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!

The term “tourist” versus “traveler” is a bit of an issue with me. I firmly believe that if some place on the face of the earth is heavily touristed, it’s for a good reason. Either that place has some significant culture, history or natural beauty. I believe that only elitists would label some place unworthy of a visit simply because it is “over-touristed”.

My perceptions have been shattered. Here I sit in Mancora, Peru. I booked the Loki hostel ahead of my arrival here. This place epitomizes everything about “the gringo trail” and “over-touristed”. Don’t get me wrong, the hostel is a lovely place but DAMN….I’ve never been to a place that caters to “tourists” more than this place. Upon check-in, I was immediately encumbered with a wrist band (much like the one you might get at a hospital or when you buy an all-inclusive pass to the carnival). The idea behind the wrist band is for A) security…only those bearing the wrist-band are allowed on the property and B) It is possible to charge meals, drinks, etc to your room. While I appreciate the extra security, I resent the fact that I am immediately identified as a guest of this place when I venture outside the immediate premises.

The disney-ization of Peru doesn’t seem to stop at the Special White Man resort hostel however. EVERY restaurant, store, travel office etc seems to cater ONLY to tourists. I have spent a LOT of time trying my damnedest to learn Spanish and while I appreciate the ease with which I can order a meal, buy a bus ticket or get a taxi, I am a bit resentful that EVERY time I walk into one of the above mentioned establishments, the people speak to me first in English, the menus are in English and any other information I might need is also in English. I’m a bit conflicted actually. I appreciate that things are “easier” in Peru but I also feel that my experience is diminished because of it. In Ecuador this never would have happened. The people there, while certainly worldly, don’t cater to tourists much, if at all (outside The Galapagos). Either one learns Spanish or they have an awful time trying to find their way.

So, for the first time in my recent memory, I find myself in a place that I would define as “touristy” simply because the tourism here doesn’t appear to have grown organically. Tourists are catered to only because they are tourists and not because there is anything remarkable to see or do here. Granted, the surf break is pretty incredible, but it’s nothing any more spectacular than any other surf break along the many miles of the South American Pacific coast. I guess this is what people speak of when they express their loathing of “The Gringo Trail”.

There’s something analogous between the Spam-filled Moonpie and the marketing campaign for “Whiteout,” an Antarctica-set thriller whose commercials and trailers suggested an icebound horror film.

Here I am…polluting the internet with more “Whiteout” rhetoric.

One of the things that caught my attention as I have been scanning Antarctic headlines was this story about Qantas offering sightseeing flights over Antarctica:

Qantas A380 Selected For Sightseeing Flights To Antarctica

Fri, 18 Sep ’09
Passengers Will Spend 4 Hours Over The Antarctic Ice

A Qantas Airbus A380 super jumbo will undertake a unique sightseeing flight to Antarctica – the first commercial flight by an A380 over the south polar region, and the only aircraft permitted to do so on New Year’s Eve.

The flight, organized by Melbourne-based Antarctica Sightseeing Flights, a division of Australian travel company Croydon Travel, will originate in Sydney and fly via Melbourne to reach Antarctica. Passengers will be over the “ice” at midnight and be the first in the world to see the light of the new year.

The chartered A380 will fly figure-eight patterns above the breathtaking polar terrain for up to four hours before heading back to Melbourne and Sydney.

Two other Antarctic flights are also planned for the southern summer – a second A380 service direct from Sydney on 24 January and a Boeing 747-400 from Melbourne on Valentine’s Day, 14 February. All flights are operated by senior Qantas pilots, with the captain in command having previously operated Antarctica sightseeing flights[keep the bold part in mind - it's relevant to something later in my article].

It sounds a bit silly to me. Sightseeing flights in a small airplane where every seat is a window seat makes a bit more sense, but this is just ridiculous. I suppose if you’re someone who just has to see Antarctica, this is a good way to do it relatively cheap and a turnaround flight probably isn’t going to cause one to succumb to polar madness. Regardless of my opinion the sightseeing flights probably have quite the appeal to some people. The flights might even appear banal until you consider what happened on the last sightseeing flight over Antarctica. In November 1979 flight 901 departed Auckland, NZ on a sightseeing flight of Antarctica with 237 passengers and 20 crew members. The captain and co-pilot had not flown the Antarctic flight before, but the flight was considered to be straightforward and they were both experienced pilots. All 257 people on board died when the plane crashed into Mt. Erebus. The information on the flight recorder tapes showed there had been no emergency in the cockpit of the aircraft. Attention was then focussed on the possibility of pilot error, pointing to the inexperience of the two pilots in flying in the Antarctic.

The recovery effort involved over 60 people from nearby McMurdo Station. There are several grim accounts of the recovery effort – imagine working at high-altitude, in the cold and your job is picking up bits and pieces of New Zealand’s largest single tragedy. No thanks!

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)

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

Going to be at McMurdo station Antarctica in early October? Head up to the carp shop break room during flight operations at the ice runway for a glimpse into what I mean. A handful of leftover winter carpenters and a few that have been on Ice since August will be gathered around, vying for their turn on the binoculars so that they can proudly proclaim “I saw her first!”. The computer savvy among these gnarled and randy boys will have already done their homework, perusing the flight manifest to determine the ratio of M:F (which is typically 3:1 by the way). Early October is an exciting time despite, or perhaps because of this strange ritual.

If you happen to go to a smaller station, or as the population decreases in preparation for winter, this phenomenon grows ever stronger and the ratio becomes THE hot topic for a short period of time.

At Palmer, the winter population is actually dynamic so the hobbyist statisticians here get more than one chance to examine the inbound manifest. An apparent typo made April’s ship manifest into something quite fun. One of the astute statisticians happened to notice that one of the passengers on the list was neither M nor F but rather ‘R’ and the speculation as to whether or not “Megan” was a pirate led to countless hours of fun and frivolity. I know, I know, doesn’t take much.

Megan showed up and….well, she is a pirate…ACK!!! a pirate. Somebody summon a ninja!

theRRRe she is on the left, posing with the science group she is here with. Turns out she is a teacher from an Alabama high school here on an outreach program and her school’s mascot is a pirate. She keeps really good daily journals and has posted quite a few pictures on her school’s website: http://www.fairhopehs.com

During the season that Herzog came to The Ice, another film crew was also present – a crew that actually wanted to be there and had to work to get to Antarctica. A crew that; when seeking funding was met with responses along the lines of “Isn’t Herzog filming in Antarctica this year?”. A crew that was led by documentary filmmaker Anne Aghion.

Antarcticans pay homage to Anne Aghion's film crew during the annual Halloween party - 2006

Anne’s Antarctic documentary is entitled Ice People and covers a wide spectrum of what it’s like to live and work at an Antarctic research station and field camp. In many ways the viewer may feel like they’re right there amongst the grittiness of McMurdo and conversely the majesty that is Antarctica; all the while imagining themselves exposed to the fierceness of the wind or the constant drone of a diesel engine somewhere in the background.

The greatest thing about this film is the same thing that is great about other Aghion films. It was completely devoid of her ego and became solely about the people and the social dynamics of life on the Ice.

Anne’s film-making style is a huge departure from the spoon-feeding that Hollywood film viewers may have come to expect. She challenges the viewer to take an active role in their own entertainment, likely leaving them less entertained but more enlightened as a result.

Want to know what it’s really like to live and work in Antarctica? You’ll probably have to get a job and go there yourself but the next closest thing to actually experiencing the harshest of continents for yourself is to watch Anne Aghion’s Ice People.

Check out the trailer:

I didn’t know Dr. Houseal, but I know people who did. I only vaguely know the man who was rescued in Greenland. But I have learned about both of these people through the anecdotes that are told about them; and that’s the way it is in “The Program” (the United States Antarctic Program). More and more I learn about people and events through the stories that are told about them. The stories in and about Antarctica and the USAP are some of the best you could ever hope to hear. I know I’m not the first to think it would be a good idea to start writing these stories down and put them together in a book; and in fact, this has been done on a couple of different occasions with varying degrees of success. Trouble is, many of these stories are only funny or interesting if you have inside knowledge. Things that are bizarre on The Ice are, oddly, normal in much of the world…it’s the context of events that make them funny or interesting here. Nonetheless; I’m going to try to put together and pass along a story about the name of a McMurdo band.

In order for this story to make any sense at all, you first have to understand that, in accordance with the Antarctic Conservation Act and surely parts of the Antarctic Treaty (are they one in the same…???…I digress) all waste generated by those engaged in scientific research must be removed from the continent. In certain conditions, human waste is disposed of locally – but by and large everything that is taken in will eventually be taken out – “pack it in, pack it out” on a Brobdingnagian scale. The Program has a group of people who are in charge of facilitating the removal of all of the waste. Trash at McMurdo is sorted into several categories with much of it eventually being recycled once it does get back stateside. One category of trash is “mixed paper” – pretty self-explanatory and mostly what you would expect; a great deal of office-generated waste with a smattering of domestic waste-paper thrown in for good measure. Discarded magazines belong in the “mixed paper” trash category.

The next thing that you must understand for this story to make much sense is that McMurdo is pretty much a man camp. Sure, over the years it’s been toned down quite a bit, much to the chagrin of a few old-timers but probably, really for the best. It may be a kinder, gentler kind of man camp, but it’s man camp nonetheless – you will see things at McMurdo that you certainly wouldn’t see at your workplace back in the states. In man camp, there is a reduced level of outside stimuli. Days run together until they’re all the same….hopefully I’ve done a fair job of setting the tone here.

Imagine a group of people tasked with sorting trash in a stimuli poor man camp. Certain items are removed from the waste stream to be “recycled” locally. If you’re tasked with sorting “mixed paper” and the odd porno mag passes in front of you from time to time, given the environment you’re in, you’d be fairly likely to remove it from the waste stream and save it for later. Imagine this same thing happening over and over again until eventually you have a massive box (tri-wall [20 cubic feet maybe?]) full of porno mags – eventually it all has to go away.

The Program’s waste management team becomes intimately aware of where “away” is when something is thrown away. Every year a couple of them go to (at the time of this story, Port Hadlock, WA) meet the ship and ensure that the waste goes where it needs to go. All of the tri-wall boxes and drums and other containers of waste are put inside of large shipping containers for transit across the ocean. At the other end, these boxes and drums are removed from the shipping containers.

On one particular waste run, one particular box happened to break open during transit and when the shipping container was then opened and a mountain of porno mags came spilling out, the phrase “Porn Spill” was born as the occurrence was reported over the radio. The term has lived on in infamy and each year the McMurdo waste department forms a band with the name “Porn Spill” – many years the line-up varies and includes members from other departments, but the name lives on and the story is told and re-told and has become a part of Antarctic Lore.