3 December 2010 Our neighbors - Scott Base

If you were to go to Antarctica, where would you want to go? Would you want to go to McMurdo or to a field camp? Would you spend time on an icebreaker or would you stay at a different research station?

McMurdo is the biggest research station in Antarctica but there are about 67 other bases in Antarctica as well as about 30 summer field camps like the New Harbor Field Camp that we stayed at. The United States runs three research stations in Antarctica: McMurdo, the main station that is also the logistics center; Palmer over on the Antarctic Peninsula ; and the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station with its brand new station.

The closest base to McMurdo is Scott Base. It’s on the other side, the eastern side, of Ross Island, in front of the permanent ice shelf with its impressive pressure ridges. Only 3 km separate it from McMurdo though we have to go up and then back down a good sized hill to get there.

DJ, Kevin, and I biked there and back once with atrocious wind blasting our faces on our return and DJ and I re-biked it on a calmer day in about 20 minutes. On Thursday, I took a 5 minute shuttle there to meet with Erin Neufeld, who I had met on the way down to Antarctica at Gateway University in Christchurch. She gave me a great tour of the base and we enjoyed lunch which included cookies she had baked for the entire station. After exchanging information and stories, I was able to walk back, which only took about 35 minutes.

Though this research station is close, it is very different from McMurdo. First off, it’s much, much smaller. While we have about 1200 people on station in Mactown, only about 66 people currently reside on Scott Base. Everyone knows each other over there even though the population is pretty fluid! While we have many science groups, like ours for example, that is based in town for most of the season and goes out to the ice on day trips, most science groups in Scott Base usually head straight out to a field camp after they complete their training in town.

Instead of brown or blue houses with red Piston Bullies, Scott Base has bright, lime green houses with orange Piston Bulleys. With a smaller population, there are also only about 15 houses there instead of the 85 or more that we have here in McMurdo. Furthermore, these houses are all connected with covered hallways. The Kiwis can wake up in their 4 to 6 person dorms, walk to the cafeteria and then their work station in tank tops and flip flops. I actually saw one walking in bare feet with flip flops – what a refreshing sight! The Kiwis have a locker room in which they keep their beautiful orange ECW(abbreviation) Extreme Cold Weather clothing gear, which by the way, we Americans, with our not as pretty Big Reds, sometimes eye with envy.

With a smaller station and fewer people, life is a bit different. There’s less entertainment or distraction offered at Scott Base. There aren’t regular yoga or Pilate classes or science lectures like we have. The Kiwis come to our base for that and they invite us over on Thursdays for a special American night at Scott Base. The Kiwis do have the basics – three lounges with books, DVDs, and comfortable couches; a computer room with really slow dial-up Internet; a craft table with a sewing machine and all kinds of supplies; and a big room full of costumes. They like to dress up!

At Scott Base, people can also cook or bake cookies for themselves or the town! Though they have two cooks who make regular meals for everyone, they have to do their own dishes for all meals! They also have to tell the cook if they want to eat as it’s more planned out than it is in McMurdo.

While McMurdo and Scott Base each have their own way of doing things, they both seem like wonderful places to call home on this harsh continent. Where would you rather go? What would you study here?