90° South

the first hole is finished and last night the first IceCube string of this season was deployed.

posted at: 09:15 | path: / | permanent link to this entry

today at about 7:15 am two Twin Otters full of tourists arrived at our remote location. They came all the way from Patriot Hills.

What does a Tourist do at the South Pole? OF course, take pictures. We had our fun, too. We got to watch them from the galley. And four hours later our visitor leave again.

posted at: 11:25 | path: / | permanent link to this entry

last shift we started the first IceCube hole of the season. The picture shows the drill head going down the firn hole.

Unfortunately, the start was not smooth. The brake on the hose reel caused some startup delays. We could not disengage the brake because of cold hydraulics and a broken solenoid.

posted at: 10:05 | path: / | permanent link to this entry

It is weekend again, time to write a bit. The week was busy, but at least now the day is off. Time to do things I didn't get around to do during the week, like do some laundry, write postcards.

Saturday even we had a SPIFF retrospective in the galley. SPIFF is the South Pole International Film Festival. SPIFF features shirt films made by people at the pole. The retrospective did show the highlights of past years as an inspiration for this years films. I am looking forward to this seasons SPIFF.

posted at: 03:05 | path: / | permanent link to this entry

Today is Thanksgiving at the pole. The main part is the Thanksgiving Dinner. Or Breakfast for us on night shift. Due to the amount of people the dinner is divided into three seating's. Being on the night shift, I can use the last seating.
The Thanksgiving dinner started at 6:30 pm with appetizers and live music in the hallway outside the galley.

The dinner started at 7 pm with a very short speech by the station manager Bk. The whole atmosphere is a nice difference for every day. The table were set, table cloth and candles. The main part of the dinner the food was really good and an impressive variety, different kinds of turkey, stuffing, side dishes. The food itself was self service, but drinks were served by volunteers. I have to say, the kitchen staff and all the volunteers did a great job.

After dinner parties all around the station started or were in full ??? already from prior seating's. That said, parties started for most of us. Some had to work, me included.
Someone has to watch the IceCube drill site all the time. During the Holiday only two people work at the drill site ate a given time. It is their job to make everything keeps running.

posted at: 22:00 | path: / | permanent link to this entry