The Perpetual Tourist

As a travel blogger and wife of a bridge pro, I get to see a lot of the world, and I’m very lucky in that regard. But there are some places I’ll probably never see, like the North and South Poles, for instance. Luckily, I can live vicariously through someone who has been to both these places, and will probably be one of the first people on Mars if that ever happens in our lifetime. My little sister (which is what I call her because that’s what she IS, never mind that we have different parents), Emily Gercke, spent the summer before her senior year in college doing research on glaciers in the Arctic Circle, and then after she graduated, she spent the next winter living on Antarctica (their summertime) doing hydrology research down there.

I’ve never been much of a science person, so her work was never something I really understood much (except for one thing: Global Warming is real, and so frightening I’m glad I don’t understand it better), but her life is full of fascinating stories and photographs from all the places she’s been.

So what’s it like to live at the South Pole?

In fairness, Emily wasn’t all the way to the pole. As indicated by her blog, she was working at a spot on the Antarctic continent about 78 degrees south. Still, it’s a part of Earth that not many people have ever seen firsthand. Antarctica has no native people, and most of its population is made up of scientists who are there temporarily. You can see the continent from a cruise ship if you can afford it, but to set foot on the ice, you pretty much have to be a scientist. Emily spent the Antarctic summer of 2007 living in a tent on the ice with one other researcher.

That’s right — a tent. During the summer, temperatures aren’t as cold as you might think, with highs in the 40’s. But the lows are still low, and you’re still surrounded by ice, and in Emily’s case, you don’t even have walls around you. The sun never completely sets in Antarctica in summer, but rather just circles the sky. It takes some adjusting to be able to sleep, and then more adjusting when it’s time to return home to a place that actually experiences night.

International laws are in place to protect the Antarctic ecosystem, and these laws are extremely strict. No waste of any kind can be left on the continent, so people living there must contain all their waste — natural and otherwise — to be shipped elsewhere. Living in a tent in the bitter cold comes with some glory, but when I learned about this part of the experience, I no longer envied my little sister so entirely.

Most days, Emily hiked several miles to take readings at various streams. Since she and the other researchers were largely on their own throughout their time in Antarctica, they had to go through survival training called Happy Camper School, where they learned how to not freeze to death or get stranded in a whiteout. It’s a pretty cool life to go where no one else has been and camp among penguins and seals, but the reason no one has been there is because it’s difficult and dangerous.

Every couple of weeks, a helicopter would come to pick Emily and her fellow scientists up to fly back to a base where they could organize their research data, sleep on real beds, and take showers. During her helicopter flights, she had great views of the wildlife below — penguins, seals, whales, and more. It’s one thing to view animals in a simulated zoo habitat, but there’s something really spectacular about seeing whales playing in the sea, or getting nose to nose with penguins, the cutest animals on the planet!

While Emily’s life in the field had its perks, like the close encounters with cute creatures, it’s just a little too rough for most people to handle. Even most people who live in Antarctica don’t go into the field like Emily did. They live at research stations in permanent buildings. McMurdo Station is the largest of the American stations, with about 1100 people living there in the summer. It’s a lot like being at college — there are gyms, intramural sports, bars, a radio station, and clubs. Emily said it wasn’t much different from living in the US in winter.

As a tourist, an Antarctic cruise could be lots of fun. Unlike other popular cruises, which are largely just floating parties, Antarctic cruises are led by experienced guides and are made to be educational journeys. You’ll get to see a lot of wildlife in their natural habitat, and beautiful, untouched ice and snow that just doesn’t occur many other places in the world. As a scientist, Antarctica would be an incredible place to work, if only for a short time. You get to be a tourist, too, and see things that only a few people have ever seen before.

It’s not a trip that’s even possible for most people, though, which is why I encourage you to check out Emily’s blog from her time on the continent. In some ways, it’s even better than being there, because you can see her pictures and read her stories from the comfort of a well-heated home, with beds and showers and toilets.