Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station
Hmmm. Finally I DID get around to adding the winter 2008 blog/web site links...and you may want to check some of them out for more details of the Polestock 2008 blowout party this coming weekend...
The sun set a month ago...so now if you go outside you will NOT see that bright sunlit station in the above photo...rather...a hint of twilight...some stars, an aurora or two...and until today a bright Moon...which is gone now, leaving a rather dark sky and some great auroras today (2 May). Meanwhile the "extended season" in McMurdo finally ended on 17 April when the last C-17 flight brought in about 6 pax and took out 100, including the contractor folks who'd been erecting a new fuel tank on the former site of F-Stop/TESL. 125 folks were left for the remainder of the McMurdo winter...which may not end until a late and abbreviated Winfly starting 4 September.
The station closed a day early on 14 February...and when the ice crystals settled there were 60 of us here...including me. Yes, Bill Spindler is back at Pole for, yes, my third winter. After a couple of weeks of traveling, including 14 hours from LAX to Sydney in a middle seat, I made it to Pole on the 6th. I'm becoming only slightly less busy, so stay tuned...
Traverses and aircraft were in the news all summer. The South Pole Traverse from McM reached Pole (the first time) on 8 January. They turned around and came back on the 14th after the American/Norwegian traverse broke down--to stand by if they needed to assist. And a few days before Christmas the USAP Basler crashed at a West Antarctic field site. Ten aboard, no injuries. This put a crimp in various projects as well as that oft-threatened
"soft close" in February. But another Basler was sent to help the American/Norwegian traverse.
Yes, there was a C-17 airdrop on 19 December! Plus some other interesting aviation news (and photos) from the summer season, found in the news., as well as the rest of the info on the icebreaker and those summer NGA trekkers.
Check out the partial digout of 917 (the buried plane at the end of the skiway) so that the tail could be removed as a hazard to navigation as it were...
My second winter was in 2005 as the Title II Inspector (huh, what's that?)...and stayed on for a month after the 21 October station opening until the summer person showed up. I returned to the US on 21 January after 2 months in NZ/OZ. Hopefully before I left I wasn't too toasty to write a feature article for the 30 October 2005 Antarctic Sun..... Read it for yourself and decide...
One of the oldest and best Antarctic message boards has gone away due to the ravages of spam and nasty stuff, but a new one has emerged from the ashes, brought to you by some of the same folks. It's Pole (and Palmer) friendly...stop by!
More news updated 2 May...
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