The South Pole station has closed for the winter, as the last plane carrying passengers leaves the Pole.
It’s still light outside, but winter at the South Pole is fast approaching, and departures last week

well outnumbered the arrivals.
It takes a lot of fuel to keep things operating all year long at the South Pole, and all that fuel must be transported to this remote locale.
If you want to take inventory of a shipping container’s contents, you have to get inside first, and that can mean shoveling snow first.
It doesn’t snow much at the South Pole but there is lots of snow that accumulates there, and sometimes it needs to be moved.
The first full week of the year was a busy one! So much going on… The IceCube detector was well behaved, but there were still several maintenance items to take care of.
The South Pole has its traditions for ringing in the new year, which includes a ceremony at the geographic pole to set a new pole marker into place.
The “Race Around the World” is a fun run around the South Pole that crosses through all the world’s time zones.
The holiday season is often a busy time of year for many people, and things are no different at the South Pole.
It was a fairly busy week at the Pole. IceCube’s new winterovers made their first IceTop snow measurements, an outdoor task that requires daylight to perform.