Horlick Mountains
On December 21, I went on an unforgettable trip to the Horlick Mountain Region on the Antarctic plateau to prepare an air-dropped fuel cache for a remote field site. The adventure is best told in...
View ArticleChristmas at the South Pole
Many of you have asked what's going on at the South Pole for Christmas! Well, to answer your questions, Santa does visit, even though we're his farthest delivery. Although, this year, he's had a bit of...
View ArticleR&R in Club Mac
Today is day 4 of my week-long vacation in McMurdo station, and I'm working. I'm not complaining though, because the work I'm doing here today is prep for the trip north to Christchurch, New Zealand,...
View ArticleTeen and B in New Zealand
>my flight to christchurch was a pax flight full of 76 people, most of whom had been stuck in mactown for 8 days waiting to get out. the storm hit the very day that C-141 cargo flights were finally...
View Articlebday
i never thought i'd have my own personal flight across the continent on my birthday, but such is luck in the united states antarctic program. it was friday around 10am, birthday eve. i was sitting in...
View Article360 degrees
>Today I went with some people from meteorology on a snow stake run. it was my last time being away from the station before winter sets in. we followed a line of stakes that went 20km out from the...
View Articlepre-station closing crisis
>"we have to have a cryo crisis at the end of the season" says my boss on sunday afternoon after the dust settles on a close call with the liquid nitrogen plant, "it happens every year". of course,...
View Articlethe first day of the rest of the winter
the day was so overcast and windy, nobody actually thought the planes would have enough visibility to land. it was the fourth or so day in a row of this weather--the first real storm of the summer. the...
View ArticleFirst week of Winter
Eighty-six people in the middle of the vastest space of white and blue I have ever seen, and the station starts to break.Two days after we said goodbye to our last plane, I heard the bad news at lunch...
View ArticleSunset
> After weeks of pink skies and long shadows, the sun finally set on March 23. It was hard to know exactly when it set, because the refraction of the light through the atmosphere actually made it...
View ArticleDusk
> It has been weeks since sunset and I just saw my first stars tonight. It was a cool feeling. I was walking out to one of the telescope buildings that is about a half mile from the main station....
View Articleanother day at the office
Well, instead of sending another picture with the sky being an even darker shade, I think I'll take this little entry to tell you about what the heck I do here. Many people ask that. I ask that...
View Articlethe southern lights
yesterday the skies exploded at the south pole. Ken had just stopped by where I work, and we were both stepping outside--me to shovel out my door, and him to finish his maintenance rounds on station....
View ArticleSouth Pole Gas Station and Other Winter Fun
>I think this might be the only place in the world where Americans can buy gas for less than 2 bucks a gallon. When I need some gas for my snowmobile, I just pull up here and crank out the gas free...
View ArticleCrazy Weather...
At 1am, I woke up to my friend Tony's voice over the all-call system. Normally, this would mean it was a Saturday night and Tony was knackered, making jokes, but this was a week night, and you'd better...
View Article300 Club
300 ClubOriginally uploaded by teenmachine. It's high noon and every eye in the galley is glued on the TV. From the looks of it, we could have been watching the first moon landing. But no, all those...
View ArticleAway from the Office
Away from the Office Originally uploaded by teenmachine. > I normally work alone here. It's usually just me, my snowmobile, and a sky slammed with auroras to light the way. Lately, though, I've been...
View ArticleCold!
Cold! Originally uploaded by teenmachine. Considering the temperature rarely gets above zero here, it's not exactly a revelation to say that it's cold at the South Pole. However, the other day, even...
View ArticleMonopoly
MonopolyOriginally uploaded by teenmachine. > It's not often that you see an audience of grown menaround a monopoly board, watching intently as if it were the superbowl. That is, of course, unless...
View ArticleLight at the End of the Tunnel
Light at the End of the Tunnel Originally uploaded by teenmachine. This weekend, when I walked outside, the sky was offering one of the best shows I've ever seen. A giant green and purple swirling...
View ArticleFire Drill
Fire Drill Originally uploaded by teenmachine. There is no such thing as dialing "911" to get an ambulance or fire truck here. We are our own Trauma and Fire Teams. Before I ever left for the South...
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