Ignacio Taboada's South Pole Page

I have often heard that best the two days in the South Pole are the day that one arrives and the day that one leaves. Now that I have been there I do not think so, all my time in The Ice was very pleasant. I have the certainty that, if it were necessary, I would be able to spend a long time in Antartica. I believe that it is not possible to visit Antartica and not love the continent.

Probably the single bad thing about going to the South Pole is the trip in itself. I live in Philadelphia, in the east of the U.S.A., so to go to the pole means to fly to Los Angeles, 5 hours, from Los Angeles to Auckland in New Zealnd, 11 hours, of Auckland to Christchurch also in New Zealnd, another hour and a half. Very reasonably in Christchurch almost everybody takes two or three nights to rest.

I was in Christchurch for three nights. The contrast of New Zealand with later experiences in the Ice is enormous. During the spring and austral summer, the southern island in New Zealand enjoys a very pleasant climate. The humidity is very low and the temperature is perfect. Also the fame of this country of having spectacular landscapes is, to the extent of my limited experience, very justified.

To the south of Christchurch there is an extinct volcano whose boiler has been penetrated by the sea. A small town, Littleton, is founded on bay formed within the boiler. From Christchurch the boiler one can go either walking or in a funicular. Any of the two forms is very pleasant. The trip in small gondola lasts not more than 10 minutes; going up it is possible to be see Chrsitchurch towards the north and mountains with permanent snows even further away. Once in the top, Littleton can be seen.

Two days after I arrived in Christchurch I went to ASA (Antarctic Support Associates) to get my equipment ECW, or extreme cold climate equipment. Naturally everything has to be tried on. If the clothes are too tight, specially the boots, gloves and mittons, the blood circulation is stoped and one loses heat fast. If the clothes are too loose, the wind enters throughout. In general I was very happy with the equipment assigned to me, except for an important exception, I was never cold in Antartica due to inadequate equipment. The exception was my boots. Apparently almost all the members of AMANDA knew that one had to request the blue boots. I was not among those who knew that and I was given bunny boots. When I had to work outdoors for several hours I suffered my ignorance. Luckyly the people on cargo had extra blue boots.

The flight from Chrsitchurch to McMurdo lasts 7 hours and if the trip of Philadelphia to Christchurch is tough, then the flight of Christchurch to McMurdo is terrible. The participants of the Antarctic Polar Program of the U.S.A. have the privilege to fly fly on conosieur class abord the LC130 Hercules. There are no seats in the strict sense of the word in these airplanes and as the island of Ross is the point of origin of many trips to other places on the continent the flights generally take all the passengers that is possible. Even worse, the Hercules is quite noisy and it is necessary to use ear plugs. On the other hand the personnel of the airplane is very nice and they do the everything that is possible so that the trip is a little better.

McMurdo is one of the 3 permanent stations that the U.S.A. maintains in the continent. It's located on the Ross Island just next to the coast of the continent. McMurdo is peculiar in that it is one the southern most sites on Earth south to which it is possible to go by boat. During most of year, the top 2 meters of sea are completely frozen. Nevertheless by a brief period in summer it is possible to use icebreakers to arrive to the Ross Island. The Scott base, a New Zealand station is also on the Ross Island. At the beginning of century Ross Island was departure point of the two, failed, antarctic expeditions led by the englishman Robert Scott.

During summer McMurdo lodges approximately 2000 people. There is a fire dept., tracks for bowling, gymnasium, two bars, etc. As you can see, McMurdo adjusts more to the stereotype of a town than to a scientific station in an uninhabited continent. This is why I personally do not like McMurdo very much. Even then I must recognize that the landscape around Ross Island is spectacular.

Without doubt the best part from the trip to the South Pole is the flight of McMurdo to the Pole. This flight also is in a Hercules LC130, but since the station at the pole is a lot smaller than McMurdo, the flights take very few passengers. In my flight going to the pole, we were 5 passengers. After the airplane had reached height, the pilots usually allow the passengers to go, one by one, to the cabin. A good section of the flight is over the transantarctic mountains. The vista is spectacular. The multitude of mountains, glaciers, valleys and all imaginable textures of ice. I must explain that the Hercules, unlike the commercial airplanes has many windows in the cabin. Also these airplanes are not able to fly much higher than the mountains. The sensation is that one is surfing over the mountains.

The South Pole is on a plain at 2800 meters above sea level. Due to the cold, air pressure is lower at the pole than other places on Earth at the same altitude. I always dismissed the effect that 3000 meters cuould have on me. After all, I was born in Caracas at 1000 meters. Very frequently I've camped on the mountains to the north of Caracas; Naiguat&aacuta; peak is 2765 meters high, approximately the same as the South Pole. A few times I've been as high as 4800 meters in the Venezuelan Andes. Most people suffer altitude sickness a day or more when they go to the South pole. Some vommit and have to stay in bed even for 3 days.

I didn't suffer that much. Just a slight headache for 2 or 3 hours. But having altitude sickness at all was a surprise. I assume that the difference with other high altitude places I've been to is that the air in Antarctica is extremely dry and dehidration occurs very fast.

The South pole in itself is not pretty. There's not a lot to do either. But, after all, it's the South pole and without doubt the pole it's an exciting place. It take a long time to learn how to live there comfortably. There's a small list of things that have to be done at the pole. Visiting the post that marks the proper South Pole is, of course, in this list.

The ice cap is almost 3000 meters thick at the South Pole. The precipatation is only about 5 centimeters of equivalent liquid water per year. That would normally qualify Antarctica as a desert, but because of the cold, ice has been acumulating for a long time. The ice at the bottom of the ice cap is about 300,000 years old.

When I arrived at the pole the temperature was -45 C. This sounds like very cold, but as I've said before the equipement was very good and it was possible to stay comfortably outside for many hours. If it's not windy it's possible to have the face uncovered for a few minutes. The highest temperature while I was there was -28 C. The difference between -45 C and -30 C is not big, but if there's no wind it's possible to have your face uncover longer. Probably it was my hands what suffered cold the most. I shot 10 rolls of pictures and to use my camera I had to take out my mittens. The 2 gloves I had were not enough to keep my hand warm for more than about 10 minutes and my photographic expeditions used to last an hour or more. All those pictures with the face uncovered are faked, normally you have to wear a balaclav, a neck waiter, a cap and goggles always trying not leave a hole where wind might get in.

My friend Robert Schwartz has a really nice balaclava. A little plastic piece allows him to breath through the balaclava while keeping water vapor away from his goggles. He also gets that nice Darth Vader look wearing his balaclava. Robert has spent 2 winter season at the South pole. During winter the temperature can be as low as -80 C.

My goggles got fogged very often. Eventually I began inhaling by the nose and exhaling by the mouth to prevent his problem. Once the goggles are fogged it's almost impossible to clean them. The ice over the goggles is so cold that the heat of the hands is not enough to melt it.

The South pole station house about 200 people on summer and about 30 people on winter. The dome, the main building on the station, has room for about 30 people. Those who don't get a room in the dome have to sleep in the summer camp. The dome is not heated, it's only function is to protect from the wind. Within the dome there are a few 2 story buildings that are heated. These buildings are very small but very comfortable. Inside of the dome you can find the galley, the post office, the winter-over rooms, comms equipment and some of the science projects. Also inside of the dome you can find the library, a very good one by the way, the video library, also very good and a pool table.

Through the dome's main entrance it is possible to get to the arches. These structures have a much higher useful volume than the dome. The arches house the hospital, the power plant and the garages for the caterpillars and snow mobiles.

The AMANDA building is a kilometer away from the dome on the other side of the runway. Evereday I'd walk this kilometer at least twice. Because I only had to work outside two or three times, this walk represented most of my time outside. I always welcomed this walk as it made me remember how fortunae I was to be at the South Pole.

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