A Winter at the South Pole

Step outside at the South Pole in winter and frostbite can start in under five minutes. For eight months of the year, no plane can come and get you. We spend one whole winter at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station: the last plane out, a single sunset, water melted from the ice, the 300 Club, a rescue flight in total darkness, what the dark does to your brain and your sleep, and why the ground under the station is moving. Chapters 0:00 Frostbite in under five minutes 0:52 February: the last plane leaves 1:42 March: the only sunset 2:20 A building on stilts 2:43 Scott vs Amundsen, 1911 3:29 Water, power and a greenhouse 4:22 Why the station is there 4:46 The 300 Club 5:18 June: Midwinter 5:34 A rescue in the dark 5:59 What the dark does to you 6:42 The ice is moving 7:12 Why would anyone sign up? 7:35 One winter at the South Pole Sources Station, altitude, drift, population: NSF Office of Polar Programs, "NSF Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station" (2024, updated 2026); USAP South Pole webcam page Record low: IceCube/WIPAC "Antarctic Weather" Altitude: USAP "Antarctic Altitude Awareness"; Anderson et al., Clin Med Insights 2011 Winter crew and dates: southpolestation.com (winter-over statistics; South Pole Winter 2026); USAP 2025-26 science planning schedules Why planes stop, and the 2016 rescue: National Geographic (8 Jul 2016); AP (2016) Daily life (carrots, The Thing, sunset dinner, water, greenhouse, generators, Midwinter, -100F): The Antarctic Sun (USAP), 2010-2019 articles, read via web.archive.org Showers: USAP Participant Guide as quoted by brr.fyi (2023) Greenhouse: University of Arizona CEAC, "South Pole Growing Chamber" Building: The Antarctic Sun (2013); Berry & Braun, Civil Engineering (ASCE), 2000 History: Plymouth City Council; History (UK); Papers Past, Evening Post (1913); Explorersweb (2016) Science: IceCube/WIPAC; NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory, South Pole Observatory; NIST (BICEP/Keck) The body: Palinkas & Suedfeld, The Lancet 2008; Max Planck Institute for Human Development (2019); Cabalin et al., Int J Circumpolar Health 2021; Reed et al., J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1990; Sletten et al., J Pineal Research 2022; Kawasaki et al., Sci Rep 2018 Ice: SPICEcore project Pay: Leidos job posting via Built In (2025) Sunset and sunrise dates computed from the solar declination Footage U.S. Air Force / Air National Guard, 109th Airlift Wing (via DVIDS, public domain): "ODF'17" (2017), dvidshub.net/video/567838; "B-Roll ODF 109th AW" (2018), dvidshub.net/video/586685 NASA/Goddard: "The 88-South Antarctic Traverse: B-Roll 1" (2018) "Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station walk-through", centaclaus (CC BY),    • Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station walk-thr...   "Roald Amundsens sydpolsferd", Nasjonalbiblioteket (CC BY),    • Roald Amundsens sydpolsferd   "Operation Deep Freeze I" (US Navy, 1957), PublicResourceOrg (CC BY),    • OPERATION DEEP FREEZE I   "Starlapse at Concordia Station, Antarctica", Paride Legovini (CC BY),    • Starlapse at Concordia Station, Antarctica   "Aurora Over Halley VI", Sam Burrell (CC BY),    • Aurora Over Halley VI (15-06-12)   "Launching weather balloons to monitor ozone at the South Pole", NOAA ESRL (CC BY),    • Launching weather balloons to monitor ozon...   "Time-lapse of night sky in Antarctica", Discovering Antarctica / Kenrick Turner (CC BY 3.0), Wikimedia Commons "The Antarctic Sun", Abe Padilla (CC BY-SA 3.0), Wikimedia Commons "SPWW", Shaw Street (CC BY-SA 3.0), Wikimedia Commons "Atmospheric River for McMurdo Station", CSU/CIRA & NOAA/NESDIS (public domain), Wikimedia Commons Photos (public domain, Wikimedia Commons): Amundsen-Scott station by Chris Danals, NSF (2005); Scott's party at the South Pole, Henry Bowers (1912); R4D "Que Sera Sera" at the South Pole, US Navy (1956) The appearance of U.S. Department of War (DoW) visual information does not imply or constitute DoW endorsement. Map data: Natural Earth (public domain). Music: "Event Horizon", YouTube Audio Library.