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!