Sleeping Outside and the 4th of July

On July 3^rd myself, Monty (one of our electricians) and Laurie (our safety person) spent the night outside in a Scott Tent at the ceremonial pole. The weather for this night stayed around -80F for the whole night. When I tell people I slept outside during the winter at the South Pole I am asked 2 questions. 1. Why would you do that? And 2, how do you stay warm? Well my answer to the 1^st question is why wouldn’t I do something like that? This is why many people think I am crazy. Maybe it’s just the winter-over in me coming out but I thought it would be a fun and cool experience to sleep outside at the pole marker. And answering the 2^nd question will take some explanation. So a Scott tent has no floor to it, so when you set it up and crawl inside unless you place a tarp or something else down you will be right on the snow. So to help keep it a little warmer inside we cheated and placed some 4” foam insulation down, and then on top of that you place some camping pads, and then your sleeping bags. So to stay warm you sleep in 2 sleeping bags (each one rated to about -40) and in addition to that you sleep in a fleece liner sleeping bag as well. There are also other tricks to stay warm like placing hot water bottles in your sleeping bag, and doing push ups to warm yourself up before you get into the sleeping bag. You also have to be careful that if you take a water bottle you put that in your sleeping bag otherwise it will freeze solid and take hours to thaw out. Because we were so close to the warm heated station we didn’t have to really worry if we got too cold because we could just go back inside. Once you crawl down into your sleeping bag you pretty much just settle in and go to sleep because outside your sleeping bag its -80, but inside you are warm and toasty! Getting up the next morning is probably the worst part. Because you are breathing out hot air all night long a nice layer of ice and snow forms all over the tent and your sleeping bags. So if you were smart before you went to bed you would have also shoved your boots, coat, and overall bibs into or under your sleeping bag to keep them from freezing and getting covered in ice. But usually no matter what you do putting on those cold clothes will not be fun!

In the photo above you see Laurie, myself and Monty all snuggled down in our sleeping bags.

It was a fun way to spend a night and even Michele (the sous chef) and Todd (one of the carpenters) who are in the photo above came to visit our little tent and brought us a nice warm beverage!

On July 4^th we had a BBQ, complete with a whole pig roast! I was of course in charge of getting the pig from the dome. I named him Wilbur and every time I went into the thaw box there he was, looking at me. It took about 6 days for Wilbur to be fully thawed out. I also made some cupcakes for the BBQ and decorated them with red, white, and blue frosting. We held the BBQ in the logistics facility (or the LO), where folks had set up a dart board, and even a horseshoe pit! There was lots of the traditional American 4^th of July food (hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, and potato salad) and even a sled full of Beer! Because it’s not July 4^th without lots of beer…although our beer was kept cold in sled with ice instead of a cooler and most of it expired in 2008. It was a very fun day and everyone seemed to have a great time just enjoying good food and relaxing. I think it did a lot for everyone’s spirits!

the photo above is of some of the station population just hanging out in the LO enjoying the good food.

We’ve been in total darkness for months now and it definitely affects people. You find that you are always tired, depressed, easily, irritable, forgetful, and you can be(at least I am) distracted easily. I have never been in a place where it was dark 24 hours day before and I find that it has made me very forgetful…I will leave my office to go do something and 30 seconds later I won’t remember what it is I needed to do. So I have started to write EVERYTHING down. Also I find that I will be a lot more moody then I ever used to be. I see this in other people too, and you will notice people just staring off into the distance (often at meal times.) We call this being “toasty”. There is a saying that says “Beat the Rush, Go Toast Early.” It seems to affect everyone differently, but I would say most of the 43 of us here at pole are pretty toasty. When new folks arrive in late October they usually encounter quite a crowed of dazed over, crazy looking winterovers.