Some things change, some things stay the same

It’s now been 12 years since the first time I came to Antarctica. It’s been fun to think through what things have changed, and what hasn’t. I’m going to focus on the stations and save the discussion of the environmental change for another time.

McMurdo is currently in the midst of a major construction project. Old dorms are being knocked down, while existing buildings are being added onto. You can watch construction via the live webcam here.

Missing dorm

Rebuild

But for the most part, not much has changed. Most of the buildings are the same as they were 12 years ago. The galley is the same, right down to the Frosty Boy soft serve machine which works most nights.

We have gotten improved internet. On my first visit we were issued usap.gov email accounts because programs like gmail wouldn’t consistently load. Now, gmail isn’t horrendously slow and we can even do some texting on our phones.

One thing that has changed, although it can be hard to see, is that more and more equipment and material is being moved by traverse vehicles. This is particularly important for supplying South Pole station. They were testing out a traverse from McMurdo to South Pole 12 years ago, but now there are three traverses a summer which bring most of the fuel as well as a lot of other stuff, up to Pole. This saves a lot of plane flights, which frees them up for field science rather than station resupply. This is critical for my Hercules Dome and COLDEX projects (more on those later). I just ran into Dean, who I first met at WAIS Divide and is now leading the South Pole traverse.

So, with both infrastructure and people, some things change while some stay the same.