The Pole Traverse

As my radio chimed in I was loading cargo. It was one of those moments that makes you stop and realize that something big is going on. "On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month we start our engines for the journey. Departure, immediate. Estimated time of return, late January or February. We wish you all the best, and thank you for your support." I stopped for a minute thinking of the journey these men were about to take on. An expedition has been assembled- men, vehicles, food, maps, supplies, and warm clothes- to take on one of the greatest challenges of the last hundred years; the traverse to the south pole. While not done on foot or with huskies pulling their sleds, they will creep along dodging crevasses, ice falls, and snow pits for 800 miles in SnowCats until they reach the coldest and most southern place in the world. It gets me excited to be a small part of adventures like these. My team and I have dealt with logistics for getting their gear off planes and into their pile along with other field camps and scientific experiments. Just the other day I was driving around a large box from the Federal Aviation Association (FAA) that was worth over a million $. How about that for pressure not to drop it. I simply cannot believe all the world record events that leave from this place. Just today I downloaded a plane that the Italians flew in from South Africa on the sea ice runway. I hope things like that never feel normal. I will write an entry or two in the next few weeks dealing with the science experiments going on here. There is simply no place like this- so strange, exciting, unfamiliar, frozen, and simple.