January 1, 2012 at the South Pole

Every year on New Years there is the official "moving of the Pole." The ice sheet that the South Pole Station sits on moves about an inch per day, so at the end of the year it's about 10m (30ft) different. On New Years the official Pole marker is unveiled. Here the station manager (left, Bill) and NSF representative (right, Vladimir) are about to remove the red cloth...
There it is. The nicely machined brass Pole marker that will remain up for a year, and then go into the cabinet of old Pole markers in station.
Most of the folks on station showed up for the (very brief) ceremony. Basically thirty seconds of speech each by three people. Then photo ops...
Here's last year's Pole marker.
And a close up of this year's marker, making clear the 100th anniversary connection with the iconic image 100 years ago.

McMurdo arrival

So, you've flown from home all the way to Christchurch on the south island of New Zealand, felt saddened by the earthquake damage, been issued your ECW (EXTREME Cold Weather) clothing, and flown on a load, crowded military transport for hours. Now what?

Well, you hop off the plane into the brilliant sunlight (sunshine plus reflected sunlight off of all of that ice), feel some wind and surprisingly warm air (it is Antarctica, but it's summer, you're on the coast, and it's probably around 20-25F). What's next?

A slog of bureaucracy. Load up and go to the NSF Chalet HQ and hear about safety, recycling, rules, regulations, changes in the rules, and then you explain what you want to do when you leave Antarctica (for the travel office) and then you get a room key. Drop your stuff off in the room, go to the laundry facility and get some sheets, drop off the sheets, find some food. Then your bags arrive on the base and you go haul those off to your room.

And for those of us heading on to Pole, we turn our bags back over to the cargo folks, get ourselves weighed again, and prepare for another flight. Hopefully the next morning.

Antarctic hero shots

So, hero shots are those pictures of yourself in fabulous locations, doing great deeds, and are inevitably posed pictures. So here I am in Antarctica, being a hero...

In McMurdo, on a previous ANITA balloon campaign, with the ANITA solar array.

At the South Pole, in drill camp with a number of large wrenches (none of which I used for anything other than photo props). Good clue as to the posed nature of the picture is the fact that my clothes are clean and there are no icicles hanging from my face.

With the Pisten Bully (name comes from the German term "piste" as in "off-piste skiing" and not piston from the engine) in front of the IceCube Lab.

At the Geographic South Pole, a location which is resurveyed each year as the ice moves over the bedrock (far) below. (Thanks to Peter Gorham for the photos.)

Arms around the Earth. At the Ceremonial South Pole, where the flags and barbershop pole reside. South Pole Elevated Station is in the background.

First full day of work today

Okay, that's me with a large wrench, extreme cold weather pants and boots, but just a heavy fleece on top, and a helmet on my head. It's an active construction site, so you need to wear head protection. The wrenches are for other folks' work though, we spend the day indoors working on electronics instead of large bolts.

In Christchurch

So, I made it here, but haven't been online much. The hotel network is expensive and keeps kicking me out. Am in a little Internet cafe down the block from my hotel.

That's my hotel, the Novotel, in the background. In the foreground, building construction. There's a lot of construction and repair work going on in town due to the earthquake back in September. Earthquake damage and repair photos coming soon...

Going to get my cold weather gear tomorrow, and then fly southward the day afterwards.