1228 people have wintered over at the South Pole between 1957 and 2008. Since some of these folks wintered more than once, there actually have been a total of 1461 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.
In 2007, Robert Schwarz alone held the record for six winters. But he is taking this year off, so Johan Booth, Barry Horbal and Steffen Richter now also are wintering for the sixth time. Four people are behind them with five winters: Tommy Barker, Heidi Lim, Rod Jensen, and Jake Speed (Joseph Gibbons). 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 summer, but he's been spending some of the "off seasons" at Summit and/or with his new wife Kath). 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.
Seven 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, Dana Hrubes, Drew Logan, Paul Lux, and Kevin Shea.
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)...152. This includes one person, Heidi, with 4 winters, 6 with 3 winters, 19 with 2 winters, and 126 women who wintered once.
With 3 winters, there are the folks mentioned above and 26 others....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.
In addition to all those mentioned above, 122 people have wintered a total of twice at Pole.
Two of the 2008 crew, Heidi Lim and Kevin Shea, are 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 is 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.
2008 may not have the most people, the most women, or any other similar "firsts," but we may 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 is age 64, to be 65 in September. 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 that I know about, beating out Larry Duckett, the 1975 winter cook, who was 19 when he showed up at the beginning of the 74-75 summer. Oh, for 1 day there were 3 19-year-old w/o's on station, but UT Aditya Tata turned 20 on 14 January.
Other data points of note--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 2005 there were a record 24 women on station...and in 2008 there are 12.
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. (I haven't figured out yet if any men have achieved this...anyone know??)
The first two family members to winter (not in the same year) were brothers and scientists Henn Oona in 1964 and Hain Oona in 1968 (both Henn and Hain now work at Los Alamos National Laboratory). Their family emigrated to the US from Estonia when they were young boys.
The first Japanese-American 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. 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 first Russian (Soviet) exchange scientist was Peter Astakhov in 1967...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 21 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 13 Australians so far who have wintered (list).
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...
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.
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 Dalheim, 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. So that makes nine total...here is the list. As for the French, probably the title for #1 goes to the 2006 BICEP researcher Denis Barkats. And the first Italian looks to be Paolo Calisse, the 2003 VIPER/AASTO winterover.
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, he is currently working with IceCube.
There are six winterovers that I know are from Canada...(the list), most recently 2008 SPT astronomer Keith Vanderlinde, and from the UK I believe we also have six winterovers, most recently 2007 SPT astronomer (and SSL) Stephen Padin (complete list). And from an emerald island next to the UK it seems that 1990 w/o Richard Collins was an Irish citizen.
A couple of other 1999 "firsts" -- Nick Starinski (Nikolai) is from the Ukraine, and Mosadddeque Reza is from Bangladesh.
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!!
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;
