Week 4 at the Pole

Person in red parka shoveling snow outside the doors of a shipping container.
Martin Wolf, IceCube/NSF

If you want to take inventory of a shipping container’s contents, you have to get inside first.  And if your container is at the South Pole, that can mean moving a whole lot of snow.  As we’ve said before, for a place that’s essentially a winter desert, there’s a lot of snow accumulation at the South Pole.  Last week, the winterovers were also busy giving a tour of the IceCube Lab and doing some weekly ERT training. On the social side, they enjoyed their colleagues’ ukulele session and participated in the 3rd annual South Pole head weighing contest.  That’s right—a contest that involves large buckets and containers of water, and dunking heads in to determine weight through water displacement. Beard sizes (and density!) were taken into account.

Six people playing ukuleles and singing.
Geoffrey Chen, SPT/NSF
Someone pouring water from clear pitcher into large container, with partial view of another person’s face as they watch.
Josh Veitch-Michaelis, IceCube/NSF
Water dripping from someone’s head who was just dunked into container of water.
Josh Veitch-Michaelis, IceCube/NSF