Friday, February 23, 2001

Winterizing

Last week as the last planes were on their way out, the temperature began to dive toward the -60°F (-51°C) minimum threshold of warmth necessary for flight operations. However, the lowest it reached was only -50°F (-45°C). For most of this week the sky has been covered by a thick blanket of clouds that have kept the heat in and even caused a record high temperature for the day yesterday of -15°F(-26°C).

The mild weather has been ideal for the tasks involved with closing the station and getting it ready for winter. The heat has been turned off in all of the Summer Camp tents and all of the winter-overs who were in summer housing have moved into their new winter quarters. All of the buildings no longer being used have been winterized. The majority of those wintering are now living in one of the twenty-seven rooms found under the Dome. The remainder lives either in the Hypertats or the Elevated Dorm.

The "El Dorm" is one of the newer buildings on the station, and as its name implies, is elevated above the snow on stilts. It has a nice lounge and also the only kitchen outside the Dome’s Galley. Most of the rooms at the South Pole are quite small and occupied by only one person, but not the El Dorm. It is the favored lodging for married couples as the rooms are huge by South Pole standards. A dorm here may be even more sought after by the few lucky singles who were able to move into one of these enormous rooms without having to have a roommate. The building is not connected to the Dome but is only a short distance away.

Hypertats are about the same size as the Jamesway tents in summer camp but are made of metal and are warmer. Each contains nine small rooms. In the summer, each person had one room; in the winter everyone staying in "the Tats" is allowed two. Those accommodated in these blue metal buildings must endure a short walk outside to get to and from the dome.

The scientists working in the Dark Sector have to walk even farther to go back and forth to work. From the Dome it is a little over a half-mile to this group of buildings that house the telescopes and other cosmic observing equipment.

In April, when the darkness of winter will begin to set in, it could be quite easy to get lost on walks away from the station. In -100°F, this can obviously be dangerous. Therefore, we have been setting up "flag lines" of rope tied to flags along the paths to the Dark Sector, the Atmospheric Research Observatory (ARO) and other possible winter destinations.

Each winter-over is also required to assemble a bag containing extra extreme cold weather (ECW) gear. These bags will be placed in one of the Summer Camp tents. It is a precaution in case of a fire or other circumstance resulting in the evacuation of the main station. The emergency food cache and supplies were also inventoried to make sure everything is in order in case of a midwinter evacuation, which has never been necessary at the South Pole. Nevertheless, it is always good to be prepared in such a severe environment that would be utterly unforgiving without the protection of the station.