No shit, there I was! The high polar plateau. A place far out into the flat white, much farther away from anything than the South Pole, a place of very little oxygen, lots of sunshine, and air that never gets above zero. After acclimatizing at the South Pole for a week, we flew low to the ground in a Twin Otter (aka Twatter) on a North Easterly route for about 2 1/2 hours to reach the AGAP field site. Our job is to put up a camp for the science groups that will eventually come here to try to map out a mountain range comperable to the Swiss Alps that is buried over a mile beneath the ice that our plane just landed on. They plan to fly on a grid system back and forth for hundreds of miles withall sorts of fancy equiptment that won't save the world, but it might just show them these mountains. Last year, they experienced calm weather w/out any wind to speak of, so "they", with all their knowledge of that ONE short month, claimed that it was never too windy on the high plateau and that we had nothing to worry about. Who is this "they" anyway? Well, "they" don't know shit! AGAP was cold, windy, and brutal upon arrival. Air temps around -65F and add windchill and you get a mindboggling -88F as our coldest day........and this is summer! So, we hunkered down, and acclimatized some more, kept the heaters running, and drank hot tea and played games. We also spent alot of time trying to figure out the actual altitude. This is tricky b/c of the extreme relation to the pole. The altitude is somewhere around 12,500, but then you have the physiological effects that happen near the poles AND pressure changes in the weather and you get an altitude of anywhere between 12,500 and 17,000 feet. Some days, you just couldn't get your breath. Everything up ther is SLOW. On windy days, every piece of skin is covered and you are in a constant struggle to keep your goggles from
fogging over.
So goes it at AGAP. You suffer a little at work, you get a little bit done, you take lots of breaks, you go thru alot of handwarmers, tea and calories, and you watch movies or play games at night. And as the old Antarctic saying goes......"If a plane lands, get on it!"