Feb 8th – Day 40 on Ice

Weather: Crappy observing weather; overcast but not windy today. Temperature: -26C nearly no wind chill. Quite pleasant outside, except that there is very low contrast.

Big news: my hockey sticks did arrive! My ridiculous packing job worked!

I tried out my roller blades on the gym floor… they kind of worked, though I can’t turn very well since the floor is some slick rubber tiles (see rubbery tiles in above image).

I decided to go out for a run today, though it became more of a hike, as I went off the beaten path for a while; following a flag line down the visibility markers (1km spaced large black flags used for measuring visibility). It’s actually quite terrifying because the snow can settle in a weird way, and kind of collapse a bit around you.. Makes a creepy noise like the ground is about to give-way, but it just settles by an inch or so. It’s also really hard to run in, because you sink in 6-8 inches so it’s like constantly running stairs. The low contrast today was another difficulty, because I couldn’t tell what the level of the snowtop was, and was bumbling around over sastrugi and falling into softer snow.

The flagline I ran down is the one followed by cross-continent skiers as they approach the South Pole and leads to the tourist camp (which has been cleaned up for the season for about 3 weeks now).

About 2 km out past the tourist camp, at the edge of the dark sector is a welcome sign for travelers that I had never seen before!

It was extremely difficult to get my phone to auto-focus since everything was so flat white, but I did get one shot from the end of the visibility flagline. It was definitely an interesting vantage point for the facilities at Pole.

I suppose skis would make traveling on this unpacked snow a bit easier, but I can only imagine what spending MONTHS traveling across the continent would be like. It was really tiring just hiking the ~4 miles I did today, and trying to stay thermally equilibrated was a challenge too. I had my jacket off most of the time since it wasn’t windy, but as my legs tired and I had to walk more often, I cooled off pretty quickly. I was also only wearing trail-running shoes, so my feet were pretty cold by the end (though the ice that forms on my socks helps insulate my feet :P) .

Tomorrow is the last brunch of the year 😥 . In Winter, the galley staff has off on Sundays, so we have to cook for ourselves… it’s a harsh continent, I know.

Next week marks the last week of summer here at Pole, and flights will start shuttling people out in large numbers; we’ll have to lose about 100 people. Saturday February 15th is the last flight out. Then, the station is closed to LC-130s. We still have a few smaller planes passing through for about 1 week after station close; stopping to fuel-up and continue on their way up to South America, and on then on up to Canada.