Every austral summer (November-March) several thousand people travel though Antarctica on behalf of the United States Antarctic Program. The United States maintains three permanent bases on the continent (McMurdo, Palmer, South Pole Station) and also supports many other field camps for the duration of the summer. Although the only purpose of the US presence in Antarctica is scientific, every aspect of life on Antarctica has to be imported which means the logistics are equivalent to a large military operation in the harshest weather on earth. Travel to Antarctica begins in New Zealand. There, in warm paradise, amidst the kiwis and other flightless birds, the US government issues you extreme weather gear from thick socks and underwear to boots and snow goggles. Everybody is given a bright red jacket so that people can be easily identified against the whiteness of Antarctica. Because of Antarctic logistics, all travel in Antarctica is handled by the US Air Force. Just recently, the Air Force started using C-17 jets to fly from New Zealand to McMurdo Station which has cut the flight time from 9 hours in a propeller driven C-130 to 5 hours. Weather delays are frequent though and it is a badge of honor to fly all the way to Antarctica only to "boomerang" back because of an unexpected storm. Of course, once you are beyond the point of no return, you are beyond the point of no return. McMurdo Station is located on the coast of Antarctica and is reachable by icebreaker. It is the place where Robert F. Scott established his base camp and the hut he built is still there filled with one hundred year old cocoa tins and hanging seal skins. Because of the relative ease of reaching McMurdo it has become the central base for the US and most scientific missions are supported from here. Compared to other bases and field camps, there is quite a bit of wild life in McMurdo. Skuas (the seagulls of Antarctica) and seals are relatively common but penguins are very rare. If you want to make a weather hardened Antarctic veteran angry, ask him how many times he's seen a penguin. Of course, the day after I left McMurdo, the penguins showed up. Luckily, some of my friends were traveling there and took pictures so I could share in their joy. Maybe it's for the best that I wasn't in McMurdo for the penguins. If you touch a penguin the US Antarctic Program bans you for life and it's pretty hard to resist giving them a little poke. Most visitors to McMurdo are transients on their way to somewhere else. I stayed there for several days on my way to and from the South Pole. Unlike McMurdo, which is reachable by icebreaker and can go above freezing in the summer, the South Pole is a frozen desert sitting on 3km of ice and has never recorded a temperature above -13 celcius. The Air Force uses their work horse cargo plane, a ski-fitted C-130, to fly almost all personel and equipment to the pole (recently they did the 900 mile journey by land to prove the feasibility). In the next post I'll write about the South Pole.