[rdl]

Doing satellite tech/eng stuff overwinter in Antarctica is one of my dream jobs (along with obviously doing the same thing for Mars, which would be even better).

9 months isn't that long, and I can't imagine wanting to spend all the time drunk, rather than learning about all the interesting science going on. Plus, obviously, Internet.

[pc86]

In fairness though, and this is mentioned briefly in the article, you'd be there to do science. Many of the people passing out in a bar alone by 8pm are doing physical labor and not interested in or qualified for the science.

[rdl]

I'd be support staff (running the satellite network, or maybe other IT stuff). That falls in the "support" vs. "beaker" camp. I just happen to also like science more than most forklift operators or electricians do, I think.

[seszett]

I've been on Kerguelen island (which isn't quite Antarctica, but not that far either, and rather isolated too with four or five ship passages per year).

You wouldn't "fall in the support vs. beaker camp", you would be firmly in the beaker camp. It's more of a "somewhat intellectual" vs. "manual" camp (also vs. "military" in our case, but it might not be the same for US stations). I was right between beakers and support myself, by the way.

In our case, alcoholism was a problem for some of the manual labourers, but it never went as far as what I read from this article (I didn't read everything though), probably in part because they had more restrictions on alcohol consumption than the others, and because they were only there for shorter (three-six months depending on available transportation) missions, while most everyone else have 12-14 months missions.

[raverbashing]

Yes, but

- You can't go see a movie at the cinema

- There's no new bars in town

- You can't go for a walk, ride a bike, go to the gym, go shopping, etc

- There's nobody besides that (small) group of researchers. People you'll have to see/tolerate every single day.

- Food is pretty much the same always

Really? That's not for me

[grecy]

A great friend of mine did a few summers and winters at McMurdo as support staff.

> You can't go see a movie at the cinema

There are tons of DVDs and projectors around, never mind laptops.

> You can't go for a walk, ride a bike, go to the gym, go shopping, etc

My friend would cross-country ski over to some other countries' base (China, I think) a few times a week, snowshoe regularly, and of course there is always body weight exercises for the gym component. She would also go out with people and practice their climbing/rescue skills in crevasses.

> Food is pretty much the same always

She said it was perfectly fine, tons of vegetables.

All-in-all she absolutely loved it, and I'm still trying to find a way to get there.

[seszett]

> tons of vegetables

Wow really? On Kerguelen island vegetables were a rarity. We had fresh fruit for one, two weeks after a resupply (from Reunion island, they were actually among the best fruit I have ever had, and not only because they were the first after and before several months of no fruit at all) but apart from that, fruits vegetables were most of the time limited to potatoes, onions and increasingly bad apples and oranges (and that's when they didn't mistakenly put the fruits and vegetables in the -20°C storage). Really, I'm not sure how they could keep vegetables much better than we could.

(Delicious fresh meat and fish all year round though, but that's because we were not in a place as extreme as Antarctica)

Otherwise, I had much the same experience, with a dedicated "cinema" actually - just a building with a rather good projector and a computer with large storage.

But some people simply cannot imagine life outside the full society with all the amenities their are used too. It's fine, and much better for everyone if they already know it before leaving.

EDIT: oh right, "a few summers". Summers have all kind of things available that you really miss in winter. Our chef actually tried to limit the amount of good things he'd cook during the summer so the overwintering personnel would have it rather than those who were there for just a few months.

[grecy]

Summers and winters.

I'm pretty sure all the vegetables were frozen, but IMO that's still fine.

[southpolesteve]

The food at the South Pole was actually quite good. On par or better than most local dinner food I can get around my house. Our luck with veggies was not so good. Depends a lot of flights, weather, timing, etc.

[ctrager]

Have you read any Kim Stanley Robinson? He's written novels set in Antarctica and Mars. I love the "Red Mars" triology.