The Tent: A John Miller Photo from South Pole, Antarctica

Our USAP pen pal John Miller sent us this striking photo of the famous tent from Antarctica. It is an exact replica of the tent used in 1912 by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen; he left this tent and an note inside as evidence that he was the first human being to reach the South Pole. Later the English explorer Robert Falcon Scott found the tent and stayed in it. But Scott and his team perished on the Ice from starvation and extreme cold.

The actual Amundsen-Scott tent, the USAP believes, is still at the South Pole somewhere, hidden under the ice. No one has found it yet. But some of the members of the US Antarctic Program have set up the replica (see photo) and John Miller might attempt to re-create history soon by spending a night in the tent.

Wow! What an amazing story!

Here is some of what John Miller wrote to us about the tent: " I’m hoping to go out to [the] old pole in the next couple of weeks now that the sun is up. I also am hoping to bite the bullet and spend the night in the Amundsen/Scott tent that is set up next to the geographic marker. Unfortunately my camcorder broke so I will have to rely on still photos for both."

In addition to the extreme cold, John points out another South Pole phenomenon and danger: "I spent three hours outside clearing snow from our summer shop Saturday morning, the sun was up and barely showing through some clouds; winds were about 15 knots which meant a wind chill of about -110, and I was actually very comfortable, being protected from the wind behind the shop, where the temperature was around -70. I didn’t think I really worked that hard until the next day when I woke up very sore from head to toe. And I work out 4 times a week.
Lately I have really begun to notice the effect that living at altitude will have on your short term memory. If I am on a ladder and I take a measurement for something, I will forget what it was by the time I climb down unless I write it down. I can walk across the room to get something and forget what it was in the few seconds it takes to get where I was going. Very frustrating."

We can only imagine how difficult it is being at the South Pole. But it is very rewarding for science, and the men and women of the USAP are really serving America well. Our hats go off to all the brave men and women of the United States Antarctic Program from our SVDP-ALC school in New Orleans.

Incidently, I also discussed our Antarctica pen pal program in an article which was just published in September in the literacy magazine called the Change Agent from Boston, Massachusetts. The article is about climate change (which is one of the subjects studied at South Pole) and is called "Lakeview, New Orleans, Antarctica, Our Earth." The link to Change Agent is on our links column at left on this blog.

Finally, John wished us all well after our recent experiences and evacuations with Hurricane Gustav. He wrote: "I hope and pray that all my friends in New Orleans are back at home and safe from any more of this season's hurricanes."

Thanks again, John and all our friends in Antarctica, for the well wishes and the great Antarctica updates.

-- Adrian