Antarctica is certainly a very unique place, being the driest, windiest and coldest continent of all. So, even if people up in the north ar eused to snow in winter or when they go high up, the forms of H20 encountered here are usually only found on glaciers or very high up…

The top layer is usually snow drift, very fine snow that is carried by the wind over the ice plateau. Since Antarctica has very low precipitation (10cm per year average), snow drift is the main source of soft snow around here. The snow that stays freezes and compacts into something called firn. Firn is basically snow that through compression has partially crystallized. It is still white, but harder than snow. The firn layer is about 50m here at the South Pole. Below that there is ice, though at many places over the plateau, ice is exposed directly at the surface.

In conjunction with wind, softer parts ofthe surface erode away, exposing a landscape that looks like a frozen ocean, and endless sea of motionless waves. That is called sastrugi, however, we don’t really have that around here, I only saw some from the plane.

Now, snow and ice are certainly an indicator for cold temperatures, and it IS cold out here! However, on a windless day at -30C you almost feel warm in the sun. It seems at least to me that one cannot really distinguish between -10C or -30C. But when the wind picks up just a little bit, the cold just creeps in through every crack in your clothing. Sure, we do have this ECW: the big red parka, the padded bibbed Carhart, and gloves, hats, the whole shebang. But when you work, you take of the thick gloves and only have the liners, sometimes you have to open your jacket to take out something that needs warming. And then the wind is there. Besides, the wind is patient. It doesn’t have to cool you down in, say, 10 min. It can just eat sat your heat away bit by bit over the whole time you spend outside. And, boy, it does! A rather light wind of barely 5kts can make windchill of -40C! And when it picks up speed, well, better get inside fast, because body parts will start hurting.

I personally have never been so cold as here after working for two hours out in the field. It is not the cold fingers, nose, or feet. It is this loss of heat inside you that takes all your energy and makes you just curl up and sleep. And that is exactly what I am gonna do now!