BFC Kate sent us this message from the South Pole today.
She was the McMurdo support person who helped us set up
camp in Bull Pass last season. This season she is supporting
the South Pole Station. Click on the link included below to
see some of her fantastic photos.




Greetings family and friends,
A warm hello from the South Pole! Actually it has been warm
comparatively (it's been in the -teens lately). I have been meaning
to write an email and send pics for some time but the Internet is
super slow and times are limited so now as we get ready to leave I
finally have something to send along!
Kev and I have been at the Pole since Nov. 14th, and have been
enjoying an entirely different Antarctic experience from the previous
few seasons. The South Pole sits at 90 degrees south at about 9500
feet. Depending on the barometric pressure the altitude can feel up
to 10,600 ft. on some days. The average temp in the summer runs
somewhere around -20 to -30, yet there is always the wind chill to
factor in which makes walking between buildings a major event in which
much time is spent bundling up. But you get used to factoring in the
dressing time, and it's amazing how quickly your body adjusts to the
temps.
So, what are we doing here you may ask. Kev and I are working here
supporting a project called AGAP. Check out their website :
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~mstuding/AGAP/. This is the last year
of a three year project in which they are studying a huge underground
mountain range. The field site is about 250 miles from Pole and sits
at about 11,500 (but can feel up to 14 or 15,000 ft again dependent on
pressure), so we are here at the pole to help folks acclimitize,
organize cargo, feed them and basically herd them to the plane when
the time comes. It is a nice short contract which will hopefully
enable us to be home by x-mas. All was looking good until a few days
ago when we started to get freezing fog and flights started to get
cancelled. So, currently, we have 8 scientists here waiting to get to
AGAP and the soonest they will leave will be Wednesday, so we just
take it day by day as that's the only way here on the harshest
continent.
Other than that, when we have not had people here to take care of we
have been able to plug in with other departments. We have spent loads
of time shoveling and more shoveling, doing inventory and just doing
whatever is asked of us. Not so bad for a short period of time and a
great way to get to know folks around station. South Pole station has
about 250 people here in the summer. Their summer season runs from
late October to early Feb. It's amazing that they even have a station
here as the conditions are so harsh and so much time each season is
spent digging out many structures. The current station is the third
one in the almost 60 years the US has had a station here. The first
one sits under about 30 feet of snow and is totally off limits after a
D-8 (big machine) punched through while driving around on top of the
old station. In the early 70's they built the Dome which housed close
to 120 people and the rest were housed outside the dome in Jamesways
(large heated tents). The dome worked well until it, too, succumbed
to the drifting and became mostly buried. The dome was connected to a
number of tunnels which are still in use today and are connected to
the new station. The new station was built in 2003 and is an elevated
station which will hopefully help it not fall prey to the huge amount
of drifting that happens every year. Yet, this year they have spent a
fair amount of time moving snow as it is already starting to build up.
Our tax dollars are hard at work here at the bottom of the earth for
sure!
All in all it's been a great experience to be here at the Pole. The
small station and close knit community makes it feel like a big field
camp. We do miss seeing penguins, seals and in general, some
topography (it's flat and white as far as the eye can see here), but
in many ways this feels more like the Antarctica I expected to
experience upon first coming to the continent.
Well, here are a bunch of photos from our last month.
http://picasaweb.google.com/katekoons/Antarctica09?feat=directlink
We wish you all a very happy holiday season and hope to see an of you
very soon!!!
Love,
Kate and Kev