MY SOUTH POLE JOURNEY

On December 14, 1911 Roald Amundsen led the first ever journey to stand at the Earth's South Pole. It involved lots of planning and preparing. It meant first reaching Antarctica on board a ship called the Fram. It was a long ocean trip. 

A whole team of men came with Amundsen and helped. They brought materials to build shelters to live in, food to eat, and gear to stay warm while they prepped for the big push to reach the South Pole. 

They also brought tents to be shelters for the Pole trip, sleds to carry survival gear, including camp stoves, and dogs to pull the sleds. 

Getting to the South Pole was a VERY big journey and it was dangerous. There were blizzards and freezing temperatures to endure. There was also dangerous frozen lands to cross. But Amundsen and his team were successful. Though there was no flag or marker to let him know he'd arrived. Instead, he used a seaman's tools to determine when he was at the Earth's South Pole. 

 

In December, 1996, I too journeyed to the South Pole. That trip was only historic to me, but it was life changing for me and part of something special happening. 

I didn't go to Antarctica with the goal of reaching the South Pole. I went because I applied to participate in the National Science Foundation's Artists and Writers program. And I was selected to go so I could create one of the first--maybe the first--NSF Antarctic websites to share polar research with elementary school students. I interviewed lots of U.S. scientists who regularly spent time working in Antarctica. And I shared this on a website I created. My other goal in going to Antarctica for NSF was to share the first ever live virtual visits--audio only--from Antarctica with U.S. elementary schools. That probably sounds like no big deal now. Then it was a VERY BIG deal.

I didn't travel to Antarctica the way Roald Amundsend did. He left Norway on the Fram on August 19, 1910. It took him 5 months to reach the coast of Antarctica. I left Atlanta, Georgia by plane in late November, 1996. I had to change planes in Chicago, Los Angeles, and then Auckland, New Zealand. I reached Christchurch, New Zealand in just under twenty-four hours. After being outfitted with the warm clothes and boots I'd need in Antarctica, I boarded a C-17 military plane.

This time I sat on a canvas seat with stretched netting for a back in the guts of the plane. Passengers were elbow to elbow and knee to knee. Just past our "seats" toward the tail end were floor to roof giant pallets of crates and equipment. My camera gear was there...somewhere. And I was given my in flight meal--a paperbag lunch with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a bag of chips, a candy bar, and a bottle of water. Off we went!

It was too noisy to talk. The temperature alternated between super hot and freezing cold depending on when the heater blasted air into our area. And it was a bouncy, bumpy ride. I didn't drink the water. I had not had anything to drink for a full day before the trip either. I'd been warned and knew the only "bathroom" on this flight was primitive and just behind a curtain in a corner of the passenger area. 

Eleven hours later, the challenges of the flight were forgotten. The announcement was passed along that we were over Antarctica. I took my turn getting to one of the plane's porthole windows. And the sight took my breath away. I also saw why all those who worked on that frozen continent called Antarctica "The Ice". I was looking down at VAST white ice! But it's not flat. There are rugged mountains,including steam puffing volcanoes punctuating flat stretches. So besides white I saw every possible to imagine shade of blue, lavender, and pink where shadows tinted the white.

When we landed, I was whisked away in a vehicle perfect for rolling over ice and snow nicknamed the TERRA-BUS. 

Roald Amundsen and his team had to build shelters and set up where they would cook their food. They named their Antarctic station Framheim. It was located on thick ice covering the Bay of Whales on the Ross Ice Shelf. And it was sheltered from blasting winds by the hills on a nearby island called Roosevelt Island. 

I arrived at the U.S. base called McMurdo Station on Ross Island. Permanent buildings were already there--built in 1955 through 1956 by the US Navy Seabees. I shared a room in a dorm, called Hotel California. And I ate in a cafeteria with the hundreds of workers and scientists that were there for the summer research season. During the summer, the McMurdo population can be as great as 1,200 people--winters it drops to 200 or fewer. It was a rugged, gritty, icy place. Rows of trucks were parked between the buildings--each plugged in when not operating to keep their batteries warm. Strong winds blews regularly--and I mean strong enough it often felt like I was pushing through heavy blankets. Tiny ice crystals danced in this wind along with grit that made my teeth crunch together. 

And a little ways from the group of buildings forming McMurdo Station was Robert Scott's hut. Robert Scott's team built it when they first landed here in 1902. Scott returned to Antarctica again in 1910 and built a hut at Cape Evans. It was from that base that he made his attempt to reach the South Pole. 

Scott's hut on Ross Island is located where his ship anchored. That must have been great for off-loading supplies. But it was  too far away from the hill sheltering the buildings forming McMurdo Station to have given it any wind protection.  

I remember standing inside Scott's Hut. Seeing everything I'd seen in photos of the men living here. And I thought "This must have been a horrible place to have spent more than a year!" Scott's crew did have a lengthy stay there. But not without something to keep them busy during the long dark, winter months. They brought a printing press and published a book. They also managed to put on plays to entertain themselves.

OH, I forgot to mention that summertime in Antarctica means daylight lasts 24-hours every day. I found it exhilarating! I was generally up nearly nonstop for 3 days at a time before I'd crash to sleep. And thanks to the constant daylight I could see and photograph everything. I hiked and hiked and camped out at an Adélie penguin rookery. 

I also helped scientists launch a weather balloon, catch giant Antarctic fish through a hole in the ice, and search for Mars meteorites that fall to Earth everywhere (I'm told) but show up best on white snow. 

Roald Amundsen and his four-man team traveled to the South Pole by dogsled. To get ready, some of his team made advance trips along the route to stash food. That way, those heading to the Pole could travel lighter and keep going all the way there. Their total trip required camping and traveling over dangerous terrain for 56 days. 

I prepped by staying up the entire night before my journey to the South Pole. I knew this was an awesome opportunity and I was worried I might sleep in. Then I caught my Terra-bus ride to the airfield--what was actually the sea ice. And I climbed aboard my ride--a LC-130 Hercules propeller driven plane equipped with skis to take off and land on the ice. I also traveled with four other people but our trip took a little less than six hours. 

Being at this historic site was amazing! VAST again leaps to mind. I could see just the tops of what had been the huts men constructed for living there when the South Pole Station was built between November 1956 and February 1957 (summertime in Antarctica). 

I toured the building currently being used as the South Pole Station for science research and survival year round. I was also there to view the site and plans for construction of a new South Pole Station--what is there now. 

It stands on massive supports that can raise it little-by-little to remain above the snow as more and more piles up. It's not so much what snow falls at the Pole as what blows and drifts.

Though I was only at the South Pole for a few hours, it remains a vivid memory. In all, I went to Antarctica three times and lived there for two summer research seasons and one winter--when McMurdo Station is cut off from the rest of the world for nine months. 

RoaldAmundsen became a historic figure for his journey to the South Pole. Robert Scott did too, but he and his team had a sad ending. Here is a photo of him and his team on their journey. They arrived at the Pole on January 17, 1912, finding the marker Amundsen left. They died during their return trip. 

Though my three Antarctic trips didn't make the history books, they inspired a number of my books.

Pioneering Frozen Worlds (Atheneum) About Antarctic research.

Super Cool Science: South Pole Stations Past, Present, and Future (Walker) About the polar stations.

Growing Up Wild: Penguins (Atheneum) About Adélie penguin chicks hatching and growing up.

A Mother's Journey (Charlesbridge) About a female emperor penguin's wintertime journey while the male incubates their egg.

I also shared my live virtual visits with schools in the U.S., wrote magazine articles about Antarctica exploration and research, did an NPR interview while on board an icebreaker, and helped develop a documentary on the ozone hole over Antarctica for CNN. In addition to helping NSF have a website about their supported Antarctic research, the National Science Foundation supported my development of Kit & Kaboodle from 1997 through 1999. This was an early interactive, on-line elementary science curriculum. And, happily, it was successfully used by schools in all 50 U.S. states plus 11 other countries. It made science unforgettable FUN for many elementary school students.

And I met my husband Skip Jeffery at McMurdo Station. We became the third couple in the world to be married in the Chapel of the Snows at McMurdo Station---twenty-six years ago. He spent two winters and one summer working there so we share very special memories of our journeys to Antarctica.