Week 5 at the Pole

Close-up of winterover’s face covered by mask and googles, which are reflecting the parka-wearing photographer and the sun behind him.
Moreno Baricevic, IceCube/NSF

Last week, after quite a few delays, the last 25 members of the South Pole winter crew arrived. It is not typical for half of the crew to arrive so late in the season, but international Covid precautions among other things have complicated the logistics of preparations and travel. The station will be closing soon enough, so there were also goodbyes shared this week, as the summer workers have begun departing. It was a pretty busy week for IceCube’s winterovers, including some unexpected detector issues to attend to. They also performed software maintenance and testing tasks, took periodic inclinometer measurements, and had some outdoor adventures as well.

Close-up on a mass of orange cables connected to computer hub.
Moreno Baricevic, IceCube/NSF