December 19, 2008, South Pole Station -- Len Shulman
Adapting to a Harsh Environment
This can be a very harsh environment, and everyone seems to adapt
to the altitude differently. Oxygen is the one thing that everyone
asks for Christmas. This year, I only needed one day of relaxation
before venturing out to the drill camp located nearly a mile from
the station.
I participated in the filling of the last two IceTop stations on Thursday and Friday. This consists of filling a sled mounted transport tank with 1,400 gallons of highly filtered water for the two tanks in each station and moving it to the IceTop site with a bulldozer.
Megan Whitmore operating the Bulldozer has positioned the transport tank for IceTop filling. The frames around the top of each tank will support sunshades that keep out the heat of the 24-hour sun.
Seven hundred gallons must be transferred to each IceTop tank, and all of this is being done in –40 wind chill. See my blog tomorrow for more details about this process.
