How to Climb Mount Erebus on Your Day Off: An Interview with “Douglas Moeson”
“You’ve got to keep your engine speed up. You have to route find, and look for crevasses, at speed. You can’t go slowly and reconnoiter, because you have to keep the engine power up just to keep going. But I just kept it up, and gradually it began to get steeper and steeper, and it finally got to the point with the snowmobile where you can keep climbing, but you can also come straight down.”
Stepford Station: Interview with a Palmer Station Contractor
“It was January, I was walking around in a t-shirt, I had a suntan, nothing else on but a t-shirt and jeans, I wore little booty socks running around working. Whales, seals, baby penguins, great food, but I couldn’t stand it. I hated Palmer.”
Antarctica vs. Iraq: Interview with a Contractor
“Antarctica prepared me for the War Zones, a stepping stone which made the transition to Iraq a little bit easier.”
Soused at the South Pole: Modern Drunkard Magazine’s Interview with Big Dead Place
“For some reason, people can’t get enough of disco clothes here. They are a source of infinite delight.”
Embracing the Experiment: Interview with Abigail Alling of Biosphere 2
“Everyone had a theory for what we were doing, and a lot of people felt threatened for sure.”
Burying the Finn’s Tooth
“Last year, two of my “teeth of wisdom” were removed by a dental surgeon and those teeth were after that disinfected and sealed in a bag.”
At the Mercy of the Good Samaritan: Interview with Polar Aviator Jon Johanson
“If you do not know how to pray before you become a pilot, you tend to learn quickly.”
Crazed Norwegian from Troll Base: Interview with Trans-Antarctic Expeditioner Eirik Sønneland
“American employees told us later that they had been told to stay away from us and not to talk to us.”
Stealth Expedition: A Chapter from Eirik Sønneland and Rolf Bae’s Unpublished Book
“Instead of feeling bloated and lazy, you are hungry and sharp. You are balanced between things which strengthen and weaken you.”
…And Maybe Killing a Seal: Interview with an Equipment Operator
“One of them had snagged the penguin down by the water intake pipe. He threw it in a pillowcase and brought it up there.”
Snowbugs
“The priest was very disturbed by the sculpture. He felt it was pagan in nature and did not want to hold a mass in its presence.”
Exploring Antarctica by Bathroom
“You can’t just go into every building. You have to actually do something there. What can you do? Shit in it.”
Witness Statement
“She struck me in the right brow, knocking my eyeglasses to the ground. Thankfully, they are a space-age first quality titanium frame, a good purchase, and were unharmed.”
Weather and Destruction
I question Mark, almost rhetorically, “Do you ever look around and say to yourself; ‘I can’t believe I am doing this in Antarctica’?” Of course he has. We all have. It’s a thread that connects us. And though this feeling usually overcomes me when I am drunk and urinating outdoors, I sometimes feel it while I am working.
The Clock: Interview with Clockmaker Ian Macartney
Acknowledging the Metaphysical Pole: Interview with The Shadow
“We could only contact home by shortwave radio, so we were allowed 50 words in the summer and 100 in the winter.”
