The only way out is north

Since man has been coming to Antarctica, the ultimate destination has always been the south pole. Early explorers endured the most extreme hardships. Some lost everything along the way. They endured frost-bite, unbearably cold temperatures, some of the fiercest winds on the planet. My hardship, the crust on my sandwich was a tad bit hard. I probably won't go down in history books for my efforts in conquering stale sandwiches, but I am at the South Pole. When I first started thinking about coming to Antarctica, I fantasized about getting an opportunity to visit “Pole” as it's called by the locals. It was unreasonable to think that I would get to come my first season, but the opportunity arose this season and I jumped at the chance. I only found out a few days ago that I would be coming, I had to tie up some loose ends before departing McMurdo so I really didn't have too much time to get excited about the whole affair. I first started to feel the excitement the night before I came. I woke at about 3A.M and wasn't able to go back to sleep due to the excitement. The flight down was an uneventful 3 hours on a ski-equipped C-130. On the way down, I took an opportunity to look out the window. I was reminded the vastness of this continent. It's amazing how easy it is to forget about the rest of the continent when you're at McMurdo. The feeling I got when I stepped off the plane at Pole was on of exhilaration. I feel extremely honored and privileged to be in this otherworldly place. I received a very warm welcome from the operations manager here. I spent the rest of the day settling into my room and trying to learn my way around the 60,000 sq. foot elevated station.

I intend on getting some pics posted on the blog over the course of the next few days. Until then, here are some tidbits of information:

The current station was completed during the 2005/2006 austral summer.

Conservation is for real here. All water comes from melting snow, which burns a great deal of fuel (at about $16/gallon by the time it gets here). Only 2 showers, lasting 2 minutes each are allowed.