I had the pleasure of going down there in 2017 on the Coast Guard Icebreaker Polar Star. The arial photo of the Polar Star at 7:41 minutes was taken by me. It was a tremendous trip that I will never forget.
I spent two seasons, 98-99 & 99-00 at McMurdo. Deployed Win-Fly in August and stayed until to camp close out in February of both seasons. It is amazing how quickly someone from the swamps of South Louisiana acclimates to -30f. A lot of people like to promote the hero factor, but McMurdo is not that bad. Like someone below commented, fuel is not flown into McMurdo, but many times it is flown to South Pole Base on LC130's.
I went down to McMurdo for the first time in '06 and then did WINFLY the next year. Best time of my life. I adapted to weather like I was born there (from South Carolina).
They must use a metric shit ton af anti- gel additive for the diesel , in those Temps. I'm a trucker , and I know first hand what happens when it does gel up . Basically turns to Vaseline like consistency, and all fuel filters become worthless , and clogged . Fuel pressure basically flat lines .
Some side notes... the HMS Terror wasn't just a "war ship", she was a Bomb Vessel (floating artillery) that played an important part in American History. She was one of the ships present at the siege of Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. It was her shells witnessed by Francis Scott Key that gave us "Bombs bursting in air." It was due to the stout construction being built to handle the recoil of the heavy mortars that her & her sister ship, the Erebus, were perfect to be refit for polar explorations, which they performed quite well up until when they were both sadly lost during the doomed Franklin Expedition in the Arctic. Both ships were just recently found, with the Terror in nearly pristine condition in the cold Arctic waters.
There is a fantastic quasi-book titled, “How to Get a Job in Antarctica” written by Matty Jordan that does an exquisite job walking through the type of person that’s successful in the environment. Definitely worth a read!
@@markstanbrook5578 even if he did say that it would be even more wrong because he was talking about it going above freezing and -10 and 12 are both not above freezing
My grandad spent a season at Scott Base doing survey work. Got both extremes, from skinny dipping in the Dry Valley to being rescued by an American helicopter when the temperature, with wind chill, dropped to minus one hundred degrees unexpectedly.
Quick note on the wind turbines! They are scheduled to be replaced, along with a more modern battery system which should greatly improve the power situation for both Scott Base and McMurdo.
Did the 91-92 and 93-94 seasons. Fun fact: The C-5s can only stay in one spot for about an hour, otherwise they deform the ice and they have trouble getting out of the depression. Turn arounds were pretty quick. There was the time I drove up to one and the aircrew came charging out naked, ran around the plane 3 times and then disappeared back inside. Their equivalent of the Polar plunge. Yes the Kiwis would drill a big hole in the ice and you could jump in for a refreshing dip.
I spent 3 summer support seasons at McMurdo station and Williams Field from 1982-1985 with the US Navy's Operation Deep Freeze, (VXE-6) as an aircraft mechanic working on the LC-130 aircraft. It was the most interesting time of my Navy career.
McMurdo isn't the supply hub for all of the Antarctic bases at all. Mawson is the distribution hub for all of the Australian bases and it gets it's supplies directly from Australia.
@@Jessersadlerno, it really isn’t. Also the poster above is also wrong, Casey, Mawson and Davis are all supplied directly from Hobart, Australia and none of the ships go within thousands of km of McMurdo sound. McMurdo is a huge distance out of the way for any of the Australian bases on another side of the continent (hence why McMurdo flights leave from NZ not Australia) and only rarely do passengers transfer through there and vice versa when Wilkins is shut or a free seat is available. Otherwise for air supplied cargo it goes through Wilkins or is directly air dropped by C-17 from Hobart or Perth. Sometimes a ship will stop at two or three of the Australian stations on one trip, but supplies are not sent to one first generally, but if any are, a hub it’s Casey due to the relatively nearby Wilkins Aerodrome open for part of the summer season (except when it’s too warm!), and the higher bed capacity there. I have literally physically been aboard in Australia’s ships, both the new Icebreaker and previous leased ships. As well as consigned cargo for each station. M
@@Jessersadler it really isn't. Information about the RSV Nuyina from the Australian Antarctic Program explicitly states it delivers supplies and Personal Directly to Australian Bases.
@jackvos8047 it's an icebreaking research vehicle, has only been around since 2021, and skipped 22/23. . . so it's only usable for 2 years since 2021🤷♂️. How'd they get supplied before that? Also, the US doesn't really use its ice breaker as a "supply" ship. while it's capable, and does transport people and limited items, it's main purpose is to break a channel for frigates and container ships to bring in supplies. McMurdo is by far the largest and most utilized base on the continent, by all nations that operate there.
ikr, Mcmurdo has nothing to do with the other bases down there. Scott and South pole being the exceptions. The 3 BAS bases I've been too and the Chilean and Arentine ones are completely independent from it.
I'm disappointed, nothing about the 300 Club. Amundson Scott South Pole station. To join first climb into sauna, set it at 240 or so. Half hour. Run outside to touch the South Pole marker, 800 feet away (tough at 10,000 feet) and run back inside. Do this naked. Just once. Trivia, at Antartica Snickers bars are the energy bar of choice.
Coast Guard icebreakers? We wish!! We have one. One icebreaker capable of going down there. We are decades overdue for a new one and there isn’t one coming soon.
@@Jessersadler Prior Coastie... The state of the Coast Guard Ice Breaker's is dreadful! If only the US woould invest the USCG as fraction of what the USN gets... JB Hall, LT USCG (USMMA '95)
My father was a part of Operation Deep Freeze during his time in the Navy. He was a photographer and we still have stacks of his pictures. Antarctica is bleak and foreboding, yet beautiful.
Surviving in McMurdo is pretty easy. I worked there in 2000 and it was great. The food was v good. You get used to the cold, going back to darkness when heading north after your time there is the weirdest bit. You kinda forget what darkness is like 😂😂
I live at the other end of the temperature scale. A few years ago I was working outside at a job (Phoenix, in case you're wondering) and looked down at my phone to check the temperature. It was 117. In the shade.
A few corrections... fuel is not _flown_ in! Do you have any idea how many flights / how expensive it would be? PM3 leaked pretty much from day one. The "modular" design was so every piece of it could fit in a cargo container so it could be shipped in - again not _flown_ in. (In fact, fuel is rarely even flown to inland bases. South Pole station, for example, has all of its fuel tractored in. Yes, they drag it all the way there - South Pole Overland Traverse (SPOT))
In the years before the SPOT was completed, VXE-6 LC-130's would fly fuel flights daily to the South Pole. It was a horrible way to move it, but it was done. My last stay at McMurdo was 30 years ago, and I remember watching years later as the overland route to the plateau was advanced.
@@BUCKMAW Yes, it was horrible and insanely expensive. And for a good part of the year, not possible even do. SPOT isn't exactly safe, but it is much cheaper. (It was originally called the south pole inland traverse, but USAP didn't like "SPIT".)
@@rain4834 Nope. A C17 could carry about 20k gal of diesel. That's enough for about two weeks. Their fuel *IS* delivered by ship. [ www.nsf.gov/pubs/1997/antpanel/4past.htm Section 4.2.7 ]
@@just_kos99 Interplanetary, yes, and I've seen few good ideas on preventing that... The moon has regolith that can be dug under, and some lava tubes. Keeping people tumour-free down there should be fine. And the journey there and back is nonterrible.
The first time I ever heard of McMurdo was on Stargate SG-1. Learning about it here is super interesting. Also I think you should do a video on the Hulett Ore Unloaders that used to exist in the Great Lakes. They were super interesting machinery and would be well suited for this channel
Another two corrections, on top of the fuel not being flown in, there is no longer a bowling alley and the hottest Fahrenheit temperature is wrong. One of the bowling lanes is in storage and can be setup in the basketball gym for special occasions. But that hardly ever happens. The hottest Fahrenheit temperature is actually 51.44. Must have been a simple conversion error that made it into the script. However, that doesn't change the fact that in the height of Summer at McMurdo the temperature rarely gets above the freezing temperature of water.
I am always shocked when people mention this on TH-cam videos. I can barely barely tell there is background music. Like I have to turn it to max volume and hold my ear to my phone. I wonder if there is some subset of people that can hear background info at different volumes than typical!
@@pleasestopscreaming yep I am always shocked. I have seen several people say this and almost always I legitimately say ..what there was background music. Like i have to go and try to extreme listen at max volume with the phone to my ear and it is like really focusing to BARELY hear a faint whisper of a background.
@@MrTexasDan I saw -56 1 day , that was the night I forgot to plug my car in (block heater) , Thanks to 1000 amp battery and low compeshon the old Chevy Started , after a short warm up off to work I went . after about 6 miles I got heat .
I met somebody once who had been at McMurdo station doing research for NASA. Since the conditions in Antarctica are as close to Mars-like as we can get on Earth, she was cintracted to study the bacteria there in hopes of getting some idea of what Martian bacteria might be like.
I know this is a video about McMurdo and not The Thing, but I found the creepiest thing about the Thing was that the environment was also the only thing stopping the total destruction of the human race (and probably every other species on the planet too. It was equally "It's too cold to survive, so the monster will get me" but also from the monsters POV "I will never be warm and I can see the possibility of my total defeat just because all my possible victims are already dead".
Remember US Navy - Antarctic Development Squadron Six - VXE-6, the Sailors and Air Crews that tamed the frozen hellscape known as "The Ice..." (AntarcticHelRonSix) :) UH-1N - A Huey does not fly; it beats the air into submission.
Here's to hoping that sanity prevails in a twenty years when that Treaty is up for renewal. We all need to maintain that security for Antarctica. No matter what natural resources might be down there, it should forever remain the pristine reserve for scientific research and understanding. For the betterment of all humanity, not the search for profits or benefit of a singular nation. And I say that as an Aussie. The country that claims almost 42% of Antarctica as our Territory. Somethings should be preserved for all.
"Assuming that the freezer is running" ...no. It costs extra to put a reversing valve in a heat pump, so freezers can only make things colder than their surroundings. That's literally the difference between traditional air conditioning and a home heat pump. The latter has a reversing valve and auto-defrost for the outside half of the loop and the former doesn't.
Don't know who thought up the freezer bit ... but no, guys ... a freezer is not necessarily safer that being outdoors. Freezers are designed to cool things down to ~0F, and definitely not to heat things up to 0F. Put a running freezer out in -40 temps and within a few hours the interior will be ... wait for it ... -40.
What could we possibly still be so fervently investigating science wise in Antarctica after 70 some years of being down there that still requires that many people?
I couldn't survive there for more than a month as I have type 1 diabetes and supplies would be severely limited. I go through 2 fast acting insulin pens a month, a pen of long acting insulin about every 18 days and 100 single use needles in 3 weeks to 25 days. My cgm only lasts 2 weeks before I've to replace it with a new one and I'd use a minimum of 4 test strips for finger pricking per day without a cgm. I spoke in the comments section of a video a few years ago with a guy who spent a long time in Antarctica and he said he was coeliac (as I am) and he said he got glutened a few times while he was there but he was able to manage it. He also said he preferred Antarctica to the 40+ degrees Celsius of the Nigerian summer heat. He said you can survive in Antarctica if you're coeliac but he agreed I'd struggle to survive as a diabetic because of limited supplies.
I actually worked down there for 6 months a few years back and I'm a type 1 diabetic. It's a lot of planning out your supplies and coordinating with Drs, but it's been done many times. There was actually another type 1 down there with me as well who did just fine.
What happened with the wind turbines was a battery system that failed because it used a controller that wasnt rated for the cold, and the output of the turbines had to be limited. There are plans to build more battery systems and more turbines.
@4:50, the conversion is wrong. 10.8C is 51.44F, not 12.5F. If its -10.8C the conversion works. So either the Celsius temp is missing a minus sign or the conversion to F is incorrect.
Why not utilize decommissioned nuclear reactors from navel vessels that can be removed from their respective resting places then refueled/serviced back to full health/usefulness and rotate them in and out of McMurdo as needed. Aircraft carriers have reactors designed to last 50 years. Subs are good for 30 to 40 years and are used for 25 to 30 years of use before decommissioning. Repurposing multiple reactors spreading the load out as it were might be a way to get away from relying on diesel fuel and the problems that come with it while being used in sub freezing temps. The alternative would be to commission NEW reactors to use thereby getting 50, 40 or 30 years of use... or continue using diesel and adding to the problems we face currently. Just a thought that came about while watching this incredible video.
@@brentbarr498 considering the ecological mess that was left with radiated cooling water and human waste and massive diesel amounts etc from camp century not to mention the rumored lost nuclear warhead!!! Perhaps we should keep nuclear out of Arctic regions until we can be a more responsible species!
@@lijohnyoutube101 true BUT you can't discount the breakthroughs in the technology recently... utilizing spent fuel.. come on.. this is game changing methodology!!
My sister works seasonally at McMurdo, and she once saw pond scum growing in a puddle, and she's been there when it was actually above freezing. I wonder how they calculate their temps, then? It was within the last 12 years she reported this to me.
I'm at McMurdo now and enjoy your videos, Thank you,
What poor life decisions have led you to the bottom of the earth?
@@CPTSwooptyProbably trying to get away from the ex 😂😂😂
@@CPTSwooptyScience
As a not very important human I would still like to thank you for efforts. Well done.
What sort of stuff do you do there?... Are there any stray dog sightings?.
I had the pleasure of going down there in 2017 on the Coast Guard Icebreaker Polar Star. The arial photo of the Polar Star at 7:41 minutes was taken by me. It was a tremendous trip that I will never forget.
That’s amazing!
I went in 07. the Sea's last trip south
sure it was. go smoke another fatty
I was DF 98 on the WAGB 10 the old wondering arctic garbage barge. Main Prop. Wonder if our signatures are still in the stacks.
The Arial (sic) photo? What about the Helvetica or Times New Roman photo? Maybe wingdings might do the trick.
I spent two seasons, 98-99 & 99-00 at McMurdo. Deployed Win-Fly in August and stayed until to camp close out in February of both seasons. It is amazing how quickly someone from the swamps of South Louisiana acclimates to -30f. A lot of people like to promote the hero factor, but McMurdo is not that bad. Like someone below commented, fuel is not flown into McMurdo, but many times it is flown to South Pole Base on LC130's.
I went down to McMurdo for the first time in '06 and then did WINFLY the next year. Best time of my life. I adapted to weather like I was born there (from South Carolina).
They must use a metric shit ton af anti- gel additive for the diesel , in those Temps. I'm a trucker , and I know first hand what happens when it does gel up . Basically turns to Vaseline like consistency, and all fuel filters become worthless , and clogged . Fuel pressure basically flat lines .
I flew on those refueling flights.
We put heaters on them overnight sometimes, you will see paint missing and bare metal from constant heaters year round @brandonwise2636
i was their back in 85 to 86 . from what i see and hear things have changed a lot ! that is very good as it was ruff back then .
It's worth mentioning that McMurdo, for all its discomforts, is FAR more hospitable than Mars.
Breathable air being at or near the top of the list.
I'd heard that before every Winter, they show 'The Thing' at McMurdo as a tradition. :)
They do that at the South Pole station after the last plane leaves for the season.
That is south pole. But, most of us watch the thing also
I did a summer in 08/09 and I watched it on my laptop while flying from NZ on a C-17. It was a nice way to kick off the season
My friend from BAS said they do at Halley base too.
That’s at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.
McMurdo, where the 2nd Stargate is and the Ancient Chair Device.
Stargate is the first place I ever heard of McMurdo
Neither are _actually_ at McMurdo. It's just a hop on the way in land.
Earth's greatest defense against the gould
Well, that's where we found them. They're at Area 51 now
That's a conspiracy theory I can get behind 😊 Jaffe Cree
Some side notes... the HMS Terror wasn't just a "war ship", she was a Bomb Vessel (floating artillery) that played an important part in American History. She was one of the ships present at the siege of Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. It was her shells witnessed by Francis Scott Key that gave us "Bombs bursting in air." It was due to the stout construction being built to handle the recoil of the heavy mortars that her & her sister ship, the Erebus, were perfect to be refit for polar explorations, which they performed quite well up until when they were both sadly lost during the doomed Franklin Expedition in the Arctic. Both ships were just recently found, with the Terror in nearly pristine condition in the cold Arctic waters.
For those interested, there are several TH-cam channels of people documenting their stay at McMurdo station.
I have seen several, very interesting. I have 2 friends that also went there for work.
There is a fantastic quasi-book titled, “How to Get a Job in Antarctica” written by Matty Jordan that does an exquisite job walking through the type of person that’s successful in the environment. Definitely worth a read!
@@notmattmclellan My friends both got jobs through industry contacts, but thanks for the info. Might be fun to read just for fun.
4:50 10c is around 50f not 12f
Maybe he accidentally plugged -10.8C into the calculator which is 12F
He quite clearly said minus, even over that awful music.
But negative 10 is 14 so there's that
@@markstanbrook5578no he didn’t. He very clearly says “scorching 10.8 degrees Celsius or 12.5 degrees Fahrenheit.”
@@markstanbrook5578 even if he did say that it would be even more wrong because he was talking about it going above freezing and -10 and 12 are both not above freezing
I caught a mistake at 4:48. 10.8 Celsius is not 12.5 Fahrenheit it's 51.4, you converted negative 10.8.
Yeah, I had a record scratch on that.
My grandad spent a season at Scott Base doing survey work. Got both extremes, from skinny dipping in the Dry Valley to being rescued by an American helicopter when the temperature, with wind chill, dropped to minus one hundred degrees unexpectedly.
I’ll be making a trip there on that same coast guard ice breaker shown :) it’s an old boat, more than 50 yrs at this point but still going strong!
Good luck mate.
What ship you taking?
Go, Coasties! My dad was one in WWII.
Is that Polar Sea or Star?
Might see you there! Because of this video you shouldn't be too surprised by how little accommodations there are when you get shore leave there.
As a Canadian I lived with -50C in the Yukon, and when it was -20C warm enough to go outside 😊
Love the McMurdo station 🇺🇸
The music adds so much depth to the video....
Said no one ever
yeah i don't understand why they do this
Quick note on the wind turbines! They are scheduled to be replaced, along with a more modern battery system which should greatly improve the power situation for both Scott Base and McMurdo.
Did the 91-92 and 93-94 seasons. Fun fact: The C-5s can only stay in one spot for about an hour, otherwise they deform the ice and they have trouble getting out of the depression. Turn arounds were pretty quick. There was the time I drove up to one and the aircrew came charging out naked, ran around the plane 3 times and then disappeared back inside. Their equivalent of the Polar plunge. Yes the Kiwis would drill a big hole in the ice and you could jump in for a refreshing dip.
Got a buddy that works there. Loves it
In fact, he signed a new contract and was off in the last couple of weeks
I spent 3 summer support seasons at McMurdo station and Williams Field from 1982-1985 with the US Navy's Operation Deep Freeze, (VXE-6) as an aircraft mechanic working on the LC-130 aircraft. It was the most interesting time of my Navy career.
10.8 C is actually 54.11 F.
Simon just reads any script given him with zero fact checking. This channel used to be immune but recently...
@@WeAreTheTrueMedia Simon doesn't write the scripts, he just reads them
Shit 54 f aint to bad
This is an egregious logical error to anyone proofreading the script... or just reading it, Simon. smh
10.8° C = 51.44° F
Currently at Mcmurdo. Been here for 7 months so far.
Might get hired there for a contract
How is it ?
@@melflob3ats I enjoyed it. I was there for winter so it was very low amount of people compared to the summer time.
Go get em buddy 👍
McMurdo isn't the supply hub for all of the Antarctic bases at all.
Mawson is the distribution hub for all of the Australian bases and it gets it's supplies directly from Australia.
eh. . . it really is. It may come from Australia, but it goes through McMurdo sound.
@@Jessersadlerno, it really isn’t. Also the poster above is also wrong, Casey, Mawson and Davis are all supplied directly from Hobart, Australia and none of the ships go within thousands of km of McMurdo sound. McMurdo is a huge distance out of the way for any of the Australian bases on another side of the continent (hence why McMurdo flights leave from NZ not Australia) and only rarely do passengers transfer through there and vice versa when Wilkins is shut or a free seat is available. Otherwise for air supplied cargo it goes through Wilkins or is directly air dropped by C-17 from Hobart or Perth.
Sometimes a ship will stop at two or three of the Australian stations on one trip, but supplies are not sent to one first generally, but if any are, a hub it’s Casey due to the relatively nearby Wilkins Aerodrome open for part of the summer season (except when it’s too warm!), and the higher bed capacity there.
I have literally physically been aboard in Australia’s ships, both the new Icebreaker and previous leased ships. As well as consigned cargo for each station.
M
@@Jessersadler it really isn't. Information about the RSV Nuyina from the Australian Antarctic Program explicitly states it delivers supplies and Personal Directly to Australian Bases.
@jackvos8047 it's an icebreaking research vehicle, has only been around since 2021, and skipped 22/23. . . so it's only usable for 2 years since 2021🤷♂️. How'd they get supplied before that?
Also, the US doesn't really use its ice breaker as a "supply" ship. while it's capable, and does transport people and limited items, it's main purpose is to break a channel for frigates and container ships to bring in supplies. McMurdo is by far the largest and most utilized base on the continent, by all nations that operate there.
ikr, Mcmurdo has nothing to do with the other bases down there. Scott and South pole being the exceptions. The 3 BAS bases I've been too and the Chilean and Arentine ones are completely independent from it.
No worries. I live and work in Barrow.
I was at McMurdo for several weeks, a long time ago. It got above freezing one day. It was like summer.
I love these videos and have watched forever, but this new music is too loud I'm comparison to Simon's voice.
I'm disappointed, nothing about the 300 Club. Amundson Scott South Pole station. To join first climb into sauna, set it at 240 or so. Half hour. Run outside to touch the South Pole marker, 800 feet away (tough at 10,000 feet) and run back inside. Do this naked. Just once. Trivia, at Antartica Snickers bars are the energy bar of choice.
Oh, 300 because that is supposed to be the temp difference between the sauna and outside.
Coast Guard icebreakers? We wish!! We have one. One icebreaker capable of going down there. We are decades overdue for a new one and there isn’t one coming soon.
I was on Polar Sea's last trip south. Didn't know it at the time, but that's how history panned out
@@Jessersadler Prior Coastie... The state of the Coast Guard Ice Breaker's is dreadful! If only the US woould invest the USCG as fraction of what the USN gets... JB Hall, LT USCG (USMMA '95)
My father was a part of Operation Deep Freeze during his time in the Navy. He was a photographer and we still have stacks of his pictures. Antarctica is bleak and foreboding, yet beautiful.
Surviving in McMurdo is pretty easy. I worked there in 2000 and it was great. The food was v good. You get used to the cold, going back to darkness when heading north after your time there is the weirdest bit. You kinda forget what darkness is like 😂😂
Oh, so you did summer.😅
How dare you lie to people about the food! lol
@@andrewsmithingell673090% of people "do" summer. Skeleton crew in the winter there.
@@Jessersadler Yep, was just commenting on the "mainbody" experience...even "winfly" would yield a different perspective.
Stepping back into civilization after a W/O was brutal. The darkness you got used to.
I live at the other end of the temperature scale. A few years ago I was working outside at a job (Phoenix, in case you're wondering) and looked down at my phone to check the temperature. It was 117. In the shade.
Yea so do we in Australia, one town we live in underground caves because is so hot...
Spent time at McMurdo from oct 94 to fed 95, was a great experience.
Reminds me of Northern Minnesota. -20deg Fahrenheit is a pretty typical winter morning.
I was literally watching "The Thing" again last night and then today it's the opening for this video. Simon is psychic!
A few corrections... fuel is not _flown_ in! Do you have any idea how many flights / how expensive it would be? PM3 leaked pretty much from day one. The "modular" design was so every piece of it could fit in a cargo container so it could be shipped in - again not _flown_ in.
(In fact, fuel is rarely even flown to inland bases. South Pole station, for example, has all of its fuel tractored in. Yes, they drag it all the way there - South Pole Overland Traverse (SPOT))
In the years before the SPOT was completed, VXE-6 LC-130's would fly fuel flights daily to the South Pole. It was a horrible way to move it, but it was done. My last stay at McMurdo was 30 years ago, and I remember watching years later as the overland route to the plateau was advanced.
@@BUCKMAW Yes, it was horrible and insanely expensive. And for a good part of the year, not possible even do. SPOT isn't exactly safe, but it is much cheaper.
(It was originally called the south pole inland traverse, but USAP didn't like "SPIT".)
With that accent, everything he says sounds correct.
C17s would like to laugh at this statement. Lol yes fuel is flown in.
@@rain4834 Nope. A C17 could carry about 20k gal of diesel. That's enough for about two weeks.
Their fuel *IS* delivered by ship. [ www.nsf.gov/pubs/1997/antpanel/4past.htm Section 4.2.7 ]
Always nice to see the ol' swedish icebreaker "Oden" show up.. :)
"the edge of the world" 👀 I can already hear faint "ice wall" comments...
And the inevitable Flerfs crying at it's all fake 'cos no-one can go there and the penguins are armed...
@@stephenmonaghan6030who gave penguins guns
I mean at this point it’s prolly the only way to slow global warming lmao
@@LyricClock-fo8he The dolphins armed the penguins in '64 to help fight their common foe, the sinister and cunning squirrels :D
😂
@@olencone4005😂 grey or red squirrels?
The thing mentioned!!!!
🤦♂️
@@WeAreTheTrueMedia I saw
I swear this guy already has a video on everything I become interested in
"The Thing" is a fantastic movie.
We better practice living in extreme cold and harsh weather conditions, if we want to ever go to Mars, Callisto and Enceladus!
First Antarctica, second the Moon, third Mars. After that point we should be able to send expeditions anywhere we're willing to go. 🎉
We at least have a magnetic field, to protect us from most cosmic rays. THAT is the main dilemma with interplanetary travel and colonization.
@@just_kos99 Interplanetary, yes, and I've seen few good ideas on preventing that...
The moon has regolith that can be dug under, and some lava tubes. Keeping people tumour-free down there should be fine. And the journey there and back is nonterrible.
The first time I ever heard of McMurdo was on Stargate SG-1. Learning about it here is super interesting.
Also I think you should do a video on the Hulett Ore Unloaders that used to exist in the Great Lakes. They were super interesting machinery and would be well suited for this channel
Trivia fact - apparently the South Pole base uses NZ time for its timekeeping.
The music is kind of annoying
It is super distracting.
Music sounds like something you’d hear in some hipster coffee shop
Even his voice is, just the topic is interesting 😂😂
The heck is wrong with yall?!? smh
Came to say this.
A Refreshing Video
Another two corrections, on top of the fuel not being flown in, there is no longer a bowling alley and the hottest Fahrenheit temperature is wrong. One of the bowling lanes is in storage and can be setup in the basketball gym for special occasions. But that hardly ever happens. The hottest Fahrenheit temperature is actually 51.44. Must have been a simple conversion error that made it into the script. However, that doesn't change the fact that in the height of Summer at McMurdo the temperature rarely gets above the freezing temperature of water.
for sure was a calculation error
Unique and attraction information video about McMurdo station
Turn the background MUSIC DOWN… there are portions of the video when I can barely hear simon
I am always shocked when people mention this on TH-cam videos. I can barely barely tell there is background music. Like I have to turn it to max volume and hold my ear to my phone. I wonder if there is some subset of people that can hear background info at different volumes than typical!
Probably you’re not listening on headphones. Personally it doesn’t drown things out but it feels distracting and unnecessary.
@@lijohnyoutube101 same, I never notice the bg music
@@TheBotticelliProject That is true, I do not use headphones
@@pleasestopscreaming yep I am always shocked. I have seen several people say this and almost always I legitimately say ..what there was background music. Like i have to go and try to extreme listen at max volume with the phone to my ear and it is like really focusing to BARELY hear a faint whisper of a background.
Live in Michigan. Few years ago - 15. Fahrenheit. Kinda cold
Northern Minnesota, a few years back ... -50F (without wind chill). Kinda breathtaking.
@@MrTexasDan ever been to coldfoot ak? Jan 1989 -74 f north american record coldest (not windchill)
@@MrTexasDan I have hit 50 below 3 times in MI but all with windchill!!!
@@MrTexasDan I saw -56 1 day , that was the night I forgot to plug my car in (block heater) , Thanks to 1000 amp battery and low compeshon the old Chevy Started , after a short warm up off to work I went . after about 6 miles I got heat .
@@henrycarlson7514 Everything's so ... crunchy ... at those temps.
Take a load of substrate, it is cheap, set up a greenhouse and you will get fun and plenty of fresh food.
Winds there, though?
I was at McMurdo in 2018 to 2019. It was freezing then but id love to go back
Cold for me is anything below 25C
Real cold for me starts at -20C, live in upper Midwest USA, haven’t experienced that temp for over 20 years… global warming.
have you ever thought about doing a megaprojects video about massive mining dump trucks?
I met somebody once who had been at McMurdo station doing research for NASA. Since the conditions in Antarctica are as close to Mars-like as we can get on Earth, she was cintracted to study the bacteria there in hopes of getting some idea of what Martian bacteria might be like.
Just earing "John Carpenter's The Thing" in the first seconds of the video made me put a thumb up!!
Flying there tomorrow.
How was the trip?
“Edge of the World” The flat earthers are going to love that one.
You mean we AREN'T living on DiscWorld???
No wonder my dragon just lays on the floor and wheezes (then again, it may just be a fat iguana)
I know this is a video about McMurdo and not The Thing, but I found the creepiest thing about the Thing was that the environment was also the only thing stopping the total destruction of the human race (and probably every other species on the planet too. It was equally "It's too cold to survive, so the monster will get me" but also from the monsters POV "I will never be warm and I can see the possibility of my total defeat just because all my possible victims are already dead".
Who needs avocados? Coming down again on the Ocean Giant
in the words of Canned Heat "Lets Work Together"
The music is just so loud
Remember US Navy - Antarctic Development Squadron Six - VXE-6, the Sailors and Air Crews that tamed the frozen hellscape known as "The Ice..." (AntarcticHelRonSix) :) UH-1N - A Huey does not fly; it beats the air into submission.
The aircraft flying down to the ice are known as Penguin Airlines.
We need another horror/mystery movie based in McMurdo
I saw that Seabee stamp on the naval documentation for the power plant
Here's to hoping that sanity prevails in a twenty years when that Treaty is up for renewal. We all need to maintain that security for Antarctica. No matter what natural resources might be down there, it should forever remain the pristine reserve for scientific research and understanding. For the betterment of all humanity, not the search for profits or benefit of a singular nation. And I say that as an Aussie. The country that claims almost 42% of Antarctica as our Territory. Somethings should be preserved for all.
McMurdo stayed alive by Not answering that radio call.
Palins Erebus book mentions the terror and is a great book in early Arctic and Antarctic exploration history
They say you can't fire federal employees. So transfer them there. They will quit.
"Assuming that the freezer is running" ...no. It costs extra to put a reversing valve in a heat pump, so freezers can only make things colder than their surroundings. That's literally the difference between traditional air conditioning and a home heat pump. The latter has a reversing valve and auto-defrost for the outside half of the loop and the former doesn't.
Don't know who thought up the freezer bit ... but no, guys ... a freezer is not necessarily safer that being outdoors. Freezers are designed to cool things down to ~0F, and definitely not to heat things up to 0F. Put a running freezer out in -40 temps and within a few hours the interior will be ... wait for it ... -40.
What could we possibly still be so fervently investigating science wise in Antarctica after 70 some years of being down there that still requires that many people?
McMurdo is not too bad in the summer (Nov, Dec). It is light almost all the time. Note I did go to "Discovery Hut". It is very cool to see.
I couldn't survive there for more than a month as I have type 1 diabetes and supplies would be severely limited. I go through 2 fast acting insulin pens a month, a pen of long acting insulin about every 18 days and 100 single use needles in 3 weeks to 25 days. My cgm only lasts 2 weeks before I've to replace it with a new one and I'd use a minimum of 4 test strips for finger pricking per day without a cgm. I spoke in the comments section of a video a few years ago with a guy who spent a long time in Antarctica and he said he was coeliac (as I am) and he said he got glutened a few times while he was there but he was able to manage it. He also said he preferred Antarctica to the 40+ degrees Celsius of the Nigerian summer heat. He said you can survive in Antarctica if you're coeliac but he agreed I'd struggle to survive as a diabetic because of limited supplies.
I actually worked down there for 6 months a few years back and I'm a type 1 diabetic. It's a lot of planning out your supplies and coordinating with Drs, but it's been done many times. There was actually another type 1 down there with me as well who did just fine.
That's great..... but what about MacReady?
I work at the CAT plant that produces the generators that power McMurdo!
Swedish Icebreaker :O Long way from home!
Watching this makes me want to watch the Top Gear Polar Special all over again.
ok re-watch time for The Thing!
I'm waiting for the first circum-continental swimming race.
The Thing is a story of hope and redemption of the human spirit. 🙂
Scorchio! 😎
4:48 warmest temperature ever 10.8 degrees Celsius. This is 51 degrees Fahrenheit, video says 12°
The way they deal with toilet waste is interesting.. They separate the corn husks from the rest and send it back home😮
You mean the ice wall right? Antarctica the ice wall that holds the flat earth oceans in? 🤣
What happened with the wind turbines was a battery system that failed because it used a controller that wasnt rated for the cold, and the output of the turbines had to be limited. There are plans to build more battery systems and more turbines.
@4:50, the conversion is wrong. 10.8C is 51.44F, not 12.5F. If its -10.8C the conversion works. So either the Celsius temp is missing a minus sign or the conversion to F is incorrect.
I have been mountaineering in winter in Siberia. That was a bit nippy.
Best model we have of what living on Mars will look like. Albeit in an environment 100 times more welcoming.
Boom boom.
Boom boom.
Simon b like “I see your comments and ITS ABOUT ME NOT YOU. I AM SMART BOI”
lol
Why not utilize decommissioned nuclear reactors from navel vessels that can be removed from their respective resting places then refueled/serviced back to full health/usefulness and rotate them in and out of McMurdo as needed. Aircraft carriers have reactors designed to last 50 years. Subs are good for 30 to 40 years and are used for 25 to 30 years of use before decommissioning. Repurposing multiple reactors spreading the load out as it were might be a way to get away from relying on diesel fuel and the problems that come with it while being used in sub freezing temps. The alternative would be to commission NEW reactors to use thereby getting 50, 40 or 30 years of use... or continue using diesel and adding to the problems we face currently. Just a thought that came about while watching this incredible video.
@@brentbarr498 considering the ecological mess that was left with radiated cooling water and human waste and massive diesel amounts etc from camp century not to mention the rumored lost nuclear warhead!!! Perhaps we should keep nuclear out of Arctic regions until we can be a more responsible species!
@@lijohnyoutube101 true BUT you can't discount the breakthroughs in the technology recently... utilizing spent fuel.. come on.. this is game changing methodology!!
WTF?😳 FIRST TIME 10 YEARS i watched the film..today THIS!
Ive lived in places so cold that the negative C and F temps are the same =)
I thought the coldest was 90. Something below. Zero Fahrenheit in Alaska or Mount Washington in the US. I could be wrong. I should Google it
This plave looks great. How do i sign up?
McMurdo sounds like a horror movie about a fast food chain
These days I cannot watch a simon whistler video without thinking every single image show in in the video is AI slop, so I just listen only.
My sister works seasonally at McMurdo, and she once saw pond scum growing in a puddle, and she's been there when it was actually above freezing. I wonder how they calculate their temps, then? It was within the last 12 years she reported this to me.
Some pictures of McMurdo are very old.
And the mentioned bowling alley does not exist anymore. It was demolished in 2009/10.
What made you choose mcmurdo over Amundsen-Scott? Between the two, I think Amundsen-Scott is the cooler station.
How Cool 😂