We arrived back at South Pole Station about 10 days ago. It was the fastest, smoothest trip ever from Denver to South Pole but it wasn’t much time to wrap my brain around just how far I traveled in such a short time. It’s always a little surreal arriving back here but it’s also a place that feels more like home than anywhere else for me now.

The flag flying over South Pole Station. All points north.

My first photowalk of the season always makes me appreciate being here again so much. It can be easy to forget where we are when we get busy with work during the season but walking around before the masses arrive, seeing this place as if it’s the first time, is a certain kind of magic.

These are just a few shots from my photo walkabout yesterday. It was about -40F without windchill and an incredibly lovely gray day. Those are my favorite days here because I’m not a fan of sunny, bright blue skies. I just don’t love them like other people do, so for me it was a perfect day. I only saw one person outside while I was out wandering. Having the whole outdoors to my self is one of the coolest things about being here. It’s flat & white for as far as you can see and not seeing any other people, you can almost imagine what it was like to be one of the early explorers crossing the lonely continent. Of course now e have a behemoth of a station which is probably quite disappointing to the intrepid modern day explorers that ski across the continent and come visit us.

The main entrance of South Pole Station.

It’s hard to believe, but I’ve been coming here for 17 years now. Originally I was only coming for a 4 month contract after leaving the tropical island I was living on in the Pacific. I never imagined then that I would be coming here for so long but as most people who work in Antarctica will tell you, it has a magical pull that is hard to get away from…

A back entrance to the station. Yep, nearly buried by snow drifts…

I’ve been thinking about shooting the station in black & white for so many years now because there really isn’t that much color here to begin with. I knew it would be perfect for the stark contrast you see everywhere here and I don’t think I was wrong. Shooting in black & white yesterday was such pure joy. I think I might just spend the next 4 months shooting colorless images.

Firefighting equipment on the edge of the skiway.

Some facts about South Pole Station. The max capacity of the station is 150 people in the summer. In the winter we have about 42 people that stay behind for the long winter night. South Pole technically only has one sunrise and one sunset per year, so it’s daylight 24/7 while I’m here for the summer. Our lowest temperature ever was -117F and our highest was 9.9F on Christmas day a few years ago. Most years, we are lucky is we see 0F.

Ceremonial pole marker at South Pole Station.

There are so many things I love about living here. This community is made up of the sweetest, most creative and thoughtful people I’ve every worked with. It is filled with fascinating & eclectic people that continually teach and remind me that we really can do anything we put our minds to.

I am surrounded by incredible humans here, which is the reason I’ve been coming back for so many years. There are times I think I’d like to have a ‘normal’ life but it doesn’t generally last very long because there isn’t much that compares with Antarctica and the people that are drawn to it.

This is just a small look into life here. If you want to see more, you can sign up for my newsletter to follow my adventures…and more photos to come.

And if you’re interested in working in Antarctica, you can send me an email at andrea @ andreadixon.com and I’ll hook you up with the job links.