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ANTARCTICA

Polar Plunge

Photos © 2002 Seth White

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The Polar Plunge. Yes. I had thought about it briefly, and it lingered in the far back of my mind for my first few months here. Then one day late in the summer season, my friend Huck twisted my arm into going out to a fish hut to give it a try. My officemate Joel was also coerced into doing the same thing, so off we went. Like me, it was the first time here for both of them, and since they were leaving at the end of summer they didn't want to leave without actually doing the plunge. At McMurdo, polar plunges are not officially sanctioned, so you have to do it on the sly. The way to do this is to walk out to an unoccupied fish hut sitting on the sea ice near town. These fish huts are little wooden structures with a hole in the floor, which sits above a corresponding hole in the ice. The divers make their dives from here, and farther out on the ice biology groups will often use these to go fishing. We arrived at the hut with more than a little anxiety and proceeded to scope out the hole. We did rock-paper-scissors to see who would go first, and I won (lost?). Strangely, I always have good success with this game. But in this case it meant that I had to go first. So here I am, channeling my karmic aura into healthful energy, warmth, and serenity before going in. Or something like that. By the way, be warned: there are no naughty bits contained anywhere in the pictures here, but there is significant, um, lack of full body coverage.

Here are me and Huck, daintily testing the waters. Eeek, it's cold! Yeah, no kidding. The thing about plunging in the Polar seas is that the water here is several degrees below freezing - about 28-29 F. This is because the salt in the water lowers the overall freezing point past that of pure water.
One interesting aspect of this whole thing is the fact that you run the risk of having a heart attack when you jump in. With some people (even perfectly healthy and fit ones), the shock to your body can cause your heart to freak out. This is a bad thing, but very unlikely. Just in case, we each had another guy hold our arms when we went in. So after a bit of timid pacing around the hole, I went in. Here's me after just getting in. I wanted to make sure I got 100% submerged, so I told Huck I'd signal him to let me go once I got in alright....
....so here I am all the way in. Each time I've done this it has been different. This time, I actually felt colder when I got out of the water than when I was in. This was bizarre, because the fish huts have little stoves and it was reasonably warm inside. But after scrambling out of the hole (cutting my legs on the ice shards in the process), I could not get to a towel fast enough to dry off. This, by the way, was the only time I did a plunge 100% naked. Yes, this is tradition. At Scott Base when they hold their official plunges, you have to wear shoes since it's a short walk over the ice from the warm-up hut to the actual hole. If you don't, you WILL get frostbite. But here, we all went in in just the birthday suits. Every now and then some people will do it in a bathing suit, but this is definitely cheating and doesn't really count!!!
Joel went next, and after soaking up all the sheer joy and esctasy of floating in sub-freezing water, he executed a a hasty exit from the hole. Then it was Huck's turn. The plan was to get in, and then Joel would hand him his shades and a santa hat for the photo opportunity. ( The resulting photo turned out pretty good).
The next plunge I did was at Scott Base a week or two after the station closed for the winter. The plunges are official events there, and so lots of McMurdoites go over. They have three plunges every year during the winter season: one right around the station closing, one at mid-winter (near the solstice), and one at Winfly before the stations open back up. They will dig a little hole in the ice right at the land/ice transition and drag a little hut nearby with a stove inside, where people prepare to go to the hole and then warm up afterwards. It is not a very strictly controlled affair - you show up any time during the 2-3 hours it's going on, undress in the hut and get up your nerve, walk outside, jump in the hole, get out, walk back to the hut, get dressed, and head to the Scott Base bar for a beer - or to their sauna. The doctor from McMurdo will go over with one paramedic from the fire department in an ambulance to stand by just in case something bad happens. There are also two Kiwis standing by the hole. You are required to wear a little harness which is held by one of them. The other one will help out, take pictures for you, etc. So here is a picture after I got out of the water this time. This wasn't too long after I broke my hand, so I had to go in with the cast on. So I put two plastic bags around the hand and duct taped it closed to my arm. It worked well, and gave a convenient way to pose for this picture (the modest version of my post-plunge hero shot). The whole thing was about 3 hours long, and the last half-hour was set aside for women only (including the two Kiwis standing by the hole). But as it turned out, only 3 people went in during the womens' session. When I did it, the warm up hut was about half men, half women - which wasn't all bad. However, plunging into ice water in the middle of Antarctica is generally a time when men are a bit bashful, for obvious reasons.
After this plunge, Scott Base held the annual masquerade party. Here's a pic from near the bar.
Another one of the party. About 1/2 the people came in costume.
McMurdo provided a band for the occasion. This is Sucker Hole, one of four bands formed for the winter. The name refers to a break in the weather, just long enough for you to make a dash for whatever you're headed towards, but not long enough for you to actually get there.
Two bartenders - the one on the left is actually the Scott Base manager in his finest drag gear.
Two of the better costumes.
This is Steve Forguson, in a primo gimp outfit. He's the guy chiefly concerned with our Black Island communications during the winter and a member of another local band, Stunt Cock.
Here are Aeon Jones and Eric Hobday. Eric is the McMurdo winter-over station manager. Despite this, he is often seen out in public socializing with the masses....and occasionally dressed in his women's prison outfit....
Here's me with my good friend Amy, who is the winter Crary lab supervisor. She was the flight nurse over the summer and got to stay for the winter in this role.
Amy again, with Matt Shoop. Matt is the winter facilities guy for the Crary building (and the SSC building nearby).
Me (with cast) and Aeon.
So this was my costume. I almost didn't go, because I was too lazy to make a costume. But I found this outfit hanging up in a closet at Cosray. Can you guess what I am? Yesss, I'm a beaker!!! This was evidently made a few years ago by Glenn Grant, former McMurdo science tech. Great costume!
The next polar plunge was the midwinter affair, held the day after the solstice on June 22. I was a little nervous about this one, since it was a somewhat cold day....-25 F with 10 knot winds. Here's me, waiting in the warm-up hut. The technique I used for this and the previous plunge was to walk out with just my parka on (and shoes). Then, I'd disrobe and get in the harness. Then, after summoning up some nerve and psyching myself up (mostly by cussing a blue streak), I'd jump in. Then it's quickly up the ladder, out of the harness, into the parka, and back to the hut.
This is the hole the Kiwis dug for the second plunge. Quite a bit of work went into this - they dug out snow blocks and made a little fortress, which acted as a pretty nice wind barrier. They even put an ATV at the head of the snow stairs to light up the hole.
Another one of the hole. First class.
This time, I wanted to get a picture of myself actually in the water, waving to the camera. I went in initially after giving my camera to Joe, the physician's assistant (the guy who took care of my hand, which was out of the cast by now). But I screwed up the settings in my haste, and the pictures didn't turn out at all. Dang! This was quite the disappointment. You see, I'm only doing these ridiculous things for one reason: bragging rights. I am doing one each season while I'm here, or four for the year. And I really wanted to get a picture of me, in the hole, on the winter solstice. But sadly, the pics were crappy. After getting back to the warm-up hut and finding this out, I was left with a dilemma. I really REALLY did not want to go back in the hole. This was by far the coldest I had been during a plunge, and the idea of doing another one right away was not appealing. But then my sense of cosmic responsibilities kicked in....I would probably regret not having a good picture of this plunge. So I gave the camera back to Joe and headed back out. After getting pumped up again (and cussing quite a bit more), I went in again. This time, the picture turned out alright. Here it is. Notice my skinny right arm, which was pretty weak after being in a cast for 9 weeks. I look like I'm having a great time swimming around in here...but I can assure you this was definitely NOT the case. After I saw the flash go off I got out of the hole as fast as I could. Back in the hut, I realized that this was the coldest I have ever been. My fingers and toes actually hurt from the cold. This was nothing new, but it was quite the new experience to actually have certain other parts aching from the cold. I didn't actually warm up until I had been back inside the station for a while. And the best part is that I hear the Winfly one is supposed to be the coldest of them all. Great! More on this in a few weeks. As an aside, there is another tradition at South Pole, equally if not more bizarre. This is the 300 club. At Pole, it will generally reach -100 F on the thermometer several times each winter. When this happens, they will fire up the sauna to 200 F. The idea is to stand inside the sauna as long as you can stand it then walk out to the Pole itself and back....wearing nothing but shoes. Thus, a 300 degree temperature swing. And it's a decent walk to the actual Pole. Hard core, for sure. Yesterday, I saw that the wind chill at Arrival Heights was -105. This was the first time the wind chill had gotten that low all season (it never gets below -75 or so actual temperature at McMurdo). I decided early in the season that as soon as it got to -100, I was going to go run around naked outside. So that's what I did. Not quite the 300 club, but eh, close enough. Ironically, I talked to one of the South Pole science techs the next day and he informed me that it had also hit -100 there for the first time all season, and at that very instant they were getting ready to do the "clubbing".
Right. So August 16 arrived...time for the last polar plunge. Conditions at Scott Base: -42 F, 10 knots wind. Greeeaaat. I was kind of dreading this the whole day, but I got on the shuttle anyway. I walked by the hole on the way to the warm-up hut, right as the McMurdo station manager was jumping out of the hole. Even that felt cold. Inside the hut there were a few people milling around. Some had just done it and were warming up, some were getting up the nerve to do it. I decided to make this a quick event - just get it done with. So as soon as I was ready, I handed my camera to this fellow Phil, who happened to be standing by and agreed to be my cinematographer. I wanted to get a movie clip of the whole thing. So out we went. I got out of the parka and into the harness, and stood for a second cursing at the hole (this is what I do to psych myself up for something I really really don't want to do). Then I jumped in and right back out as fast as I could (even though I had done three of these before, I truly didn't know the meaning of the word COLD until today). On my way running back to the hut, I hear Phil say something like "the camera stopped". Crap. As it turns out, the camera stopped on him at the exact instant before I jumped in. But he was able to restart another movie clip right after I got out. So there is no actual live video of me in the hole. Dang. So here is the first part - me getting pumped to jump in the hole. Warning: there is some cursing and gratuitous shots of my backside. Only hardy souls should attempt to view this. I'm not really sure why I put such an unflattering thing on my website. Probably because I'm sort of a "completist". But I'm not going to post the second half of this little movie...that is REALLY unflattering. Anyhow, here it is. Please disregard the annoying comments from Phil.
Here's me in the Scott Base bar after the plunge, with a nice Guinness. That's four polar plunges, and no more. My quest for bragging rights is complete! That is, unless I somehow make it to Palmer station or the Arctic Ocean! This picture shows how bad my digital camera had gotten recently. It's grainy and the colors are screwed up. But strangely, it was able to take movie clips just like it always had. So in the week or so before my new camera arrived at Winfly, I was taking a lot of movies.