A Beginner's Guide to Surviving Antarctica
During the Austral Summer season of 2019-2020, I spent five months working as a chef at McMurdo station, the largest research base on the Antarctic continent. There is nothing that could ever compare to living in one of the most isolated and inhospitable places on earth. The community of people that have lived here is vast and are a great resource for tips and suggestions, but sometimes there are things you would never think of asking.
**PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE TIPS ONLY APPLY TO LIFE AT MCMURDO DURING THE SUMMER SEASON AND THAT THINGS MAY BE DIFFERENT AT OTHER STATIONS AND/OR DURING THE WINTER SEASON**
On your flight down from New Zealand to McMurdo (also known as your "ice flight”), you are strictly limited to 85 pounds of checked luggage. Although this does seem like a lot, the official “guide” (for lack of a better word) that you are given by the program suggests packing a bunch of clothing that will add a lot of weight to your load.
My first suggestion is to NOT make the same mistake I made when choosing the type of bag you take with you. On my trip down to the ice, I brought my two large Away bags. I thought it would be wise to bring them due to their durability and ruggedness, but the hard plastic shells are heavy and both bags weigh a combined 22 pounds while empty. My suggestion is to invest in large, heavy duty duffel bags. They are significantly lighter and are much easier to compact down and store in your room once you unpack at McMurdo.
On that note, make sure not to under-pack. In order to conserve weight I did not bring shampoo or body wash with the plan of buying both of those things at the station store upon my arrival.
The station store does provide rudimentary toiletries, your options are extremely limited. No body wash to be found here, only bars of soap and soap savers are in limited supply. The store ran out of those less than a month into the summer season.
Your shampoo selection is really limited too. I am a Head & Shoulder’s guy back home and fortunately the station store has that in ample supply, but if you are someone that likes those high end shampoos you may want to bring some with you, or you can mail it to yourself…that being said…
A lot of people suggest mailing yourself stuff to cut down on the weight of your luggage. The mail system down there is a bit of a gamble, not because it won’t get there, but it just may not get there until you’re getting ready to leave or, even worse, already gone.
Package mail is considered fairly low priority, and since C-17s can only carry so much weight, mail is often bumped off in favor of cargo that is considered “mission essential.” Mail can begin piling up in Christchurch and the whole system gets backlogged meaning your package can be stuck for weeks or even months as it waits its turn in line.
The situation becomes even more dire from mid-December through late-January. As the temperatures consistently stay in the 30s or more, the runway at Phoenix, the primary airfield at McMurdo, becomes too soft to support the weight of the massive C-17s. As a result, the only flights going in and out are on the much smaller, ski-mounted LC-130s. During this “gap” in C-17 flights, all package mail deliveries halt completely.
On the other hand, sending package mail back to the real world tends to be pretty fast. I mailed some stuff back home and it got all the way to Oregon in less than a week so feel free to buy some souvenirs from the station store and send them to family and friends.
Flat mail is very reliable and fast so if you have to have anything mailed to you (like any of your medications), make sure to put it in a flat envelope of some kind. Even if it’s bulky it will still get treated as flat mail and taken down to the ice much faster.
There is a good amount to do while down at McMurdo: you can hike one of the numerous trails (as they slowly come online throughout the season), you can drink, work out, drink, eat late at night, and drink. If you need a break from all that, you should definitely consider bringing alternate forms of entertainment with you.
Although there are TVs in almost every dorm room and lounge, the few channels offered by the Armed Forces Network (AFN) don’t offer much in terms of content other than a news channel and a sports channel among others. If you like watching TV shows and movies, I highly suggest you bring an external hard drive full of things you would wanna watch.
It is really common at McMurdo for people to swap hard drives to trade music, movies, and more so make sure you don’t have anything on there you may not want to share with others. (i.e. financial records or medical records). This system of sharing media is really extensive. With people consistently coming down from the real world, many of them bring newly released shows like “The Mandalorian” and the fourth season of “Rick and Morty.”
The rooms in McMurdo are drab and cold and I’m not talking about the temperature. With hundreds of identical rooms with identical furniture and identical colored walls it can be hard to ever feel at home in the place you’re going to be sleeping in for several months.
One way to make your room more cozy is to bring supplies to decorate your room. You can do what I did and bring something small like a few pictures of your loved ones or you can go big and completely deck out your room with lights and colorful sheets and things to hang on your walls. The beauty is that as long as you don’t do anything irreversible to the room, you can do whatever you want with the interior design.
People at McMurdo tend to segregate themselves within their departments. It’s easy to make friends with the people that you work with directly, but making connections with a people from across the base is a great way be invited to some pretty fun and unique experiences.
By making friends outside my department I was able to do things like tour the LC-130s, sing on stage at the yearly music festival “Ice Stock,” grill outside by the dock, and so much more. Knowing the right person can come with some pretty good perks and people are more likely to do you favors.
Working at McMurdo can suck at times. Doing the same thing day in and day out for 10 - 12 hours a day, five or six days a week can really take a toll on your morale and your psyche. The best way to combat the monotony of your everyday routine is to do small things that bring a smile to your face.
One of McMurdoans favorite pass times is to party and drink copious amounts of alcohol, I know I did my fair share of both, but its crucial to know your limits. Understandably, the alcohol policy at McMurdo is very strict. Being in such a remote part of the world, safety is the number one priority at all times, therefore there is a zero tolerance policy for having any level of intoxication when you’re working.
Alcohol is readily available throughout the station at either one of the two bars and even at the station store. Everyone on base is allotted a ration of one bottle of liquor A WEEK and giving your ration to someone who already used their is a big no-no.
While your are encouraged to have fun on your personal time, exhibiting any kind of poor judgment while under the influence will also be dealt with severely. When making your plans for a night at Gallagher’s or Southern, make sure to implement a buddy system to make sure you go to sleep in your own bed that night. Falling asleep in a public area (lounges, galley, etc) while under the influence is also grounds for immediate firing.
Keeping your morale up is important when you’re so far away from home, your friends, and your family. Despite the numerous things to do close to the station, its important to keep from falling into monotony. Fortunately, the Recreation Department has numerous excursions outside of McMurdo.
