1292 people have wintered over at the South Pole between 1957 and 2010. Since some of these folks wintered more than once, there actually have been a total of 1551 winterover positions. And if you haven't found the winterover lists yet, they are included, along with photos and other information as available, in the timeline entries for each year. Actually I should also say that there is a complete and updated database spreadsheet, access is available to Polies upon request (email me). I'm pretty confident that the list is complete and accurate, if only because it has been more than 4 years since someone wrote me claiming I'd left someone out :)

The 2010 winter brought a few more people to the station (47) than 2009, but it is still a much smaller group than when the elevated station winter construction was in full swing. In fact, the FEMC operation is now officially in a "maintenance mode" as the SPSM (new station construction project) ends on 1 April 2010, set to coincide with the original end date of the RPSC contract. And unlike 2009, this winter group has a total of 38 previous Pole winters in their records, not to mention a few at other stations. Another suggested statistic is that this is the oldest crew in history, but unfortunately the real numbers for that bit of trivia are not available.

In 2007, Robert Schwarz alone held the record for six winters. But he hasn't been back, so Johan Booth, Barry Horbal and Steffen Richter caught up with him in 2008, and Johan and Steff are now back for their 7th winter this year. Five people are behind them with five winters: Tommy Barker, Heidi Lim, Rod Jensen, Jake Speed (Joseph Gibbons), and Dana Hrubes. Jake was the first to reach this milestone; he also holds the all-time record (5) for the most consecutive winters in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004 (he was back at Pole for awhile in the 2007-08 and 2008-09 summers, but he'd been spending some of the "off seasons" at Summit and/or with wife Kath) and of course is now still recovering from losing some limbs at Summit in 2009. Tommy and Rod did much of their time back in the days when "winter" commonly meant 13 months on site with a brief R&R.

Six people have wintered 4 times at Pole. In addition to the folks mentioned above with more winters, this group includes Tracy Blair, Dennis Calhoun, Allan Day, Drew Logan, Paul Lux, and Kevin Shea.

At left, a view of the main second floor hallway and the gallery of winterover pictures dating back to the first winter in 1957...most of these were hung, edited and/or reframed by Andy Martinez and Terry Eddington during the 2007 winter. Some of the frames were fabricated with wood from the old Dome sauna or gym floor. We are still missing a few pictures...you know who you are :). Now as for those palm trees, all I can say is they sprung up a couple of months before I took this photo in November 2008.

With 3 winters, there are the folks mentioned above and 31 others...Nate Dyer, Jason McDonald, Elizabeth Rose, Paul Smith, Brien Barnett, Dave Benson, Rhys Boulton, Yubecca Bragg, Betty Carlisle, Robert (Gumby) Carlson, Clayton Cornia, Ethan Dicks, Tom Edwards, Lis Fano/Grillo, Slay Harwell, Bill Henriksen, Kitt Hughes, Katy Jensen/McNitt, Janice Martin, Jon Martin, Jason Medley, Jed Miller, Matt Newcomb, John Parlin, Kris Perry, Michael Rehm, Eric Sandberg, Mike Scholz, Bill Spindler, Will Silva, and Noah White.

Two of the 2008 crew, Heidi Lim and Kevin Shea, were in their fourth consecutive winter. Two of the 2006 w/o's, Allan Day and Barry Horbal, were in their fourth consecutive winter (2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006) (Barry was back in 2008). With three consecutive winters through 2008 are Johan Booth and Michael Rehm. Through 2007 can be added Brien Barnett and Robert Schwarz. Also with 3 consecutive winters as of 2006: Rhys Boulton, Clayton Cornia, and Mike Scholz...Jason Medley also had 3 consecutive winters (2001-2003). No one else has more than two consecutive winters.

2009 brought the smallest winter crew (43) since 1998 when the Dome still was the station and the current facility was nothing more than an artist's conception. And there weren't any records in 3009...only 4 returning winterovers, and all of them (Todd Adams, Weeks Heist, Lance Roth and Jack Sharp) were around with me in 2008 for their first winter.

2008 may not have had the most people, the most women, or any other similar "firsts," but that year did have a unique bit of history with both the oldest AND the youngest people to winter at Pole. It seems that our good Doctor Malcolm Arnold was 64--he turned 65 in September 2008...previously Dr. Betty Carlisle had the record, when she showed up during the 2001 medevac she was 62 and later in the winter turned 63. And TWO folks on station, carpenter Andy Titterington and comms tech Shaun Meehan, were age 18 when they showed up at the beginning of the summer. Shaun turned 19 on 14 December, and Andy turned 19 a month later on 13 January, making Andy the youngest w/o Polie, beating out Larry Duckett, the 1975 winter cook, who was 19 when he showed up at the beginning of the 74-75 summer, and Eric Siefka, who was also 19 when he wintered in 1982. Oh, for 1 day there were 3 19-year-old w/o's on station, but UT Aditya Tata turned 20 on 14 January 2008.

This unique 2010 marker features the South Pole Telescope along with 43 IceCube DOMs,
one for each of the 2009 wo's.It was designed and fabricated by the 2009 SCOARA machinist
Steele Diggles. More information and photos by Forest Banks, including the placement ceremony
on New Years Day...

This has brought up the question--how many women have wintered? Well, thanks to some male and female Pole Souls and Polies who helped me clear up my questions about ambiguous names, I think we have the results. The total is (we think)...174. This includes one person, Heidi Lim (now married and Heidi Rehm) with 5 winters, 7 with 3 winters, 27 with 2 winters, and 139 women who wintered once. The first woman was Michele Raney, the doctor in 1979. Initially when this was considered an "experiment" there were only one or two women here during the winter. Thankfully the powers that be decided to quit experimenting a few years later and get with the times...in 2004 there was a record percentage In 2005 there were a record 24 women on station, or 28%, also a percentage record. And in 2010 there are 11.

The first woman to winter at all 3 of the current US stations was Carol Crossland...she wintered first at McMurdo in 1991, then (after a few summers here and there) at Pole in 1998 and Palmer Station in 1999. As for the men...it turns out there have been a number of them. In no particular order (since I don't have all the data) it seems we have at least Robert (Gumby) Carlson, Larry Mjolsness, Al O'Kelly, Paul Lux, Jordan Dickens, Jack Anderson, Brad Kuehn, Paul Daniels, Jed Miller...I understand at least 38 folks may have wintered at all of the 3 current stations.

Another interesting overall program statistic that just recently came to light...as of the 2009-10 season there were two people that were in their 31st consecutive season on the ice...Jules Uberuaga and Rob Robbins. Jules did her first season in 1979-80 as a GFA at Pole. Rob's work involves diving...not a lot of call for that specialty in the middle of the continent.

The first two family members to winter at Pole (not in the same year) were brothers and scientists Henn Oona in 1964 and Hain Oona in 1968 (in 2010 Henn (Hank) and Hain are both still working at Los Alamos National Laboratory). Their family emigrated to the US from Estonia when they were young boys. And the second two brothers to do that were Bill Smythe (UCLA gravity, 1977) and his brother Chuck (NOAA, 1979),

The first Japanese-American to winter was US Weather Bureau researcher Fred Mayeda in 1959...but he was an American citizen. The first Japanese citizen showed up to winter a year later in 1960--Dr. Masakiyo (Henry) Morozumi, studying auroras, with the Arctic Institute of North America--he has a web site. The first Hispanic was Jose Gomez in 1961...the first African-American was probably Rod Miles in 1969 (another had wintered at Byrd in 1961).

The 1 January 2009 marker seen here was designed and created by the 2008 w/o
SCOARA machinist Dave Postler This photo is by Reinhart Piuk. More on the
marker and the New Years Day ceremony...

The first Russian (Soviet) exchange scientist was Peter Astakhov in 1967; he was followed 10 years later by Alex Zaitsev in 1977. From the post-Soviet era, Russian Nikolai Makarov wintered in 1995, and Ukrainian Nick (Nicolai Starinski) wintered in 1999.

The first Kiwi men were met observers Barry Porter and Bernie Maguire in 1976, and the first NZ women were carpenters Kate Batten and Vicky Ward in 2005 (the complete list of all 22 New Zealanders)

The first Australian was Barry Woodberry who came down with the US National Bureau of Standards in 1966. The second Aussie is also notable--Graeme Currie wintered in 1981 (he wintered eleven times at various ANARE and other stations)...the first Australian woman was AST/RO observer Jules Harnett in 2004. There have been at least 16 so far who have wintered (list of Australians).

1966 was a rather cosmopolitan year at Pole. In addition to Barry, the winterovers with non-US citizenship included the Bartol cosray researcher Lars Andersson from Sweden, and Navy electrician EM1 Cesar Ambalada from the Philippines.

And speaking of Swedes, it seems that the second Swedish w/o was 2007 IceCube guy Sven Lidstrom...

From a bit south of Sweden in the Low Countries, Jean-Marie Moreau, the 1990 doctor, is the first and only Belgian to have wintered. And Erik Verhagen, with IceCube in 2009, was the first Dutch citizen to do so.

Noah White, radioman/comms guy, wintered three times in 1967, 1970, and 1979. He is the only person to winter both at the original station (Old Pole) and under the dome...and the only person to winter both as a Navy man and a civilian. Yes, I've met him, he's a good guy.

1995 and 1996 were interesting winters...1995 was the last year WITH a scheduled midwinter airdrop and WITHOUT internet. They also were the first years when anyone wintered consecutively--Australian astronomer James (Jamie) Lloyd and NOAA science tech Jeff Otten wintered in both 1995 and 1996.

Here's the marker placed on 1 January 2008, designed by 2007 w/o facilities engineer
Laura Rip...and created by SCOARA machinist Derek Aboltins. Photo courtesy Glenn
Grant (whom I finally got to meet in person!). More information about the marker and
photos of the ceremony are here.

Back to nationalities...it now seems that the first German to winter did so back in the real old days of 1972--gravity geophysicist and German citizen Walter Zürn, who was spending time at UCLA after graduation from Stuttgart. Next was 1983 w/o geophysicist Hans-Albert Dahlheim, who was studying the gravitational pull of the Moon (and won the Round the World Race). Matthias Rumitz (AST/RO) and Robert Schwarz (AMANDA) were next, in 1997. By now there are eleven total...here is the list of Germans. As for the French, probably the title for the first man goes to the 2006 BICEP researcher Denis Barkats, and 2009 IceCube w/o Camille Parisel is the first woman--she previously spent 14 months at Dumont d'Urville through the 2001 winter. The first Italian looks to be Paolo Calisse, the 2003 VIPER/AASTO winterover. And 2005 featured the first Jamaican, HR person Kurt Montas.

Laser scientist Ashraf El-Dakrouri, who wintered in 2000, was the first Egyptian (and the first person from any Arab or Muslim nation) to winter at Pole (profile article from the 16 January 2000 Antarctic Sun). Hein Van Bui, the 1988 w/o computer tech, was the first person from Vietnam to winter. He was followed by Hien Nguyen, the 1994 SPIREX researcher/SSL; and Xuan Ta, the 2004 Title II inspector. There have been three Chinese (PRC) citizens to winter: AST/RO astronomer Xiaolei Zhang (1998), AMANDA researcher Xinhua Bai (1999), and Kecheng Xiao (AST/RO, 2002).

We've had three people from India winter...the first was Roopesh Ojha, a citizen of the Republic of India who wintered with CARA/ASTRO in 1999. Also there with him that year was science tech Reza Mossadeque (of Indian and Bangladeshi origin, although he was an American citizen when he wintered). Next is 2007 w/o Karthik Soundarapandian, another India citizen, who wintered and is currently working with IceCube.

There are ten winterovers that I know are at least partly from Canada...three of them in 2009. Here's the list.

From the UK I believe we have had eleven winterovers (which includes a couple of folks with dual NZ/British citizenship), most recently 2009 SPT astronomer Ross Williamson (list of British citizens). And from an emerald island next to the UK it seems 2010 winter site manager Mel MacMahon claims both Irish and Canadian heritage, and 1990 w/o Richard Collins was an Irish citizen.

The 2007 Pole marker (Antarctic photo library, photo by Glenn Grant). The marker was
designed by 2006 (and 2005 :) AND 2004 w/o electrician Clayton Cornia. Yes...once
again, each dimple represents one of the 64 winterovers.

Some station management statistics (these refer to the winter site manager, not the area manager/resident manager position, which was created for the first time for the 1977-78 summer. The year before then, the station manager had, shall I say (since it was I ;-), a bit more to do during the summer.

During the Navy days, none of the OIC's ever wintered more than once at Pole in any capacity (although several wintered elsewhere). During the Dome era, many of the managers had previously wintered in another position--the first of these being Tom Plyler who was the power plant mechanic in 1975 and manager in 1981. Two managers to date have subsequently returned to winter again in another position: Gary Freeman was manager in 1992 and returned as SEH coordinator (safety/environmental/health) in 1995. And Bill Spindler, who was manager in 1977, returned 28 years later (the longest recorded gap between winters) to winter in 2005 as Title II inspector.

Another first for the 2005 winter--Bill Henriksen was the first person to return for the second time as manager--in 2003 he had the same job (his first winter was as Title II inspector in 2000). In 2006, 2007, and 2008 he wintered in McMurdo as the NSF manager.

Janet Phillips in 1994 was the first female manager. After the McMurdo winfly, all 3 US stations had female management for the first time--Karen Schwall at McM and Ann Peoples at Palmer as well as Janet. Oh, Janet went on to manage Palmer Station in 1996.

Three managers during the civilian era were last-minute replacements--Dan Morton in 1976, Rich Wiik in 1983, and Dennis O'Neill in 1991. Rich and Dennis had been at Pole, scheduled to winter in other positions, but Dan had NOT worked at Pole and was not originally scheduled to winter until 1977. All 3 guys are friends of mine and did well.

Last but not least, one statistic that has nothing to do with Pole...so far as I know, the all-time record for Antarctic winters is held by Gerald Ness, otherwise known as Gerry or Rocky...who has 15 (that's right, fifteen) winters under his belt, most recently at Palmer Station in 2004. The rest of his winters were at Palmer and McMurdo.

Yes, I know, there must be more vital stats--send em to me!!

The 2006 Pole marker (Antarctic photo library, photo by 2006
w/o Joe Tarnow. The marker was designed by 2005 w/o Stephen
Parshley...each dimple represents one of the 86 winterovers)

Thanks to Katy Jensen, who originally crunched the data to produce many of the statistics you see here. Please recognize that the nationality information is based only on published publicly available data and voluntary contributions. Credits for the photos at the top of the page--the group in the left photo is the 1957 team, note Paul Siple in the back row (caption and more information); and the motley crew in the right photo is, of course, the 1977 Pole Souls :). The panorama below is the 2004 w/o picture by Glen Kinoshita--sometimes you may still be able to go here for the large and LARGER versions;