Crimson & Gold
 Travis (far left) is pictured with his utility technician crew, including (second from left to right) Aditya Tata, Paul Smith and Jon Olander. Photo Credit, Calee Allen. |
James Travis III (T’07) set a goal for himself – be prepared for a job on Mars should the opportunity arise. So, he asked himself, “Where on Earth is there a climate harsh enough to simulate the surface of Mars?” The answer was easy: Antarctica, the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station to be exact.
Known as the “Land of Extremes,” Antarctica can be classified by just about any standard as the harshest climate on Earth, with an average winter temperature of 80 below zero and a summertime average high of minus 18.
“We recently had a teleconference with the Mars Phoenix Lander team,” he laughs. “While we were on the phone, the temperature the lander was experiencing on Mars was warmer than our temperature here.
“Antarctica is the coldest, driest, highest, iciest and windiest continent on the planet; it seemed to be the logical choice,” says Travis, who is now “on the ice” for the third time. He’s spent a total of 33 months at the South Pole station.
A typical day for the preventive maintenance foreman is running a crew of three, including two maintenance specialists and one utility technician apprentice. Their responsibilities include repair and maintenance to the station’s machinery and systems, most importantly the heating system.
“When it is minus 90 with 15-knot winds, buildings can get very cold very fast if a furnace or boiler goes out,” he says.
The team also is responsible for the station’s fuel and water supply, which comes from a “Rodriguez Well,” or man-made lake located approximately 500 feet below ground, Travis explains. In order to perform their routine of daily system checks, Travis and his crew can walk up to a mile one-way to inspect buildings – regardless of the chilly outdoor temperatures.
“If a critical system breaks, we have to fix it, or we could all die,” he adds, saying the 60 people brave enough to tough out the winter are stuck at the station for eight months with no way out. “The most unique aspect of my job is the isolation, but this drastically increases the responsibility of my job.”
But, his time at the station is not all work, there’s a little play, too. In his free time, he plays bass for Triceratops: The Revenge!, a modern rock band that “sounds like hippie jam rock; kinda like Radiohead got slapped upside the head by Pink Floyd,” he recently told The Antarctic Sun. He has also fronted the group Korpsicle, which played in an Amundsen-Scott version of Woodstock (see sidebar).
So, Travis can definitely say a day at the office is never boring. And, he hopes to never have a boring job again. That’s why he got a degree from Ferris, he says.
In his off time from the South Pole, he works as the controls technician for the former Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. Considered to be the world’s first penitentiary, the historical site is now believed to be home to ghosts and is host to a massive haunted house each fall called “Terror Behind the Walls.”
“It is one of the top 10 haunted house attractions in the U.S.,” he says. “It is probably the most fun job I have ever had. I use my electronic and mechanical skills to make the scariest props possible, what could be better?”
Staying warm? But then, what fun would that be?
 Aurore australis over the Elevated Station at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. The red lights close to the ground are used to provide direction during the winter darkness with minimal light pollution. Photo Credit, Keith Vanderlinde, courtesy of the National Science Foundation. |
Polestock 2008
Taken from “South Pole music festival pools diverse talent for biggest show of the winter” by Jeff King, South Pole correspondent for The Antarctic Sun, which is produced for the U.S. Antarctic Program. Posted May 23, 2008.
What started out as a plan for one or two bands to play a couple short sets quickly became five bands and two solo acts playing a six-hour concert with the help of behind-the-scenes video operators, sound crew, lighting and electronics crew, stage construction team, interior decorators, security personnel, cooks, bartenders and even roadies.
The bulk of the preparation for the concert began the day before with stage setup. The roadies and several other community volunteers pieced together a wooden stage platform in the Elevated Station’s gym and hauled the bands’ equipment to the stage. Meanwhile, a team of interior decorators made the gym look more like a concert venue.
A couple of electricians installed three sets of colored lights that could be synchronized to the music. One of the musicians set up an Internet broadcast so the entire concert could be heard by anyone in the world with Web access. Two winter-overs set up high-definition video cameras to record the entire event.
The final band was resident South Pole thrash metal ensemble Korpsicle. The only South Pole band with a slogan - Die Cold or Die Trying (in parody of rap artist 50 Cent’s first album) - Korpsicle’s frontman James Travis says, “We focus on the pain and suffering, both mental and physiological, that come with working on the Ice during winter.”