Station Tour - B3/B4 Conference rooms and gyms

Our workout gym on the upper level. One of my favorite parts is the Average Joe's Gym sign (from the Dodgeball movie) that I put up.

South Pole station is the newest station that the US Antarctic Program maintains. It has the nicest facilities by far.  We have a huge gym with 3 treadmills, 2 bikes, 2 ellipticals, a rower, yoga mats, and tons of weights. I started up a small lunch time cardio group. We throw on an episode of the 1990s series Northern Exposure and we watch a single 45-minute episode six days a week. Having the social group has definitely kept me going on days when I am feeling lazy.

When I was in Antarctica before, I ran a few marathons. I have not been able to find that kind of running in me now. I think part of is being 10 years older, but a lot of it is also the elevation. We are technically at 9,301 ft, but the atmospheric pressure makes it feel like 10,000 to 11,500 ft. While I can run shorter distances at speed, I really start sweating and breathing hard with any distance of running that takes me over 50 minutes. It has been frustrating, but maybe this is a chance for me to learn to age gracefully =]

Some folks track their cardio and try to match the 850 mile distance to McMurdo over a season or lift as much cargo as the planes carry up each year. I am not tracking either. I am just trying to be consistent.

Our Big Gym

On the lower level, right under the workout gym, we have our Big Gym. Over the summer, it gets a ton of use with soccer, volleyball, and basketball. However, this winter, our Big Gym is getting very little athletic use. We use it every morning for a small group stretch and then twice a week for abs classes. A few folks use it on their own. There's talk of getting pickleball started, which would be a treat. Mostly, we use it for parties and the big screen experience.

Playing video games in the converted 'Big Gym'

Right near the workout gym, we have two conference rooms. There isn't anything fancy about them, but there is a lot of neat historical memorabilia in them. I feel the same way about most of my meetings down here as I do back in the states and try to avoid these rooms. When IT meets, the 3-4 of us meet in our galley lounge, which is a much more informal and fun environment.

Our large conference room

Our small conference room