We can only go up from here
July 13, 2016 4:36 PM Subscribe
The South Pole Traverse is a 1600km long, compacted snow road connecting the McMurdo and Amundsen–Scott stations.
It takes about 40 days to cover, scanning for crevasses with ground penetrating radar and dragging specialised fuel sleds.
It takes about 40 days to cover, scanning for crevasses with ground penetrating radar and dragging specialised fuel sleds.
I kept waiting to see them encamp for the night to see how they did that....then I realized.....
posted by splen at 4:50 PM on July 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by splen at 4:50 PM on July 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
"My name's Bronco. Demolitions expert."
"My Name is Doctor Von Ping, ice-sonar expert."
"My name's That Guy. I fix shit that broke, even when the Storms at the End of the World come to reclaim the road. Also I cook flapjacks."
posted by Slap*Happy at 5:31 PM on July 13, 2016 [3 favorites]
"My Name is Doctor Von Ping, ice-sonar expert."
"My name's That Guy. I fix shit that broke, even when the Storms at the End of the World come to reclaim the road. Also I cook flapjacks."
posted by Slap*Happy at 5:31 PM on July 13, 2016 [3 favorites]
Are those giant bags the fuel? Or is that to smooth the road? Or both?
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 5:39 PM on July 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 5:39 PM on July 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
Fuel bags. The linked article has a pretty detailed explanation of why they're used.
posted by ryanrs at 5:46 PM on July 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by ryanrs at 5:46 PM on July 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
Oh damn, I got as far as the GPR and thought I finished.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 5:49 PM on July 13, 2016
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 5:49 PM on July 13, 2016
After all the shit of the last couple weeks it is comforting to know that this kind of awesome is ongoing.
posted by humanfont at 5:49 PM on July 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by humanfont at 5:49 PM on July 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
The one "And you know that IT. IS. ON." moment that stands out is when it is bright and sunny, and they folded up the special insulators from the CAT tractor's grill meant to keep the heat from the mighty diesel engine in... "We're working so hard, we need to be cooled off, it's just too hot here on the endless ice plain, the kinda lugging we gotta do."
This is the gloriously stupid and technically hypercompetent sort of thing Americans have been involving themselves in since theMoon Launch Interstate Freeway System Panama Canal Transcontinental Railroad Eerie Canal.
posted by Slap*Happy at 6:07 PM on July 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
This is the gloriously stupid and technically hypercompetent sort of thing Americans have been involving themselves in since the
posted by Slap*Happy at 6:07 PM on July 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
The fire-toilet...
posted by vibratory manner of working at 6:17 PM on July 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by vibratory manner of working at 6:17 PM on July 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
I had a long conversation with a real life serious flat earth believer recently and I really want to know how they explain the whole "the south pole is actually well mapped" thing that stands in direct contract to their "the south pole is a wall of ice that holds in the oceans in" theory.
posted by flaterik at 6:49 PM on July 13, 2016
posted by flaterik at 6:49 PM on July 13, 2016
I imagine the flat earthers say compases don't work the way people think.
posted by BrotherCaine at 7:39 PM on July 13, 2016
posted by BrotherCaine at 7:39 PM on July 13, 2016
Would have been better with a Fury Road soundtrack.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 7:49 PM on July 13, 2016
posted by Confess, Fletch at 7:49 PM on July 13, 2016
Slap*Happy: We're working so hard, we need to be cooled off, it's just too hot here on the endless ice plain, the kinda lugging we gotta do
I know how the machines felt: one of the interesting scenes from my time down there was field safety training, where we spent most of one day building various types of emergency shelters out of snow. Since it was Official Training we were all dressed in our regulation ECW (extreme cold weather) gear—at first. It didn't take much shoveling and cutting snow blocks before that was way too much and we all stripped off as many layers as we could. It's kind of fun to be surrounded by hollow miles of snow and wind and working so hard you're dressed like a beautiful spring day.
Good safety training in its own right, too, as you really don't want to work up an actual sweat under those conditions. We slept out in the shelters we'd built and it did get darned cold that night.
posted by traveler_ at 9:00 PM on July 13, 2016 [5 favorites]
I know how the machines felt: one of the interesting scenes from my time down there was field safety training, where we spent most of one day building various types of emergency shelters out of snow. Since it was Official Training we were all dressed in our regulation ECW (extreme cold weather) gear—at first. It didn't take much shoveling and cutting snow blocks before that was way too much and we all stripped off as many layers as we could. It's kind of fun to be surrounded by hollow miles of snow and wind and working so hard you're dressed like a beautiful spring day.
Good safety training in its own right, too, as you really don't want to work up an actual sweat under those conditions. We slept out in the shelters we'd built and it did get darned cold that night.
posted by traveler_ at 9:00 PM on July 13, 2016 [5 favorites]
Really enjoyed reading that, thanks. The trip log was great! The cycle of, "find the crevasse, assess the crevasse, then blow that shit UP and then fill it back in to make it safe" -- I simply had no idea about any of that.
posted by mosk at 9:55 PM on July 13, 2016
posted by mosk at 9:55 PM on July 13, 2016
Per my initial comment, setting off explosives near Antarctic mountain ranges is a certain path to madness. I advise against it.
posted by GuyZero at 11:07 PM on July 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by GuyZero at 11:07 PM on July 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
Back in the late 90s, when I knew a family friend who worked at the South Pole for several years, I remember reading Kim Stanley Robinson's book Antarctica, which featured the South Pole Traverse as a near-future Sci-Fi element. Fascinating to watch fiction become reality.
posted by JiBB at 12:13 AM on July 14, 2016
posted by JiBB at 12:13 AM on July 14, 2016
I imagine the flat earthers say compases don't work the way people think.
just put a magnetic monopole at the north pole
posted by ryanrs at 5:02 AM on July 14, 2016
just put a magnetic monopole at the north pole
posted by ryanrs at 5:02 AM on July 14, 2016
Eerie Canal
Favourited, for the 10-minute fantasy that went off in my head about a bunch of dead American engineers conscripted to build a canal between Avernus and the Styx. </derail>
posted by Autumn Leaf at 4:51 PM on July 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
Favourited, for the 10-minute fantasy that went off in my head about a bunch of dead American engineers conscripted to build a canal between Avernus and the Styx. </derail>
posted by Autumn Leaf at 4:51 PM on July 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
THE TASKED DEAD - "It can't be done. It's utterly impossible, oh Host of Many!"
PLUTO - "Persephone has brought bourbon into the After Death, and also the Cyclopes say it can't be done, especially by mortals, and have wagered a lot of beer on the outcome."
THE TASKED DEAD - "Do they realize that we have Ben Franklin and Seymour Cray and Norma Merrick Sklarek in this business? Apparently not. Go time!"
posted by Slap*Happy at 5:33 PM on July 14, 2016
PLUTO - "Persephone has brought bourbon into the After Death, and also the Cyclopes say it can't be done, especially by mortals, and have wagered a lot of beer on the outcome."
THE TASKED DEAD - "Do they realize that we have Ben Franklin and Seymour Cray and Norma Merrick Sklarek in this business? Apparently not. Go time!"
posted by Slap*Happy at 5:33 PM on July 14, 2016
« Older "Abandoned buildings of almost inhuman complexity" | Know your rights (filming the police edition) Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by GuyZero at 4:40 PM on July 13, 2016 [1 favorite]