Siple Station 1978-79 winterovers

First winter in Siple II!

first Siple II winterovers

And they are:
 

Back row from left:
Bruce Fortnam - Stanford researcher
Ruedi Risler - SRI researcher
Brian Berry - Station manager
Michael Bates - comms coordinator

Front row:
Paul Thomas - maintenance mechanic
Don Bihler - medic
Bill Armstrong - Stanford researcher
Steve Scott - Cook (correction)

About the photo: This version of the photo was received from Michael's widow and posted in a private Facebook group by Jim Mathews. I attempted to edit it to eliminate the distortion and shadows from the photo having been taken on an angle, and to adjust the lighting. I couldn't fully eliminate the effect of the textured photo paper. Here is another editing attempt you may prefer, with lighting closer to the original.

As for the names...Jim Mathews didn't remember all of them, so I decided to search out, contacting Bruce Fortram and Brian Berry (thanks to Google and LinkedIn)! Both of them responded and filled in the missing names.

Jim Mathews told me that Michael Bates died on October 31 after being ill for a few months, perhaps of complications of liver disease.

A couple of photos:
test build of the Siple II moduleAn October 1976 test assembly of the Siple II module in California (from the Antarctic Journal (NSF), March 1977).
newly completed Siple 2The newly completed and not-yet-buried Siple II arch (Craig Martin photo).