Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 12/19/2012 - 16:39
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IceCube In-Ice Antarctic Telescope 2012

hhow often do white-out conditions happen? Does it happen in both summer and winter? Is it really disorienting down there if in every direction there's just snow/ice?

do u feel like you're on another planet? Are there people who live there for two or three years at a time? Do you get tv reception there? Do u have trouble breathing because the air is so cold? Does it seem very pristine or is there a lot of discarded equipment around? are ther scintists as well as cooks/workers etc fom just a few counties or is it truly international? A lot of languages spoken or only English? What has really surprised you about the south pole?

Thu, 12/20/2012 - 15:55

Liz Ratliff

Thanks for your questions!I'm not sure how often there are whiteouts here but I've been here for about two weeks so far and the last two days, I think, have technically been considered whiteout conditions. Yesterday, it was pretty windy but today it's warm (at -10F) and not really windy at all. So, even though everything looks really white everywhere, it hasn't felt like it's bad weather.
I think whiteouts happen more later in the summer. Some of the people here have said that the weather in January can be pretty bad. There are a few different reasons that whiteouts can occur so I think they can happen both in the summer and winter. The whiteouts for the past couple of days have been due to clouds overhead. The light is diffuse and, because there aren't many features around besides snow, it can be difficult to tell where the ground ends and the sky begins.
It can definitely be disorienting. Normally, we can see the South Pole Station from our drill site (which is about 5 km away) but for the past couple days, it's been pretty difficult to see it. Earlier today, I couldn't see it and it was kinda disorienting. When we rode on the snow machine to work today, it was really hard to see the road and we ended up going off of it for a little bit.
So, I definitely feel like I'm on a different planet sometimes. It's hard to connect with the "real world" while I'm here. There's no TV or radio station reception so I'm not really up-to-date on the news. We can get online but our internet connection is pretty limited so it's easy to feel cut off from the rest of the world. Life down here is very different than back in the U.S. and it's easy to get very caught up in what's going on here. Sometimes, I forget that this is just a small part of my life. It's very consuming and not in a bad way - I enjoy being in this community. It's easier here, in some ways, because you don't have to deal with all of the hassles of your "real" life.
Some people do live here for a year or so at a time. They are called "winter-overs" because they stay here over the winter. I've met a few winter-overs and they've told me that they'll get a short break in Christchurch, New Zealand for a couple weeks before the winter starts. They've already been here for a couple months though and they'll be here, overall, for about 13 months, I think.
I do have some trouble breathing but it's getting better now. Mostly, the high altitude (we're at about 10,500 ft up) makes it hard to breathe. Doing anything at all strenuous, like walking up the steps, can really wear you out. But, after 2 weeks, I finally feel like I can go up the steps without losing my breath. The cold is a little easier to deal with. I've got a neck gaiter I can put over my mouth to warm up the air a little bit, if I need to. Another factor that makes it hard to breathe is the lack of humidity in the air. The South Pole is actually in a desert so the air is really dry. When you breathe out, you lose a lot of moisture to the air so that's another thing the gaiter helps with. The moisture stays in the fabric so, when you breathe back in, the air gets rehydrated a little bit so your mouth, throat, and lungs don't feel so dry.
In most places, it looks very pristine. There is equipment but it's not discarded. There is something called the Antarctic Treaty that's been signed by a lot of countries. As part of the treaty, you're not allowed to leave things in Antarctica. All of our trash and recyclables have to be sent off the continent to be processed. So, there isn't much stuff here that isn't being actively used. It's a really nice landscape. One of my favorite things to do is, at our drill site, stand on the very edge of the site and look out away from the station. There's just nothing there but snow. It's a magnificent desolation (to quote the astronaut, Buzz Aldrin.)
There are a lot of people from different countries here. Everyone I've met speaks English but a lot of people are from other countries. One of our winter-overs is from Chile and I've met a ton of Germans.
I think the thing that's surprised me the most about being here is how much I don't miss my regular life. I don't miss having a TV and I used to watch it all the time. I don't really miss being home nearly as much as I thought I would. I don't miss trees or having the sun go down at night. I think the only thing I miss is having a place where I can go that I feel like I'm really alone. There are always other people around (even when I'm in my room, it feels like someone's here because the walls are pretty thin.) I really love being down here and I'm pretty sad that I've only got a few more days left.