there wasn't even a functioning Herc on the continent. Now there are two. Because of a mix of these mechanical failures and bad weather, we received our first plane on 11/6, as opposed to 11/1. This backs up all the replacements and turnover for the summer season, and means many people may be getting out of there later than planned. 

New people on station means everything is changing rapidly as the summer season has officially started. But it's interesting to see just how the station itself has changed over the course of the winter. For one, large drifts develop over the course of the winter which must be plowed away during the summer.

"MAPO mountain"

A two-story drift develops around MAPO, a building in the dark sector that houses the machine shop and SPUD/Keck telescope. The drift is actually almost two stories tall, the windows you see there are the second story of the MAPO building, and the doors on the lower level are obscured by central smaller drift.

Drift upwind from the station

You can also see a drift develop upwind from the main station. The station is supposed to prevent drifts from forming under the station, and as you can see the area under the station is relatively flat. Apparently in 2012 this drift had hardly formed at all, but because not enough personnel are sent down in summer to properly clear it, the drift has been getting worse each year after that.

It is also interesting how our interactions have changed over the winter. At the start of the winter everyone was very friendly to each other, mostly because you don't want to start off on a bad footing with someone you will spend the next 9 months with. Of course, over time us winter-overs learned what truly terrible human beings each other are. Conflicts inevitably develop, resulting in hate, which festers over the course of the winter until it blossoms into spite - the purest of human emotions. Still, open conflict is rare - no one wants to rock the boat too much while everyone still has months to go. However, the final week before people depart, everyone will shortly fly off the ice and soon enough practically be dead to each other, allowing a unique opportunity to completely tell someone off right before parting ways. It's a beautiful thing.

At the end of winter, successful winter-overs are all given the Antarctic Service Medal. Anyone who spends 15-30 days below 60 degrees South in support of the USAP receives one of these, but winter-overs receive an extra "wintered over" bar.

Shiny

Other snowdrifts:

• I avoid the new folks by hiding in my room. Every new named learned is a personal defeat.
• In addition to LC-130s, DC-17s are also used for flights in between Christchurch and McMurdo. The Hercs also service larger field camps and other stations nearby McMurdo. 
• The first herc also brought everyone their first mail, and in a few flights some of our mail should finally get out. 
• The crew that came in early on the Basler managed to fix the Rodwell, so we are now on full water usage!
• No, no one at pole voted because our mail-in ballots wouldn't reach the states in time

Next Week in Pole: All the Hercs on continent cease to function

Packing for Pole

This week in pole I'll be discussing how to pack for a winter at the South Pole. Hopefully this is useful for future winterovers that stumble across this. As I am now packing my things up to leave the pole, I'm able to better reflect on what was actually necessary and what was completely useless down here.

Of course, you really don't need to bring anything. You could show up at the pole for a winter with 7 pairs of underwear, a pair of sneakers, and $500 in cash and be able to survive off of everything on station. You might have trouble getting through TSA with just that on, but still, down here there's a library with books and dvds, a computer lab if you don't have a laptop, and a station store to buy toiletries and clothes (which most people buy and wear around all the time anyway).

Anyway, like a good capitalist I wanted to bring my own stuff. I modeled the organization of my list off of one I found from Jeffrey Donenfeld's blog. Here's what I brought and some notes on if I thought it was necessary:

Mostly I found that I didn't bring too much in excess. Some notes of reflection:

• Contacts! USAP said that contacts are bad here because of the dryness, but in my experience glasses were worse outside because of the fogging. It made aurora viewing much more unpleasant trying to wipe my glasses every minute. I'd definitely also bring a face mask to avoid glasses/goggle fogging. Something like the ones available from Cold Avenger.
• I brought too many t-shirts and long-sleeve tops. Since I ended up purchasing some clothes at the station store, the extra clothes I brought were even more unnecessary. Plus it is so dry here that you don't sweat as much and can wear the same t-shirt 7 days in a row no problem (this might only be because I have absolutely no sense of smell). 
• Even though the station store has toiletries, you might as well bring all the ones you will use. After all, this year our store ran out of floss a couple months into winter. 
• I would have shaved more often if I had brought an electric razor
• I covered what camera(s) to bring here
• Rechargeable batteries and chargers were available on station (or at least a SPT). 
• Some things, like fleece tops, glove liners, hats, and socks are provided in the ECW gear, however if you have favorites that are more comfortable consider bringing them. 
• It could be nice to bring down some food you know isn't available here, and open it mid-winter. I didn't do this but SPT had a box arranged for us that we opened mid-winter. 
• Could have used a French Horn down here, and Rock Band video game with drum set. 
• Hardly anybody played Smallworld with me (jerks), might have had better luck with Twilight Imperium. My plan to descend the station into a modern Lord of the Flies with a game of Diplomacy (already on station) failed, although there is a pig's head on a stick down here, but pandemonium spread anyways several months later during the Great Water Crisis. 

If you are fortunate enough to know you will be going to Pole several months in advance, you can plan ahead and ship everything to yourself. Your address at Pole with be an APO, and everything will be shipped to you via Guard Mail. The price to ship things to/from pole is therefore just like using the US postal service in the states (so very cheap considering where you're shipping to/from). I didn't know I was coming down here early enough to use this, but I did ship several boxes home.

I should also note that down here you can get Prodeals on several sites. So if there is equipment you with to have only for travel afterwards, consider purchasing after you are down here and get a USAP email address. Just note it is hard to get it down here, you will have to find a way to get it to Christchurch for when you leave the ice. I got prodeals for promotive, Osprey, smartwool, and several other companies. 

Other Toiletries:

• The Basler didn't actually take our mail out, because they needed a cargo number from up North that the cargo archons in denver would not provide. Typical government operation.
• The Basler did take a polie away. One of our VMF guys had been on continent since Winfly 2013 (so here 14 months or so) and we very eager to leave. So he did. 
• The Basler also returned with people from McMurdo who brought a new hot-water drill to help fix the Rodwell. They seem to actually be making some progress. 
• We didn't do anything special for Halloween because everyone hates each other too much, but someone did put out year-old candy corn in the galley, which disappeared surprisingly fast -- I guess we are all hungry for a taste other than the usual galley fare. 
• We did have our last concert, a "punk rock" show, because we were too lazy to move the equipment from the band room and crammed all 7 people who showed up into the small room. 
• We were supposed to have our first C-130 flight in yesterday (November 1st), but it was delayed due to lack of plane and weather. We are expecting two flights on Monday, November 3rd. That could be 40-60 new people. Dreadful. 

Next Week in Pole: Definitely not murdering anyone!