Week 50 at the Pole

Winterover in red parka standing next to Norwegian flag on sunny day with blue sky.
Kalvin Moschkau, IceCube/NSF

What a busy week! IceCube’s winterovers did some housecleaning and equipment testing at the IceCube Lab, had continued ERT training (including handling patients and doing X-rays in the clinic), and gave a presentation on IceCube to a packed galley for the station’s Thursday Night Science Lecture. Last week also saw the long-awaited arrival of the South Pole traverse (SPOT), which hauls fuel from McMurdo Station to keep the South Pole station powered throughout the long winter. The image above shows some of the loads from the traverse staged out on the ice. Last but not least, the week ended with a return of the annual head weighing competition and the raising of the Norwegian flag in celebration of Amundsen’s arrival at the South Pole 112 years ago.

View of group in South Pole gym during head weighing competition.
Connor Duffy, IceCube/NSF
Winterover in red parka standing next to Norwegian flag out on the ice on sunny day with blue sky.
Connor Duffy, IceCube/NSF