The Ross Ice Shelf is pocked with deep crevasses where the ice meets the rocky shore of Ross Island.
Andrew G. Fountain, professor of geology and geography, Portland State University
Vice: How did you end up working in a frozen wasteland for weeks at a time?
Andrew:
Most of your field research takes place in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. Terrestrially, it is considered the closest thing to Mars on Earth. What’s going on there?
A seal carcass decomposes slowly in the subfreezing Antarctic environment.
McMurdo Station is the largest Antarctic research facility and has been used as a backdrop in a lot of science-fiction stories. It seems like a pretty wacky place to live, even for a short time.
How about downtime? Is there any place to kick up your feet?
Science writer Hugh Powell prepares a dispatch from a snow cave. Chris Linder, photographer, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Vice: And why are you freezing your balls off in an unpopulated ice desert?
Chris: What kind of research were you documenting in the Antarctic? How’s the grub down there? Anything really weird or spooky happen to you during the trip? A geology team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution prepares for a day in the field. Gifford Wong, helicopter technician
Vice: What brought you to the great white abandon?
Gifford: Do people ever get so fed up with all the isolation and perpetual daylight and bleached landscape that they just flip out and party for days on end?
Holy shit. Are you kidding?
There are rumors that everyone in Antarctica fucks each other all the time out of sheer boredom. Any truth to that?
Air Force personnel and Antarctica scientists pass the time on the five-hour flight from New Zealand to McMurdo Station. Colonel Gary James, operations commander, Air National Guard—109th Airlift Wing
Vice: You’re a pilot who specializes in flying giant planes into and out of barren tundra.
Gary: So there are no proper runways in Antarctica?
A C-17 delivers fresh researchers and supplies to McMurdo. What kind of cargo do you transport?
Are the Russians the laughing stock of Antarctica?
Vice: How did you end up working in a frozen wasteland for weeks at a time?
Andrew:
Videos by VICE
How about downtime? Is there any place to kick up your feet?
Science writer Hugh Powell prepares a dispatch from a snow cave. Chris Linder, photographer, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Vice: And why are you freezing your balls off in an unpopulated ice desert?
Chris: What kind of research were you documenting in the Antarctic? How’s the grub down there? Anything really weird or spooky happen to you during the trip? A geology team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution prepares for a day in the field. Gifford Wong, helicopter technician
Vice: What brought you to the great white abandon?
Gifford: Do people ever get so fed up with all the isolation and perpetual daylight and bleached landscape that they just flip out and party for days on end?
Holy shit. Are you kidding?
There are rumors that everyone in Antarctica fucks each other all the time out of sheer boredom. Any truth to that?
Air Force personnel and Antarctica scientists pass the time on the five-hour flight from New Zealand to McMurdo Station. Colonel Gary James, operations commander, Air National Guard—109th Airlift Wing
Vice: You’re a pilot who specializes in flying giant planes into and out of barren tundra.
Gary: So there are no proper runways in Antarctica?
A C-17 delivers fresh researchers and supplies to McMurdo. What kind of cargo do you transport?
Are the Russians the laughing stock of Antarctica?
