Reaching The South Pole

ONN's Meteorologist Harrison Hove is on Antarctica.

Harrison applied for and received a grant from the National Science Foundation to travel to Antarctica to report on the several Ohioans doing research near the South Pole. Each day Hove will share his travels and projects that he and other Buckeyes are working on to ONN.

Here's the latest from Harrison:

I circumnavigated the globe in just a few steps this afternoon!  We boarded a C130 military plane early today flow by the New York National Guard.  The crew loaded us in.  Al the seats were along the side of the air craft.  Everyone looks across at the other row of people who stare right back at you.  The C130 has two propellers on each side and it is one of the only aircraft that use skis to land in harsh, snowy conditions.

We took off and headed toward the South Pole. 

The crew invited me up to the cock pit again. They had to wake me up because I slept for the first 90 minutes of the flight.  It was a great view from the cock pit. There was a layer of clouds, but the mountain peaks actually pierced the cloud ceiling.  You were left with peaks of mountains poking out of clouds.

When we arrived at the South Pole there was a bit of debate about how long we would stay. Weather conditions dictate all flights in Antarctica and the South Pole has the harshest conditions. With a forecast of clouds and possible snow, it was decided that we would stay for 90 minutes and then fly back to McMurdo. Talk about a quick turnaround.

The people at the South Pole station are just wonderful. The station is almost two miles above sea level.  Altitude sickness is a serious problem here.  We were all issued medication a couple days ago, but I opted to pass on the pills.  You are naturally winded because of the lower oxygen amounts, but some people also experience dizziness and become disoriented.  Luckily, our bags were loaded into an ATV type vehicle and I just had to walk myself from the plane to the South Pole Station.

Because of the time crunch, we were given a quick tour of the facility.  It is very nice!  The old facility was actually buried in the snow drifts so a new station had to be built.  This one is well above ground and is about three stories high.  The South Pole station also has its own chef for meals.  It is almost impossible to leave the South Pole in the winter with the high winds and nasty storms so less than 100 people “winter over” in this location.
 
We were loaded into the ATV and shown impressive satellites and telescopes that help scientists conduct research.  We were also led to take photos at the pole.  Did you know there are actually two poles?  There is a ceremonial pole which has the flags of every country signing the Antarctic Treaty standing in a circle.  The next pole is the geographic pole and it has the US flag along with the United Kingdom’s Union Jack.  I actually touched the pole and my hand kind of stuck to the metal.

Did you know the average temperature at the South Pole is -57 degrees Fahrenheit?  It is so cold!  I immediately felt my face beginning to freeze.  They had to monitor me for frost nip.  My camera got so cold that is start to pixilate and the shutter was sticking.  All of this was happening on a relatively mild day.  It was between -20 and -30 today.

After running around at the pole for the quick tour, we boarded the C130 aircraft for the trip home.  There were so many of us on the flight, I had to sit in the cock pit with the rest of the crew!  It was such a smooth take off and flight.  I am pretty scared to fly, especially in odd planes like this.  The crew did a great job of making us all feel at ease.  Midway through the flight I traded seats with someone and went down into the cabin to take a nap.

I was greeted when we landed by Jeff Huffman who supervises the runway crew at Pegasus field at McMurdo.  He grew up in Licking County.  He gave me a great tour of the air field and even showed me an Emperor Penguin.  He introduced me to another buckeye who works in the air traffic control tower.  Another person in the tower told me the person running the weather office at McMurdo is also from Ohio! 

The list continues to grow.  Once it was time to leave the airfield, we had a great 65 year old retiree put us in the shuttle.  She just so happened to be born in Vandalia in SW Ohio.  She was such a firecracker….so wonderful!  As a bonus, she got us back to McMurdo with five minutes left to spare for dinner.

I have tried to lay low tonight.  I am pretty exhausted and have been constantly on the go since I arrived.  I am trying to squeeze in as much as possible in order to give you all the best picture of life down here in Antarctica.  Tomorrow is going to be my last full day here and I will be scrambling to meet additional people, conduct interviews, and shoot additional video to help tell this story.  I can’t believe my time here is already coming to an end.  This is such a special place.  These people are dedicated and sacrifice so much for this operation and the scientific research to take place.  They all deserve a great deal of credit for trying to further our knowledge in this isolated far away place.