The Traverse to Pole!

Yesterday, the South Pole Overland Traverse team took off on their journey from McMurdo to South Pole to deliver cargo and fuel. I really enjoy seeing this team work together, and I wanted to see the departure.

Scenery driving to the SPOT departure site

Before departing, they gathered as a team in their small kitchen module and scarfed down their lunches. I had taken a tour of their modules the last time I visited, but did take a peek at their freezer that they bring with them, which includes three turkeys... one for Thanksgiving, one for Christmas, and one for New Year's. They should be back before NY's, but they were certainly be gone for the other two holidays. 

Cooking area in the module
Freezer with all their food for the journey there and back. You can see the Butterball Turkey

It was a beautiful, sunny, but brisk day out on the ice shelf where the modules and tractors were lined up to head out. The tractors did not have the fuel bladders on them yet, as those were filled at one of our airfields and left for the tractors to come to them.

Tractors heading to get their fuel bladders to haul

Cargo modules lined up for towing

Gundy, one of the most seasoned SPOT team members, ready to roll!


Here is a group picture prior to departure. All guys on the team this season. Just a hardy group of individuals that really enjoy what they do and take pride in their work. 



As the tractors rolled out, there were a few SPOT significant others standing with me for the sendoff. It reminded me of the Wild West with spouses waving goodbye to cowboys taking off for a cattle drive or something like that you'd see on prequels to Yellowstone (the tv show). To me, Antarctica is really equivalent to those frontier days. Lots of risk, lots of open land, lots of unique opportunities. 



Best of luck to SPOT! They will come back from South Pole and do it all over again on the next traverse in January!

Comments

  1. Mae TravelsNovember 11, 2023 at 3:33 AM

    Fascinating article. I loved learning about their kitchen and their supply of turkeys!
    best, mae at maefood.blogspotcom

    ReplyDelete

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