Isolation

It is not a stretch, nor a surprise, to say that when you are in Antarctica you can develop a feeling of being isolated. There are different levels to which you are isolated but in every case it is very different from when you are at home and have full access to the internet, television, radio, phone, friends, and family. My first trip to Antarctica was with limited internet connective but before web browsers. For example, there were a few text-based sources of information. I can remember that McMurdo Station had a method to access the AP newswire allowing us to follow the news in the United States. The two noteworthy items that I remember following through the newsfeed were the Northridge, California earthquake and the Tanya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan drama leading up to the Lillehammer Olympics. Beyond that newsfeed, I also remember having countless email exchanges with friends and those friends keeping me up to date on the latest events. In particular, there was an extreme cold outbreak in the upper midwest that year and I had friends and family living in temperatures 30-40F colder than what I experiencing in Antarctica. The most extreme isolation I have experienced was my four weeks at Summit Camp on the Greenland ice cap, which was about six months after my initial Antarctic experience. For that trip there were 22 of us with minimal to no contact with the outside world for the four weeks I was there. There were no planes in or out. The only source of news came from one person at the camp who would tune in to the BBC using ham radio. This was when OJ Simpson, the Ford Bronco chase, and the events following his arrest were consuming the news. All of those news stories remain fairly unknown to me because I learned about them six weeks later.

Fast forward to my current trip and things are different and yet they are also the same in being in a far more isolated experience than when I am at home. We have what is best referred to as limited internet access. There is full internet access, however most of the time it is extremely slow and is often not worth the effort. For example, I can go on facebook about once a day or so but scrolling through posts for more than 30 seconds is oftentimes painfully slow. Keeping up with local and national news sites is a similar experience and fairly limiting. Because facebook is so slow, sending messages to friends through facebook has mixed results. There were a couple days where I gave up trying, and other days it has not been so bad. Email connectivity is great. However, I have realized something lately, especially over the last few weeks, we don't email much between friends anymore. Even in my trip to Africa six years ago, it was oftentimes the email updates from friends, especially when they included quick summaries on some of the latest events in the lives of my friends and family, that was appreciated the most. I feel this is another example of how facebook is tremendous in connecting us more closely with distant and rarely seen friends, yet I frequently wonder what it has done with close friendships. Lastly, there is iMessage. They do not allow mobile devices (phones, iPads, etc.) on the internet network. Yet, I can use iMessage and communicate with people who have an iPhone. This has been helpful. There are a few friends that I've had an occasional iMessage chat and that allowed things to feel a little more normal. Oddly enough, there is free local calling to the Denver area from McMurdo (the primary support contractor is based in Denver), yet it has gotten to the point where I rarely talk with friends on the phone, although I am not real excited about that development either. All of this is going to go to another level when I go to West Antarctica. I am anticipating that experience will be more like Summit Camp in Greenland, with little to no connection to the outside world. I have been told I'll have limited email access through a USAP email account.

This feeling of being isolated from family, friends, and the news of the day has been highlighted over the last several days with the attacks in Paris. I know the very basics of what happened and I know there has been a huge rally of support. However, the details of the attacks and the nuances of the debates that are being had amongst people is all foreign to me. It is this feeling of isolation that is one of the biggest challenges I face when I do field work in Antarctica. That feeling of being out of touch with family and friends and not knowing the details of their lives slowly wears on me. Please, do not hesitate to pass along any information that you have, interesting or not, to me during my remaining time in Antarctica.

I have reached the approximate half-way point in my time on the ice. I have been here for four weeks and I am scheduled to head north in four weeks. The next few days to a week will be very interesting as we are both on edge in terms of the weather and logistics for our move to West Antarctica. Most of our cargo, including sleep kits, are in the cargo system for the flight to WAIS Camp. We could be traveling in two days or it could be over a week. At this point, it is rather difficult to plan our events over the upcoming days. Today was also our fifth day in a row where we were scheduled to fly by twin otter to one of two AWS sites and the flights were cancelled because of bad weather at both sites. The weather is looking even more uncertain the next 2-3 days.