Latitude: 90 Degrees South

OUR JOURNEY …

Arrival Date at the Pole: 29th December 2003
Our Route: Approaching from Punta Arenas in Chile via the Patriot Hills tented camp in Antarctica and then flying on to our start point at 89 degrees south to ski the last degree to the South Pole

BACKGROUND …

Unlike the North Pole the South Pole is marked by an official geographical pole marker which is planted in the ice each year on the 1st January. This marker moves by approximately 10m north each year representing the flow of ice over the Antartic landmass. When you consider that the ice at the pole is approximately 3,000m thick this represents an enormous amount of ice flow! Also unlike the North Pole there is a permanent base station at the South Pole which provides support for a range of scientific experiments.

The summer months are late November through to mid February. During this time there is a hive of activity with a large influx of scientific equipment and personnel. These are the only months in which the American transport planes (Hercules 130’s) are able to fly into the South Pole station with any degree of certainty. The station is funded and run by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the US. All personnel and all visitors must have the permission of the station managers not only to approach the South Pole marker but also to come anywhere near the station. This is primarily for two reasons, firstly there is a wide range of sensitive scientific experiments all around the South Pole Station and therefore approaching on foot can only be done through designated “safe” areas. Secondly there can be several flights of large transport planes on “good” weather days , so safety is paramount.

The flights to the South Pole Station are strictly for the stations use with the only exception being the flights to take out people who have been on expedition to the Pole. These flights are run by the only company to be given a permit to fly commercial (non-government) expeditions - Antartic Logistics & Expeditions(ALE) and was originally called Antartic Network International(ANI). ANI was founded by Giles Kershaw a pioneer in flying in and around the Antarctic continent.

Today the only way to get to the South Pole is to either be an employee assigned to the station by the NSF or to arrive on foot at the station on expedition. This makes arriving at the South Pole Base Station an amazing experience with all the feel of being on a totally different planet where a small settlement has been established.

There is currently a significant effort to replace the current dome shaped station which is slowly being buried and crushed by the ice with a modern above ground facility which is intended to have a 50 year lifespan. As all material used must be flown in and all of the old station must be cut into pieces and flown out and as the summer period is so short the project will be ongoing till at least 2007.

During the winter months there is a skeleton crew at the station which experiences more than 6 months of isolation with no prospect of being rescued should anything go wrong. It is not unheard of for these crews to perform operations with the instructions coming from doctors in the US being relayed by satellite.

North Pole
South Pole

Site designed by
Paul Dunning