Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Solidarity from Antarctica and a very cold hike

I didn't actually take this one, but I figured it was awesome enough to be worth nabbing and sharing. You might have seen this kicking around other places on ze interwebs, as it seems to have gone viral on facebook and reddit and other such things. Four of these folks are my roommates, and they took this a few days before I arrived. Kind of crazy how small the world can become...

Yesterday was my day off, so I waited around in the galley until I found someone else who doesn't work Tuesdays so I could kidnap them and go hiking. You have to take a buddy with you on most of the hikes that you can do around here, and you also have to check in with the fire house and get a radio and give a detailed account of where you're planning on going and how long you'll be gone. If you don't show up by your estimated return time, they start mobilizing helicopters and search and rescue. People have died while out hiking, so it's a very good policy, but the fire house gets very mad at you if you forget to check in and they have to send out helicopters when you're actually just back in your room drinking a beer.

One of the two emergency shelters along the route. They're pretty adorable. They're stocked with caches of food, extra sleeping bags, camp stoves, and a very random assortment of out of date reading material. One of them had a National Enquirer from 2009 in it.  
  
Complete with classy furniture!
They look a bit like flying saucers from the inside. 

...which is fitting because the landscape looks like another planet.
That little dome off in the distance is some sort of fancy science thingee. I'm going to go investigate it sometime this week. 
This is what I looked like by the end of the hike. It's a very strange feeling to not be able to blink properly because your eyelashes are frozen together. Also, this picture further confuses me as to whether my eyes are hazel or brown. I think I could argue for either?
 

8 comments:

  1. I love these updates - so wild to think I know someone down there! (Or on top, depending on your perspective!)

    ReplyDelete
  2. So damn cool, Tessa. Unbelievable experience, I never thought it was somewhere I was interested in visiting, you're changing that!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Paul you should totally come down! It seems like half the station works in Alaska in the summers, and Antarctica in the winter!

    ReplyDelete
  4. And Ben, it's awesome. Highly recommend it. So much creative inspiration!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dear Tessa,

    I am one of the international coordinators of the 15M movement (Indignados) 15.O actions and Occupy movement.

    Some days before 15.O someone on a FB group posted a comment saying that there was action on every continent except the Antarctica, so as coordinator I said that it had to be fixed...

    I created this event: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=232077746846841 in order that someone put a banner on the Antarctica. And more less it worked with your picture.
    I do not know if the action started due this FB event or it was just a independent action, really does not matter at the end...

    Today I decided to investigate were it come from and I found your blog.

    I want to ask permit to post a link to the real history (here in your blog) of this picture on our FB and web pages

    BR
    Gonzalo

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sure thing! Go for it. Let me know if you'd to get in touch with the folks in the picture. Glad we could do our part down here in the deep, deep south.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you, I created a post on our FB page about it linking here.
    Can you tell about it to your friends?

    Link to FB: https://www.facebook.com/15OWorldEvolution/posts/233126996749161

    BR
    Gonzalo

    ReplyDelete