EJ's Travels

Christmas in Antarctica. A long way from the North Pole, not so far from the South. Although on opposite ends of the globe, I imagine Santa & his helpers would feel right at home in these parts.

What could possibly look and feel more like Christmas? My first year at university in California after 17 years in North Dakota I remember thinking that Christmas just isn’t Christmas without freezing temperatures and snow on the ground. Turns out that despite spending Christmas on the coldest and whitest place on earth, closer to the truth is that Christmas just isn’t Christmas if I’m not spending it at home with family. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the festivities here even if the holiday was a bit lost on me.

My family back home in Minnesota adorned in various Antarctica paraphernalia
brother-in-law, paul; brother, nathan; sister, lisa; ma, sandra; pa, john; niece, ellie & nephew, isaac

A town Christmas party was held in the heavy shop to kick off the holiday weekend. Decorations were hung, a choir sang Christmas carols, Santa was available for pictures, eggnog was served and dancing was underway ‘til the wee hours. The following evening I was invited to Scott Base for the kiwi Christmas Eve dinner with my friend, Tristan. Dinner was spectacular and the closest thing to Christmas I experienced here. The forty-something of us sat and dined together family style. Our places at the table were marked by cookies frosted with our names (it’s the little things). Preparing food for 40 versus 1000+ makes a notable difference. The dessert table could have won awards based on aesthetics alone. Afterwards we all helped clean and do dishes and then enjoyed some post dinner conversation and drinks. I made the just under 2 mile walk home somewhere around 1:30am. As I was walking along enjoying the quiet of the *night* I saw a trail of red marching up Ob Hill. The next day I came to find out it was my roommate, Jane, and other friends still dressed in their Santa & elf costumes. I kind of wish I had joined the merry bunch when I spotted them.

Christmas Day found me standing atop Castle Rock once again with friends Eric and Kevin. I would venture to guess that not many can say they spent Christmas Day in the same spot, including those who are actually here in Antarctica. Afterwards I got tidied up and enjoyed another holiday meal with the McMurdo crowd. A quiet night in the company of friends followed.

Me & Eric on Castle Rock Christmas Day

Ethan, Erin & Ben at Christmas Dinner

Christmas Dinner at McMurdo…

My shuttles team celebrated the holiday with a party at Hut 10. It is a hut used to house distinguished visitors, but in the off time it can be reserved for parties. Here is most of the gang outside on the deck.

Back row: Michael, Karen, Me, Amanda, Katherine, Helena, Sue & Hal
Front row: Sam, Kris, Cindy, Gloria, Evelyn & Sharon

New Year’s Eve there was a host of parties. I think I managed to hit all of them but one. The most fun of which was the milvan party. Milvans are large shipping/storage containers and the cargo yard is full of them, some of them empty. The milvan that hosted the party was in fact empty and hooked up to a generator so that lights could be hung and music played. I actually never made it inside the milvan. It was such a beautiful night that much of the action took place just outside of it.

Me, Eric & Helena post the midnight hour

Top to bottom (L-R): Burt, Jesse, Me, Sean, Emily, Carrie & Isaac

New Year’s Day was spent relaxing and listening to the sounds of home-grown bands playing outside all day at Icestock.

Icestock stage

Icestock crowd (notice the milvans lining either side of the audience)

2006 began in Antarctica. Can’t begin to imagine where it will end. The year ahead is destined to be filled with adventure and discovery. I look at the journey ahead with great excitement and wish the same for all of you.

Happy New Year!

see more of my photos at: http://ej.smugmug.com

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 1st, 2006 at 4:47 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.