[MiguelVieira]

Whoa I had no idea:

"To reduce the cost and increase the efficiency and reliability of transporting fuel and materials to South Pole Station, USAP established an overland traverse route from McMurdo Station to the South Pole. The traverse route is approximately 1,030 miles long and took several years of route-finding to prove and to mitigate areas with crevassing. This route is traveled by the South Pole Traverse (SPoT), a tractor train that hauls supplies and fuel using specialized sleds. SPoT tractors ascend more than 9,300 feet along the route to Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. On average, it takes 52 days for the round trip from McMurdo to Pole and back."

https://www.southpole.aq/activities/station-logistics.html

[WJW]

I am perversely drawn to applying to this job, even though I know it is at least 500% more shitty than what I currently do.

[AceJohnny2]

> ascend more than 9,300 feet

Ah yes, the Mountains of Madness pass.

(ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_the_Mountains_of_Madness)

[dredmorbius]

My first thought was of the heavy swings used by Camp Century in the 1960s to haul construction materials and supplies to that project.

Except that MMS to AMS is seven times the distance.

And those SPoT tractor trains are averaging less than 3 kph / 2 mph for the round trip.

[honkycat]

Reading this I am picturing a blowing blizzard and massive tractors crawling over the barren landscape. INTENSE!

[earthscienceman]

It's both intense and the most boring thing you could imagine. Picture day after day in a tractor traveling across a white landscape with another tractor in front and another tractor behind. I have only traveled such things by snowmobile, but I've befriended a few of the traverse folks in Greenland and Antarctica and they described it as "intensely exhilarating and extremely boring".

[MagicMoonlight]

One of those classic stressful but boring jobs. Nothing around you for a thousand miles and it takes 50 days but at any point you could fall into a hole and die.