Author: worstjourney
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The C.D.C.
The plan was that I would be on the flight from Christchurch to McMurdo on November 11th. The morning of November 10th, then, I had to be at the Clothing Distribution Center to be outfitted with my Extreme Cold Weather gear (hereafter known as ECW). A few months previous, I’d sent in my sizing for…
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Christchurch
Thursday, 7 November 2019 The last time I was in New Zealand, I was making what I thought was the trip of a lifetime. It was January 2018, and, assuming a trip to Antarctica was unlikely, this was the last gap I had to fill in my research. New Zealand being the jumping-off and landing…
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Geography of the Terra Nova
First, an overview of the Antarctic continent. It’s really big. To get a sense of the size, it is larger than Australia; it could fit the U.S. and Mexico together; if you drew a circle around the whole of Europe, that’s roughly the size and shape of the Antarctic continent. Our action revolves around the…
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Make Your Own Mitts
One of the iconic visual cues of early polar exploration is the white H over the chest made by the straps of the fur mits. Here is the outfit they have on display at the Polar Museum in Cambridge: I knew that I would be doing a lot of sketching in the cold and that…
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Antarctic Clothing on a Shoestring
The US Antarctic Program supplies the Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) clothing for its visitors – parka, snow pants, ‘bunny’ boots, balaclava, etc, as seen here – standard issue gear which they know is of a high enough quality to keep their participants warm and safe. I, however, have to bring everything that goes under that,…
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The Medical
When Apsley Cherry-Garrard was applying to join the Terra Nova Expedition, he was told to turn up at the Expedition offices ‘prepared for a full medical examination.’ Presumably it all happened in one go. Mine was … not like that. I know that most people reading this blog are looking for entertainment, but perhaps you…
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The Spectrum of Selection
It was May 31st, 2018 that I submitted my application to the Antarctic Artists & Writers Program. The automatic confirmation of receipt said that it would be a few months before I heard anything. That was all right. I had lots to do. That summer I was busy writing the script, designing characters, and assembling…
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The Joy of Grant Applications
A spot on the USAP’s Artists & Writers crew is, in effect, an NSF grant. One is not paid for one’s time there, but it is no insignificant expense on the part of the National Science Foundation to house one, feed one, and move one around a continent of ice. Therefore, the application process is…
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Before the Adventure Begins
Originally published 28 September 2019 In November of 2019 I will be going to Antarctica with the US Antarctic Program’s Artists and Writers initiative, which takes a handful of creatives down to the US bases in Antarctica to get the word out about the science being done down there, and increase public awareness of the…