Nov. 4th - Flight to the South Pole

Monday, Nov. 4th, was a beautiful day in McMurdo.  It was hard to contain my excitement because my goal was 830 miles away.  Ivan the Terra Bus hauled us out to the sea ice runway one more time.  As we loaded into the LC-130 you could look over and see the steam coming from the vent from Mount Erebus.  Soon we were taxiing and took off.

The C-130 is an interesting airplane.  It was built by Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin) in the 1950's and has been in continuous use and production for over 50 years.  The U.S. Air Force had attempted to replace  the C-130 in the 1970's thru the Advanced Medium STOL Transport project which resulted in the C-17.  The C-17 is the aircraft that flew me from Christchurch down to McMurdo.  My son-in-law, Chris, flew C-130s during the Iraq War.  OK, OK, back to the flight to the South Pole. 

Now the LC-130 is a far cry from the luxurious flight on the Boeing 777 from Sydney to Christchurch flight.  You sit in web seats along the sides with luggage strapped down between you. It is very noisy and you have to wear ear plugs and you are unable to talk to the person next to you. The plane has small round windows near the back.  When you go back there to look out you have to carefully step over every one's legs which I did because I wanted to see if I could locate Mt. Kirkpatrick. 

There are many mountains in the Transantarctic Mountain Range but Mt. Kirkpatrick is interesting to me because paleontologists have unearthed dinosaur bones from the Early Jurassic era for the last 20 years there.  It just goes to show you that Antarctica was a much warmer place many, many years ago.  Not being able to locate Mt. Kirkpatrick, I went back to my seat and read.

It didn't seem long before it was announced on the intercom that we were 20 minutes out from The Pole and to prepare for landing which we did because a lot of us had taken our jackets off and stuck them in the webbing to make our seats softer.  We landed and pulled over to the apron. As the airplane was still moving, the back door went down, the cargo was pushed out and the back door was closed to save the heat inside the aircraft.

I looked down at my watch as any explorer would have done.  It was 12:25 PM on the 4th of November, 2013.  The outside temperature was -44 degrees F with a wind chill factor of -73 degrees F.  The South Pole sits at an elevation of 9,301' but barometer reading is low right now so it has the effects of being at over 11,200'.    

Yes, I'm at the South Pole, living my dream. I'm at the coldest, driest, windiest, cleanest and most remote place on the face of the earth. Since I left Fairbanks last Monday, I have traveled 14,568 miles. I guess I can check this off my bucket list now.

Boarding the LC-130 in McMurdo.

This is how we ride in an LC-130.  A far cry from the Sydney to Christchurch flight.

Flying over the Transantarctic Mountains.

Opening the back door to shove the cargo out on the apron and then to get the door closed quickly because "Baby, it's cold outside!"

Walking up to the SP Station.

Me and the LC-130 at the South Pole skiway.