"Great God! This is an awful place" -- Robert Falcon Scott

On 12th January, I had the opportunity to travel the furthest south I have ever been, or indeed, the furthest south it is possible to go. A network of GPS receivers run by the University of Bath, in conjunction with BAS had been running since 2009, and one of these sites was located at Site Owl, 30 miles from the Geographic South Pole. This network has been used to gather data about the ionosphere, and to help create computer models to predict its behaviour. This summer season was the last that the experiment would run, so it was my job, along with Doug the pilot and Dave the air mechanic, to visit the site and its three independent receivers and associated power systems, retrieve the data from them, remove the systems from the site and get them sent back to the UK.

The South Pole station is run by the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) who set their clocks by New Zealand time. It is common for Antarctic bases to set their clocks by their respective entry points into the continent. South Pole traffic enters via the US McMurdo station, which has its entry point in New Zealan, hence the time zone -- 16 hours ahead of Rothera. To account for our arrival time, and also to wait for weather windows, we stopped at Union Glacer, a privately owned camp in the Ellesworth Mountains.

Union Glacier camp

Union Glacer is operated by Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions (ALE). The camp is enormous, with capacity enough for all the private expeditions wanting to repeat the footsteps of Scott in the centenary year of his reaching the South Pole. There were many people also wanting to do "The Last Degree" -- getting flown out to 89 degrees South, and making their way to the Pole from there. The planes and air crew are all supplied by Ken Borek Air, and most of the guys flying and operating out of Union Glacier passed through Rothera earlier in the season.

A weather window opened a couple of days later, which allowed us to arrive at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station early in their working day. The station is quite impressive, but I think a winter there would be a lot more challenging than one at Rothera, where we have a virtual playground in the form of the local mountains and travel areas.

Amundsen-Scott Station

inside Amundsen-Scott

The science at Amundsen Scott seems to be mainly astronomical or cosmological in nature. Single experiments take up huge outbuildings, such as the South Pole telescope, or the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. Some of these take advantage of the long, dark Pole winters, and their apparently amazing auroral displays.

Amongst the things that made my jaw drop was the hydroponics area. It was being prepared over summer for use by the wintering crew. Apparently, during that time, the crew can help themselves to fresh tomatoes, strawberries, watermelons, lettuce...

I loose track of the things I would have done for that facility at Rothera over winter!!!

the hydroponic growth chamber at Amundsen-Scott

I was extremely lucky to be at the Pole on the 17th January 2012 -- exactly one hundred years after Robert Falcon Scott and his team reached the South Pole. It was around five weeks behind the first team, led by Roald Amundsen, but the fact that Scott made his great sacrifice by collecting important scientific data along the way is remembered still. It is a great legacy that the many research programs operating all across the continent remember and are possibly inspired by.

There was a brief ceremony, led by a members of ALE, who had based themselves at a camp near the research station. Two members of USAP contributed with speeches based around the importance of science to Scott's expedition. Henry Worsley, a descendant of Frank Worsley, captain of Shackleton's Endurance, made a speech which acknowledged the importance of science, but highlighted the importance of the military side -- the less mentioned patriotism and camaraderie that were major elements of the expedition.

Henry Worsley gives a speech at the Scott Centenary

Worsley had made his own expedition, retracing Scott's steps from the coast to the Pole and arriving, frost bitten and tired, in time for the centenary.

The ceremonial South Pole marker (around 50m away from the actual Pole marker)

After talking with other people who had worked at the Pole before me, I felt quite prepared for the cold. The field stores at Rothera had some fantastic kit that I'd taken with me, in addition to my normal field kit. However, the South Pole is on the high Antarctic Plateau, at more than 9,000 feet. With the air movements around the area, the pressure at the pole is around 680mbar, as opposed to the 960mbar here at Rothera today! Breathing becomes harder when over exerted, and headaches develop as the body tries to adapt to not having the same amount of oxygen in the blood. Couple this with the jet lag from the 16 hour time difference, and the first few days can be quite unpleasant.

Weather on arrival at the Pole (note the low air pressure!)

We stayed and worked out from the Pole for just over a week, departing early hours of Sunday 22nd January. Thanks to a time travelling Twin Otter aircraft, we arrived early Saturday evening, and were able to enjoy a party signalling the arrival of the USAPs Lawrence M. Gould ship to Rothera.

obligatory hero pose

Rothera does feel like home, and it was great to get back to my friends here. It will be very strange, in around three weeks time, when my time here ends and I have to leave Rothera Research Station, on Adelaide Island, and head back to the Real World.