Antarctica: A Year on Ice Page #4

When the last plane leaves

that's it.

You're stuck here

for the next 6 months.

No way out.

I remember thinking

what the hell did I do?

I should be on that plane.

No!

God help us!

Once it's gone,

and the last sound of it

has disappeared,

it's like the whole town

just breathes a huge sigh.

Okay, here we are.

You look around at the people

and you say,

"Okay, you're my friends...

you're my family

for the next 6 months."

My first season

was in the winter

and I do recall watching

that last plane leaving

and thinking

boy I hope this is

what I want to do.

Attention all stations.

Stand by for a severe

weather condition announcement.

McMurdo weather has set

severe weather condition 2

for the following locations

McMurdo Station,

T-Site, Arrival Heights,

The Road to Scott Base,

Pegasus Field and road

to Pegasus Field.

All other locations

remain Condition 3.

If there's any questions

please contact McMurdo Weather

at extension 2523-2524.

Some people take

the winters here very well

and there's others

that come down

that just don't do well

with winter.

You know there's not enough

going on for them.

There's not enough

social life for them.

It's actually, I think

a pretty definite line

between winter people

and non-winter people.

I mean, it's usually

fairly obvious.

One of my main jobs

during the winter

is to maintain communications

with the outside world

This means regular trips

out across the ice shelf

to the satellite station

on Black Island.

During the summer,

it's only a 10-minute

helicopter flight away.

But during the winter

it means getting in a vehicle,

like a Pisten Bully

and driving there.

When conditions are good

it's about a six-hour drive.

But in recent years

the ice shelf has been having

a lot of trouble

with surface melt.

So sometimes

we've been literally

crawling in and out of holes

taller than the vehicles

trying to find a way

to get there.

Hmm, now what?

Get around that

Hey Bill, can you see any

way through?

Yeah, should be all right.

Black Island is

one of the windiest places

on the planet.

It's so windy that peak winds

have never been

accurately measured

because of the wind gauges

getting blown away.

Current wind speed

is 114 miles per hour

or 99 knots...

Make that 123 miles an hour.

Although the camera

is on the tripod,

you can see the picture

is actually quite shaky.

That's because

the whole building

is being shaken

by the 100-knot winds

we've got at the moment.

Just go for a walk out into

the main satellite dome here

and show you what it looks like.

As you can see,

it's a wee bit windy.

I'll just show you

what it's like

in the bunkhouse here

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