The South Pole

Yes you read that right. I made it to the South Pole! This is definitely an experience of a life time. I flew down here on Saturday and I will be here thru Wednesday. We flew down here on LC-130s, a Skied Hercules, there are only 10 of these in the world and the US owns all of them, 7 of which are down in Antarctica currently. There are only 250 people that live at the South Pole station. I am here for 4 days, just long enough to get to see the environment and experience the altitude here. Currently it is 9,780 ft above sea level. The strange thing about the South Pole is that the elevation changes constantly, dependant about the barometric pressure, it can be found out to 12,000ft above sea level. This doesn’t mean that the actual land raises and lowers, this means that with the environment the elevation here changes. This is what everyone would imagine Antarctica to be, it is flat and all you see for miles upon miles is snow. On clear days you can see 60+ miles out. There is no wildlife here, just flat white surface. Right now the temperature here is -12F with a wind-chill factor making it -33F. This may sound cold to you, but it is very dry here and when the sun is out, and the wind is calm, it can be very warm, even to where you don’t really need the BIG jackets. I am here to work as a DA for a few days, and I am very fortunate to have the ability to live in the new station, that is still under construction. One of the things I got to do since I have been here is play crochet using the geographical South Pole and the Ceremonial South Pole as our markers. It was definitely something that I can say was a once in a life time experience.