Christmas in Antarctica

Santa might live at the North Pole, but there are also plenty of people celebrating the festive period at the southernmost point of the globe. I spoke to two researchers currently at the Rothera Research Station, a British base in Antarctica, about what it’s like to spend Christmas on a continent very different from home.

Mike Brian, the base commander, will be spending his first Christmas at Rothera this year, having been “in the field,” away from the station, for a couple of years previously. Mairi Simms, an atmospheric scientist, experienced Christmas at the base last year and will be heading home early in the new year.

They explained that their general Christmas arrangements aren’t all that different from the standard British fare. “At the weekend we had a few people got together and we decorated the lounge area and the dining room, so everything’s looking quite festive at the moment,” said Simms. “We’ve got a couple of fake Christmas trees out with lots of nice baubles on.”

There are currently around 70 people at the research station, which is located on Adelaide Island off the west coast of the Antarctic peninsula. Its inhabitants include scientists, engineers, and the many people involved in running the station and coordinating things like transport, deliveries, and communications. Other researchers are out in the field—camping out in groups of two or four up to 1000 miles from the base to conduct various studies.

For all, Christmas celebrations have to fit around the general running of the station. It’s summer in Antarctica now, of course, and there’s lots to be done while the weather is good, so Brian explained that any festive activities must be “opportunistic.” If the weather is good enough, aircraft will be flying out to the various field parties even on Christmas Day, which means a lot of work for some of the team members. Scientific work will continue as required, and preparations for a resupply ship expected later in the week need to be made.

But for once, bad weather at the base might be a good thing, at least for Rothera residents looking to catch a break on the 25th. “The way it’s looking, it’s going to work out quite well, in that the weather’s not going to be great so the aircraft won’t be able to fly, and the ship is running a little bit late,” said Brian.

Simms gave me her latest weather report: currently overcast and cloudy but bright, with temperatures around -2°C and a significant wind chill. Brian added that, this being the Antarctic summer, there are literally no hours of darkness. “In fact, the last time the sun went below the horizon was on the 28th of November, so it’s some time ago that we saw a sunset,” he said. “And the last time it was properly dark was the beginning of October; it got dark for about 10 minutes at 2am.”

How do they celebrate on the big day itself? With a turkey dinner, of course. The base chef will have a busy day preparing a meal with all the trimmings, and the researchers confirmed that sprouts, cranberry sauce, and a Christmas pudding soaked in brandy will play a role.

One main challenge is the availability of ingredients, as you can’t exactly pop to the local supermarket in Antarctica, and fresh food is hard to come by unless it’s delivered by one of the aircraft that visits the base from South America every ten days or so. Pretty much everything is therefore dried, tinned, or frozen. “The turkey we’re about to eat probably came in about a year ago now, but has been frozen ever since,” said Brian. At least it's better than festive space food.

The general atmosphere is one of pitching in together to make the day enjoyable. A radar engineer, meteorologist, and chef have volunteered to put on a Christmas quiz, and Simms has got a group together to sing some carols and Christmas songs on the 24th. The team also took a festive group photo (see up top) and shared it with the other research bases across the continent as part of their own established tradition, a kind of seasonal “hello” across Antarctica. And people aren’t confined to the base; in any spare time, there’s the option to go for a stroll—“walk along the coastline and see seals and penguins and things, and watch icebergs go past”—or do some skiing or snowboarding.

That’s when there’s not work to be done, of course. Simms noted that aspects of her job are ongoing—the weather never stops—and Brian will of course be fulfilling his commander duties throughout the day. “There are certain things that we absolutely have to keep going every day,” he said.

As for friends and family, it’s possible to communicate via email and phone, but contact isn’t always reliable. “The bandwidth is quite narrow and there’s a lot of people on base, so the internet is very very slow at the moment as well as having to cope with all the science,” said Simms. Power cuts are also fairly common, she added. “Because of where we are, our families and friends have just sort of got to bear with us.”

The ship scheduled to arrive shortly after Christmas, however, might bring a few festive tokens from loved ones in warmer climes—provided they sorted it out well in advance. “The posting deadline for parcels to arrive on this ship was at the beginning of September, so provided they’ve been well organised there’ll be something there for us,” said Brian. “I don’t think there’s anything for me!” Simms laughed. While airmail reaches the base a lot quicker, anything heavier than a letter has to be sent via surface mail, and the ship has a long journey, stopping along the way to do various jobs.

For those out in the field, life is even more remote. They talk to the Rothera base over radio every day, and Brian said people at the station make a special effort on Christmas Day to go to the communications tower and give them some conversation.

He recalled his own experiences out in far-flung icy regions the two Christmases before last. The first time it was just him and one other guy, a scientist. “When we’d gone out I took a lot of frozen food and buried it in the snow when we got to camp,” he explained—one thing Antarctica is good at is freezing things. “Then, by a lot of improvisation and making do, I managed to roast two chicken breasts on a primus stove and we had a bottle of port for Christmas and a bottle of whisky for New Year,” he said. “So that was our celebrations sorted.”

Finally, Brian and Simms asked to pass on a Merry Christmas and Season's Greetings from the Rothera Research Station, both to Motherboard readers and, of course, their friends and families back home—“who we always think about at this time.” Merry Christmas, everyone.