by Jaime Hensel
Nebagamon alumni have traveled all over the natural world, but it’s likely nobody has had an adventure quite like that of Jaime Hensel (Atlanta/Seattle, 2005-09, 11-13, 17-18), who has spent part of the past couple of years as a nurse practitioner… at the South Pole. The following are brief chronological excerpts from her blog “Hensel Below Zero!”
October 21, 2017: A SHORT PRIMER ON ANTARCTICA
So I’m going to try to answer some of the most common questions people have been asking me about Antarctica. To begin, Antarctica is a continent but it isn’t a country. It’s governed by international treaty and is supposed to be used mainly for science/research. The USA has three bases, all managed by the National Science Foundation. The bases are Palmer, McMurdo, and Amundsen-Scott (better known as South Pole Station). I’ll be getting to South Pole station by way of lots of planes. I’ll fly commercially on United Airlines from Atlanta to Houston to Auckland to Christchurch. Then I’ll fly in a large cargo plane (a C-17) flown by Air Force pilots to McMurdo Station. The plane from McMurdo to the South Pole (LC-130 Hercules) lands on skis, which makes me super nervous, but there aren’t a whole lot of alternatives.
Amundsen-Scott Station really is at the South Pole (give or take a couple hundred feet). It’s about 880 miles inland from McMurdo and the coast. And it sits on top of 9300+ feet of ice. So I’ll be at significant elevation. Due to its position on the planet, the sun only rises and sets once a year at the South Pole. It rose Sept 23rd this year, and will set sometime in March. Which is to say, I’ll be there during its period of 24-hour daylight. Temperatures range from cold to really cold. Average annual temp at South Pole is -56 F. In high summer, temps get to around -15 F. Highest temp ever recorded was 9.9 F. I bought a lot of nice long underwear.
There will be approximately 150 people at the station, which is mostly one big building. The bathrooms are shared. There’s a cafeteria, small gym, some TV rooms, lending library, something that acts as a bar, and a sauna. There are also labs and science spaces… I’m going to be working as a nurse practitioner, since scientists need healthcare too.
November 5, 2017: I MADE IT!
On November 1st I said goodbye to Graylan (note: that’s Graylan Vincent, camp staff member in 2017-18) – since he’s staying at McMurdo to work as a communications technician – and boarded a Hercules C-130 (aka a “Herc”) to the South Pole. This was the dreaded plane on skis. It really wasn’t as bad as I was worried it would be. The landing was smooth, and then we were here! The airfield is pretty close to the station at South Pole, which is good because it was approx -50 F when we landed, with windchill that made it feel like -80 F. Yesterday I finally braved the cold again so I could take my first pictures at the (geographic) South Pole. The actual pole is the small rod in front of the big white sign.
November 15, 2017: AN AVERAGE DAY
So far I’m having fun. I’m meeting cool (similarly crazy) people. I’m playing music, reading, knitting, and exercising (sometimes). I’m also learning a lot about medicine, especially altitude medicine. I’m not living up to my goal of going outside every day, and cross-country skiing hasn’t really started up for the season yet, but as it gets a little warmer I’m hoping to remedy that.
November 26, 2017: SUNDAYS
Typically, Sunday is the only day we don’t work here. Almost everyone is off, though there are some science experiments that require daily tending. Brunch starts about that time, and that’s when the weekly tradition of Bailey’s and coffee (or hot chocolate) starts. The topics of conversation have recently ranged from beard oil vs wax, to why moist is an icky word, to how my friend ended up getting his toe amputated last year. Meals with medical professionals are not for the weak of stomach. Another excellent Sunday tradition: the sauna. There’s a group of about five of us who go down around 7:30 pm and roast for about half an hour. Other than the conversation, the best thing about the sauna is the humidity. But the second-best thing about the sauna is getting so warm that it’s comfortable to stand outside in a bathing suit. The temperature is approx -27F in that photo, and it felt sooooo good.
Dec. 27, 2017: MERRY CHRISTMAKKUH!
Race Around the World. Every year on Christmas morning at the South Pole, there’s a 2.25-mile race around the geographic South Pole that encompasses every degree of longitude. The cool thing about being at the bottom of the planet is that you can go all the way around the planet on approximately the 89.96th parallel in a short amount of time. The not-so-cool thing about being at the South Pole is that we’re at high altitude and even the 7.5 weeks of adjustment time left me gasping like a fish while trotting very slowly around the race course.
Jan. 5, 2018: HAPPY NEW YEAR!
The station and everything else on top of the ice drifts at a rate of about 30 feet a year. So on January 1st, there’s a ceremony to move the geographic pole back to its correct location. A surveyor comes up and everything. At the time the pole is moved, the topper on the pole is also replaced. It’s designed and made by the previous year’s winterovers and the design is kept a big secret: New Year’s Day is the big unveiling. So everyone gathered around the old pole. The station manager, Marco, gave a lovely speech, and then we all passed the American flag to its new home.
Jan. 11, 2018: OBSERVATIONS
It rarely snows: This is definitely a function of the temperature. Sometimes it’s foggy, sometimes it’s grey, but often it’s blue skies. And when it does snow, it’s only for about 10 minutes, and the flakes are the tiniest little flakes. I think I’ve seen it snow about three times since I got here. It’s actually mind-blowing to think about just how long it has taken to accrete the 9000ft of snow the station is sitting on, given that the South Pole gets something like 4 inches of precipitation annually. Antarctica is a massive paradox: a desert that contains 70% of the world’s fresh water.
Two-minute showers: All of our water comes from melted snow. And while there is lots of snow to melt, it takes very expensive fuel to melt it. So everyone in the station is allotted 2 two-minute showers a week. I got used to it pretty quickly, probably from all the time I spent living on boats and at summer camps.
After leaving the ice in February, Jaime—and Graylan—traveled quite a bit. They went snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef, held a koala bear in Australia, enjoyed a safari in South Africa’s Kruger National Park, toured Morocco, visited Gibraltar and Venice and Rome and Stockholm, stayed with Larry Held and Sara Feinstein in Ukraine, and even took a day trip to Chernobyl. They spent the summer at Nebagamon, took a few boundary waters trips afterward, and then…
The summer ended with Nebagamon’s 90th reunion, which saw almost all of my favorite people in my favorite place. There was singing and crying and laughter and campfires. My soul was so full at the end of that weekend.
November 7, 2018: BACK AGAIN
I made the decision to return to the South Pole this year, for another austral summer season. And this year Graylan Vincent (staff 2017-2018) will be with me!
This year when I landed the air temperature was -56 Fahrenheit, the wind was blowing, the sun was shining bright, there’s still not much oxygen in the atmosphere here (which I remembered as soon as I started to walk towards the station from the runway), and the snow underfoot still makes the same creaking noise. It felt like coming home. Once I got in the building, it almost felt like I never left.
November 10, 2018: PUZZLED
South Pole station is a LOT smaller than McMurdo. Right now our station population is about 87 though it will increase throughout the summer back up to about 160 people. There is no recreation coordinator here. We get to make our own fun. Last night, there wasn’t anything official going on. Graylan had the brilliant suggestion we do a jigsaw puzzle, so we went to the huge closet of games and puzzles in one of the lounges. It was after 7 pm, so I suggested a 500-piece puzzle. Graylan insisted we dream big and grabbed a 1000. We sucked a couple of passersby in, plopped down in the galley, and finished just before midnight. With 24-hour daylight and lots of windows in the galley it’s hard to remember to go to bed. Also we’re nerds and a little compulsive and we couldn’t leave the puzzle unfinished. Behold last night’s entertainment: That’s right, we picked a puzzle of famous scientists. And it was awesome. Did I mention that people tend to be a little nerdy down here?
November 29, 2018: SASTRUGI
Today, I was struck by the snow. Antarctica is the highest, driest desert on Earth. Less than 8 inches of new snow that falls here a year (not sure what that translates to in actual rainfall, but not very much). And most of that snow falls in crystals so small that you never see it snowing – it’s just overcast with diamond dust swirling through the air. Despite that, the South Pole sits at an altitude of 9,301 ft, of which approximately 300 feet is land (at the bottom, obviously), and 9,000 feet is snow (and ice – the weight of the snow compacts itself). Some of the snow blows in from lower altitudes (and therefore warmer climates). But most of it just accreted very, very slowly over a very, very long time.
The wind action here, combined with the dry character of the snow (it squeaks when you walk on it!), causes some amazing natural sculpturing and contouring. The humps and bumps and rifts and drifts go by the name “sastrugi.” They’re a pain to walk over (since you never know how crusty or soft they are, so you slog through them, and sometimes trip over them), but I find them beautiful.
December 9, 2018: A WALK
Last Sunday I took a walk with my friends Holly and Graylan. It was pretty warm (like -15F) and there was no wind at all. It felt great to walk around. But no matter what you do, when you breathe down here inevitably the frost forms from respirations. Behold the frozen hat and eyelashes.
Jaime’s Recap:
The last month I was at South Pole station flew by. I gave a lecture to the station entitled “Why the South Pole Hates Your Body” about the physiology of living in a high altitude, cold desert. Researching and preparing for that talk took up a lot of my time. I was also applying to nurse practitioner fellowships. With only three hours of internet a day, that was also a cumbersome process. Needless to say, blog posts fell by the wayside. And then all of the sudden, it was February 7th, and Graylan and I were saying our goodbyes and headed to McMurdo. On February 9th we made it to New Zealand (where we got to meet up with Noah Stein and Andrew Meyer for a couple of days)! After a little more traveling, I headed back to the US and the adventure was over.
A lot of the people who work at South Pole go back year after year. I certainly jumped at the opportunity to go back for a second “summer.” I think Antarctica is addictive for many of the same reasons Nebagamon is: a chance to try something new, being surrounded by a small community of interesting, quirky, and supportive people, limited access to technology, a unique and uniquely beautiful environment of which we are caretakers. In fact, people often jokingly call South Pole station “summer camp for adults.”
Since I’ve accepted a nurse practitioner fellowship and am moving to Anchorage in August, I know I won’t be headed back to South Pole any time soon (if ever). When I left it was definitely the same bittersweet feeling of being a ninth grader in August. I’ll admit I cried a little bit on my last day—though only inside the station, because I didn’t want my face to freeze. But like camp, I left with a pile of golden memories. And I definitely plan on keeping the friends I found there. Whether or not I ever have the chance to return, I feel so unbelievably lucky to have had the opportunity to have spent time in that wild and wonderful place.
