10,000 Leagues Beneath the Ice

I'm trying to take in everything I can during my last week at Pole. It started by moving out to the Jamesway. Flights have been delayed all week long so I still got the palace to myself. It's a cool experience to live a 1/2 mile from the station with no one around. We got a few helpers in the kitchen so the load has been lifted a bit, and now I get to volunteer with other departments. Right now I'm hanging out in the Head Module babysitting a sewer barrel and pump system for 4 hours. Yesterday I got a chance to visit the ice tunnels and that was fun. Beneath the elevated station and summer camp is a maze of tunnels, pipes and sewer outfalls.

Here's one of the entrances.

Every 100 yards there is an escape raise that the surface.

Ice 'stalactites' hang from the ceiling.

I love this shot.

In some of the tunnels there are memorials from crews in past seasons.

I just had to taste the ancient ice... probably 10s of 1000s years old... before the US recession, before the ozone hole, before the industrial revolution, before the pilgrims, before Jesus, before the Egyptian pyramids... and it tastes just like plain old ice, but is perhaps the cleanest Ice I've ever tasted.