How Did It End?

A busy 48 hours... We skied in hazy conditions with a little wind (and snow!) for a bit over four hours, heading Southeast to get around the North end of that four mile long VLF antenna. Everyone was feeling good, and skiing well, although Chuck's blisters were more painful than the day before. The Pole remained coy until very near the end, teasing us with glimpses through the falling snow and fog, until it finally appeared, clear and close (it seemed) a few miles before we actually arrived. At the North end of the VLF antenna (which is now buried under snow, and not visible), was a large yellow sign, lettered in black, welcoming us to the South Pole. It also asked us to please follow only the groomed path the last two nautical miles to the actual Station and the Pole, which we did. ALE has a camping space carved out ("The World's Southernmost Resort") a few hundred yards from the actual Pole. They have a small, but heated, mess tent there. It was fabulous to sit in a real chair again after over a week, in a warm room, eating hot soup - even though we knew we would have to set up our tents to sleep in for one more night in the cold.

After soup, it was back outside for pictures of the Pole. There are actually two Poles, both in front of the new, third, South Pole Research Station (completed in 2008). (The Pole has been continuously occupied since late in 1956, when the U.S. Established a research base there for the International Geophysical Year.) The Ceremonial Pole has the mirrored globe on top of a red and white striped pole, surrounded by flags from all the nations with research bases in Antarctica. That is where most people take their pictures, including us. Nearby is the actual Geographic South Pole, marked by a plainer pole, topped by a round brass monument. Each year the "overwinter team", about forty people left behind for nine months after the last plane out leaves in February, crafts a new, and newly designed, brass marker. Inside the Station they have all of the old monuments, dating back to 1956-7, except for one that was stolen years ago. The glacial ice sheet over the Pole, all two miles thick of it, is actually moving over ten feet a year, carrying the monument (and the entire Station) with it. So, on January 1st each year they dedicate the new monument at the current actual location of the Pole. We missed next year's dedication ceremony by just a few days, but did get pictures at the old monument.

The other thing that many people get very excited about, in this age of instant electronic gratification, is getting their GPS to read exactly 90 Degree South. I only brought a GPS equipped camera, and the best it could do, as I walked all the way around the world, while facing both forwards and then backwards, was 89 Degrees, 59 Minutes, 59 Seconds, which was off by 100'!

After that it was back to the mess tent, where we had a late, but very satisfying celebratory dinner, including some good champagne, before setting up our tents and finally getting to sleep the sleep of the Just: The Just Plain Tired. This morning we had a few hours to relax, before striking camp the final time. We also had to organize our "kit" (gear) for loading onto the BASLER DC-3 for the flight back to Union Glacier. After countless failed attempts to get the team to laugh at any of my jokes, the cleaning up finally gave me a successful opening: Zac told us that in order to avoid a repeat of the "Chicken Curry Episode" from the flight down - when frozen food melted and burst inside our sled bags after the flight crew loaded them on top of the BASLER's cabin heater - we needed to collect all of our human waste bags in one industrial garbage sack for the flight out. I then immediately reminded the group that he had predicted that this moment would come, all the way back at Union Glacier - by the end of the expedition, if we all focused our efforts, we would really have our polar travel s--t together! And so it was.

After a strenuous, but very rewarding effort, we are now en flight back to UG, rich with both experience and memories, not to mention swag from the South Pole Station gift shop...