Life as a ‘Polie’ at the South Pole: It’s Cold But is it Cool?

Travel Blog  •  Joanna Kakissis  •  03.24.08 | 12:20 PM ET

imageSome people think so. NPR visited the community of American scientists and staff who spend months at a time working at the South Pole Research Center. The “Polies,” as they call themselves, live a Spartan life in this hyper-cold landscape, where the temperatures can reach -50 degrees wind chill. They live in tiny, door-less rooms in long Quonset tents. Bathrooms are nonexistent: If you need to relieve yourself you can use the outhouses or a can under your bed.

There are no birds, bushes or trees, and it gets lonely enough that people even name the vehicles, as though they were pets. So what’s to love? There’s a dynamo chef from Washington D.C. who makes gourmet dishes like grilled salmon in spicy-sweet chili sauce. There’s also a gym and a basketball court, as well as a greenhouse stocked with cilantro, basil, lettuce, purple onions—and a couch. (The greenhouse doubles as the Polies’ hangout.)

And there are those moments that Paddy Douglas describes like this: “We get rainbows, round rainbows around the sun. The beauty of the place is phenomenal ... and the sense of freedom I feel when I look out at the horizon.”

Related on World Hum:
* Scientists Unveil High-Def Map of Antarctica
* Q&A with Susan Fox Rogers: Antarctica for ‘Dreamers and Readers’
* Environmentalist on Antarctica: ‘Do We Want This to Become Disneyland?’

Photo by Woody’s World via Flickr (Creative Commons).

Tags: Antarctica

Joanna Kakissis's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Washington Post, among other publications. A contributor to the World Hum blog, she's currently a Ted Scripps fellow in environmental journalism at the University of Colorado in Boulder.


2 Comments for Life as a ‘Polie’ at the South Pole: It’s Cold But is it Cool?

Ling 03.24.08 | 11:35 PM ET

Of course they get a kick out of looking at the horizon. There ain’t nothing else to see…

degan 03.26.08 | 3:02 PM ET

oh, that sounds fun! i want to go!

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