South Pole Adventure

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted. A lot has happened since I last posted so many months ago. I’ve missed writing, as it clears my mind. The last time I wrote much was when I was in the depths of a 24 hour bus ride in Peru strapped into my seat as the vehicle careened around sharp, steep corners of the Andes Mountains. Trying to sleep unsuccessfully gave me the time to wrap my head around my last few months in McMurdo. I think it was good to have some distance from Antarctica before I wrote my final thoughts of my season.

Anyway! I’m back in Antarctica. I made it to the continent. I made it to the South Pole. I’m wintering at debatably the harshest environment on earth. So there’s that. There’s so much I’d like to write about from the 4 months I was away from the Icy South. I wish I had kept better documentation of my thoughts during that period, though I did keep a journal. I’ll draw upon that over the next few weeks to compile my thoughts about the thousands of miles I traveled all over South America and the states. In the mean time, the South Pole is a beautifully haunting place.Absolutely no other living thing besides the 48 other human beings can survive here and without our technological developments, we’d all die within days. There’s not much scenery, as the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is centralized on a massive plateau atop the largest shifting glacier in the world. At nearly 15,000 feet deep, it’s the only place on earth that scientists are able to accurately study  Neutrinos; a particle so small that it passes through atoms and cells without touching anything. This particle is also linked to the start of the universe. Coupled with the South Pole Telescope that searches for cosmic microwaves in space that’s said to be residual background effects from the Big Bang; i.e the start of our universe, we can search for the beginning of all of us. They’re able to literally look back in time near when this massive influx of energy poured into nothingness and formed our galaxies, formed our stars, and formed just about everything else in existence.

I’ve been thoroughly listening to any bit of knowledge I can pick up from the scientists and I’ve also been attending a weekly Astronomy class that seems to be equivalent to any college course. I’ve also been here over a month and a half and I’m already starting training on my next marathon in mid-June. On top of the June marathon, I’ve signed up for a marathon in Queenstown, New Zealand in mid-November after I get off the Ice. I’m working an early morning shift that gives me plenty of time to cook some fantastic food on top of all this, which to me is a great bonus. The sun sets only one time a year here, which is going to happen within the next few weeks for a solid 6 months of winter. I’m extremely exciting for the beautiful colored skies of the sunset and the glimmering stars of the Antarctic twilight. Until then, I’ll write on my trip through Denver for training and South America.