After a long day out in the field, I got a little tour around the old station on the way back. Reminder: Die old station is the Dome. It is the second one, the first one dating back to the fifties and being buried deep under ice about a kilometer from here…

The dome is probably know by everybody. It used to be completely above ground, but now it is buried almost halfway in snow in ice. The Dome was more or less a wind shelter, inside were a few buildings with labs, living quarters, lounges and galley, storage, etc. Now, it is completely deserted, expect for some of the storage. Soon, they will start dismantling a building, that not only served practical purposes, but also had a visionary and non offensive architecture. It seems to date from a time, where mankind still was careful, yes even reluctant, to invade nature in one of it most unique forms. The Dome is round, smooth, it ducks under the ever blowing wind of the Pole, a kind of reverence to an irresistible force. The footprint of human presence here at the very end of the world was not that much smaller during those times, sure, but it was paid with hardship and restrain. Even though the Dome is a world apart from the experience of the every first Antartic explorers, the new station has clearly ended an area and started a new one.

This new area is dominated by a station that thrones over the timeless Antarctic plateau. Build on hydraulic columns and facing the wind with its tern, reverence was the last thing in the mind of the designers and builders of this third station at the Pole. No, the message here is: we have come to stay. Year for year, the projects and scientific programs grow more ambitious, the summer population larger. Who knows what will become of this place in 10, 20, or 50 years?

In addition, the Pole is becoming a tourist attraction. Planes fly the eager explorers from Patriot hills to 89deg south, so that their passengers can ski the last degree (about 60mil = 100km) into the Pole. Don’t get me wrong, on the plateau even those 5-6 days are a dangerous undertaking. Still, the whole business has a strange taste to me. In way it is suppose to prove some sort of achievement, but than again it is probably folly.

Whatever. It is time for me to retreat again, so farewell for now…