What life is like in Antarctica according to a researcher who lives there

Russia’s Vostok Antarctic Station was built in 1957 and is one of the most isolated research stations on the planet. It is close to the magnetic South Pole, practically in the middle of the icy continent. Polar researchers and explorers spend months there, practically isolated from the world, especially in the extremely rigorous Antarctic winter. One of these researchers, Zakhar Akulov (assisted by his colleagues Yuriy, Vitalik and Dima), told the awesome.club what life is like on that base. A curious and surprising day to day. These are stories that go far beyond what is written on Wikipedia.

Our editor (who is reading the book An Empire of Ice, which deals with the conquest of Antarctica) was impressed with the stories of Zakhar and everyday life on the most unexplored continent in the world. Want to know more about it? Then join us on this journey!

I took the photo above at −75º. Yes, −75º! The Canon EOS 600D camera that I use can handle this temperature for about 40 minutes, a little longer than the photographer himself is able to handle. According to our experience, at −30º there are no problems in doing photo shoots.

But it is important to observe some details. First, you need to turn on the camera while you’re still inside the shelter, as outside, everything freezes. It’s pointless to use a tripod in the cold: the metal retracts, and any supports simply won’t hold the camera. Also, after 10 minutes, the tripod head freezes completely.

Another curious detail: you can only approach the camera’s viewfinder by holding your breath. Otherwise, moisture from exhaled air immediately freezes the display glass. There is, finally, another practical problem: the camera controls were not designed for the amount of gloves we use. Therefore, to carry out any operation, you are obliged to take off your gloves and, when this happens, you run the risk of having your fingers frozen while adjusting the machine.

When we run out of water reserves, we look for a place with denser snow in the vicinity of our base. Two people go to this chosen location and cut the snow, which is done, oddly enough, with chainsaws. Then, little by little, we drag the cut snow blocks using special gloves. As it is the water we drink, these gloves (which are white) are used only for extracting snow and for nothing else.

You can even imagine that since we are Russians, snow is nothing new for us. But there is a huge difference between the snow here and in Russia. Here she is less fluffy than in our country, and turns into ice much faster.

It takes four people and two to three hours to get the blocks of ice to the base. It may even seem like a lot of effort for little result. But there is a detail: you can imagine Antarctica as a flat continent, but the reality is quite different. We are at Vostok station, which is at an altitude of 3,000 meters, in the Antarctic Plateau. At this altitude, the air is thinner and the lack of oxygen makes everything more difficult. Therefore, one has to work in such a way that there is less difficulty in breathing. Any overexertion can freeze our lungs and cause pneumonia.

After the snow hopper is full, a caretaker of that space can fill the melting machine. Our consumption for a month is about 7 cubic meters of water (7 thousand liters), not considering the water we use for showering.

The water we drink is almost like distilled water (without mineral salts), which is why it remains very clean. The body eventually compensates for the lack of minerals by extracting them from the bones themselves, which in turn decreases bone strength and can cause teeth problems. Another side effect of drinking this type of water is that we are thirsty almost all the time.

We have three 4×4 vehicles at the base for all types of terrain, all of the “Kharkovchanka -II” model. Two of them serve as command staff and one ends up serving as staff quarters—yes, quarters. But I’ll explain.

The interior of these vehicles is designed for three people; a large portion of the space is taken up by cabinets and equipment boxes. There is a gas stove, some boilers, an autonomous diesel generator and even a relatively comfortable bathroom.

There are also two new vehicles at the base: an excavator and a snowmobile. In general, the main vehicles used in Antarctic stations, both Russian and other countries, are precisely the snowmobiles, the “Kasbor” snowcats. Lightweight and designed specifically for this type of environment, they move with great ease in the terrible local winter conditions.

As you can imagine there is Internet in the station, but it works very poorly. For some reason, on this basis alone, the connection is so bad — the average speed is around 6.6 Kbps). In other stations (including Russian ones), it is even possible to chat via Skype.

The Belgian Princess Elisabeth station is a kind of reference when it comes to respect for the environment. After all, it is supplied only with energy from renewable sources. But the point is that no ecologist will say how many greenhouse gas emissions were generated during the production of this base and its components and how much energy was consumed in the production process. It’s my opinion. But the fact is that water from this station can be recycled up to five times, which means you wake up in the morning and wash your face; later, he uses the same water to wash his clothes, and at night he will probably be using the same water to make soup for dinner.

The English station Neumayer III and the English Halley are super beautiful. This is indisputable. Only they are stations on the high seas; that is, they are mounted on huge blocks of ice that are slowly sliding towards the sea. As a result, Neumayer has had to be rebuilt three times and Halley six times. For obvious reasons, they ran the risk of being adrift in the sea.

The engineers designed these stations based on the possibility of moving. They have mega futuristic designs, but modest internal spaces. Halley’s winter team spends the coldest season of the year in spaces the size of train cars. My room at Vostok is six times the size and I don’t have to share with anyone.

For centuries, we Russians have been gaining experience in building shelters in extreme weather conditions, as we have contact with this type of climate in our country. This experience was developed in regions such as Kola, Arkhangelsk, Yamalo-Nenets and others in Siberia and close to the Arctic. We have a principle called the “principle of reasonable sufficiency” that we always follow in this type of construction, including in Antarctica. This principle assumes the highest possible efficiency in each project; so when you build a bathroom, you don’t consider the design of the entire building. The same principle assumes that, for example, to deliver a pizza, a truck is not needed, and so on. Therefore, wall panels are fixed directly to steel bases, which makes construction cheaper and more efficient.

Our base has a living room, a slightly larger lounge, radio room, kitchen, food storage and laboratories. The radio room is quite modern. Apart from the main building, there is a fuel depot. For the amount spent on one module of the British Halley station, it is possible to build two entire Russian stations.

We know that the useful life of the Vostok station is coming to an end and that within some time it will have to undergo a good renovation. But look: in my room, I have four computers (PCs), three notebooks and a series of scientific instruments that work constantly. Is this not modern technology?

Indian station Bharathi, which is very close to our other station, Progress. The design of this Indian base reminds me, for some reason, of a supermarket. It was built by the Indians from super modern shipping containers and is very technological. But it always seems to me that something else is missing from his design.

This is Kunlun, a Chinese base in Antarctica. The Chinese are quickly learning to use our steel building technology.

Antarctica (South Pole) is a point of conversion of all meridians. So, in theory, that should be the point where all the time zones converge. But during the period when day or night lasts 24 hours (winter, for example, is an eternal night), it all depends on the country that owns the base and the location of the base. Even at stations relatively close to ours, the clocks show different times. Here, for example, we have Omsk time (UTC + 06: 00), east of Moscow and 3 hours ahead of time in our capital. It’s the same time zone as Bangladesh, for example.

As soon as I arrived at Vostok Station for the first time, I had a curious experience. We were unloading a container and I tried to lift a 50 kilo bag of sugar. But I realized that my frail shoulders couldn’t cope with it, as they would have calmly done at home. Incidentally, I could barely move that bag. But I didn’t understand what the problem was. Well, you must imagine that reading or hearing something about a situation like that and living it in practice are different things.

Well, I kept fighting the bag. After all, I’m a man! I tried moving it one way and then the other. In the end, I gave up. I dragged the bag onto a sled and took it to the warehouse. After unloading the bag, I tried to catch my breath. I breathed in a hurried way, I felt my lungs burning, I breathed and I lacked air. That’s how my boss found me. He scolded me and took me to the station to recover. Good thing that day it was ‘hot’ (-40º) and I didn’t have time to burn my lungs with the cold.

There is a saying among polar station crews that when station workers begin to arrive, winter is coming to an end, and with it, its peace and quiet. A few minutes ago we were calm and suddenly we have to run to the landing strip

The Basler plane’s crew is Canadian, but the aircraft belongs to Germany. It was built in 1943 but has modern technology. In fact, everything on that plane…