The 2025 Pole Marker

This Pole marker was unveiled at noon on New Years Day 2025...Below, the documentation (KZ photo).

The shrouded marker at the beginning of the
ceremony. Andrea Dixon presided (IB).

Starting to unwrap. The unwrapping was being done
by winter NOAA tech/SSL Ian Crocker (IB).

Start of the reveal (IB).

And there it is! (IB)

Another look at the unveiling (MR).

A closer look (IB).

Andrea Dixon with the old retired marker...wihch would
soon find a home in the display case. (IB)

After the unveiling there was a small renewing of vows ceremony for the
ARFF fire captain and his wife...with flowers from the growth chamber.
Presiding was Josiah Heiser (MR).

The marker depicts the four "blue buildings" devoted to science...clockwise from one o'clock in the above photo: the Martin A. Pomerantz Observatory (MAPO) with attached telescope; the IceCube Laboratory with its two towers which provide for cable entry from the thousands of neutrino detectors; The Atmospheric Research Laboratory (ARO) occupied by NOAA, and the Dark Sector Laboratory (DSL) and attached South Pole Telescope (SPT).

From the Pole marker designer: "I talked to several people around station throughout the season for ideas. Two things that came up often was representing the science community and the elevator issues from the early season. The brass gear is similar to the components that failed in the elevator. The aluminum outer ring has 41 grooves representing each individual that made our winter. Each science building surrounding the central pole represents the purpose of us being down there and supporting the science . And the compass/star engraved in the gear was left for the viewer imagination. The original plan was to polish the aluminum but due to time constraints we decided to add texture and contrast with sandblasting. Also we did this for a different look compared to other pole markers from the past."

A side view of the marker, with the base stand that will be with
the marker in the display case (KZ}.

A view showing the winterover crew names on the base stand (KZ).

Another closeup of the marker in place (TM).

The marker and the Pole sign (TM).

The marker was designed and fabricated by SPT winterover Kevin Zagorski and utilities technician Luke Noel, seen in Kevin's photo above before Noel flew out. (thanks for all the info Kevin). Kevin's other photos here are marked (KZ). The unveiling photos are by IceCube winterover Ilya Bodo (IB) and sumer firefighter Michael Rayne (MR). The two photos near the bottom are from Timmy Mullen (TM) who made two trips to Pole this summer as part of the South Pole Traverse (SPoT). The input from the designer is thanks to Sheryl Seagraves.