This picture was submitted by Curtis B. He writes:
"...I spent 26 days in Antarctica... in the process of getting [this] picture. I feel that it in and of itself is a fixture to be admired. One that resides upon the highest, driest, and coldest continent on earth, the very bottom of the planet; one that marks an elusive destination and goal that was not able to even be reached until the early 1900's and carries with it the suffering and the loss of life of several explorers; and one that is at a place that is not only off the beaten path but literally 'miles from nowhere'... In fact, no other urinal in the world or even space can compete with the efforts and loss of life that went into [this fixture's] eventual permanence at the South Pole. What it may lack in beauty it more that makes up for in dignity."
More information about the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station:
""The geographic South Pole (90 degrees South) has long been a prized goal of Antarctic explorers. The first to reach it were four Norweigians led by Roald Amundsen in 1911. About a month later, in January 1912, the British explorer Robert Falcon Scott reached the South Pole with four companions. Scott and his party perished from exposure and hunger on their attempted return on foot to the McMurdo Sound region.
"U.S. Navy Admiral Richard E. Byrd was the first to fly an airplane over the South Pole (1929), but he did not land there. The site was not visited again until 1956, when Navy Admiral George J. Dufek stepped off an LC-47 with an advance party to build the first permanent South Pole Station. The station was established in 1957 for the International Geophysical Year under Paul Siple, first station scientific leader. It continued to function year-round until January 1975, when the present station was occupied." |
