Station and Ceremonial Pole, December 2008
[photo by Nick Powell, Antarctic Photo Library]

NEWS

first National Guard aircraft of the season November update...the first LC-130 Herc arrived on 8 November! It brought folks in and took folks out...and also brought lots of baggage, as everyone who came in on small planes couldn't bring all their baggage due to weight limits! Photo at right from Steven Schalau who left on this flight. So now the summer can truly begin.

25 October...lots of news, first from Pole! The station received two Twin Otters on 5 October transiting from Rothera to...not McMurdo, but an Australian station for a medevac. And in addition to freshies (the Clementines were a big hit) they also brought pax! They returned to Pole with the patient on 8 October, en route to McMurdo...and this provided a unique opportunity for the winterover photo! Note that no information has been released publicly about the medevac patient or station involved.

SAHPR continues to be a significant NSF issue, recent details of which cannot be discussed here. On 15 October, NSF issued this Reminder...for 2024-24 Antarctic summer Season. That announcement may have been an attempt to respond to this 10 October letter from the House Science Committee to the NSF director regarding the issue. AARGH! Another issue in the mix for the long-delayed issuance of the RFP for the next Antarctic support contract.

new helicopters arrive at McMurdoMcMurdo got new helicopters! On 2 October, 3 of them showed up, brought in by the new helo contractor, Anchorage based Pathfinder Aviation, which was awarded the contract on 1 November 2023. More info and photos here...

Main body flights began on about 24 September.

4 September...an old ~1969 NYC radio commercial I remember is "Money Talks, Nobody Walks" (that was for Dennison Clothes in Denison NJ)...but "money talks" seems to be the phrase of the moment for USAP...after all, no one can walk to Antarctica. After long delays, the preliminary Request for Proposal (RFP) for the next Antarctic support contract was issued on 26 July. No updates as of now (4 September). But the long delay required that an extension be issued to the current support contractor Leidos. For 18 months through 30 September 2026! That was also issued on 26 July. Leidos had previously expressed reluctance to accept a contract extension, and that they would not be bidding on the next contract.

28 August (sorry, was awhile...blame music festivals)...WINFLY is complete! The last of 4 flights arrived on Monday 26 August after a 5 delay. The earlier flights were more timely...first one was on 16 August...just before the first McM sunrise on the 18th.

Something that came out on 17 May but I was only reminded of it recently...the updated "United States Policy on the Antarctic Region." It was originally issued on the White House website--at the September Antarctic Treaty meeting in Kochi, India it was issued as this PDF, along with this fact sheet. Nothing really new at least for those of us following the US Antarctic Program, but it replaces a 1994 document.

Back to the "money talks" stuff. NSF is facing another significant fiscal 2025 budget cut. Old news, but nothing has happened recently as Congress is in recess until 9 September. Per this 26 June AAAS/Science article, NSF's budget might rise 2% to $9.26 billion, which is less than President Biden's request and well below what NSF got in 2023. And on the Senate side, NSF would get a 5% increase to $9.55 billion, less than half of what Biden requested. (26 July Science article). And of course the funding shrinkage means that research vessels are going away. The Laurence M. Gould's contract has been terminated as of June 2024 its story. And another research vessel, the drill ship JOIDES Explorer, has also lost its NSF funding and is being mothballed (26 August 2024 New York Times article, the JOIDES Resolution website, and an open access 23 July EarthDate article. The vessel has worked in the Southern Ocean.

Healy returning to portLots more transport news...first, regarding vessels. The Polar Star returned to its Seattle home port for the first time since last year, after spending a bunch of time at the Mare Island Dry Dock (Vallejo, CA) for the fourth of its 5-year Service Life Extension Project (SLEP) (26 August dvids news article with photos) and good coverage from Chuck Hill's CG Blog and Yahoo News. Reportedly, the Healy will soon have to begin this 5-year rehab program. Meanwhile, the Polar Sea is currently being towed from its homeport in Seattle to the Mare Island Drydock in Vallejo, CA, in preparation to join the mothball fleet in Suisun Bay, California. The Healy recently aborted an Arctic science cruise after it had headed into the Arctic Ocean via the Bering Strait. It suffered an electrical fire on about 25 July when it was north of Banks Island (NWT, Canada) (9 August gCaptain article). It arrived back in its Seattle homeport on 16 August at 07:59 local time (right, a Coast Guard photo of Healy returning to port; this was shared on 18 August on the Healy Facebook page). The fire had been swiftly extinguished with no personnel casualties, but with lots of pending repairs (16 August Coast Guard press release). And this 23 August Seattle Times article further discusses the Healy woes, the slow progress of the construction and procurement of new icebreakers, and the pending mothballing of the Polar Sea.

Space news! My second ice friend after Christina Hammock Koch (whom I wintered with in 2005--she's heading back to the Moon next year)...Australian polar guide friend Eric Philips is heading to space as part of a 4-person crew on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule...on the unique FRAM2 polar-orbiting mission to study the polar regions. The 4-person crew also includes filmmaker Jannicke Mikkelsen (Svalbard), Rabea Rogge (Norway), and Chun Wang (Malta/Svalbard). This all started when bitcoin billionaire Chun Wang joined one of Eric's Svalbard ski trips! The team has been at SpaceX headquarters this month for training. ExplorersWeb article as well as this 13 August Space.com article shared by Eric.

Out on 13 May...a new draft Master Plan for South Pole Station. Lots of history, general alternatives and discussion, but no specific plans for the next (?) station. They were looking for comments before 13 June. Here's the link for access. I must note that that page title and the URL referring to the "ARCTIC (!) Research Policy Committee Draft Arctic Research Plan" is inaccurate, but the actual referenced document is the correct one. Thanks to McM winter site manager Erin Heard for the heads-up! Lots of information...much more detailed than the South Pole Master Plan prepared by Metcalf &Eddy in the late 80s (which promoted the reuse of the Dome...or even building another one)...but just as vague as for actual plans.

Way too much bad news about USAP has come out in the past week or two...so I'll start with something positive: a couple of great Antarctica podcasts out there. First, there's a brand new one out there, "Antarctica Did That For Me" hosted by Keri Nelson and Cassa Grant, who have a total of 9 seasons on the ice, at all 3 stations. Very upbeat...episodes released in the past month include discussions of the recent solar eclipse visible in the US, Taylor Swift, "Antarctica Sucks,"...well, you get the idea. Laurence M. Gould last departure from Palmer StationAnother one is "Everything Antarctica" hosted by Kiwis Matty Jordan and Jonny Harrison, who have a combined total of 3 winters. Unlike the "Antarctica Did That..." podcast, their episodes are not accessible from their website, but recent episodes include a glaciologist interview, "A Day in the Life," and a Q&A session. Both podcasts are available from Apple Podcasts and other podcast apps.

And now...more of the strange and bad news that has come out in the past week. NSF reminded everyone on 29 April that the Laurence M. Gould would be going off charter on 16 July 2024 due to shifting science priorities and budget constraints. At left, a 11 April photo by Rachel Cook of the last departure of the vessel from Palmer Station.

The draft RFP for the forthcoming Antarctic Support contract, promised by the end of March, still has not been issued. The contract expires on 31 March 2025, it's way too late for a new contract to be awarded and effective by then, and as said previously, the current contractor Leidos has said they will not accept an extension.

But...while checking regularly to see if the RFP is out yet...something else came to light...an RFI looking for a provider of "Transport Aircraft in support of NSF." The ski-equipped C-130s are getting old, and NSF is increasingly frustrated by their frequent maintenance issues and delays. And it's not just the NYANG...remember that the closure of McMurdo this year was delayed over a month by a broken USAF C-17. That RFI on its face would seem to be seeking a contractor to show up and provide a fleet of ski-equipped transport aircraft (think like the McM helicopter support contract). Everyone knows better of course. But who knows...some of the older LC-130s are owned by NSF. And someone suggested ALE which of course operates the tourist camp and Pole. They bring large wheeled transports into Union Glacier (some of which have been Russian operated) but do not presently have large ski-equipped transports.

Yet another dismal report...this in an 8 May article by William Muntean II published by the Center for Strategic & International Studies. The title says it all: "U.S. Operational Retreat from Antarctica." I'll summarize it with that ancient WABC New York radio ad tagline I remember: "Money talks, nobody walks." Or flies or....does science.

Speaking of science at Pole, a major project cancellation was announced: CMB-S4--which would have put various types of telescopes/detectors at Pole and the Atacama Desert in Chile to study cosmic microwave background radiation. The project would have been international involving many institutions. Here is the project website...and the 9 May Science magazine article "NSF halts South Pole megaproject to probe infant cosmos' growth spurt" which you should be able to access.

new berthing building at McM as of April 2024

Other older news from NSF...more clarification on the results of budget cuts. No new Antarctic research projects will be funded. What WASN'T news from NSF...the draft RFP for the new support contract that was supposed to be released by the end of March...wasn't.

Otherwise at McMurdo...construction was suspended this past season for the IT&C building which is still a year away from completion...and more recently work was also suspended for the new VEOC (aka new garage/VMF) in order to concentrate on the new dorm...as lack of bed space has hindered science and support work at McMurdo. At right, a 12 April photo of the new dorm from Michael Christiansen...looks like it needs a couple more seasons to finish.

Enough bad news...here's my coverage of winterover statistics updated for 2024!

Oh...I've updated my coverage of previous Pole trekkings/skiing/ballooning/skydiving back to 1995, as well as info on who might be showing up to the tourist camp next summer here.

It's dark at Pole...there was a successful sunset dinner. Things at McMurdo have been more interesting...the "end of summer" for some folks got postponed for over a month due to the usual suspects--the weather, and a broken airplane. The C-17 that was supposed to come down in March...didn't. And got broke. And mechanics that got sent down to fix it had...their baggage not show up in Christchurch. Eventually the RNZAF got called into service...for a medevac! Its wheeled C-130 showed up at the Phoenix Airfield on Monday 15 April...in addition to the medevaced person and medical support, 12 members of the New Zealand Defence Force and a few of the summer McM folks were flown north. The Herc made another trip later that week to bring more people north...and the C-17 finally showed up on 20 April to bring the rest of the summerovers home.

Well, I WAS going to New Zealand in mid-January, but a case of pneumonia made me cancel that. Meanwhile, yes, Pole closed on 2 March--the latest closing date ever, leaving behind 41 souls for the winter.

Other stuff still to be caught up on here...but breaking, the Coast Guard is planning to buy an icebreaker from a unit of Edison Chouest Offshore--yes, the folks who operate the Gould and the Palmer. Details!

2024 Pole markerYes...there is a new Pole marker (left), created last winter by Cal Neske and unveiled on New Years Day! Details!

Ocean Gladiator and Polar StarAt 1527 on 21 January the Polar Star was escorting the cargo vessel Ocean Gladiator toward the ice pier, as seen in the webcam photo at right.Some older shipping news...on 4 January the Polar Star was visible from McMurdo doing its crunching thing! Meanwhile, the cargo vessel Ocean Gladiator was in Port Hueneme from 14-23 December local time before heading south. It showed up briefly in Lyttelton on 12 January, scheduled to head south later that same day, it should arrive at McMurdo around the 19th. And the research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer is scheduled to spend a few days at McMurdo at the end of February.

the last ice pier?
Oh, where will these vessels dock? Why, the brand new ice pier, of course (left, Michael Christiansen photo). This may well be the last ice pier...next season the mobile pontoon causeway is scheduled...and in 2026 we may see the first use of the new permanent barge pier. The contract to fabricate it was awarded to Gunderson Marine LLC in September for $43.5 million. They are located in NW Portland, OR along the Willamette River, and the barge is to be built in Portland. The contractor is responsible for towing it to McMurdo nominally between January and March 2026. It is intended to remain permanently in the water.


Meanwhile, the nongovernmental ventures continued to plug away...or quit. They had to reach Pole by about 18 January per ALE...and their season is over. Updates!.

3 January 2024...Happy New Year! Blame bluegrass shows and festivals for the lack of updates, but they're done for a bit...until I fly to Christchurch (tourist only) on the 14th. Yes, the new Pole marker, fabricated by Cal Neske, was unveiled on New Years Day, I'll get to that with photos in a day or two. Meanwhile...there have been LOTS of nongovernmental ventures...finally tracked all of them down (I think) and my update is here. Several surprises, including a sudden late entry by Colin O'Brady, who showed up at Union Glacier on the 23rd, set out only to stumble into a crevasse after only 4 miles. Polar Star ice libertyHe clambered out, started again a few days later, only to quickly call it quits. Other travelers...the first South Pole Traverse got back to McMurdo on the 29th. And...a "Heavy Science Traverse" arrived on 24 December...in addition to science cargo for the IceCube Upgrade and other projects, it also brought almost 45,000 gallons of fuel. And a more long-distance traveler...the tanker Acadia Trader left the Long Beach area on Christmas Day and is scheduled to visit Pago Pago, American Samoa, on the 9th. Never heard of the Acadia Trader? Well, it HAS been to McM before when it was known as the Maersk Peary. Apparently the former owner MSC decided it was getting too old, so it is now being operated by Maersk. Another long-distance traveler, the Polar Star, is now breaking ice north of Ross Island. Before New Years they stopped for a bit of ice liberty (photo at right by PA3 Graves from their Facebook page.

As for the Antarctic support contract rebid...on 18 December an announcement was made, including an updated schedule and links to reading material...the draft Request for Procurement should be issued by the end of March 2024.

17 December...it's been awhile so there is lots of news! First...the shipping news. The Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Star left Seattle on 15 November heading for the ice (16 November Coast Guard News release). It stopped in Honolulu for several days over Thanksgiving, departing on the 27th...crossed the Equator and the Date Line on 4 December, spent several days in Sydney on the 12th, and then headed for Hobart. As for the cargo vessel Ocean Gladiator, it was in Ensenada a week ago, next stop Port Hueneme. The NY Air National Guard got a bit of a late start, but as of 9 December there had been 9 LC-130 flights...and the first Antarctic Logistics & Expeditions (ALE) Basler carrying tourists also showed up that week.

South Pole Traverse arrivalVisitors...the first South Pole Traverse (SPoT) arrived on 13 December. As you can see in the photo at left as well as in this one (from ASC) they brought much more than fuel. And a DV group including members of the National Science Board visited on 6 December. Earlier, a team from Arctic Trucks showed up on 2 December with some of their 6x6 Toyota trucksArctic Trucks Hiluxes at Pole (photo at right by Sheryl Seagraves)--they will be supporting seismic work by a Stonybrook team led by Weisen Shen. They'll be installing broadband seismic instruments on the plateau surrounding the Pole. More info...the USAP Science Summary page and a July 2023 TBR Newsmedia article. And, Arctic Trucks is also supporting this private electric vehicle trip from Union Glacier to Pole this season. Earlier, members of the Congressional Appropriations Committee showed up for a brief visit just before Thanksgiving.

The ozone hole this year is described as "modest" in this 20 November Colorado Sun article which features an interview with scientist Stephen Montzka of the NOAA Global Monitoring Lab in Boulder, CO.

As for contracts...the helicopter contract award got announced on 1 November to Pathfinder Aviation, based at Merrill Field in Anchorage. It's a series of one-year extendable contract periods. The outgoing contractor Air Center Helicopters did NOT take all of their helicopters home yet, contrary to what I'd heard. But, still no word on bidding for the next Antarctic support contract as of 16 December.

31 October (happy Halloween!)...Pole winter is over! The first Kenn Borek mobilization flight stopped on 24 October on the way from Rothera to McMurdo...bringing freshies from Punta Arenas of course...and the first official summer flight showed up on the 28th! It brought more than a dozen new folks, and a few of the winterovers headed north. Although there's at least one C-130 in Christchurch, I hear they won't show up at Pole until mid-November.

Freshies from Punta Arenas
Freshies from Punta Arenas (photo from Zeke Mills).
the first Basler from McMurdo
The first Basler from McMurdo (sitrep photo by Luke Haberkern).

14 October...the first mobilization flight may pass through Pole around the 19th, with the official opening flight around the 26th. Speaking of aircraft, McMurdo's first main body flight happened on 7 October, but as the Airbus full of toasty winterovers rolled for take off for Christchurch, it aborted. Mechanical issues. Everyone got off and went back to town. The aircraft and the winterovers got to head north 2 days later.

The dire NSF warnings of budget cuts and subsequent science project cancellations/delays discussed below have translated into terminations for 24 Antarctic Support Contract employees on 6 October.

***

Some older items of interest (other old news is in the archive):

WIRED magazine has a 2002 feature article (archive)on Jerry Marty, Carlton Walker, and the station construction in the July 2002 issue. Read about the settlement problems...why the place wasn't considered fit for occupancy for the 2002 winter.

no way southPole land cargo traverses in the works...in October 2002 NSF flew a specially equipped D8 from Christchurch to McMurdo aboard a C17...this equipment was be used to prepare a road south towards the Leverett Glacier, eventually hopefully to Pole. This is to augment the LC-130 flights for station construction cargo as well as for ICE CUBE and forthcoming science projects. More information...

Another new science project...in 2002 a 10-meter submillimeter telescope (up from 8 meters!) that will search for new galaxy clusters and study dark energy. Plans were to attach it to the DSL (dark sector lab) University of Chicago press release. It was originally scheduled to have a ground shield that is larger than the Dome (built by Temcor, the same company that built the dome...). The telescope was completed in 2006-07, and the huge ground shield was eventually cancelled.

On 8/13/02 NSF had a meeting with potential contractors and suppliers for a possible fiber optic cable to Dome C. Yes, you read that right (news article). Since Pole is way below the horizon for the commercial geosynchronous satellites, one option is to run a cable about 1050 miles to the newly constructed French/Italian Concordia Station at Dome C. (This station is scheduled for full-time occupancy next winter.) The project calls for several years of studies and trials, with the actual stuff involving traverses to get the cable to Pole and Dome C as well as along the route.

Back in mid March 2002 two other iceberg events happened. First, there was another piece of the Thwaites Ice Tongue (75°S-108°W) about 2100 square miles (Guardian article and archived NOAA press release) which got designated B22. And then there was the collapse of another hunk of the Larsen ice shelf east of the Antarctic Peninsula. The Larsen Ice Shelf B disintegrated within the past couple of months, as evidenced by archived photos and animations from the NSIDC in Boulder, which also has links to other coverage. The BBC has an excellent article about both events.

The venerable New South Polar Times mailing list moved to a home on Yahoo, thanks to 2001 w/o science tech Andrea Grant. There have been no posts in the past few years, but the archived posts are here.

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) had a major feature on the Pole construction in their December 2000 magazine, including articles by Frank Brier and Jerry Marty. That section is no longer online, although I did archive the original article by Dennis Berry and Forrest Braun (BBFM Engineers, Anchorage) which features the details of foundation design and the jacking systems.

Here is the link to my 1999 Doc Jerri medevac coverage. The spectacular April 2001 medevac flight to Pole is covered here. And my archive of other news, links to press releases, and older media coverage is here.

Other Antarctic news sites...

Explorersweb and its newer offshoot Pythom have been covering exploration news ever since the early 2000's. The sites were originally created by Tom and Tina Sjogren, the "Wearable" expedition folks that trekked to Pole in 2001-02. During the past year the sites have been relaunched...at present (July 2018) it appears that the Pythom.com site is covering primarily space and science news, while Explorers Web continues to cover climbing, water, and polar expeditions, although one needs to use the search bar to locate specific coverage. The Sjogrens are still involved with the site.

Brendon Grunewald's old 70 South news site later evolved into the Polar Conservation Organisation , but that site also seems to have disappeared.

The Antarctic Sun is extremely prolific of late. The editor through July 2015 was friend Peter Rejcek, a 2004 Polie winterover.. He's currently a traveling freelancer; some of his work can be found on singularityhub. The current editor, also a friend, is Michael Lucibella. Sun archives run back to 1996-97, the final year when the McMurdo newspaper was a Navy publication, the Antarctic Sun Times. Before then in the old days it went by other names....here is that story.

 NZ Antarctic Philately pages by Steven McLachlan . The news page features many current events through 2006, including many pictures from the various private expeditions at Pole. He also has information on the 99-00 cruises of the Polar Duke south of NZ in support of German and Italian science projects, 98-99 construction of the new base at Dome C...

The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) published biweekly newsletters on NGA (private) expeditions, cruises and tourist events. Unfortunately this was discontinued in May 2003, and the archives are no longer available. But they do feature a separate news page for the official Australian program.

The NSF Polar Programs (PLR) page contains links and a search engine. Most recent press releases are also here, scroll to the bottom.

The rest of the story... can now be read online or offline in the newsletter of the Antarctican Society. Highly recommended. Here is the latest contact info as well as the historical background about the group.

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Weather information...  has been moved to a separate page.

About the satellites...has also been moved to a separate page.

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SPORTS (?!)

The 2019 Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM XLII) was held in Prague, Czech Republic, between 1-11 July. Once again I saw absolutely NO American media coverage...but that was not the case in Australia. This is because the Chinese delegation proposed a "code of conduct" for their Kunlun Station at Dome A...in the midst of Australia's claim. It was rejected, as was a 2014 effort to create an ASMA there. Here's the ABC News (Australia) article) about this, the discussion report about the Chinese request, China's proposed code of conduct text, and a map of the proposed area, which interestingly resembled the Pole ASMA in both size and nomenclature. Of course, Kunlun (unlike Pole) doesn't get any NGO visitors--skiers, trekkers, tourists, pilots, etc. I always look for a Russian report about the Lake Vostok drilling project, but there have been no reports in recent years, although Russia did propose the construction of new winterover station facilities. The 2020 meeting was to be held 25 May-4 June in Helsinki, Finland, but the COVID-19 pandemic caused it to be canceled. The 2021 meeting is still scheduled to be held in Paris on 14-24 June 2021, pandemic permitting. Here is the official Treaty home page. From there you can navigate to the final reports, or you can search the various meeting papers by selecting the "Meeting From/To" and/or the submitting nations/delegations.

Nowadays there are a number of commercial marathon/ultramarathon ventures in the Antarctic...most commonly sought out by people who want to complete a marathon on all seven continents. I've updated these listings in July 2022.

  • The oldest such event--the Antarctica Marathon--(archived page) is actually held on King George Island, just off the Antarctic Peninsula, and participants get there by ship from Buenos Aires. For 2023 this was actually a 2-week package event between 16 and 28 March, including several days in Buenos Aires and an Antarctic Peninsula cruise after the race, which happens on 22 March. The first such event was on 28 January 1995; the 2018 event happened on 16 and 17 March. There were 112 marathon finishers for two separate races depending on vessel arrival; the winner was Todd Lubas with a time of 3:07. The fastest woman was Wendi Campbell with a time of 3:58 (all results). There were also 83 half marathon participants including 2 DNFs. In 2019 it was scheduled for 17 and 18 March...there were actually two separate vessels bringing contestants from Ushuaia to KGI for two separate races on those dates. It is sold out for 2023 and 2024 although there is a waitlist. Each trip includes 3 days in Buenos Aires before the race as well other exploration of the eastern Antarctic Peninsula after the race. The course starts and ends at Bellingshausen Station (the Russian base) and passes several other bases. It is organized by Marathon Tours & Travel in Boston; event registration includes a cruise ship voyage from Ushuaia--the event is sold out for 2019 and 2020, although they are accepting waiting list entries. The entry fee is only $250, but the rest of the trip costs between $7990 and $10,490 per person double occupancy (ex Buenos Aires) (there are no single occupancy cabins).

  • At Union Glacier (UG), the eighteenth Antarctic Ice Marathon, will held on 13 December (UG time/UTC-3) 2022. In 2021 There were a total of 56 competitors in the various events, including the marathon, half marathon and 10k. The men's marathon winner was Grzegorz Boguna from Latvia with a time of 3:53:02, and the woman winner, Evua Reine from the Czech Republic, finished in 4:06:11. Richard Donovan, the race director, was the winner of the first such event, the only NGO marathon held at Pole, in January 2002). The 2022 marathon or half could be booked for a mere $19,500 ex PA. This event has been held annually at PH/UG annually beginning in January 2006...but there actually have been seventeen such events staged and/or supported by ANI/ALE--(skipping the 2020 pandemic year)--the first one was staged to finish at Pole on 21 January 2002...there were five finishers in that event, and no small amount of controversy (my coverage). The controversy resulted in a hiatus in what had been planned to be an annual event. In 2011, organizer Richard Donovan participated, with a 100 mile run in 24:35:02, and he completed the 100k in 2017 with a time of 21:05:34.

  • Another event, also on King George Island, is the ninth White Continent Marathon (with a half-marathon and 50k), which has happened in January between 2013 and 2020, with a pandemic hiatus. Sponsored by Minneapolis-based Marathon Adventures, it includes return flights between PA and KGI and a day of camping on KGI either before or after the race. For 2023, participants are to gather in PA by 28 January, with the KGI race tentatively scheduled for between 1 and 4 February, flight weather dependent. The event also includes participation in a Punta Arenas marathon. The price starts at $10,950 double occupancy ex PA, including 8 PA hotel nights, camping and meals in Antarctica, some meals in PA, and a Torres Del Paine tour. The 2020 events happened on 29 January--the marathon winners were Aleksandra Rzeszutko, age 41 (F) from Warsaw, Poland, with a time of 5:43:31; and Brendan Watkins, age 44 (M) from Redwood City, CA, with a time of 3:56:43. There were 44 marathon participants as well as 4 participants in the 50k and 9 in the half marathon (two of which were from Frei Base). For the inaugural of this event in 2013, the PA marathon turned out to be the day before the flight to KGI, and things got interesting on the ice--the race was on 27 February, or at least most of it. Because of deteriorating weather on KGI, the marathon was cut short after only 17 runners had finished because "the pilot wanted to leave" (archived blog post by participant and SERIOUS runner Joseph Coureur). After runners were given an opportunity to complete their remaining distance immediately after arriving back in PA, there were a total of 44 marathon finishers, including 9-year-old Nikolas Toocheck of Pennsylvania Runners World coverage). The winner was 31-year-old Steve Schaefer of Philadelphia (there were also 21 half-marathon finishers).

  • Another one out there is the "Last Desert" ship-based ultra; this is one of the 4 Deserts 250 km events. Their first event was the first "Gobi March" in 2003; the first "Last Desert" (Antarctica) event was in 2006 when 15 runners completed the first ever 100-mile (160 km) race on King George Island, Deception Island, and at Esperanza, the Argentine base located on Hope Bay at the north end of the Antarctic Peninsula. Since then the event has a total of 250 km at six different sites around the Peninsula, selected based on weather conditions. The Antarctic event happened again in 2007, 2008, and every other year since then except for 2020. In November 2016 the event had 61 participants. That year there were six planned stages in different locations--each is a loop of varying length that runners had to complete as many times as they could under the time limit (or until the stage was ended due to weather). Oh, all competitors have to carry all of their food, camping gear, etc. (except water) for the entire race. In past races, the winning rank was determined on how early one completes 250 km on the various stages. In 2018 The first stage was a 14km loop with 2 7km sections on King George Island on 26 November; stage 2 the next day was a 3 km circuit on Danco Island; Stage 3 the following day was a 1.5km loop at Paradise Bay on the continent; stage 4 was a 2.4 km course at Damoy Point at the Port Lockroy harbor on 29 November. The 5th stage which turnd out to be the last one was a 3.1 km loop at Mikkelsen Harbor on Trinity Island. In the last race in 2018, there were 51 participants and 49 finishers; the winner was Ho Chung Wong, age 31 from Hong Kong. More links--the official 2018 news before things started, and the blogs of some of the participants. Oh, one other thing...potential participants must have first completed two of the three other 4 Deserts events (the Atacama Crossing (Chile), the Gobi March (China/Mongolia), and the Sahara Race (Namibia) before being permitted/invited to participate in the Antarctic events. In the last race in 2018, there were 51 participants and 49 finishers; the winner was Ho Chung Wong, age 31 from Hong Kong who was the only one to achieve more than 250km. Ex Ushuaia cost for 2022 is $12,900.

  • A new promotion in 2015 was the Antarctic portion of the Triple 7 Quest--which actually promised seven marathons on seven continents in seven days (!). Needless to say, Mother Antarctica intervened...their flight to the KGI marathon site on 14 February boomeranged 20 minutes before landing, and the participants didn't make it there until the 16th...the race was the next day. I haven't seen any results, but one of the participants, Kim Pursley of northern Maryland, was featured in this Baltimore Sun article. In 2017 the package was a trip to seven marathons on seven continents in January and February. In 2018 they expanded it to "8 marathons/8 continents/8 days" by adding Zealandia (aka New Zealand and its mostly submerged "continent") to the mix. The 2019 series started in Auckland on 8 January and ends up on KGI...that race was actually also the White Continent Marathon (and half marathon) on 15 January mentioned above. The other races are also all separate races (marathon and half-marathon options) organized by/in the various host cities. Registration is $15,995 which includes hotels and Antarctic flights but no other airfare. This was on hiatus for the pandemic but after the 2020 event it is back for January 2023, beginning in Auckland on 24 January and proceeding to Perth, Singapore, Cairo, Amsterdam, New York, Punta Arenas, and King George Island. All of the races are locally organized open events--the KGI race is also the 10th Annual White Continent Marathon (and half marathon) mentioned above. Unfortunately, the web site doesn't include any information on previous participants or winners. Price for all 8 events is $15,995; 7 events is $14, 995--this includes race fees, accommodations, ground transportation, some food, but no flights except for to and from Antarctica.

  • After seeing this 19 January 2017 Washington Post article, I've learned that there's yet another "7 marathons in 7 days" package venture out there--the World Marathon Challenge. It is back post-COVID in 2022...the races happen at Novo, Cape Town, Perth, Dubai, Madrid, Fortaleza (Brazil) and Miami between 25 and 31 October 2022. Participants need to be in Cape Town by the 22nd. The cost of €39,900 includes all flights except to Cape Town and from Miami, and some food and accommodations. It first happened in January 2015, with 12 full and half marathon participants. By 2018 there were 50 full, half, and wheelchair marathon participants. The 2018 male winner was Irishman Gary Thornton with a total time of 22:26:16, and the female winner was an American, Becca Pizzi, with a total time of 28:32:35. The 2019 event started with the Antarctic marathon at Novo on 30 January...with races at Cape Town, Perth, Dubai, Lisbon, Cartagena, and Miami on the next six days. The 2019 price was €36,000.

  • The apparently defunct Maraton Antartica (archived site), organized by a Chilean company, was to be its second year in 2014. That event was to have been on 28 February, but apparently it didn't happen, nor, apparently, did the one scheduled for 1 March 2015, which still appears on the website. It was also to be on KGI, including full and half marathons and a 10k--the next one is on 1 March 2015. The announced price was US$3,400 ex PA, including the flight to KGI, the same-day race, and a same-day return to PA. They were planning on a maximum of 60 registrants; as of late November there were only 5. In 2013 there were about 20 participants in the 3 events, most of whom were from Chile (there were 2 Australians, no North Americans). That race was on 28 February, the day after the aborted White Continent Marathon...and it was also cut short by weather, with no marathon finisher.

As for nongovernmental visitors to Pole, the 2011-12 season was the biggest ever for Pole, as it had been the centennial year of Amundsen's and Scott's arrival at what has been called an "awful place." But folks continue to show up. There are two principal tourist operators--flights from Punta Arenas to Union Glacier and beyond are operated by Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions (ALE) (which has now fully assimilated Adventure Network International/ANI). ALE continues to be actively booking tourists. The other operation is based out of the airstrip at Novo (Novolazarevskaya), a Russian base which is served by flights from Cape Town. It has been operated by Antarctic Logistics Centre International (ALCI), which did not in itself offer tour services, but rather worked with other tour agencies such as White Desert, which has established a tourist destination "Whichaway Camp" near Novo (no, nowhere near the Whichaway Nunataks) with penguin colonies and mountains nearby. TAC also operates its "Oasis" guesthouse--the only hard-roofed commercial base on the Antarctic continent, about 10 miles from Novo at Schirmacher Oasis. TAC does not do bookings directly...one option for a stay at the Oasis Guesthouse is offered by Icetrek...€30,000 ex Cape Town. Novo is a 3000m blue ice runway originally built by ANI near the Russian Novolazarevskaya base, in the past it was known as Blue One, and on some maps you may see it designated as "White Desert." Perhaps the most serious travel agent booking Pole trips is the Chicago-based company Polar Explorers...they are booking trips to Pole via PA/Union Glacier starting at around US$51,250 ex PA.

My updated records of the nongovernmental expeditions (skiers/hikers/kiters/drivers/sledders etc...) back to 2000 is here. Remember, this website is the only one that has been continuously covering them since 1999 so I have all the archived links.

For now, go here for the 1999-2000 ventures. Note that the 1999-2000 Russian "Millennium Expedition" (skydiving/ballooning) is covered on a separate page.

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