And Then There Were 60

The last aircraft left The South Pole at about 1:30pm yesterday. Cigars were lit, champagne was flowing. Indeed, this years' winterovers are ready.

Late yesterday morning we were transferring as much fuel as possible into our day tanks here in the Power Plant. The fuel storage facility at The Pole holds 450,000 gallons to get us through the winter. This diesel/Jet A/AN-8 (or whatever you want to call it) is everything to us. We use it to make heat, electricity, and to "mine" our water. We also have several 10,000 gallon portable units that can be towed into position to feed our emergency power plant. We heard that the last plane would be bringing us even more fuel, so we made room for as much as possible. It is very comforting to know we now have as much as we possibly can.

There were some frozen tears (it was -40F) as our summer friends made their way to the final LC-130. Friendships seem to develop more quickly here than anywhere else I've been. Maybe it's the cold, maybe it's the isolation, maybe it's the fact that we all rely on each other in some way for survival. Many of my friends are going to spend the winter at McMurdo. Some, like Craig the Scottsman, will be back in Oklahoma riding his motorcycle...do a few miles for me Craig!

After an all-hands meeting at 4pm to discuss new individual responsibilities (mostly galley-related), many relaxed for a little while until dinner. At 7pm, the "drive-in" was alive with a double feature: The Thing and The Thing! The first The Thing was the 1951 movie which takes place in Alaska. Allusions to "The Red Menace" were plentiful. None the less, it was ripe for an MST3K treatment, but I did my best to just shut-up. The second The Thing was John Carpenters film from 1982 featuring Kurt Russell as the scotch-drinking helo pilot who saves the world from an outer space creature. This film takes place in Antarctica, but bore few resemblances to the Antarctica I know. First, there were several day/night sequences. I guess this is possible in some parts of the continent, but not really accurate to those of us living here. Then, there was the abundance of flame throwers and guns. The Antarctica Treaty specifically bans this sort of weaponry, but ol' Kurt was loaded for bear (which there are none at this end of the Earth). In spite of these Hollywood faux's pas, it was still a lot of fun to sit on the couches we moved into the gym and watch the movies on a giant (20') screen.

For the record, there are now three Valentines Days in my life that I remember. Yesterday was the only one that did not end disasterously.

This moring, the reality of being one of 60 people in this part of the globe began to set in. The galley hours end 30 minutes earlier than before, so I got in there about 7:15am. As I turned the corner into the dingin facility, I found that I was the only person in there. The winter kitchen staff are already preparing meals superior even to the summer staff (and the summer food was great!).

Winter has begun. The South Pole is closed. Watch out for the toast.