Antarctica, Week 2

WEEK 2

Sorry It has been a while since you last heard from me. I have been so busy working and working. Life here at the south pole is an adventure every day. After arriving here at such an intense climate, it takes the body a long while to adjust. The elevation actually changes daily ( well the pressure does) so some days it feels as if we are at around 11,000 ft and the next day only 10,500. So that is an adjustment in itself. It actually takes around 2 weeks to acclimate and around 6 weeks to feel... well normal!

There are so many different things going on down here all the time, my job is to help Chantel as a General Assistant is to help and support everything from construction, plumbing, electrical work, putting up wind turbines to shoveling items out of the "storage" for science projects. So everyday is something new! It's a great place to work considering we make money and they feed and house us, we make tons of new friends and have the experience of a lifetime!!

Chantel was just surprised last week with a winter contract, so, I might be staying here for a while longer. Chantel gets to stay for a whole year!!! I am so excited! She will be stationed at McMurdo station for the winter season and will be working on all sorts of new projects over the next months!

My adventures I recently found out have just begun. I would LOVE to answer any of your questions.

Teddy and Chantel driving the shuttle around station, I was on shuttle duty for a week taking people from site to site, all the different places, what fun!

Teddy with one of our local South Pole fire fighters!

To the end of the world

Well, the impossible is indeed possible. Never say never. Both of these sayings apply to where I am now. I thought it was absolutely impossible to go here. I never thought I would make it. But here I am in

My adventure to get to the bottom of the earth was an amazing one! The journey to reach the South Pole is one of much adventure, many hours on spent on a plane, sitting in airports, and meeting new friends! A group of around 35-40 people had orientation together in Denver, Colorado at the end of October. We were there for 3 days. We had all sorts of different trainings including learning about the environment down here and how fragile it is, to safety trainings, and learning how to work safe in such a harsh environment. We were then flown to Los Angeles for a 5 hour layover, and had a 15 hour flight to Australia. After a 2 hour layover there, we got on our next flight and took off to Christchurch New Zealand!!

It was a time to hangout with all of our new friends, eat, play and explore New Zealand. We were there for an extra day allowing us to get to go to the ocean, and to take a bus around to explore the city. In New Zealand, we were then issued all of our ECW gear (Extremely Cold Weather). What fun the first experience in such intensely large, bulky, heavy, warm clothes was. With everything on, from boots to head, it’s around 28 pounds!!! Talk about a weight change!

This is what everyone looks like before they head outside.

After we were all geared up, we took a flight on a C-17 military aircraft to McMurdo Station which is a small island in Antarctica. We were there for only 12 hours when we hopped another flight to our final destination… The South Pole!!! We left Denver on Halloween day and didn’t arrive at the South Pole until November 7^th, so it was definitely a trip to remember!

Stepping off that plane was so overwhelming, exhausting and almost euphoric. I will never forget the white beauty! Going from sea level to around 11,000 feet (it depends daily on the atmospheric pressure how the elevation actually feels to the body), and to a temperature of -50 F, our bodies were shocked and overwhelmed! The day was a blur and I’ve never been so tired or felt so “heavy.” We were allowed the day off, so we slept, ate and relaxed, trying to take it all in.

This is the South Pole Station where I will be staying. The pole in the middle of the picture is the geographic South Pole (2006).

And that… is the beginning of my Antarctic journey. I will update you more next week and send more pictures! So excited I get the opportunity to share my experience down here with you!! Take care and you’ll hear from me soon… if you have any questions just shoot me an email and I’ll try to get back to you as soon as possible. Remember… we work 6 days a week, 10 hours a day, so if it takes a day or two for me to reply, don’t worry! I’m probably just exhausted.