The blogger writing about staying at the South Pole
has returned to the US.
We all lived, for an entire winter, just a few hundred feet from the actual, geographic South Pole. Literally any time I wanted to, I could go outside and touch it. It was easy! It was right there! Only ~1,700 people, in the history of forever, have ever had the experience of wintering over at the South Pole. It was 100°F below zero! It was pitch black! We were doing world-changing science! We were thousands of miles from civilization!
Most of us were very much over it. We were desensitized to the sheer mind-boggling novelty of where we were. We went about our daily routines, and the unique context faded into the background. We sat around in our pajamas, sipping tea, playing board games. The most interesting topic of conversation is whether there would be tater tots at breakfast tomorrow.
But in these last few days, I did my best to recapture the magic of where I was. I walked around station, inside and out. I paid attention to the little details and the unique things I could only do here.
For example, here’s a quick walk around the geographic South Pole, in which I hit every longitudinal value over the course of 37 seconds.