So anyway, it wasn’t until I had been down here a little while that I found out that there is a network of ice tunnels, deep under South Pole Station, bringing water and waste into and out of the depths of the ice.
Other than the lighting and the insulated piping, there’s not a whole lot down there. Except for the shrines. There are a number of creepy shrines cut into the sides of the ice, deep down where no one goes. The ambient temperature is below -60°F, so cold in fact that the little thermometer I keep on my jacket (its lowest temperature is -20, so it’s meant to tell me when it’s warm out. XD ) broke because it was too cold! So people rarely go down there.
Long view down one of the main tunnels.
Chris, one of the Raytheon network engineers, standing amidst the ice crystals.
Chris taking some photos amongst the ice stalactites.
End of the line for us and the tunneling team!
Me in the famous old station dome! It’s used for food storage now.
Me in one of the tunnels.
Entry to the old dome from the outside.
New hole drilled deep into the ice - called a Rod Well, it will provide fresh water for the station by cycling warm water down into it.
Looking up one of the frozen tunnel escape hatches.
Alarm panel in the old Skylab laboratory.
Piston removed from one of the 1MW station power generators.
South Pole Station gravity well experiment. Not sure how it works, I suppose I should have asked the physicist I was exploring with. X D
The physicist climbs down into a tunnel.
A small shrine, seemingly dedicated to popcorn garlands… o.0
One of the creepier shrines, a frozen pig’s head dedicated to the first new station Winter Over crew.
A hardhat - not sure if it’s dedicated to an injured or deceased crew member.
The coolest shrine! A dried up sturgeon and some caviar! The full story can be viewed (kind of) in the next image.
Story telling how the sturgeon got there, as a gift from the Russians!
A shrine for the Kiwi winter overs.
A shrine for some visiting firemen from Palmer Station.
Okay… it’s a partial video because it got clipped while uploading… but yeah. It’s a video from the ice tunnel. You wouldn’t BELIEVE how hard it is to get video out of here.