Images of

ANTARCTICA

Scott Base

Photos © 2002 Seth White

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This is Scott Base. Antarctica New Zealand runs this station, which was established about the same time as McMurdo. It is about 2 miles from McMurdo via a dirt road, on the other side of Cape Armitage. About 120 people is the maximum for this station during summer, and 20 people or so is the usual winter-over crowd. Scott Base is the "Capitol of the Ross Dependency", which is the term for the part of Antarctica where New Zealand has a claim. New Zealand, like nearly every other nation with Antarctic interests, has maintained a station here to validate its claim. Interestingly, the U.S. has never made an official claim on Antarctica. But that does not mean that our presence here is purely scientific in nature. The politics of this region are quite interesting, but thanks to the Antarctic Treaty, all of that business is under the surface and nations pretty much seem to get along (at least until the treaty expires!). Speaking of which, here is a great drawing that has been widely circulated about McMurdo.
Scott Base from the air, taken while flying to Mt. Erebus on an A-Star helo.
A view from the Scott Base library, looking out over the nearby sea ice.
Here, you get the feeling as though you're in a remote station. McMurdo has the feel of a dumpy Alaskan mining town.
This station has a certain charm and aesthetic beauty. The lines and color of the buildings are very photogenic.
The electronics shop, which also houses radio KIWI. At McMurdo, radio consists primarily of the American Forces Network, which is real crap with AM sound quality. Paul Harvey comes on now and then, and there are also random sound bites of war stories and reminders to be on good behavior when you're overseas (which is good advice). But during the normal workday when I have the radio on driving around, they run either the modern R&B and hip hop or oldies shows. McMurdo people can sign up to be DJ's though, and the station will transmit their show on the same AFN frequency (104.5 MHz). So now and then you'll get a live person on the radio, and it's a much stronger and clearer signal. The McMurdo DJ's are hit-or-miss, but every now and then I pick up a good one...like Mark Sabbatini's weekly jazz show. Radio KIWI, on the other hand, is always on. By the sounds of it, they have either a 5 cd changer or an MP3 computer, and will cycle randomly through a set of albums. Sporadically, the operator will come on and tell you this and that about what's happening at Scott Base and McMurdo (Mac-Town, in Kiwi-speak). The signal is crystal clear, but unfortunately it is blocked from McMurdo by Observation Hill. So the only time I get it is at Cosray, which is half-way between the two stations and has a line-of-sight to Scott Base. Yet another reason that Cosray is the coolest building on station.
The Scott Base galley. They eat well here. You have to be invited, however, to join them for a meal. Also, everyone here washes their own dishes. Kiwis can come over to McMurdo anytime for a meal, since 10 or 20 extra people out of 1000 is no big deal. But the McMurdo hordes descending on the galley here would be overload.
Another pic of the galley. This particular day, I made an off hand comment to the Aaron the chef about how nice it was to have little pieces of cheese laid out for a meal, and that McMurdo doesn't do this. A few seconds later, he appears and *poof*, a 1 kg hunk of colby is in my hand....
Computer lab.
A corridor in the main Scott Base complex. All the main buildings are linked by hamster-type connections: the galley, bar, living quarters, admin offices, store, garages, etc. A final contingency in the case of an uncontrollable fire is to start up a bulldozer and run it through one of these corridors, to isolate the burning part of the station. No kidding - I have this on good authority from Shane Thompson, one of the science technicians and a member of the station fire crew.
Kim Thomas and Joan Myers in a lab area. Kim is one of the science technicians at Scott Base, and gave us a tour of the facility one day. To a certain degree, Americans can come and go at Scott Base (mainly the store and the bar), but it's rare to get the full official tour of the place. Joan is a photographer at McMurdo this year as part of the Artists and Writers program, and I managed to tag along as her camera-carrier and note-taker on her tour.
A memorial book (in the case on the right) in the Scott Base library for the New Zealand air crash victims. In the late 70's, a tourist airliner slammed into Mount Erebus in bad weather because of a navigational bug. Members of the victims' families wrote messages to them, and they were compiled in this book. Nobody except the families have read any of this, and it is being stored here at Scott Base. I believe it will be opened after a while (50 years, 100 years?).
The hydroponic greenhouse. Similar to the McMurdo greenhouse, only a little smaller and more spacious.
No hammock in this greenhouse, though.
The world's southernmost parking meter. Yes, this is one of the the visitors parking spots for McMurdo vehicles.
A handy distance sign. Only 1353 km to the Pole. That ain't so far away. I can't imagine why those early explorers had such a hard time getting there.
The IGY/TAE hut, or A hut. It was the first building erected on this site. This was the headquarts at Scott Base for operations during the Trans-Antarctic Expedition undertaken during the International Geophysical Year of 1957-1958. This year was when scientific study began on a large scale in Antarctica. The TAE was led by Vivian Fuchs and Edmund Hillary. Fuchs started a traverse from the other side of the continent, and Hillary set out from here. Scott Base has kept this building, and is turning it into a museum. It is full of old instruments, photos, and other artifacts from the early days. McMurdo station seems much less interested in preserving its history. There are some places and things on station that date back quite a ways, but no central museum. In fact, the Cosray building is the closest thing here I have seen, but it's in the gun-sights of the powers that be, ostensibly because it is so old and energy inefficient.
This is a distance meter used during the TAE, and a pack of cards with pictures of Hillary and Fuchs, on display in the IGY/TAE hut.
An anemometer used by Vivian Fuchs during the TAE.
The comms room in the IGY/TAE hut. The painting on the wall was commissioned by the original team so they'd have a reminder of what the outside world looks like during their stay here.
A slew of historic Antarctic placques from various nations, on display in the IGY/TAE hut.
Edmund Hillary's office in the IGY/TAE hut.
The comms room of the IGY/TAE hut has an array of historic photos from the early days of New Zealand's presence here.
The IGY/TAE hut kitchen.
Main room in the IGY/TAE hut. They put up a mannequin dressed in the original gear used by the TAE participants. Kiwis can reserve this hut for small gatherings or for a little peace and quiet.
Another pic of the IGY/TAE hut. It doesn't look that much different from the rest of the base, since they kept the same theme for most of the newer buildings.
Pic of the various people who took part in the TAE traverse.
Old sign for Antarctica New Zealand, in the entry corridor to the IGY/TAE hut.
For several decades, the Kiwis operated a station at Lake Vanda in the Dry Valleys. It was decomissioned several years ago, and this is a sign saved from that station. Also in the IGY/TAE hut. Interestingly, Antarctica New Zealand saved one of the structures from Vanda Station and reused it as an addition to their Arrival Heights hut. Yep - they skua'd a building. Some pics from this hut are here.
Another sign from Vanda Station. Lake Vanda was named for a sled dog.
A road sign near Scott Base. The road from McMurdo to Williams field goes right past the base, so if you somehow get disoriented and can't figure out which way you should go, this will be of great service.
I like this sign quite a bit.
A view of Scott Base and the sea ice pressure ridges, taken from T-site.
Another pic of Scott Base from T-site.
The official Scott Base marker, 77 degrees 51 minutes South. A new sign put up on the road to McMurdo says we're only 77 degrees, 50 minutes South.
Every Thursday during the summer is "American Night" at Scott Base. The store is open late, and the bar welcomes any and all from McMurdo. Generally, a pretty good time. Here's me, Tucker Stevens, and Huck Auen enjoying our beverages. Obviously Huck and I are much higher class than Tucker, as evidenced by the pinkies in the air...
Here is me, pondering the can of beer in my hand. This is a Tui, a NZ brew claiming to be an "East India Pale Ale". Huh? This stuff is indistinguishable from any of a thousand other generic, watery ales I have tried. It's not bad, but I do not believe any hops were harmed during the making of this beer. Thus, it is NOT an India Pale Ale!
The Scott Base bar is named the "Tatty Flag". The best part about this place is the availability of Guinness in a can. And it's $3.00 Kiwi (~$1.50 US) a pop! People, as always at Scott Base, are friendly and hospitable.
Earlier in the year, there was a big rugby match between McMurdo and Scott Base. They even set up two goalposts and a field out off the road to Williams Field. And of course, the US lost. Soon thereafter, this appeared in the Scott Base bar...the secret Kiwi game plan! Perhaps a game of American Football can be scheduled for next year?
Yes, another picture of the road sign. So what? I like this sign, and I have 600 MB of space to fill up on the server....
Here is the Scott Base vehicle fleet. A couple Hagglunds, Pisten Bullies, and Toyota trucks. Plus a few other vehicles such as....
...this Track Truck! What the heck is this thing? Some of the vintage equipment floating around McMurdo and Scott Base is pretty funny. But I suppose it still runs, right?
The Track Truck again. Hmm. Come to think of it, I haven't seen these things around since I took these pics. Perhaps they went back on the vessel this year like all the old USAP Sprytes (old tracked vehicles) did?
This is the sign you see as you drive "over the pass" from McMurdo to Scott Base. This has an interesting story. First, there's the whole Ross Dependency thing. This is the official name for the area claimed by New Zealand. The Antarctic Treaty renders all claims to this land obsolete as long as the treaty is in effect, but every nation still holds onto its prior claims in case the treaty is not renewed. But still, you still sometimes hear people (Kiwis, mostly) talk about Ross Dependency as if it were an actual fact and had some present importance. Besides, the Ross Dependency wasn't "conquered" by NZ, it was simply given to them by Britain!! Anyhow, the second notable thing is the creature sitting atop the sign. At first I thought it was a black cat. Nope, it's a possum. These things are not native to NZ, and are basically a scourge to the land. So the Kiwis hunt them and make various fur goods from them....fur goods which are quite warm, incidentally. Possum fur items can be had at the Scott Base store. The eyes of the creature are red, since possum's eyes glow red when they're in the headlights of cars. But most interesting is the saga of this sign during the summer season. This sign was up at the beginning of the season. It faces McMurdo, so that anyone driving from McMurdo to Scott Base will see it. During the early part of the summer, a McMurdo sign popped up farther along this road (closer to Scott Base). This sign faced Scott Base and essentially said the same thing - welcome to McMurdo. But shortly thereafter, the Scott Base sign disappeared. I didn't give it too much thought at the time, and I figured it was just moved somewhere else. Nope! I found out later that the USAP (specifically, NSF personnel) had pressured Scott Base to take their sign down. I don't know exactly what the pressure was, but leverage was probably pretty easy to come by since there is a lot of co-dependency between the US and NZ for each others operations here. A short aside here: how petty can these people possibly be? How childish to tell another base to take down their sign! And what's more, how spineless for the NZARP management to acquiesce to this demand! Ye gods. Well anyway, this sign remained down for the whole season...UNTIL...just before the last flight left for the season. Several hours before the last flight left, this sign reappeared. As it happened, an important NSF representative was on the last flight out...and the bus to Pegasus Field drives right by this sign! So, I don't think the timing of the sign's resurrection was a coincidence at all. The Kiwis stuck it back up so he'd have to see it on his way off the continent! Well, this is actually just a theory, but I'll bet large sums of money that it's accurate. How funny!
Toward the end of the summer season, Terry Deshler was on station. He's the PI for the balloon project for this winter (this project is Olivia's main gig). He was here to show us how to prepare payloads and launch balloons. Rebecca Batchelor from Scott Base will be helping out quite a bit with this too, as she is interested in the data. Plus, Olivia is running extra LIDAR measurements which will help her with her Ph.D. work - so it's a tradeoff. Anyway, the Kiwis invited Terry, Olivia, Paola Massoli (who was here for a few weeks working on the LIDAR system), and I over one day for dinner one day. After dinner, we retired to the bar (which is right in the room next to their galley, conveniently enough). Here is the group having a few after dinner beverages.
Here we are again, from left to right: Kim Thomas, Terry Deshler, Steve Wood, Craig Purdie, Paola Massoli, Rebecca Batchelor, Olivia Billett.