Yes. I’m in absolute awe at the possibilities that life has presented me. I mean, I’ve had it pretty good for a long time, but I’ve really found myself appreciating that fact for the past year and a half or so. I’m so completely blissed out for such long periods of time that sometimes I begin to worry that I’m manic. But no, no mania here, I’ve just been blessed with a wonderful life.

So, this fact that life is wonderful, I’ve found, can’t be taken as a small piece. It can’t be isolated from the rest of my life. That’s to say that decisions that I’ve made and actions that I’ve taken all came together to put me exactly where I am right now at this very moment. While there have certainly been rough patches in the past; and I often think that if I would have known then what I know now that I would have done things differently, well, I think I’ve abandoned that line of thinking too. All of those events that I may have resented before have contributed to my current state and I am unwilling to give this up, regardless of what any alternate past may have produced.

Right about now, you’re wondering, “what the hell, Will, what are these possibilities you speak of and why all the introspection?” Well, wow, where to start? As you likely know, I’ve been doing contract work in Antarctica for the past six years or so. I’ve done some amazing things, including spending a winter at The South Pole, a winter at Palmer Station and several seasons at McMurdo Station as well as visiting quite a selection of field camps and research sites on the continent of Antarctica. I can remember, very clearly, how completely overjoyed I was when I the possibility of working in Antarctica was first presented to me. Something that I hadn’t ever even considered before, something that was far beyond my wildest dreams ended up becoming a reality and is now a huge part of who I am. I remember last winter at Palmer Station when, for just a moment, my mind was able to really grasp how utterly privileged I was to be doing what I was doing and getting paid for it. Sailing INSIDE a volcanic caldera who gets to do that at their job? I never thought I would, that’s for sure.

Now, if the job itself isn’t special enough, what about the time off and travel? During my long periods of time off I have been privileged to surf in Mexico, ski in Canada, Wyoming, Colorado, France, Norway and even Kashmir. I’ve seen what is surely one of the most macabre churches in the world, traveled all over central Europe by rail, visited the lochs of Scotland, gazed upon Big Ben, communed with nature at Machu Picchu, been amazed at the passion exhibited by Tango dancers in Buenos Aires, stood in awe at the power of nature at Iguazu Falls, been fascinated by the remnants of an ancient society at Easter Island, surfed in Ecuador and found a home (of sorts) in Hawaii.

I was all set to try and get myself hired to go on an overland traverse on Antarctica for this upcoming season. Yes, 80 days of staring through a windshield at barren, flat white, eating T.V. dinners and pooping in a bucket sounded very appealing to me, like a grand adventure even. But alas, the universe has thrown something even more exciting in my direction. So, it looks like I’m taking at least a one-year hiatus from The Ice.

What’s Next Then?

Well, I pursued and have been offered a position in Taiwan. I’m not entirely comfortable posting much detail here, but the position is at least related to the same type of work I’ve been doing and is almost exactly what I was doing in Korea (if you knew me in those days think BIG TRUCK!!).

So, there you have it. Brand new adventure coming up and I expect to post more details about my upcoming move as they become available to me. For now, if you’re interested in the exact location you can see it on a map here: Kaohsiung (pronounced “COW-shung”). If you haven’t already, might I suggest you subscribe via RSS or you can even get email updates. Both of these services are free, don’t include any advertising and are a great way to keep up to date with what I have posted.

P.S.
I am SO looking forward to taking a surfboard with me to my next job!

Here are a few things to keep in mind during this period of adjustment:

Meals & Food
• You will be expected to make choices when it comes to meals, e.g. what to eat, how you would like it prepared and at what time would you like to eat.
• A restaurant is much like the galley except there are many food items from which to choose and there are many different styles of restaurants.
• When finished with a meal at a restaurant, you are obligated to pay for your meal.
• You will likely have to sit at an unfamiliar table at a restaurant, embrace the change.
• Smegma, “The Shocker”, santorum and flatulence are all unacceptable mealtime conversation topics.
• “Freshies” are referred to as fruits and vegetables and are in abundance at most restaurants.

Social Interaction
• No need to obsess over male to female ratios as there are people of both sexes in abundance in many parts of the world.
• Women tend to be self-conscious about their size, thus their size won’t be stenciled in giant numbers on their Carharrt overalls.
• In fact, people in general are fairly unlikely to be seen wearing Carharrt overalls in any social setting. Much like choices in food, choices in clothing will probably be extremely overwhelming. Many people in the real world have a tendency to wear different clothes every day of the week. Oh, and these clothes will have likely been laundered recently.
• If you are a male and wearing a skirt or wig, you may be mistaken for a clown or a homosexual; discretion is advised if you don’t wish to be identified with either of these groups. The good news is that this scenario isn’t likely owing to the fact that wigs and skirts aren’t nearly as readily available as you have become accustomed.
• If you are a female, wearing a skirt or dress doesn’t have to be reserved for special occasions such as midwinter or sunrise dinner. Go crazy, wear one every day if that’s your preference – it probably won’t end up smelling like diesel in the real world.
• People of small size and extremely youthful appearance are most likely children. Though tempting, staring in awe or disgust at children will likely get you labeled as a pervert, which, in the real world is a derogatory label.
• Those awful devices that spew forth advertisements, rhetoric and pseudo-drama are called televisions. Many people, especially in the U.S., seem enamored with these devices and insist on structuring much of their free-time around the so-called programming on them. This is a cultural oddity and must be respected lest you be thought of as cretinous.

Daily Activities
• You may find the transition to unstructured time difficult. Try your best to simply exist without rigid schedules. You probably won’t be able to rely on your outlook scheduler to remind you to do things. Take small steps in structuring your time; for instance, if you feel an unfamiliar twinge in your stomach, you may be feeling slight hunger – that means that it might be mealtime
• Speaking of mealtime, you can eat any time you like so no need to go to dinner just because you’re afraid you’ll miss out and be hungry later. If you are hungry later, you can simply eat
• Your day won’t be broken into four uniform blocks of time book-ended by snacks and coffee in the galley. It’ll be tough, but if you work at it, you can probably make the necessary adjustments and eventually find this way of life tolerable until you can get back to The Ice.

Most important, take lots of pictures and bring back stories for your travelogue next season!

The Options:

Work some middle-east contract

Judging by the traffic in my email inbox, many defense contracts have been either awarded or have received continuing funding. I can’t recall any time where I have seen such a large number of employment solicitations in my inbox. All of the major players are represented and an even larger number of staffing firms. I have been in contact with a number of people from a number of companies who all want to hire me. Does a lot of good for my self-esteem, but I’ve got a bit of a timing problem, as all of these positions need to be filled immediately – they’re all looking for people who can start right away i.e. have all of their paperwork processed and be in whatever country when the fiscal year begins.

I’ve been curious about working one of these contracts for quite some time and with the superior pay that these positions come with I could easily finance a condo on Waikiki without committing for too much time. Certainly worth considering.

Another Ice Job

It’s safe to assume that there’s a position available for me back on the other side of the continent. There are several upsides to pursuing one of those positions, not the least of which is a company-paid round-trip ticket to New Zealand and more free food and cheap beer. The chance to see what happens next has a very strong appeal and another good reason to consider working in Antarctica for yet another season.

Other Overseas Jobs

There are a plethora of job opportunities for someone with my skill set. I have investigated many job opportunities on small islands throughout the Pacific and Caribbean. The most appealing one that I came across was a Chief Mechanic position on a private resort island in Belize. I was extremely interested in this position, but they were looking for a couple and Marsha wasn’t as thrilled about the job (for her, some hideous accounting job) as I. Meh…

Travel

Taking time off and traveling are the most appealing options. At the end of this contract, I will be given yet another free Antarctic cruise with disembarkation at Punta Arenas, Chile, from there I have a company-paid plane ticket all the way back to Wyoming. This ticket is about as flexible as I need it to be, and with time and money I figure I could see and do a lot in South America. Galapagos, Easter Island, Igauzu Falls, Machu Picchu, Chan Chan, The Amazon – these are all places that have a certain appeal to me and most of them are on my “to-do” list.

Ahhh…the burden of choice

So, what will it be then? Well, because, as Marsha says, “God laughs as we’re making plans”, I really have no plan at this point, I’m totally uncommitted to anything and open to whatever comes my way. The biggest challenge for me is to stave off the temptation to purchase a plane ticket and just allow things to unfold. Stay tuned for…well, something.

It’s four A.M., you’re in the midst of a bleary-eyed hoard of people dressed in super-thick red parkas and comically bulbous white boots. You’re being herded, like cattle, onto a giant military aircraft. In five hours your flight will be landing on a sheet of ice. The cargo door will open and you’ll be aware of the frigid temperatures, but that’s not what consumes your attention. The vastness, the Seussian landscape, the overbearing brightness of the sun are the things that try to wrestle your senses into submission, but your senses have no frame of reference from which to draw on so your experience becomes nearly incomprehensible.

Imagine this:

You’re in a helicopter, flying over what appears to be a topographical model of Mars. The ground below you hasn’t seen rain in millions of years. The aircraft lands; supplies and people are shuffled, the aircraft takes off again, repeating this ritual a few times before landing at a remote fuel station. While the helicopter is being refueled, you’re treated to fresh-out-of-the-oven cookies. You board the helicopter and depart for “home” – but you don’t go directly home. See, it’s early February and the sea ice is in full retreat. The helicopter hovers just over the very edge of the ice – where it meets open ocean. The point where ice meets water is teeming with wildlife; seals, penguins and orcas all feeding on krill. You don’t know it now, but in a few years, you’ll get to experience what krill tastes like when it’s served at a celebratory mid-winter meal. Through the headphones built into your flight helmet, the pilot’s muffled voice says something, but you’re too immersed in the experience to hear it or really even care what is being said.

Imagine this:

You board a ship at the southern tip of Chile. For the next 11 days you will be sailing to Antarctica. Several days into the cruise, the ship sails into the caldera of a volcano. A volcano – you’re sailing INSIDE a volcano! You’ll go ashore aboard a rubber boat. On the beach, you dig a pit that rapidly fills up with geothermally heated water. As the impromptu hot tub becomes too hot for comfort, you dig a trench to allow cold water from the ocean to mix with the hot water, creating a pool of absolute bliss. A few days later, the ship enters the Neumayer channel. The surrounding landscape is so pristine that it appears as if it were a painting. Nothing this beautiful could be real, could it?

Imagine this:

You’re road-tripping from Colorado to Utah with nine people you met only a week ago. You’ll go on a sunrise hike to Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. You’ll commiserate with your new friends about the absurdity of Utah’s liquor laws. You eventually find yourself combing the desert for clues which will help you find a “lost” doll. In this unlikely desert environment you are training for search and rescue in Antarctica. You’d like to believe that you have now seen the pinnacle of absurdity, but you know better. On your way back to Colorado you stop at a roadside diner where you meet an ex-con turned artist who is so open and interesting that you will always remember him and his story has become irreversibly enmeshed with your story.

Imagine this:

Job satisfaction is attained when you are 40 miles away from town and the ambient temperature is 40 below. Your behemoth tracked vehicle breaks down, stranding you; your mind is the only resource available to get you out of this situation. The difficulty of each task is magnified by whiteout conditions, windchills exceeding 70 below and only a couple of hours of daylight. Though it takes three days, there is no describing the feeling you have when you manage to get yourself out of this mess with no external support. You now have a new yardstick with which to measure possibilities and you can’t imagine how grave a situation would have to be for you to think of it as impossible.

Imagine this:

You see seas as smooth as glass and a landscape that looks like it was colored by an eight-year-old girl*. You and your friends are going to enjoy a day of boating. You’re surrounded by icebergs that are bathed in a hue of blue that is absolutely indescribable and unimaginable. A blue so deep, pure and bright that your eyes try to refuse that you are seeing it. Penguins are porpoising beside your boat and in the water you witness the serpentine grace of a leopard seal. The sea ice has set up in places, and at times you think that all forward progress will been halted by it, but alas you get through and around the next bend you’re confronted with another vista of infinite beauty.

Imagine this:

You step outside on your way to work. The temperature is an inconceivable 80 below. Your first thought might be that you need to expedite moving between buildings – but then you see it – the sky above is lit up with colors not of this earth. The lights dance against a backdrop of stars so thick that if it were called the “creamy way” that still wouldn’t be descriptive enough. The temperature isn’t even noticeable as you’re mesmerized by the light show above. You realize that this is what the sky will look like for several more months.

Imagine that your circle of friends includes several people who have terrain features named after them or who have summited Everest (and other notable peaks) multiple times, though these people certainly aren’t boastful of their accomplishments. Imagine that one of the best meals you’ve ever eaten was prepared in a tent, 800 miles from running water. Imagine that you’re one of a handful of people who has seen the once-per-year sunrise at The South Pole.

Imagine this:
All of these things that you’ve experienced are part of your job!

These things are only a minuscule part of working in Antarctica, but over time these threads are woven into the fabric of fond memories and revered experiences.

Most of the time, working in Antarctica is drudgery, pure and simple. We have hellishly arduous conference calls, awful fluorescent lighting, a never-ending mountain of bureaucratic red tape and ineptitude, budget struggles and a vast array of nonsensical corporate rules, as well as many of the other things that people deal with in their jobs each and every day. We have all of that AND we have the problems created by extreme weather; and we have to wash dishes and scrub toilets, yet all who come, and especially those who return, do so because the experience, as a whole, surpasses imagination.

I’m often asked why I keep coming back – the short answer is usually something along the lines of “If you have to ask, you wouldn’t understand” – but when I actually stop and think about how privileged I am to get to do some of these things I realize just how badass it is to work in Antarctica.

*paraphrased quote from Neal

During my work on the Antarctica Forum I have met some people who were highly qualified for the positions that they were applying for; yet year after year they were being passed-over for jobs that needed to get filled. It struck me then, that the people who are successful in getting hired are the ones who are best equipped to navigate corporate red-tape. I find this realization a bit ironic because the majority of people who end up working in Antarctica are vociferously anti-corporate, this is even more true with those who return season after season.

I figured I’d try to put some tips together to expand on getting a job in Antarctica. You’re marketing yourself so remember:

Everything that you do during the hiring process needs to reflect that you are a professional. If your only email address is one that says something about you that could be perceived as negative or inflammatory, get a new email address. Use spell check and use proper grammar. Have someone proof read it if necessary. Don’t do a half-assed job of filling out the job application, even if all of your relevant experience, references, etc. are spelled out in your resume.

Speaking of your resume, it may very well speak volumes about your years of experience or education, but what does it say about how you add value to your employer’s business? And on that topic, can you work in numbers and percentages? Something along the lines of “increased widget sales by 13% resulting in a $30,000 increase in revenue” See…your resume is being reviewed by people who speak in such strange tongues and though they may not understand what any of that means, it does give you common ground which may be enough to get your application from “in review” to “interview” status.

Go ahead and call – in fact, I’d encourage you to call. On the RPSC website, there’s an 800 number. Call it, if you haven’t got the name of a particular person whom you have explicit permission to call, just ask to be connected to HR. Strike up a conversation with the person, get their name, ask questions about how the hiring process works, ask if they’ve ever deployed to The Ice before – if so, ask specific questions about The Ice. I really don’t think they’ll mind. Think about your last experience in a fluorescent light hell-office. Anything to take your mind out of there, right?

Preparing for the interview:
Since the positions are widely varied, it’s hard to say how your interview might be set up, but there are some standard questions which you should really think about. There aren’t right or wrong answers to any of these necessarily, but some answers will fit better with working on The Ice. Your technical skills and job experience are probably fairly well laid out and explained fully or you probably wouldn’t have been considered for an interview, and the person interviewing you may not know a whole lot about the technicalities of your job anyhow, but you should have a copy of what they’re looking at in front of you during the interview (the interview will likely be over the phone by the way). The things you need to have well thought-out answers for are more along the lines of how you resolve conflict and why do you want to come to Antarctica. You really need to be thinking about those things and have strong, confidence inspiring answers for those questions. Superior skills in navigating corporate Labyrinths coupled with some luck will get you to the interview stage, a strong interview will land you the job. Be prepared for it, if going to Antarctica is a dream for you, you don’t want to blow this chance.

Post interview coping strategy:
Before you hang up with the person interviewing you, you should get their contact information and ask for permission to contact them later. I’m highly opposed to emailing someone because written words are misunderstood with far more ease than spoken words, but that’s just me. At any rate, whatever medium you decide to use to follow-up with someone, make sure and do it. At the very least, send a short note thanking the person for their time and for answering your questions (you did ask questions during the interview, right?). Anticipation gets very hard to cope with at this stage and you might need to hear something one way or the other to allow you to go on with your life. Call back and be courteous without being nagging or overbearing.

The hiring process is very strange in that the person interviewing you may very well not be able to tell you what to expect to be paid. This is a function of HR and seems to be a closely guarded secret. A couple of things to keep in mind – a weekly salary that is offered to you is not inclusive of the end of season bonus that you will get if you successfully complete your contract season. Also, all meals and housing while you’re on The Ice is company provided. While you’re on The Ice you won’t be paying for electricity or water or fuel for your car or any of those other things that you have to pay for “back home” and so, the wage you may be offered might seem low, I can tell you in my case that I’m financially better off for being on The Ice.

My anticipation of misery caused me to prepare for the worst – I dressed right and fared well during the exercise. It turned out to be quite an enjoyable day actually. Presently there are lots of icebergs out and about and an escape from the constant drone of the diesel generator on station was welcome.

Here we are in the boat – approaching a hairball landing. The intention, I guess, was to boost confidence in one’s abilities to actually land a boat in big swells and go ashore over snowy, ice-encrusted cliffs. As it turns out, the proper motivation needed to scale up an icy rock is 20 feet of ice cold water below it.

First, our local big-time celebrity (he made an appearance on Oprah!) and self-proclaimed action-nerd – see what Payot is up to

See Antarctica through fresh eyes – Jeff writes about his first deployment to Antarctica

Easily my favorite person on the entire continent – Marsha made it down for the second half of the Palmer winter.

See Palmer through Sean’s lens

Ice veteran Craig spent the first half of the Palmer winter with us. Read his take on it and other commentary on Antarctica and other places at Travelin’ with the Rev (He got a priest’s license from an ad in the back of Rolling Stone or something…)

Genevieve at The South Pole

Ken at McMurdo

Krissie spends the winter at The South Pole

Without a doubt, at any remote location, and even more so during an Antarctic winter, food is the driving force behind morale. The kitchen staff at any Antarctic research station have one of the toughest jobs – take an intimate look at how one of them keeps it all together at Harriett’s Tomato.

Lee is at McMurdo for the winter

So, here’s a guy who actually does keep up with his blog and has a gift for writing. I’ve been following it since he got to the ice, followed along as he made the decision to extend his summer job into a winter over contract…. check it out at Drowning in Miscellany

A couple of other Antarctic related sites:
The (un)official Palmer Station site
The (un)official South Pole Station site
Sixty South
Antarctic Memories Discussion Forum

If I’ve missed yours and you would like a link here, simply let me know (use the contact link near the top if you haven’t already got my email address)

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OSAR is a great team to be involved in. Being out on the water here is absolutely fantastic and affords some amazing opportunities for wildlife viewing and exploration of the neighboring islands of the Palmer archipelago.

The first step of becoming a part of the OSAR team was a week of training in the unlikely setting of the Arizona desert. We were, however, able to spend a little bit of time on the water learning how to use survival suits and driving zodiacs.

Even after all of this training, once we got to Palmer station we were required to attend boating I and boating II classes on station – these are mandatory for anyone who needs to be on a zodiac or for anyone who needs to drive one. The courses are very similar to the Happy Camper
training given at McMurdo station; and at Palmer, the Boating Coordinator has a very similar role to the entire field safety training program staff at McMurdo.

The training is pretty enjoyable and the payoff is awesome!

Fur seal - Jacobs Island

Harry pilots the Zodiac through the brash ice

You may remember from an earlier post that I went to Denver, CO for fire school with nine of my fellow winterovers. The training that I received there was all in preparation for becoming a part of the fire team here at Palmer station.

Because I’m the power plant guy my role is actually pretty dull when it comes to responding to a fire type emergency. I report directly to my work center and stand by in case power needs to be cut to another building.

In this photo, you see three members of the SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus) team practicing with fire hoses charged from two fire pumps in series.

To give you some idea as to how all this breaks down and the impact that a fire emergency or drill has on the population here – think about the numbers involved. When the boat leaves in late June and the population settles for the winter, there will be 19 people on station. Of these 19, one person has to be in charge – an incident commander. One person has to be coordinating communications, one person has to be accounting for everyone. We have two designated first responders and six designated SCBA people, one designated fire marshall, a doctor to deal with any medical emergencies, two people in utilities to deal with turning off power (one of those people is me – another goes to the emergency power plant) and people to run both fire pumps – this means that everyone has a direct role in responding to a fire. Pretty heavy stuff and speaks volumes as to why prevention of fires and accountability of people must be very strictly maintained.