When traveling to the South Pole, you have to be prepared for delays. But last week it was the station, not the travelers, that was not quite prepared—with a summer population close to its limits, it had to creatively house dozens of passengers left behind from departing planes that boomeranged. The gym was put to use, as was the lounge and other common areas with chairs and sofas. The weather finally behaved toward the end of the week and the stranded folks finally made it out of there. Just in time to miss the excitement of a 5-minute station power outage. And had they stayed another day, they also would have been able to see the arrival of the third and final South Pole traverse of the season (the first came in December), which can barely be seen along the horizon in the second-to-last image. There’s a lot of white out there, but it makes spotting the blue buildings and red coats all the easier.
