[photo by Nick Powell, Antarctic Photo Library]

NEWS

Lockheed (remember the contract?)...I've updated that page about the contract rebid/transition, including the latest in the fast-changing set of links to the hiring information. Briefly, Lockheed and their subcontractors are focusing on employment arrangements for the current winterovers and incumbent full-timers in Denver... along with all of the other administrivia that goes with the transition. The CH2M Hill protest does not seem to be having any impact on the contract turnover process.

Shipping update...the tanker (photo below left) finished offloading about 6.3 million gallons of fuel, and undocked from the ice pier on 2 February...the too-thin ice pier will now be moved out of the way to Hut Point to make way for the Green Wave. It is scheduled to reach Lyttelton on 5 February. Because of the weight of the pontoon causeway on board, some of the other containers will need to be offloaded there and flown down before the vessel heads south on the 7th. The offload, plus setting up/taking down the causeway, will take about 11 days...the extra time for the ship offload plus the added flights will stretch the McM closing into early March. Pole reportedly has all of its needed supplies.

Back in the IGY before there were Pole markers, there already was a certain distinctive abbreviation for the station (right). So what does NPX stand for?

2 February, the Pole tourist season is over. The last two teams in the EWR Race to the South Pole arrived on the 28th. After a brief tour of the station, the remaining racers were quickly flown back to Novo, and the Arctic Trucks team packed up their camp a few miles away, and headed for Novo--by now they're at least halfway back. The deserted tourist camp site has been left to the winterover Polies. The only other NGO travelers still moving on the continent are Dixie Dansercorer and Sam Deltour, who have now kited over 3000 miles on a looping track from Novo via Pole and Dome C...setting a new long-distance Antarctic travel record. They were still perhaps 1800 miles from Novo...will they make it back before the end of the season or will they need to get picked up?

The Russian icebreaker Vladimir Ignatyuk arrived at McM the last week in January, here's video of it at work, from the I drive. And after that bit of work, the tanker Maersk Peary showed up on the 27th...(left, a 28 January photo by Steven Royce/Antarctic Photo Library). As for the cargo vessel Green Wave, it left Port Hueneme on 10 January (DLA news article) but since then there have been a few mechanical problems. It was near Hawaii earlier this week, the most recent arrival estimate I've heard is mid-February. Meanwhile, a crew of as many as 40 members of a US Army causeway battalion were starting to arrive in McM to deal with the pontoons that will be used in lieu of the ice pier.

News from NZ...Jarle Andhøy and Samuel Massie, the surviving members of last season's tragic Berserk Pole attempt, have come up with a yacht and crew in Auckland and are heading for the Ross Sea...with a Maori worker who was working below when they cast off. and the NZ authorities were looking for them. They announced plans to head for Pole using the quad bikes they left behind at McM last year, or perhaps they're just going to pick up their gear at Scott Base (the latest news).

25 January...the last few weeks of summer...the tourist season is almost over. Although the ALE camp at Union Glacier is closing this week, several teams from the Extreme World Races (EWR) event (supported out of Novo by the Arctic Trucks team) were still en route hoping to reach the station by the last week in January. Other recent visitors official and otherwise included Michel Rocard, the 1988-91 prime minister of France, as well as British TV star Helen Skelton (right; EWR/Arctic Trucks photo). Helen's polar venture has created an international media frenzy and at least one dubious "world record" claim (ExplorersWeb commentary). Elsewhere around the station, various science projects were finishing their summer work, efforts were continuing to get rodwell#3 operating, with assistance from John Rand, and the team from Lockheed-Martin arrived to begin the contract transition process. And there has been some testing of the new Skynet-4c satellite link.

100 years ago...5 Englishmen showed up at Pole on foot. No warm visitor center, no elevated station, no aircraft to take them back to London...nothing... but a tent left by Amundsen's party which had preceded them by a month. So...the leader Robert Falcon Scott's comment on reaching his goal was, "Great God! This is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward of priority." Gee, what would you say under such circumstances? Perhaps words that I'd rather not put on this web site. Well, on 17 January 2012 things were a bit different, there were perhaps about 70 NGO visitors, and there was a ceremony to mark the occasion. One of the speakers was area manager Bill Coughran (left), another was Henry Worsley, a member of the Royal British Legion and a relative of Frank Worsley, the captain of the Endurance on Shackleton's 1914-16 trans-Antarctic attempt. Worsley had arrived at Pole via Amundsen's route as part of the British Scott-Amundsen Centenary Race. The team following Scott's route did make it to Pole before midnight on the 17th. Henry also took Scott's route to Pole a few years ago (more photos and information about the ceremony). Meanwhile, there also was a commemorative dinner at Scott Base, one of the attendees was Falcon Scott, Robert's grandson, who has been working with the Antarctic Heritage Trust on the restoration of the Terra Nova hut at Cape Evans.

Yes...1 January did bring the unveiling of the latest and great Pole marker (right)...an amazing construction by Steele Diggles, the 2011 machinist.

Just when you thought it might not happen...it did. There is a contract protest. CH2M Hill was officially debriefed by NSF on 5 January and filed a protest the next day. This Engineering News-Record story is no longer available to nonsubscribers, but this article should be around longer. "CH2M HILL Antarctic Support, Inc. is disappointed with result of the NSF's selection process for the Antarctic Support Contract," the company said in a statement. Lockheed-Martin declined to comment on the protest. And NSF contracting officer Bart Bridwell noted, "I'm afraid Federal acquisition isn't for the faint of heart." According to the official court docket, a decision was due by 18 April.

At sea 375 miles north of McMurdo, the Korean 167-foot fishing vessel Jeong Woo, with 40 aboard, caught fire on 13 January (right), 3 crew members were killed in the fire...and various vessels including other fishing boats and the Nathaniel B. Palmer (NBP) rushed to the rescue. Seven of the most seriously injured crew members were taken aboard the NBP, which headed swiftly toward McM, reaching the ice edge around 0700 on the 13th. The injured personnel were taken to McM and put on a LC-130 which arrived in Christchurch that evening. The NBP had been on a science cruise from Punta Arenas, studying phytoplankton production in the Ross Sea, and had originally been scheduled to dock at McM on 6 February. Here is a 17 January Christchurch Press article. Earlier articles are from the New Zealand Herald and from Sail World...the photo at right was taken by NBP crew member Johnny Pierce. The final marine update from NZ appears to be from Maritime NZ dated 13 January; here is a 23 January Antarctic Sun article which describes the excellent response by the NBP and the rest of the USAP community.

The folks from Arctic Trucks have been doing some amazing long-distance off-road and on-road exploits...in late December they made a quick dash from Pole to the McMurdo area (blog), they'd previously said that they'd head to McM via the Beardmore Glacier, but they actually made both legs of the journey on the Leverett Glacier USAP traverse route. They met up with Felicity Aston along the way, reached the coast near McMurdo on 14 December, and dashed back to Pole on the 17th. Then, after making further preparation for the South Pole Race, they had some extra time and did a side trip to the Pole of Inaccessibility, which they documented with the photo at left at the bust of Lenin that the USSR erected in the 1958-59 season. It's on top of a building which has a guest book inside, but none of the recent visitors have dug their way in to sign it. After that, the Arctic Trucks folks have been supporting the 2011 Race to the South Pole, an event that started on 4 January. It's 500 miles consisting of 2 250-mile legs...originally there were 7 3-person teams...as of 12 January the racers were halfway to Pole...the Norwegian team was the first to finish, on 20 January. Oh, in addition to supporting/following the race, the Arctic Trucks team was also supporting that ski/kite/bike trip by UK TV celebrity Helen Skelton, her trip also happens to be 500 miles...she reached Pole on 22 January.

Finally, on 28 December US time, almost a week after the announcement on the ice, we have some official press releases about the contract award. Here's NSF's news release, and here is the Lockheed Martin announcement. Interested in jobs with LMCO or their subcontractors? Go here.

It turns out that 2011 brought not one but TWO major weather records! On Christmas Day the official high temperature was +9.9°F/-12.3°C...which significantly exceeded the old record of +7.5°F/-13.6°C set on 27 December 1978. Yes, you'll notice the scroll image at left is a bit off...some things don't change from 1977, when our thermometer was a bit off when we did the 300 club. Here is a blog post from the folks at the University of Wisconsin.

Merry Christmas...Happy Holidays...and the best for the New Year! At right, the 2011 greeting card...created from the group photo with the Norwegian prime minister.

Friday the 23rd around noon SP time...the announcement was made that Lockheed Martin would be awarded the Antarctic support contract. Nothing on the news wires at the time, but the official announcement was made by Sam Feola to everyone in the program. Here's the announcement on the RPSC transition update page. And Lockheed Martin just put up a special preliminary job announcement page for some positions in the program...check it out!

Tuesday the 13th at Pole was "science day" for Prime Minister Stoltenberg...he toured ARO and the dark sector; at left, Bradford Benson explains to the PM what is going on with the SP telescope (info/credit). As for the 14th...the plans did change...he and his party went out a few miles from the station and skied back with some of the Norwegian skiers (the "South Pole 1911-2011" was still 50 miles away...Jan-Gunnar Winther and Stein Aasheim from that expedition were picked up and flown to Pole on the 13th, and the rest of the team breathlessly arrived the next day. The big ceremony and video presentation did happen...the major event and ice sculpture unveiling happened at 1600 on the 14th...and filmed to be broadcast later in Norway. It featured a solo performance of the Norwegian national anthem by Zondra Skertich, on flute. Here's the official video! My coverage starts here, and Peter Rejcek was on site for the occasion, check out his excellent Antarctic Sun article! Later, there was a private dinner for some of the senior DV's, and a reception in the gym which turned into a party with live music. There was another bit of a ceremony early in the morning of the 15th...the folks figured that Amundsen had arrived around 0430 on the 15th SP time. And then, despite low visibility...the LC-130 landed on the third attempt...and the PM and his entourage departed. The tourist camp was still full, but since then many folks have departed...while others are en route.

Monday 12 December US time...the Norwegian press is not the only media covering the events. The New York Times published this feature article which describes not only the Scott-Amundsen "race" but also the past and future science objectives on the continent. And on the editorial page, there is also a great opinion piece about Amundsen's venture.

Monday 12 December...Jens Stoltenberg, the Prime Minister of Norway, with entourage, arrived at Pole in time for lunch (!) (right, more info/credits) They stayed for about 3 days...and Jens briefly donned a pair of skis and tweeted "Skiing at the South Pole..." (!) The visit is a record...while heads of state have visited before, none have ever stayed overnight. The group included a state secretary, Hans Kristian Amundsen (!). On Wednesday the Prime Minister gave a speech, which was televised on both of Norway's TV networks. There also was live music from the Ceremonial Pole and participation by the Crown Prince Haakon, from Tromsø, Norway. Here are two news articles from Norway: an article in Norwegian from dagbadet.no with video in English and an article in English from theforeigner.no. Stay tuned...

Tourist time has begun...the Norwegian press entourage has shown up to prepare for the visit of the prime minister. He of course would arrive on an American LC-130, but meanwhile the official Norwegian centenary traverse was also on track to arrive on 14 December, as of the 10th they were at 88°33'S, only 100 statute miles/161 km away. Meanwhile, the first skier teams arrived...and the tourist tent city was growing fast as folks flew in from UG and Novo. Three of the Arctic Trucks vehicles also showed up, led by Extreme World Races (EWR) CEO Tony Martin, reached Pole (or more exactly, the ALCI camp/fuel depot a few miles away) on 6 December...they were doing preparation for the EWR and leading some high school student skiers. They all arrived at Pole the next day...the skiers were flown out, and the EWR vehicles are soon to be off for McMurdo via the Beardmore glacier. Other tourists are starting to arrive by air (right, more info). The building complex in the background is the visitor center, and the square booth was used for electronics for the ceremonies on Amundsen's centenary day.

Elsewhere on the continent...the Antarctic Ice Marathon was held at Union Glacier on 7 December (more information below). And some rumor control...the Blue Ribbon panel (right) led by Norm Augustine (more information and photo caption) is now in McMurdo...on Sunday 4 December they held an open discussion. Before the main presentation, Dr. Karl Erb said that that an announcement about the contract rebid would be made within the next two weeks. Yes, the team visited Pole as well.

Still more shipping news...it seems that after all that work on the new McM ice pier, it won't work. Too much warm weather and bad weather has prevented its proper completion; it is too thin to support the cargo ship offload. So...the engineers spent some time figuring out what to do...it will be towed out of the way, and pontoons will be used for cargo offload. Where will the pontoons come from and how will they get there? One plan is for the U.S. Army to deploy a modular causeway system (pontoons) with a team of about 40 aboard the cargo ship Green Wave (note, this is NOT the same Green Wave that has visited McM in the past, but a newly reflagged vessel (the rest of the story about the cargo ship contract). Another plan...the responsible agency (the U.S. Navy Military Sealift Command) is looking for a separate breakbulk or LO/LO ("lift on/lift off") ice class vessel--one with cranes that can carry and offload 27 of the 40' causeway sections into the harbor. On 1 December they issued a request for information looking for what's out there. Like yesterday. Hmmm. Remember how easy it was to charter the icebreaker? Here's the 2 December Antarctic Sun article about the pier.

Preparations are continuing for all of the official and unofficial summer visitors expected around mid-December, including the prime minister of Norway (Antarctic Sun coverage). At left, carpenters are busy erecting the visitor center complex, which reportedly will use some of the plentiful midsummer solar energy (photo from Ethan Good). Many of the folks are underway, some are getting close...I keep updating my expedition status list below accordingly. Otherwise...some science construction...preparation for retrograde/storage of the IceCube drilling equipment...rather a strange summer without all of those drillers and other IceCubers filling up the B1 lounge. Some of the hot water drilling equipment is being sent back to McM for future use by the WISSARD (Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling) project...and the

One of many events being held this month to mark the centenary of folks getting to Pole was...a presentation jointly sponsored by the Explorers Club Washington (DC) Group, the Antarctican Society, and the Society of Woman Geographers, on Saturday 3 December at the Cosmos Club. I had great fun going, wearing black tie and a borrowed miniature Antarctic Service Medal (hero shot), hearing a fine talk by Jerry Marty, and meeting some of the other Antarcticans. And I also got to overnight with Antarctic friends. Okay...if you're unfamiliar with the Antarctican Society (more info) you should know that this isn't the only event in which they're involved with the Explorers Club...there's a much bigger event scheduled for 2-4 May 2012 in New York City, the 75th anniversary meeting of the American Polar Society. You have plenty of advance notice for this one.

1 December was the day set aside to mark the signing of an important document. No, NOT the contract, but the Antarctic Treaty...which was signed on 1 December 1959. So today is Antarctica Day. Polie Marie Mclane has more information and a collection of good links here.

As for the contract award, "mid November" has passed...as of 3 December the facts about the contract are...it has still not been awarded. The most recent rumor at the moment was that it might be announced on 1 December. Well, that was a good rumor, it's time for another one (my coverage updated 3 December).

The new IceCube winterover team is on station...it includes Carlos Pobes, who, it turns out will be thebe the second Spanish person to winter (I was recently reminded that Francisco Navarro, the 1984 UCLA grantee, also was from Spain). Here's an October interview with Carlos from El Periódico de Aragón (in Spanish). Otherwise, Saturday dinner on 12 November was interrupted by a glycol leak in the power plant...fumes and lots of glycol to mop up, but no power outage...still a significant and successful test for the brand new 2011-12 emergency response teams.

Last month, Arctic Trucks received official recognition from the Guiness Book of World Records for last season's trip from Novo to Pole...1434 miles in 108 hours (photo at left). Remember, 25 years ago ANI first set up an air operation in the Antarctic...now Arctic Trucks is rapidly becoming a significant player in ground operations. This year they have at least a dozen of their vehicles on the ice and are supporting several major national and NGO ventures (here's their 2011-12 home page). Meanwhile, the first teams traveling out of Novo are also heading south, although the Belgian long-distance kiting expedition (Dixie Dansercoer and Sam Deltourran) ran into unnavigable conditions and were being flown back to Novo to pick another route (a Reuters article and their expedition web site). Meanwhile the Norwegian Polar Institute team that has been following Amundsen's route from the Bay of Whales area is about 2 weeks behind Amundsen's pace, they may not make it to Pole in time for the centenary of his arrival (14 November Norway International Network article), or to meet up with the Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who presumably will arrive at Pole by LC-130.

A postscript on February's tragic Berserk expedition...Norwegian captain Jarle Andhøy, who was well on his way to Pole when the boat was lost, was fined NOK 25,000 ($4500) in early November. The official offense was: not notifying the Norwegian Polar Institute, not filing an environmental assessment, and lacking search-and-rescue insurance. Andhøy accepted the fine without comment, although it was announced on 9 November that he would participate with NRK television and produce a documentary about the venture (Vestbold Blad/Norwegian language page) (my coverage of the Berserk incident).

More shipping news...on 30 September Maersk Line, Limited (MLL) officially renamed the ice-class double-hull tanker Maersk Peary. The 591-foot, 38,200 DWT (deadweight tonnes) vessel, formerly the Jutul, was built in South Korea in 2004 and flagged in the Marshall Islands. She was officially reflagged into US registry on 19 September (press release from MLL and a (Tanker Operator article). She left Norfolk on 1 October, her next voyage will be to resupply McMurdo in January (earlier coverage on the Military Sealift Command (MSC) tanker contract).

Another aircraft update...after a 12-day weather delay, the first ANI/ALE Ilyushin-76 passenger flight from PA to Union Glacier finally arrived at 0745 Saturday morning (29 October) SP time, and some of the first NGO venturers are already out there in tents on the first leg of their trip to Pole. More flights were due to follow. Below on this page I've seriously updated the lists of who is coming and from where...only about 6 weeks before the Amundsen centenary...hope the store will be well stocked!

After icebreaker issues and the normal early season weather flight delays to the ice and Pole, we now have another travel snafu...on Saturday Qantas decided to immediately cancel all flights and lock out its employees (stuff.co.nz article and Sydney Morning Herald live updates). It was a complicated labor issue...and on Monday the Australian government sent everyone back to work during a cooling off period, so flights resumed Monday afternoon SP/NZ time. Remember that RPSC books most travel from LAX to ChCh on Qantas, and there are lots of ice folks yet to head south.

The first Basler opening flight from McM was delayed again this past weekend...but it finally headed for Pole on Monday the 24th, and landed to drop off 16 fresh faces (right, photo from Jens Dreyer). At last, the summer season has begun! The first Basler was originally scheduled for the 17th but of course they didn't get to McM until the 17th. Here's a 22 October Antarctic Sun article about the first pass of the Baslers through Pole. Oh, the Tuesday and Wednesday Basler flights were cancelled due to weather...at McMurdo...then it looked like the pax for both of these might head to Pole on Thursday on an LC-130. Or a Basler. Not. Another weather delay. Friday...there was an afternoon Herc flight scheduled...after a wait of several hours it was cancelled due to mechanical problems. Saturday...YES. The Herc took off with 40 passengers...and they made it in time for lunch. Whew...now the winter is really over.

NSF is STILL dithering with the support contract...there were not one but TWO more amendments on 18 and 19 October...we're up to amendment 18, folks. This time...just some error clarifications on the costs for chartering the research vessels...but to give the accountants some time to recrunch, the final submittal date has been pushed back to 25 October. Will the NSF bean counters still be able to announce the award per schedule by mid-November?

On 27 August, the winter site manager, Renée-Nicole Douceur (right), suffered an apparent stroke. After she received medical attention, a medevac was discussed but not implemented. A month later, her niece raised that issue to the world media, so it was South Pole news out there. She WAS flown out on the first Basler transiting from Rothera to McMurdo... continued on to New Zealand the same day, and had an MRI and other exams in Christchurch before heading for Baltimore and further medical tests at Johns Hopkins. Here's the rest of the story.

Something I missed and was just reminded of...on 29 September the NSF support contract for ARCTIC operations was awarded to CH2M HILL, the incumbent contractor (Polar Field Services in Littleton, CO). It is worth $324 million for a 4-year base period beginning on 1 February 2012, with options for two additional 2-year extensions. The contracting process proceeded without hitches or delays...there was a presolicitation notice in October 2010, the original RFP was issued on 16 February 2011, and bids were due on 15 April. There were two bidders, the unsuccessful one was URS. The contract provides research support in a number of locations--45% in Alaska (mostly at the Toolik Field Station, which is on the Dalton Highway north of the Brooks Range), 32% in Greenland (mostly at Summit), with the remainder in Canada and Russia. The GSA contract details and award notice are here. It is worth noting that this award breaks a precedent for not awarding a new contract to the incumbent. There is also a precedent still out there that the Arctic and Antarctic support contracts have always been held by different contractors...yes, CH2M HILL is one of the three finalists for the Antarctic contract scheduled to be awarded next month. Hmmm.

The icebreaker...on 5 October the NSF sole-source justification for the Murmansk Shipping contract was published on the GSA contracting site. A history of the procurement activity is provided...the result is that contract for use of the Vladimir Ignatyuk for an estimated $5.66 million this season, with two one-year option periods. Here's the 31 August press release from Murmansk Shipping (Google translation).

Another satellite! A system to access a retired British military satellite will be implemented during the 2011-12 summer season. Links to the Skynet 4c, now in an orbit with a slight (and slowly increasing) inclination, were tested at Pole during the 2009-10 season by a visiting team from Intelsat and SPAWAR, with assistance from 2010 comms tech Shaun Meehan. This satellite, originally launched in 1990, will provide 1.5 Mbps IP link for (initially) 2 hours and 43 minutes a day, on a consistent daily schedule similar to GOES. The project requires some electronics and a small dish, which will be installed inside the large radome with the GOES dish (Skynet and GOES are in opposite directions). Hopefully the system can be completed this season. Here's earlier information: the original 2009 GSA Intelsat contract award announcement and a 2010 announcement from Intelsat.

The winter season is over...at least for McMurdo. The first two flights of the season arrived on 4 October, delayed for one day by weather. One was a C-17, the first of 63 C-17 flights scheduled for this season, with 113 passengers. Additionally, the Australian Airbus A319 also arrived from Christchurch with 59 passengers. As for Pole, it will be a few more days yet. The first of the Basler and Twin Otter transit flights from Rothera to McMurdo are expected to stop at Pole around the 13th, with the first Basler passenger flight from McM scheduled for the 17th. The LC-130's operated by the New York National Guard will make their first appearance on 1 November. For travel to Pole at a more leisurely pace (!) there will be TWO land traverses this year...sorry no passengers. There's excellent coverage on the end of winter in this 4 October Antarctic Sun article.

In case you missed it (well, I did), there were FOUR contract amendments posted in September on the GSA contract web site. Mostly they provided an opportunity for the number crunchers with KBR, CH2MHill, and Lockheed Martin to break out their #2 pencils and spreadsheets one more time, for another final submission due 30 September...for costs year by year all the way to March 2025. One of the data items in the amendments (they are now up to amendment #16!) was an updated list of USAP subcontracts and leases that are part of the contract. Everything from the Xerox machines and ATM...to the N B Palmer...to...the lease on the RPSC building in Centennial. Which is up on 30 April 2012. No one has negotiated an extension, although when I was last in the office in March 2010 I noted that there was a lot of vacant office space in the area, which I understand is still the case. Also...the schedule on the NSF contract site was adjusted on 2 September to indicate that the evaluations/negotiations would run to 30 September and the contract award would be in November. And the RPSC "Transition" page was updated on 4 October to reflect a mid-November award schedule, and the FAQ was also revised.

It got a bit windy again. Not just a light breeze...it seems that the all-time wind speed record has been broken! According to Tim Markle in the met department, on 27 September "...the peak wind speed of 50kts/58mph broke the record for the all-time strongest wind speed at South Pole. The previous record of 48kts/55mph was set on August 24th, 1989." Ulp. There's an excellent Antarctic Sun report with more information from Tim on the weather records. Oh, at left is Robert Schwarz's photo of what MAPO looked like. Seems that a bit of digging may be in order.

The McMurdo main body opening is happening soon...today (Wednesday 28 September US time) the C-17 was at Hickam, scheduled to fly to Christchurch the next day...on schedule for the first flight to McM on the third.

Sunrise has happened...the official time of the equinox was 2105 on Friday 23 September, but the weather was not doing much cooperating then. The official sunrise dinner was on Saturday the 24th, it featured an excellent gathering and big feast with meals to order. That day the weather cleared a bit and the sun was actually visible. But on Sunday the winds came up...around 0300 the wind velocity hit 45kts (52mph or 84 km/h)–a new record for the month of September which came close to the all-time wind speed record (48 kts/55 mph/88km/h) set on 24 August 1989. Earlier, on 16 September...5 days early...the sun had first been sighted....then it was calmer and cooler the temps were in the -90s (°F).

The first of six Winfly flights reached McM on schedule on 20 August...the day after the first sunrise of the spring (Antarctic Sun) article and a 25 August USAF press release. Weather backed up the later flights...they were supposed to run through 29 August, but they ran into the first week of September.

Media watch...it seems that HBO has teamed up with Sopranos actor James Gandolfini for a comedy drama series based on Big Dead Place...that iconic Antarctic book written by McMurdo denizen (and 2004 Pole winterover) Nicholas Johnson. Hmmmm. Here's the 1 September deadline.com news article. Oh, and on the bigger screen...14 October will see the release of The Thing, which is actually described as a prequel to that 1982 John Carpenter movie. It stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Here's the official site (warning, very high bandwidth required). Yes, there are flamethrowers. And dogs (?)

Yes, there was a small airdrop at Pole on Monday 29 August (left, the loads are ready to go). Here's more information, photos and the video link. Not as big a deal as some in the past, since the C-17s are in Christchurch for the ongoing winfly flights...but still the station had a fair amount of preparation and practice...burn barrels etc. The successful result--some medical supplies that were running short, spare parts, a bit of mail, and freshies, well, only a few oranges.

Thursday, 25 August (US time)...NSF officially announced that they had engaged a Russian icebreaker for the upcoming season! Yes...here's the press release; also a letter to participants was posted on the NSF OPP web site. There is a one-year letter contract (with renewal options) with the Murmansk Shipping Company (source of the copyrighted photo at right), for the use of the Russian diesel-powered Vladimir Ignatyuk. This vessel was originally constructed as the Arctic Kalvik in Victoria, BC in 1983, and was sold by Gulf Canada to Murmansk Shipping in 2003. Briefly, it's 289 feet long, with a beam of 58 feet, draft of 27 feet, displacement of 4,234 tons, and a maximum speed of 16 knots (more stats and a schematic layout). Other coverage...a 26 August Antarctic Sun article...this 29 August AAAS/Science Insider article, and a 26 August Russian press release from Ria Novosti. A similar sister vessel, the Terry Fox,, also used by Gulf Canada, is now a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker.

Well, 15 August WAS supposed to be the deadline for icebreaker announcements, but not all deadlines get met. Fortunately the talking and negotiating continued...a few days after the deadline, NSF OPP director Karl Erb was quoted that negotiations were underway with the owners of two foreign icebreakers. The 19 August issue of Science, published this news article "U.S. Icebreaking Woes Threaten McMurdo Resupply, Research Plans" (actually the title said it all, but to view more than the summary you needed to have a subscription or pay for access, sorry). He "hoped to tell the community in a couple of weeks that we have a resupply ship lined up..." according to the article. Meanwhile, here is what he said at the 28-29 July National Science Board meeting about this issue. (Below, more earlier icebreaker info and links).

Also at the meeting, Dr. Erb announced the current schedule for the Antarctic support contract award, "not later than mid November." Not much more room for schedule slippage. He also announced that tour companies had indicated that more than 300 people would be at Pole on 14 December, the centenary of Amundsen's arrival.

More shipping news...on 3 August the Military Sealift Command (MSC) awarded the contract for charter of the cargo vessel for the next few years...to Waterman Steamship Corporation...the Alabama-based division of multinational shipping firm International Shipholding Corporation (ISC). $10 million per year (fixed price !?) for a maxiumum of five years of resupply trips to McMurdo and Thule. Here's the updated link to the news item, this comes from MM&P. (The contract award announcement (is listed on this page, scroll down a bit). Since the award, Waterman has reflagged the Cyprus-flagged ice-rated cargo vessel Federal Patroller giving it a historical name...the Green Wave(!) Here are photos of the vessel from Google Images. On a historical note, ISC got its start in the shipping business in 1947 when the then-New Orleans-based company purchased its first vessel, the surplused WW2 Liberty Ship that they renamed Green Wave...honoring Tulane University.

Science in the dark...here's a fresh Antarctic Sun article by research associate Marco Tortonese about some of the station winter science projects. Oh, Marco continues his outdoor skiing and running during the winter, he now has more than 2000 miles under his belt. Check out his blog!

On the lighter side...the Antarctic 48 Hour Film Festival took place around the last weekend of July. Entries in the "48 hour" division had to be completely filmed and produced in that period...and they also had to include specific items–a saw, a T-shirt with a chocolate bar stuck to it, the sound of a dripping faucet, the character Popeye, and the dialogue: "….which I imbibed rapaciously." The Pole entry in the 48-hour division is "Popeye the Surgeon Man"...and the Open division entry was the two-part thriller "Attack of the Killer DOMs." And of course many other Antarctic stations have some excellent entries as well. Check out the lot!

Update on the dome (you DO remember the dome, right?)...in Port Hueneme, the top ring has been successfully reassembled and hung in a designated spot in the brand new Seabee Museum (photo at right)! The task was completed by Lee Mattis (second from left), Jerry Marty (fourth) and John Perry (fifth) along with some active-duty and retired Seabee assistance. During the dome erection, Lee was the tech rep from TEMCOR, the dome fabricator, and John was the Navy engineer. Yes, of course I have more photos and links here.

Shipping news update...for several months there have been ongoing negotiations and discussions underway about the icebreaker for the 2011-12 resupply. Or, more exactly, the lack of an icebreaker. On 28 July NSF formally announced the situation to the science community: "...unless we can find and engage a suitable replacement by mid-August, we will have to implement contingency plans that would curtail activities in the near term...." What would be curtailed? Well, field camps and other activities requiring significant air support, among other things...and Pole could close as early as 5 February. The full announcement is in this "Dear Colleagues" letter from Karl Erb, director of the NSF Office of Polar Programs (the letter was posted on the usap.gov home page). It seems that the Oden isn't available this year. Why? Well, it seems that there had been domestic complaints in Sweden because ships had been caught in the Baltic Sea ice during the northern winter, while the Oden was at the other end of the world. This story was picked up in July by Popular Mechanics. As for the US Coast Guard's two 1960-era icebreakers traditionally used in the Antarctic...the Polar Star is midway through a major 2-1/2 year refit, and the Polar Sea is about to be decommissioned. The lighter 11-year-old Healy began a major 7-month Arctic science cruise at the end of May. So there were are. Several items of interest...a 7 July op-ed by retired Coast Guard RADM Jeffrey M. Garrett which outlines the current American icebreaker status vs the rest of the world...focusing primarily on the Arctic...this 27 May Coast Guard press release which outlines what the Healy is doing...and a January 2011 Coast Guard audit of the "Polar Icebreaker Maintenance, Upgrade, and Acquisition Program" (or lack thereof). Remember that in 2004-05 when the big icebergs were causing problems, contingency plans were being made to curtail the season...and the Russian icebreaker Krasin was charter to assist the Polar Star. Oh by the way, in May NSF put out a contract proposal looking for an icebreaker...there are two items of interest here. First, obviously there wasn't a relevant response...and secondly, the RFP contains a map and a detailed history of the US Antarctic program icebreaker support from the IGY to date (MS Word document). By the way, the photo at left shows the Oden (foreground) with the NBP (Nathaniel B. Palmer) in McMurdo Sound in January 2011 (photo by Peter Rejcek in the USAP photo library).

More shipping news...on 1 July a MSC contract was awarded to Maersk Line, Limited (MLL) for charter of a modern US-flag ice-strengthened tanker to deliver fuel to McMurdo (and Thule) over the next few years (Maersk press release and some information about the company). This will replace the old MSC tankers that have been used up until the 2010-11 season; the T-5 tankers have been retired, partly due to old age (earlier MSC press release) and partly due to the new international regulations banning heavy fuel oil from Antarctic waters.

North of Antarctica, the Antarctic Treaty consultative meeting, otherwise known as ATCM XXXIV, happened in Buenos Aires. So what happened? Apparently, not much that interested the news media...here's about the only recent article I found, from the Sydney Morning Herald. But I've been through the documents, and there are a few items which may be of interest to folks reading this. One...a report from the Norwegian Polar Institute that they'd considered (and rejected) several NGO expedition requests to use dogs as part of centenary ventures (!). There are two interesting reports about that berserk Berserk expedition, which I've covered here. Among other things, they're considering another venture to Pole and a winterover somewhere (!!). As for the centennial stuff, the US published their revised NGO guidelines and maps for the upcoming 2011-12 Pole tourist season. I've updated my map section to include all of the current guidelines and maps. And a note of historical interest, there was a submittal of a 2008 Texas A&M paper, "The historical development of McMurdo station, Antarctica, an environmental perspective." The meeting documents can be found from this ATS page; click on the link to ATCM XXXIV and then select "documents." My other treaty links are here.

Auroras? Huh? Here's a time lapse that Weeks Heist posted in late June...

A seriously ill contractor employee was successfuly medevaced from McMurdo to Christchurch. With only 18 hours notice, the Air Force C-17 arrived in ChCh from Lewis-McChord base in Washington State. Then with medical personnel aboard, the flight headed south to the Pegasus runway...and were on the ground for only about 40 minutes before heading north with the patient...who was turned over to medical care in ChCh at 2030 on 30 June. The flight had to deal with the usual winter darkness by using night vision goggles, but they also had to contend with volcanic ash from the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcano in southern Chile, the ash has been blowing across the Pacific Ocean since early June; the volcano is about 130km NNE of Puerto Montt. The Pegasus runway had been completely prepared for the flight in only 5 days! At right...the patient is being cared for aboard the aircraft. Here's the USAF press release with that and more photos. Folks at Pole did flight following for this mission.

Update...there are major science strategy reports forthcoming! Remember...in 1997 NSF commissioned the "Augustine Report" otherwise known as the "Report of the U. S. Antarctic Program External Panel"...a principal recommendation of which was to build a new South Pole station ASAP! The new study by the National Academies of Science, sponsored by NSF, is appropriately titled "The US Antarctic Program: Future Science Opportunities in the Antarctic and Southern Ocean." The report, scheduled for release during the northern 2011 summer, is intended to assess the future science directions of the U. S. Antarctic Program for the next 20 years. And, another major policy review will build upon it. The U.S. Antarctic Blue Ribbon Panel which is also being led by Norm Augustine, will evaluate American long-term strategy for conductiong science and diplomacy in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean region. Sponsored jointly by NSF and the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the panel will report its findings by early 2012 (White House press release and Antarctic Sun article).

In late June Bill Spindler attended the 2011 Antarctic Deep Freeze Association meeting/reunion in Gettysburg. It ran from 21-24 June...Wednesday the 22nd, many of us took an excellent tour of the battlefield and museum; most of the key meeting events including my lecture happened on Thursday. This organization consists primarily of the folks who were on the ice before and during the IGY, 1956-58, although there are some younger members such as I. One of the more interesting features of the event is a phone call between reunion participants and people at Pole--at left is a photo of the event...on the left is Cliff Dickey and on the right is Ken Waldron, two of the 1957 Pole winterover crew...between them is a more recent Polie, Andy Martinez. Bill Spindler happens to be the only person who has participated in these phone calls from both ends. Here are some pictures of the Pole end of the phone call in 2005.

I hope you had a happy midwinters day whenever you chose to celebrate it! The official moment of the solstice was 0516 (SP/McM time) Wednesday 22 June...McMurdo and Pole chose to celebrate the event on Saturday the 18th...noted by the greeting cards you see at left and at right...while Scott Base will hold their special dinner on the 23rd, to commemorate the fact that Scott and Amundsen had midwinter festivities on that date 100 years ago. The Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge has posted a blog based on Scott's diaries from 100 years ago; here's the page devoted to the midwinter activities. The full story...the book Scott's Last Expedition (Vol. 1, which describes the main body expedition activities) is available for free from the Gutenberg Project in a variety of electronic formats. Amundsen has a similar brief blog produced by the Fram Museum in Oslo. Amundsen's book The South Pole contains an entire chapter (60 pages) describing the events of 23 June 1911...it is also available, here, from the Gutenberg Project. As for the 2011 event, Robert Schwarz has lots of pictures!.

So is the upcoming summer the "chaos season?" Well, on 15 January 2011 this New York Times article (subscription access may be required) suggested that hundreds of people want to visit Pole in 2011-12, which is the centennial of Amundsen's and Scott's arrival. There will be skiiers from the coast, the last degree or the last 20 miles...tourists on champagne flights...competitive racers...drivers arriving overland by truck...and of course a bunch of official government distinguished visitors. Perhaps as many as 1000 people...compared to last season when there were about 300 NGO visitors. Of special interest is the fact that a number of the expeditions will be retracing some or all of Scott's and Amundsen's routes from the Ross Ice Shelf, rather than the usual routes from near Union Glacier. NSF has a special committee at work to determine what the official commemorative events will be...and Raytheon will have a special coordinator on hand to deal with the hordes, sell them stuff in the store, and keep them safe and away from the science. So who all is coming? Well, if you've been here before, you know that this web site has maintained the most comprehensive list of such ventures since 1999...and despite the sputtering economy, this year's list is rather long and still growing. Oh, it is here.

4 June at Pole saw the seventh annual renewal of another strange Pole event...the BF5K...or a 5 km race through the halls of the station...18 laps in all. The spectacular part about it, as always, was the amazing costumes worn by the participants! Check out Robert Schwarz's page of photos!

Global warming? Tell that to the 14 latest members of the 300 Club! Yes...on Friday 27 May (left) the temps dipped into triple digits...let's welcome Susan MacGregor, who at age 62 is the oldest person to be initiated into that great organization! I don't think I ought to post photos of her athletic performance...but I WILL post a link to her May Antarctic Sun article in which she describes the amazing successes of the growth chamber. Yes, there are photos.

Contract news...well, although the rumors are circulating yet again...to the best I've been able to determine they are just that. The facts...Amendment 11 to the RFP came out on 20 May...followed by, yes, Amendment 12 on 3 June! What does this mean? Nothing...except for the number crunchers and bean counters with the 3 finalists who now must recrunch and recount stuff and submit a few more trees by 14 June. We are still supposed to hear something in September...no, maybe in November.

The ice folks in Denver came up with an amazing fundraising event for the Christchurch earthquake rebuilding effort...Saturday 16 April (poster at right) at the Bug Theater. It included a silent auction as well as musical stuff...sorry I was a bit too far away to attend...but I can report that they ran the place out of beer! This and related events have generated $22,700 to be sent to the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal. Amazing ice people!

IceCube hasn't found anything yet...according to this April 2011 paper by the IceCube Collaboration (WIRED blog post with links to abstract of paper). Well...not exactly. It has detected neutrinos, but so far, the attempts to correlate them with gamma ray bursts have been unsuccessful. To quote paper coauthor Nathan Whitehorn, "In two years we'll have an answer, or a lot of scratching our heads. We'll either see neutrinos, or something will be strange with the universe." Which is, after all, why we do science...to find out about strange things.

April Fools? Well, not really...despite the continuing budget wrangling in Congress...the contract folks finally got around to awarding the 1-year support contract to RPSC...just under the wire on 31 March. This was publicly announced at 1832 Eastern time on...1 April 2011. Well, you saw that news here first. Here's the announcement.

Sunset! The big dinner was 19 March...the official sunset was not until 23 March...and the weather was clear enough for it to be watched and documented. One example is at left...actually showing a bit of that rarely seen green flash (general info page). This particular photo was taken by winterover IceCube astrophysicist Freija Descamps...who was interviewed by PRI (Public Radio International) The World on 24 March. She discussed her life and work at Pole, and presented some photos including the one you see at left. Well worth your time! Oh, and if you are looking for an excellent video of the sunset scene, check out this one by Weeks Heist!

The month after closing was the typical hectic round of station closing activities...cleaning and winterizing summer camp...washing all of the dirty linen...rolling up the fuel hose...putting out flag lines to outlying buildings. The outside world was not forgotten...over $10,000 with matching funds was collected to support the ChCh relief efforts...and the folks in Denver are sponsoring a major event to generate additional relief funds--Ice Aid (poster at right) on 16 April at the Bug Theater in downtown Denver. News updates...I'm still working on some of the new big science projects...for example, ARA, the next big neutron telescope.

Closing time at McM...a strange end to the rest of the USAP summer. First...the 22 February massive Christchurch earthquake, which devastated the central city and disrupted the final McM redeployment...along with storms and warm weather that broke up the ice around Ross Island...waves were breaking on the McMurdo beach, and open water threatened the road to the Pegasus runway (right, a composite view and more info). Around the same time, news of a sudden February 2-man Norwegian Pole expedition...which started from the Bay of Whales and ended after the supporting yacht Berserk sank north of Ross Island, with the death of 3 crew members. According to one report, the Pole trip made it to within 200 miles of Pole before they turned around...since evacuated to Chch. (story).

Closing time at Pole...February 15th...leaves 49 winterovers for the 2011 season, although a couple of Twin Otter flights were still transiting. The absolute last plane, a Basler, departed for Rothera on the 23rd. The small crowd...35 men and 14 women. Time to rearrange the galley! Things are pretty busy on station these days with all of the closing activities, so the full statistics are still being calculated...

The beginning of February was cargo time at McM 14 February MSC press release). On the 30th the tanker Richard G. Matthiesen showed up, using the channel previously cleared by the Swedish science/icebreaker Oden, which arrived about 16 January. The Matthiesen has been to McMurdo before...most recently in January 2003...when actually it didn't get to the pier, but hoses had to be laid out from about 4 miles away. This is the last year for the Military Sealift Command (MSC) tanker Matthiesen, which is about to be laid up, following the other T-5 tankers. Why? Other than old age, a new Antarctic treaty protocol prohibits vessels (such as old MSC ships) using heavy fuel oil in Antarctic waters, effective 1 August 2011. Thus, this year's cargo ship was NOT the American Tern of previous seasons, but the chartered BBC EMS, flagged by Antigua Barbuda. It finished up and departed McM on 13 February.

Some older items of interest (other old news is in the archive):

WIRED magazine has a feature article on Jerry Marty, Carlton Walker, and the station construction in the July 2002 issue. Read about the settlement problems...why the place wasn't considered fit for occupancy for the 2002 winter.

Pole land cargo traverses in the works...in October 2002 NSF flew a specially equipped D8 from Christchurch to McMurdo aboard a C17...this equipment was be used to prepare a road south towards the Leverett Glacier, eventually hopefully to Pole. This is to augment the LC-130 flights for station construction cargo as well as for ICE CUBE and forthcoming science projects. More information...

Another new science project...in 2002 a 10-meter submillimeter telescope (up from 8 meters!) that will search for new galaxy clusters and study dark energy. Plans were to attach it to the DSL (dark sector lab) University of Chicago press release. It will have a ground shield that is larger than the Dome (it is being built by Temcor, the same company that built the dome...).

On 8/13/02 NSF had a meeting with potential contractors and suppliers for a possible fiber optic cable to Dome C. Yes, you read that right (news article). Since Pole is way below the horizon for the commercial geosynchronous satellites, one option is to run a cable about 1050 miles to the newly constructed French/Italian Concordia Station at Dome C. (This station is scheduled for full-time occupancy next winter.) The project calls for several years of studies and trials, with the actual stuff involving traverses to get the cable to Pole and Dome C as well as along the route.

Back in mid March 2002 two other iceberg events happened. First, there was another piece of the Thwaites Ice Tongue (75°S-108°W) about 2100 square miles (NOAA press release) which got designated B22. And then there was the collapse of another hunk of the Larsen ice shelf east of the Antarctic Peninsula. The Larsen Ice Shelf B disintegrated within the past couple of months, as evidenced by photos and animations from the NSIDC in Boulder, which also has links to other coverage. The BBC has an excellent article about both events.

Check out the amazing panorama of the inside of the dome by Marc Hellwig--seen here on Dana Hrubes' April 2001 page--warning it may make you dizzy!

The venerable New South Polar Times mailing list moved to a home on Yahoo, thanks to 2001 w/o science tech Andrea Grant. Join the discussion...

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) had a major feature on the Pole construction in their December 2000 magazine, including articles by Frank Brier and Jerry Marty. That section is no longer online, although I did archive the original article by Dennis Berry and Forrest Braun (BBFM Engineers, Anchorage) which features the details of foundation design and the jacking systems.

Here is the link to my 1999 Doc Jerri medevac coverage. The spectacular April 2001 medevac flight to Pole is covered here. And my archive of other news, links to press releases, and older media coverage is here.

Other Antarctic news sites...

Thepoles.com, freshly enhanced, is operated by Thomas and Tina Sjogren, the "Wearable" expedition folks that trekked to Pole in 2001-02. They are up to date on all the Pole NGA ventures as well as Vinson, Everest, the North Pole, and other similar attractions, and they have an excellent guide for planning your own stroll to Pole.

Brendon Grunewald's old 70 South news site has evolved into the Polar Conservation Organisation, but it still features lots of Antarctic and related news from everywhere, updated daily by anyone, yes, you too.

The news page of the Antarctic Connection is updated at least twice weekly with current news from and about Antarctica.

The Antarctic Sun is extremely prolific of late. The current editor is Peter Rejcek, a 2004 Polie winterover. Sun archives run back to 1996-97, the final year when the McMurdo newspaper was a Navy publication, the Antarctic Sun Times. Before then in the old days it went by other names....here is the story.

 NZ Antarctic Philately pages by Steven McLachlan . The news page features many current events, including many pictures from the various private expeditions at Pole this past summer. He also has information on the 99-00 cruises of the Polar Duke south of NZ in support of German and Italian science projects, 98-99 construction of the new base at Dome C...

The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) published biweekly newsletters on NGA (private) expeditions, cruises and tourist events. Unfortunately this was discontinued in May 2003, and the archives are no longer available. But they do feature a separate news page for the official Australian program.

The NSF Office of Polar Programs (OPP) page contains links and a search engine. Most recent press releases are also here, scroll to the bottom.

The rest of the story... can now be read online or offline in the newsletter of the Antarctican Society. Highly recommended. Here is the latest contact info as well as the historical background about the group.

WEATHER 

The weather...How cold is it really? F or C? Real-time data is still out there in a few places if the satellites and automated weather stations (AWS's) are up. Try your luck, some of these sites might be working now. Unfortunately what all of these automated sites lack is, after all, the WEATHER! The new station has WINDOWS, unlike the old met office in the dome, but the met person still has to walk outside to see everything that is going on.

A current Pole weather page complete with the sat photo, with thanks to Steffen Richter!
The BAS folks have a comprehensive met section with links to weather at Pole and other major stations.
From NOAA, current Pole weather!
from NOAA, various data is here, lots of newer stuff, but not the old weather plots.
from NOAA, detailed hourly data from 1975 to (update!) 2005 (FTP site)
from the NICO AWS 70 miles east of Pole (here's the graphical view).
HENRY, 70 miles north. Take your pick (graphical version).
[the "Clean Air" AWS at Pole was removed in January 2005]
Forecasts from the Weather Underground based on Pole data (best) and the NICO AWS.
Here's the Willy Field AWS near McMurdo (graphical view)
McMurdo weather (Weather Underground)
The Palmer (Bonaparte Point) AWS: text and graphical.
Palmer Station forecast from the Weather Underground
The sunlight/twilight charts for Pole (or anywhere), from 2004/06/08 AMANDA/IceCube w/o Ethan Dicks
The current time with a graphic view of the day-night terminator from space
The U. S. Naval Observatory has many calculators for sunrise/sunset, twilight, the moon, planets etc...
Peter Guest, meteorology professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA, has an extensive page
of polar met resource links...as well as information on his polar meteorology course


(here are links to the Antarctic Meteorological Research Center (AMRC, University of Wisconsin) data pages: home page and station map).

(Tricks: some wind speeds are given in meters per second. One m/s is about 3.6 km/hr, 2-1/4 mph, or 2 knots. Also, they may use a Julian date, this is the sequential number from starting from 1 through 365 or so. For example, 07031 is January 31, 2007.)

Now about those satellites...
For most of this decade until October 2008, things were simple. Pole used the MARISAT/GOES terminal, originally constructed in 2000-01 (left) to communicate with 3 satellites that used to be geosynchronous...here's a May 2000 Christian Science Monitor article about one of them--MARISAT. The RF building and MARISAT/GOES terminal 1 mile south of the station were first turned on in 2001, but they suffered through cold weather mechanical and electronics problems off and on ever since. A radome was added in 2004-05 (photos), but that didn't cure everything...during the 2008 winter the gear drive system failed again...but this time a MacGyver effort by the satcom tech and station mechanics got things rebuilt and running (Antarctic Sun article).

As for the satellites themselves, since they were old the orbits wobbled so the station could see them a few hours a day. MARISAT-F2 (Maritime Communications Satellite), GOES-3 (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, as it was a NOAA weather satellite), and TDRS-1 combined [the links for individual satellites here are to Wikipedia articles] gave a window of almost 12 contiguous hours per day with an original theoretical 5 MBPS transfer speed, which has been upgrades several times over the years to more than 60 MBPS. Most of the increased bandwidth goes to data transfer. The oldest of these three, MARISAT-F2 was decommissioned in October 2008 after deterioration in its telecommand link (Antarctic Sun article). This cut the total window by two hours and the bandwidth by a bigger percentage. A year later in October 2009, the TDRS-1 satellite (or TDRSS-1, depending on the NASA contractor and acronym you prefer--TDRS is Tracking and Data Relay Satellite and TDRSS is Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System) also disappeared from service. The last TWTA (traveling wave tube amplifier) failed, and NASA moved it to another temporary orbit for decommissioning. The last day of service was 21 October 2009 NSF announcement and (Spaceflight Now news article).

So at present, Pole uses GOES, which provides a 1.5 Mbps inbound and 1024 Kbps outbound data rate for about 6 hours a day; and a constellation of NASA TDRSS satellites: TDRS 3, TDRS 4, TDRS 5, and TDRS 6 via a second antenna terminal, the SPTR-2 (South Pole TDRS Relay) link completed during the 2008-09 summer (right, a construction photo from Dave Smith; here are more), and here is an April 2009 USAP page with a link to an Antarctic Sun article--lots more info. These satellites are available for much shorter periods on an ever-changing schedule, and at a greater expense to NSF. They provide a 5 Mbps IP data link, and a separate 150 Mbps one-way (northbound) link for bulk science data. Not all of the "above-the-horizon" time (what typically appeared on the old scroll satellite availability page) is actually available to USAP--the program aims for about 4 hours per day, and this has created a complex daily scheduling job which keeps a friend of mine busy in Denver.

During the 2009-10 summer some field tests were conducted using the Intelsat SkyNet-4c commercial satellite, which is slowly increasing in visibility at Pole. Here is the contract award announcement. The system is being designed, and is scheduled to be constructed at Pole in the 2011-12 austral summer--it will provide a 1.5 Mbps link for at least 4 hours a day.

In addition to the larger geosynchronous satellites there is, of course, Iridium, which is always available for official/emergency phone calls. Additionally there is a data link consisting of 12 Iridium phones, each capable of a 2400 bps data link, which are multiplexed to produce a 28 kbps data link. This is used for 24/7 email (for small emails <50k or so). Other resources linked here:

-the recently upgraded and enhanced USAP satellite information pages with links to the weekly satellite schedule PDF file and even more geeky information

-the old link to satellite times and network information from the folks at Richmond (South Miami, formerly Malabar) which now only includes GOES

-a page from AMANDA with descriptions and photos of mostly historical satellites and their earth stations

-an excellent June 2004 virtual tour of the RF building and antenna platform, complete with narrated video, featuring satcom tech Eyvind Flater, brought to you by 2005 and 2005 w/o NOAA tech Glen Kinoshita.

-a May 1995 report by Bob Loewenstein, Bill Smythe, and Brent Jones, Science Requirements for South Pole Station Computing and Communications. Some interesting facts, figures, and historical background. 1 GB/day of data transmission--hmmm, where would that leave IceCube?

SPORTS (?!)

The 2012 Antarctic Treaty consultative meeting (ATCM XXXV) is scheduled for 11-20 June, in Hobart, Australia. The preliminary information and general agenda (boilerplate) can be found here...and this is the Australia host country information page. The 2011 event was in Buenos Aires, Argentina, it started with a dinner on the evening of 19 June and ran until 1 July. The 2010 event, known as ATCM XXXIII, occurred between 3 and 14 May 2010 in Punta del Este, Uruguay. If you dig into the official Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) site you can find the meeting reports and documents from the meetings...and the searches have been simplified a bit. You now can search or browse for them here...or look at the Antarctic Treaty Information Exchange for any nation. The US reports include information on the various stations, cruises and science projects--more current data than that on the NSF website...but no lists of personnel. The NGO information is also included. I try and highlight a few of the significant documents elsewhere on this site.

The 2011-12 Antarctic Ice Marathon was held at Union Glacier on 7 December 2011 local time (results)...this year there were 36 athletes from 17 countries; Clément Thévenet of France was the men's winner, with an event record time of 3:47:07. The successful woman was Yvonne Brown from London, in 4:26:10. Earlier in the month on 2 December there were other events, including a 100K with 5 participants...also won by Clément in 12:09:06. Unlike last year, organizer Richard Donovan participated, not in the main event, but with a 100 mile run in 24:35:02! You can sign up for next year's event, currently scheduled for 20 November 2012, for a mere €9,900 ex PA (registration info)....

Of course, this 2011-12 season the biggest travel news has to be the fact that this is the centennial year of Amundsen's and Scott's arrival at what has been called an "awful place." There are two principal tourist operators--flights from Punta Arenas to Patriot Hills (nowadays Union Glacier instead) and beyond are operated by Antarctic Network International (ANI)/Antarctic Logistics and Exploration (ALE). ANI is actively booking tourists. The other operation is based out of the airstrip at Novo (Novolazarevskaya), a Russian base which is served by flights from Cape Town.. It is operated by Antarctic Logistics Centre International (ALCI) and The Antarctic Company (TAC). These organizations do not appear to be seriously booking private tourist flights at present, but another British based company White Desert, has established a tourist destination "Whichaway Camp" near Novo (no, nowhere near the Whichaway Nunataks) with penguin colonies and mountains nearby. TAC also operates its "Oasis" guesthouse about 10 miles from Novo at Schirmacher Oasis. Novo is a 3000m blue ice runway originally built by ANI near the Russian Novolazarevskaya base, in the past it was known as Blue One, and on some maps you may see it designated as "White Desert." Perhaps the most serious travel agent booking Pole trips is the Chicago-based company Polar Explorers...they are booking trips to Pole via both PA/Union Glacier and Cape Town/Novo for US$40,500 ex PA or Cape Town.

Amazingly, there are races:

 

The Race to the South Pole

managed by Extreme World Races (EWR) is the successor event to the Amundsen Omega 3 South Pole Race, which was a great success in 2009-10. The 100th year anniversary race in 2011-12 already has eight three-member teams booked, mostly from the UK. The race starts south of Novo from which it is based. After acclimatization and training at Novo, teams will fly to the starting point and travel 500 miles to Pole in 30-45 days--two 250-mile legs with an enforced 24-hour rest stop between them. One of the seven teams is Team SladenWoods, Marc Woods and James Mark...Marc, who lost a leg to cancer, originally was part of the cancelled 2012 Inspire expedition. The teams started arriving in late December...they were taken to the start line by 3 January, and the event officially kicked off on 4 January.

The Scott-Amundsen Centenary Race 2011/12

is a British venture that put two 3-man British Army teams on the ice to duplicate Amundsen's and Scott's Pole routes simultaneously! Yes...one team started from Cape Evans, and the other team started from the Bay of Whales site. They will be supported at the start out of Union Glacier, but the treks themselves will be unsupported. The teams...Henry Worsley is leading Amundsen's route; he led the Shackleton Centenary Expedition to Pole in 2008-09). His team members are Lennie Browne and Lou Rudd. Mark Langridge is leading the Scott's route...he did a solo/unsupported Pole journey in 2008-09. His other team members are Vic Vicary and Kev Johnson. This will be a significant venture to watch, since the routes up the Beardmore (Scott's route) and Axel Heiberg glaciers (Amundsen's route) have not been frequently traveled. The teams were flown to their starting points on 3 November and set out the next day, but Lennie Browne of the Amundsen team had to withdraw on 5 November...he was to be picked up and flown back to Union Glacier. Meanwhile, the Scott team went from Cape Evans to McMurdo, where they toured Scott's hut before heading south across the Ross Ice Shelf. As of 11 December both teams were close to their respective glacier climbs to the plateau--the Axel Heiberg and the Beardmore. The Amundsen team arrived on 10 January, the Scott team arrived in the evening of the 17th.

More trips up the Axel Heiberg glacier:

 

South Pole 1911-2011 (the English language site of Sørpolen 2011), is the Norwegians...

Vegard Ulvang, Jan-Gunnar Winther, Harald Dag Jølle, and Stein P. Aasheim, who plan a trip duplicating Amundsen's route up the Axel Heiberg glacier. They also planned to match his arrival date at Pole on 14 December. Here's a NRK press release from last October (in Norwegian). This event is supported by the Norwegian Polar Institute as part of their Nansen-American Year commemoration, here is the Norwegian Polar Institute site about this expedition. They arrived at Union Glacier on 29 October and were flown to their starting point about 25 miles south of the original Framheim location on the 31st and set out the next day. As of 11 December they were at 88°50'S, not far to go...the Twin Otter that flew Asle Johansen of the Nansen to Amundsen expedition to Pole (next listing) passed overhead, landed and picked up some of their gear to lighten their loads. Later, an aircraft returned on the 13th and picked up Jan-Gunnar Winther and Stein Aasheim to get them to Pole in time for the ceremony; Vegard and Harald continued the ski trip...arriving at Pole at 2330 SP time on the 14th.

From Nansen to Amundsen 100 years later (Norwegian language site)

is a trip led by physician Asle T. Johansen, along with Agnar Berg and Gaute Grindhaug. They also started on the Ross Ice Shelf and headed to Pole via Amundsen's route up the Axel Heiberg Glacier...using replicas of Amundsen's equipment and clothing (!) (but not the dogs). The trip intended to commemorate the centenary of Amundsen's trip...in 1988 Asle led three others on a trans-Greenland trek, duplicating Nansen's similar trip 100 years earlier, and also using authentic replica equipment. They were being resupplied. Here's another information site. They started on 17 November, As of 2 December they were at 85.73°S, and had just met up with members of the Jubilee Expedition (next link). And on 11 December Asle aborted the trip and was flown to Pole to be present for the centennial, while Agnar and Gaute continued the journey overland.

The South Pole Jubilee Expedition

is a large mostly-Norwegian venture being guided by Christian Eide and Trond Sundby...the Norwegian participants are Theodor Johansen (age 19!), Silje Molid, Gørild Hustad, Linn Elise Rølvåg, Jacob Meland, and Ottar Haldorsen. Also there were Russians Victor Bobok and Igor Grishkov (who opted to travel independently from the Norwegians, these two arrived at Pole on the 14th in time for the ceremonies) and Rory O'Connor from the UK. Correne Erasmus-Coetzer from South Africa, the Explorersweb correspondent, was originally part of this group but she joined the Børge trip instead--Correne was the first African woman to traverse to Pole in January 2007. They were to start at the south end of the Ross Ice Shelf and head up the Axel Heiberg Glacier, unassisted and unsupported. Børge Ousland is also involved in the planning. They were flown to the starting point on 24 and 25 November and reached the top of the glacier on the 30th. Børge Ousland also has this expedition blog in English. On 14 December they were still 138 km from Pole, they figured this would take them 8-9 more days. They actually arrived on the 19th...and after staying a few days they split up. Trond, Linn Elise, and Ottar headed for home...Ottar had severe frostbite which got infected, he ended up being hospitalized in France. Jacob returned to Union Glacier to prepare for an attempt on Vinson.

Jacob Meland and Ottar Haldorsen

two of the Jubilee Expedition participants, have this Norwegian web site...here's this news article (in Norwegian) from 30 April 2011 which outlines their plans.

Trips from the "Messner Start" (82°10'S-65°W on the Ronne Ice Shelf; this route was pioneered by Reinhold Messner and Arved Fuchs in 1989-90)

 

Erling Rosenstrom

is guiding an expedition sponsored by the Norwegian outfitter Hvitserk...he will guide 5 other men...Kjell Vingen, Arve Husby, Eivind Prytz Rynning, Per Gunnar Jevne, and Tore Ovstebo on an unassisted/unsupported trek to Pole from the Messner Start...they were dropped off on 1 November. As of 14 December they'd made it to 87.5°S, they reached Pole on the 26th SP time.

Howard Fairbank

a South African adventurer, planned to leave in late November for a solo trip to Pole from the Messner Start...he was airlifted to the starting point on 21 November. He originally planned to return to Hercules Inlet with Richard Weber's group, using kites. As of 1 December he was at 84°14'S and having to repair breaking ski poles...he reached Pole on 28 December and then opted not to return north with Weber.

Polar Vision

is a 3-man British-American team led by Alan Lock...whose vision has deteriorated badly from macular dystrophy, a disease that can gradually lead to total blindness. Still, he's put together the rest of what was originally a 5-man team--Richard Smith and Andrew Jensen, for a 2011-12 trip to Pole. Guided by Hannah McKeand, they will be following the 600-mile Messner route, with two resupplies. Alan's venture is featured in a 21 October New York Times article. They were flown to their starting point on 26 November and are making good progress, as of 2 December they were about 20% of the way, 439 miles to go. They reached Pole on 4 January.

Richard Weber

the experienced Canadian guide, is leading four folks on a 35-day expedition from the Messner Start on the Filchner Ice Shelf to Pole...Kiwi Michael Archer, Chris De Lapuente, American Kathy Braegger, and British/American Ruth Storm (USA/UK). They flew from Union Glacier to their starting point on 22 November, but on the 27th Kathy was very ill...and medevaced back to Punta Arenas. Kathy's (aborted) blog is here...and here is Chris's blog. On 1 December they'd passed 83°S. Richard fell at some point in mid-December and severely injured his left wrist, right knee and calf. He was flown back to Union Glacier on the 23rd, thence to a hospital in PA where, fortunately, his injuries turned out to not be long term. Richard and Michael reached Pole on 30 December SP time, from there they planned to kite/ski back to Hercules Inlet...as of 3 January they were still waiting for favorable wind conditions.

Trips starting from Hercules Inlet/Union Glacier:

 

Cas and Jonesy

is Australians James Castrission and Justin Jones, they're planning what they claim will be the first unsupported round trip from the coast (Hercules Inlet) to Pole in 2011-12. Among other previous adventures, they kayaked across "the ditch" between Australia and NZ in 2007-08. They were on the first flight to Union Glacier on 29 October and started from Hercules Inlet on the 31st. After a slow start due to soft conditions, their pace has improved, although they've recently developed some pains and strains, and Cas was suffering from a groin skin infection. As of 2 December they'd reached about 83.4°S. they arrived at Pole on New Years Day, staying only a few hours before heading north, a race against time to get back to Hercules Inlet before the season ends. After struggling on short rations, they reached HI on 27 January (well, still Australia Day--the 26th in their time zone).

Mark George

an Australian financial advisor and Everest summiter, proposed a 2011-12 solo unassisted trip to Pole from Hercules Inlet, using a kite on the return trip. After the usual delays, he was finally dropped off at his starting point on 27 November, and he's making fair progress with loud music on his Ipod. On 2 December he was at almost 81°S. Here's his older/main web site. He reached Pole on 9 January...and contemplated continuing for a few days, but there were no suitable winds for kiting so he planned to fly back to UG.

Aleksander Gamme (Norwegian language site)

is yet another Norwegian hoping to make it to Pole from Hercules Inlet in time for the Amundsen centennial...only the first half of what he hopes to be the first solo unsupported round trip from the coast without using kites. He hopes to take advantage of the extended flight season to pull off what may be a 100-day trip. He was on the delayed first passenger flight to Union Glacier on 29 October and set off almost immediately. He reached Pole on the 26th and quickly turned back north. He reached Hercules Inlet on the 25th, although he waited until the 27th to join Cas and Jonesy for the final kilometer of the route.

Aborted! Steffen Dahl (Norwegian language site)

is yet another Norwegian who planned a solo unsupported/unassisted trip to Pole from Hercules Inlet. He was supposed to be on the second ANI/ALE flight to Union Glacier on 22 October, but as of 28 October he was still in PA. He finally reached his HE starting point on 30 October...but after slow going, on 11 November, at about 80°S, he opted to hitch a ride on an ALE vehicle that was heading to a Thiel Mountains fuel depot, where he was dropped off at 85°S on 16 November and set out again. Here is another link to his blogs from the ice. As of 28 November he was at 87°35'S, on 1 December he was near 88°S, but he had become ill, and radioed for pickup due to medical problems. The ALE aircraft that picked him up on 4 December continued to Pole, where Steffen stopped briefly...then he was flown back to Union Glacier.

South Pole 1911-2011 (Catalan language site)

is the English name of the trip by Albert Bosch and Carles Gel from Patriot Hills...they hoped to be the first Catalans to reach Pole. Albert has completed the Seven Summits and Carles has done some significant Arctic and Andes travel. They were on the first flight to Union Glacier arriving on 29 October and started from PH on the 31st. They were pinned down by bad weather for much of the first week before starting to make good progress, but Carles injured his foot and was flown back to Union Glacier and Punta Arenas...Albert continued alone. Here's Albert's home page with a blog in English...and a lavanguardia.com blog (Catalan) with video. Albert reached Pole on 5 January.

Polarexplorers...

is guiding a resupplied trip from Hercules Inlet to Pole starting in late November. Guides are Lisa and Oskar Strom...participants include Bryony Balen, Ronny Diz, Dennis Woods, and Bob Douglass. They started from Hercules Inlet on 26 November...on 3 December they were at about 81°S...and on 8 January they reached their final resupply point at 87.24°S. On the 9th, Dennis was flown back to Union Glacier after struggling with a respiratory/altitude problem. Oskar went with him. The rest of the team made it to Pole on 21 January. Here's the Polarexplorers main site.

North South Solo

is another "North Pole/South Pole" attempt by Coventry, UK explorer and ex-fireman Mark Wood, who has extensive Arctic experience. He will first do a 55-day unsupported trip to Pole in 2011-12 from Hercules Inlet, followed almost immediately by a trip from the Ward Hunt Island to the North Pole. He prepared by training in the Arctic. He was flown to Union Glacier on 20 November and started from Hercules Inlet on the 22nd. As of 8 January he was at 89.5°S, he made it to Pole on the 10th.

The motorized trips (Arctic Trucks):

 

The Double Traverse of Antarctica (updated blog page)

is a rather unusual event sponsored by EWR in conjunction with their 2011-12 Race to the South Pole, and supported by Arctic Trucks (EWR information and blog page) . In mid-November four of their Toyota vehicles are traveling to Pole from Novo; three will continue on to McMurdo retracing Scott's 1911-12 route via the Beardmore Glacier (!) They then will return to Pole via another route (?!) in time to assist in support of the Race...after the race everyone will head north back to Novo, except that two of the vehicles will travel to SANAE (the permanent South African station) instead. The venture left Novo just after midnight on 23 November SP time...they stopped to prepare two skiways near the start point of the race, and at the beginning of December they'd stopped at 88°S to build a field camp...first to be occupied by a THINK Global School group...a private non-profit high school that travels globally. The high school students arrived on 3 December and skied to Pole for the centenary. Here's the original announcement page.

The Kazakh Geographic Society

planned to send a team to Pole from Novo in three of those Arctic trucks Toyota vehicles. Last year two of the group made a test run to Pole in 108 hours, setting a new speed record for the trip. While they'll be doing science along the way, they also have timed their schedule so they'll be at Pole in mid-December for the Amundsen centenary. They plan to start the first week in December. Expedition leader Nurlan Abduov said "...we are planning to present a special program about Kazakhstan to about two thousand guests, who are expected to be at the South Pole at that time. So, we are taking souvenirs and books there and will maybe even try to cook some special dishes." 2000 people? Hmmm. Here's a Kazakhstan Edge news article and another news article, from the Telegraph. The group arrived at Pole on the morning of the 15th (SP/NZ time).

The Thomson Reuters Eikon Expedition

is a 3-person 2011-12 road trip led by experienced guide Jason De Carteret, no stranger to the ice since He's been to Pole 4 times. Second is Kieron Bradley, an engineer with Lotus Engineering, and the third team member was selected from an outside competition--39-year-old Jason Thomas, an advertising copywriter living in downtown Toronto. Based from Union Glacier, the group is traveling in the "Thompson Reuters Eikon Polar Vehicle," a Toyota Hilux pickup heavily modified by Arctic Trucks. The vehicle has a 4L 320 bhp V6 biofuel engine, 44" wheels, supplemental solar and wind power equipment, and a 570-gallon fuel tank. The described route starts from Patriot Hills; the original plan was to get to Pole before the Amundsen centenary and beat the 2-day, 21 hour, 21 minute record set by the Ice Challenger vehicles in December 2005--a venture also led by Jason De Carteret. They set out officially at 0230 Tuesday 13 December SP time but opted to return to PH a few hours later because of extremely poor visibility conditions. And, on the way back they hit a small bump and the front wishbone snapped. So they hauled the vehicle back to UG for repairs, and Jason Thomas opted to head back home to Toronto rather than participate in the second attempt. Here's the Arctic Trucks coverage, and this is an earlier web site about the expedition. Jason and Kieron set out from the PH starting point at 0942 Monday SP time, and after an uneventful trip they arrived at Pole to kiss the silver globe at 0136 Wednesday 21 December...a new record of 39 hours 54 minutes, smashing the old record of 2 days 21 hours 21 minutes!

Other longer and unique routes:

 

Acciona Antártica

are four men from Spain: Ramón Larramendi, with Javier Selva, and Ignacio Oficialdegui, led by Juan Pablo Albar. They are doing a 1900-mile crossing from Novo to Union Glacier via Pole using a five-runner "Polar Catamaran" sled--a concept that was successfully tested in the Spanish Transantarctic Expedition (Tierras Polares) of 2005-06. The sled equipped with tents and solar panels will be pulled by kites of up to 80m2...they were hoping that they wouild find the right winds! As of 7 December they were in Cape Town awaiting the flight to Novo; they set out on 8 December and reached Pole on 2 January after a 190-mile non-stop run.

Aborted! Aloha Antarctica

called itself a "South Pole Skiing Expedition and Transantarctic Crossing"--Austin Wirth from Germany, and Dieter Staudinger from Austria (currently living near Toronto) planned a ski/kite venture starting in November 2011. They flew to Novo and then started from near SANAE on 10 November to on the way to Pole on what they said was the first expedition to use this route. They then planned return north to Hercules Inlet, covering a total distance of about 2200 miles, but they turned around after three days of very difficult ground travel conditions, flew back to Novo from SANAE, and then returned home to Germany. The two men have traveled and trained extensively in the Arctic, and they first tried this South Pole trip in 2008-09 starting from Neumayer, but they ran out of kiting wind and aborted the trip when they didn't have enough supplies to reach their depot. Here is a 12 October news article from thespec.com (Ontario) about the expedition, with video and audio interview links.

The Basque Team (Spanish language site)

are Juan Vallejo, Mikel Zabalza, and Alberto Iñurrategi; they are on a long ski trip from Novo to Pole with a return to Union Glacier. On 16 November they were dropped off for their start 6 miles from Novo. A few days later they had to recover one of their sleds from a deep crevasse. They reached Pole on 29 December, after traveling the last 80 miles in 3 hours, and they lost their "unsupplied" status by having dinner at the tourist camp. They continued on to HI arriving on the 10th, well ahead of the 21 January deadline for completion of their venture.

Antarctic ICE

is an unusual 6000km 2011-12 kite exploration of East Antarctica by Belgians Dixie Dansercoer (age 48) and Sam Deltour (age 25). Both have done extensive long-distance polar travel, and Dixie has traveled to Pole before. Using a variety of large kites, their trip was to start and end at Novo...from there they were to head counterclockwise to Pole and thence across some of the "inaccessible" sector toward the coast. They then will circle back west, following the prevailing winds, and head back to Novo across the lightly traveled northern edge of the plateau. As of 2 November they were in Cape Town awaiting the flight to Novo (news24 report). They actually reached Novo a vew days later and were flown to their starting point on 7 November. But ten days after their start, trapped in a "labyrinth of sastrugi," they were picked up and flown back to Novo for a second start (16 November Reuters article). They waited out a storm and plotted their plans...and on 23 November they were flown out to a new starting point, from which they have been making much better progress with their large kites. They reached Pole on 22 December SP time, and left for on the evening of the 23rd. By 9 January they were near 78°S, roughly 2/3 of the way back to Novo.

Felicity Aston

of the UK, who led the December 2009-10 8-woman Kapersky Lab Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition to Pole, is now underway on a crossing, the 2011-12 Kaspersky ONE Transantarctic Expedition. On 25 November she was flown from Union Glacier to her starting point at the base of the Leverett Glacier from where she was heading to Pole--the first skier to use the USAP traverse route. On 2 December she'd reached the top of the Leverett Glacier, and by 10 December she was at 87.5°S. Felicity arrived at Pole at about 0900 22 December SP time. At Pole she received a resupply and continued to Hercules Inlet, which she reached on 24 January, claiming a record of the first woman to ski alone across Antarctica. The 33-year-old has worked for BAS for several years, traveled in the Arctic, done the Marathon Des Sables, and participated in other similar ventures. This version of her main web site has a bit more information about Felicity's background.

Pole to Pole Run

is exactly that...a multistage "run" from one Pole to the other organized by veteran Australian extreme distance runner (and ex-MP) Pat Farmer. The polar portions are being led by Eric Phillips of IceTrek fame. Their departure from the North Pole was scheduled for 2 April, but that was delayed a few days due to delays with the establishment of the annual Camp Barneo. From the North Pole, Greg's route headed to Canada and south through the Americas to Ushuaia, from where Pat was to fly to the ice on 29 December. The Antarctic portion of the trip will be a 4-man team, also including adventure filmmakers Jose Naranjo and Clark Carter. They are starting from the Ronne ice shelf and be resupplied from caches. The team posted dispatches from the Arctic portion of the trip on the ExpeNews web site. At the end of October Pat was around Lima, Peru, and at the beginning of December he was closing in on PA. It looks like he flew south to Union Glacier about 31 January. He then headed for Pole via Hercules Inlet and Patriot Hills. And since he was running and not carrying/pulling anything, he was supported by a crew in one of those ALE Ford vans. Amazing to see videos of him running...not carrying anything, hundreds of miles away from a warm hut. He was held up a bit by mechanical problems with the van, but he reached Pole on 19 January.

Pole2Pole

was another Pole-to-Pole venture.. Led by Johan Ernst Nilson of Sweden, accompanied by Harald Kippenes in the polar portions and Carl Robert Björkander on the the temperate leg. Johan and Harald left the North Pole around 8 April...their route originally included a crossing of Greenland, but they adjusted their route to cross more of Canada instead. As of the end of October the team was bicycling through Panama...a ways to go yet. At the end of November he was in central Ecuador...and opted to fly south to Antarctica from there...he said he'd return to finish the South America portion of his route afterward. He was flown to Novo, from where he set out for Pole on 2 December. As of 8 January he reported knee problems and a broken rib...and another week to go to reach Pole. Which he finally reached on the 20th.

Sebastian Copeland and Eric McNair-Landry

trained in Greenland in 2010 for what is to be an unusual 2011-12 unassisted kite-supported venture which they call the Antarctic Legacy Crossing. First, leaving in early November, they started directly from Novo on 6 November and headed first to the Pole of Inaccessibility (82°06′S 54°58′E)...to Pole...and then on to Union Glacier and Hercules Inlet. They had to head back north and replace a broken ski a few days after starting. As of 1 December they were at 76°S, still heading for the POI but a bit behind schedule. They reached the POI and visited the bust of Lenin on 28 December SP time, then headed for Pole. As of 7 January they'd had some good traveling days and were 50 miles from Pole as the skua flies, but Sebastian's sled had come open and he lost his sleeping bag and other gear.

Shorter ventures and "last degree" trips:

 

Helen Skelton

an adventure as well as a moderator of popular BBC children's show Blue Peter, went to Pole on an interesting 500-mile ski/kite/bike trip. Her bicycle was designed with assistance from Doug Stoup, who previously experimented with his own two-wheeler around Patriot Hills while contemplating a ride to Pole (BBC News article about the bicycle design). The small-tired (!) bike, which weighs 40 pounds, is towing a 180 lb sled...I'm not sure how all this was configured when she's kiting. She's accompanied by Niklas Norman, a Norwegian guide, who has a similar bicycle, as well as a media crew. Their trip was based from Novo...they flew there on 24 December, and were flown to their starting point at 83°S on 3 January. Their course and track paralleled the South Pole race with support from the same Arctic Trucks crew. As of 9 January they were nearing 86°S...and they reached Pole on the 22nd.

The Push

is an unusual venture originally planned by two athletes, California and Lake Tahoe natives John Davis and Grant Korgan, who are partially paralyzed. They planned a "last 100 mile" trip to Pole using custom-made Sit Skis; here's a September 2011 ESPN article about their expedition and the development of the unique skis that they will use. John had to drop out because of a training accident in Argentina; Grant is being guided by experienced Pole traveler/guide Doug Stoup and fellow Arctic/Antarctic guide Tal Fletcher, who is making his first trip to Pole; there will also be a 4-man film crew. The first week in December they were training in Fairbanks (10 December Fairbanks Daily News-Miner feature). They were flown from Union Glacier to their starting point on 7 January...and reached Pole on the 18th. For the final bit of the journey, Grant got up on regular skis and was supported by is companions as they reached the Pole...where Grant was met by his wife Shawna, who had flown in for the occasion as a surprise.

Børge Ousland

with Bengt Egil Romo guided about 10 people on a last degree trip scheduled to arrive at Pole for the centennial of Amundsen's arrival. This the "Jubilee Last Degree" portion of the Jubilee expedition...the folks had gathered in PA on 1 December before flying to Union Glacier. They were dropped off at their starting point on 6 December, and reached Pole on the morning of the 14th just in time for the ceremonies.

The Humpty Dumpty Foundation

of Australia is being supported by a last degree venture guided by Australian mountaineer Damien Gildea, leading Kim Loane, Grant Bambach, Cath Murray, and Rob Clarke. The trek is raising money to assist sick children. They left Sydney for PA on 1 January, were flown to Union Glacier on the 6th, and were then flown to their start point at 89°S on 9 January.

One Call Wintercamp (Norwegian language site)

is a Norwegian group of 3 women and 3 men who planned to complete a kiting journey from 88°S 30°W in time to celebrate the Amundsen centennial on 14 December. They were selected by the mobile phone company after a competition involving more than 4000 applicants. The team was flown from Union Glacier to their starting point on 30 November. But they completed only about half of the planned distance before they ran short of wind and supplies, so they were flown to Pole on 12 December in time for the ceremony on the 14th, they then were flown back to Union Glacier the next day.

David Hempleman-Adams

led nine others on a 97-nautical-mile trip to Pole from the southernmost point reached by Shackleton in January 1909. Based out of Union Glacier, the group included his 16-year-old daughter Amelia (her web site/blog), Julian Evans, and Hazel Richards. They left the UK on 18 November, and were flown from Union Glacier to their starting point on 27 November (Huffington Post article), and reached Pole early Saturday morning 10 December...and didn't stay around for the festivities...they were headed back to Union Glacier and PA that same day.

Neal Laughton

the British adventurer and successful entrepeneur, is leading a group on a 100-mile trip to Pole in January, timed to coincide with the Scott centenary. Members of his group include James Balfour and Jon Beswick.

Other last degree expeditions

include one sponsored by ANI/ALE guided by Eric Larsen, a several trips run by Polarexplorers, one of which includes Wendy Booker, and a trip from Adventure Consultants.

Eric Phillips

According to his web site...before he guides Pat Farmer's trip to Pole, was to be escorting a group of 11 Chinese to Pole--they will fly from Novo to the base camp 14 miles from Pole, and travel to the station from there.

The International Scott Centenary Expedition (ISCE)

was announced by Anthony Jinman in early May. This event, scheduled for January 2012, is to be a 290-mile trip from Ross Island to the site of Scott's last tent site, where a commemoration service will be held. Expedition patrons and descendants of Scott's party will be flown to the memorial service--should be an interesting bit of logistics. Anthony had planned a trip to Pole in 2009-10 which was cancelled due to lack of funds. Anthony previously announced a North Pole trip for the boreal spring of 2010, which he successfully completed on 22 April 2010, and he was a member of the Hannah McKeand venture from the Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf, reaching Pole on 3 January 2009 (these trips are described on his main site).

Announced and planned for future seasons:

 

Kasim Rafiq

is a Scottish adventurer and student at Edinburgh University, he's planning an unsupported trip from Hercules Inlet to Pole in the 2012-13 season...his goal is to be the youngest Briton (age 22) to ski the distance to Pole without outside help. He will be guided. Currently he is training...and working to raise the estimated £40,000 that the venture will cost.

The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Centenary Expedition 2014

is planned to mark another upcoming centennial--that of Shackleton's famous attempt to cross the continent in a 1914-1917 venture. This group should have a bit easier time of it, what with air support, GPS, and modern equipment. So far the six-person group consists of leader Joanne Davies who was born Kenya and assistant Sebastian Coulthard from London. They're currently seeking additional team members from the Commonwealth countries. In 2014-15 they plan to retrace Shackleton's planned route from Vahsel Bay to Ross Island via Pole.

Hans Wijnand and Jacob Slooff

from the Netherlands are planning a "kite buggy" Antarctic crossing starting at Novo, visiting the Pole of Inaccessibility, stopping at Pole, and continuing to the vicinity of Mt. Vinson, where they will be joined by a third expeditioner for a summit climb. The lightweight kite buggies will also be manhauled as needed. The project was originally announced for 2010, but is now proposed for a November 2013 start.

The Best of British South Pole

is a 6-man team (from the UK, obviously) led by Manley Hopkinson, along with Rupert Baddeley, Steve Walton, and Dave McCormack. They planned a 2011-12 unsupported traverse (put off from 2010-11), aiming to set a record for the Beardmore Glacier route, something not many people have tried since Scott and Shackleton. They plan only a 460-mile trip from the base of the glacier, rather than a Ross Island start. They are staging through Cape Town, and then presumbably through Novo ("White Desert"). They were unable to secure funding in time for a 2011-12 venture and are hoping they can proceed next year.

Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen

are familiar names in the polar regions...in part for their 2000-01 Antarctic crossing. The two explorer/educators are planning a new venture for 2012-13, titled Access Water 2012, in which they will lead six other women from six continents on the 800-mile trip to Pole. Expedition focus is on the global crisis involving access to fresh water.

Karen Darke

is a 38-year-old paraplegic Scottish woman who is planning to be the first to reach Pole using only arm power, on a "sit-ski." She has been seriously training in Greenland and Patagonia for a team venture supported out of Union Glacier, now scheduled for 2012-13 (main expedition site).

Probably not happening at least this year...announced but no recent updates unless noted:

 

Alastair Humphreys

from England had previously announced a round-trip venture to Pole along with fellow Brit Ben Saunders. This was currently planned for 2011-12 but there is no recent information . Ben attempted the North Pole in 2010 but had to give up early when one of his fuel containers broke and contaminated most of his food.

the British Antarctic Expedition 2011

is a 5-person team consisting of Duncan Cameron, along with Anna Wakefield, Claire Marritt, Alex Toseland and Carl Alvey. Goals--Anna and Claire would be the first British women to cross the continent, Claire would be the youngest person, and Alex the first epilepsy sufferer. Oh, Duncan and Claire planned to get married at Pole (not exactly a "first") They plan another interesting route--a kite-assisted unsupported trip starting at the base of the Axel Heiberg Glacier, following Amundsen's route to Pole, and then proceeding to Hercules Inlet. This was announced for the 2011-12 season, but there have been no recent web site updates.

Cancelled! polarice

is a 4-man British team led by Mike Dann, along with Tim Tottenham, Simon Edmundson and Paddy Scott. They had been training in Greenland for what they called "the longest unsupported transantarctic journey ever undertaken"--a kite-assisted trip starting at Novo and proceeding to the Pole of Inaccessibility, the South Pole, and a finish on the Bellingshausen Sea, originally scheduled for 2010-11 but now put off indefinitely. Here's their blog.

Cancelled! 2012 Inspire

was a project including 3 British athletes--Olympian Derek Redmond, Paralympian Marc Woods and Special Olympics athlete Declan Kerry...along with Rosie Stancer, great niece of the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, with manager/guide Tim Moss. They planned to ski to Pole unsupported starting in mid-December but had to cancel due to lack of funding. 51-year-old Stacey now proposes a 1913 solo trip to the North Pole (Telegraph article). Marc is now a participant in the Race to the South Pole.

Nabil al Busaidi

–an Omani adventurer who has already summited Vinson, walked to the north magnetic pole and rowed across the Atlantic, wants to be the first Arab to walk to Pole, starting in mid-November 2011. Still much on his web site or blog, although this was announced in a 2 October article in the Oman Observer.

Antarctic Challenge 2009-2012

is an interesting planned centenary venture, where 5 teams of 5 (including experienced guides and young people) will start at 84°S from 5 points (roughly grid north, east, southeast, south and west) and travel 500 miles to Pole. Among other things, the group is commemorating the late Norman Vaughan, a member of Byrd's first expedition in 1928-30. Perhaps the best known of the ten leaders is Sarah McNair-Landry...but note that the website news for the venture, which was originally titled "Antarctic Challenge 2009-2010, has not been updated since June 2010.

Here are my records of the 2010-11, 2009-10, 2008-09, 2007-08, 2006-07, 2005-06, 2004-05, 2003-04, 2002-03, 2001-02, 2000-01 and 1999-2000 NGA expeditions. Keep in mind that the older expedition web sites tend to disappear. The 2000-01 Russian "Millennium Expedition" (skydiving/ballooning) is covered on a separate page.