After four years of working and living at McMurdo Station, one of the United States three Antarctic research stations, I’ve decided it is time to jump back into the unknown and seek new adventures.
I’ve been deploying to McMurdo every year since the summer of 2022. As the end of the summer drew near, I learned that wintering over was a possibility and curiosity got the best of me. I liked the idea of spending an entire year on the world’s harshest continent and wintering over is a thing very few people get to experience.
After experiencing both seasons (there are really only two seasons on the ice-summer and winter), I determined I much preferred the slower pace of winter to the chaos that is summer at McMurdo. Station population drops anywhere to 140-250 people during winter, a far cry from the 1000 people of summer. Perks of winter also included having your own room, which was pure luxury compared to my summer season when I shared a room with three other gals. The trade-off, living in the dark. Wintering over means no sun for approximately four months.
Living and working in Antarctica proves an excellent way to stack cash. Unless you have bills back home or an Amazon addiction (of which I had neither), there is really nowhere to spend money. Sure the small station store is an outlet, but other than the occasional craving for a bubbly water, I had no need to swipe my card at the store. I think that my time spent living out of a backpack while thru-hiking really taught me how little we actually need to be happy. Retail therapy just isn’t my jam. I’ve definitely become somewhat of a minimalist.
One winter turned into four and this past winter I found I was no longer thriving. The joy just wasn’t there anymore. I think the compounded time in the dark and cold took its toll on me. I physically craved being in the non-frozen world. Specifically, being outside, hiking, sleeping in my tent, hugging trees and petting my cats (who are co-parented by my baby brother, Sam). Of course, I also miss all my nearest and dearest humans.
After my third winter, I landed an amazing contract as a hospitality specialist on Palmyra Atoll. That translates to, cooking and doing laundry for a small (ok, tiny) field station located about 1000 miles South of Hawaii in the Central Pacific. The closest other humans-the astronauts on the International Space Station-no joke! I spent four months on the atoll, all of which I was outside. The galley I worked in, open air. The cabin I lived in, open air. I was never inside, spare the fifteen minutes every other week when I had a routine check in with the preserve manager in his little air conditioned office. I constantly marveled at how glorious it was being in fresh air 24/7. Sure I went outside in Antarctica, but being outside and being comfortable temperature-wise, purrrrr.
And so, as my fourth winter went on and I became more and more restless, I realized it was time to move on. I’m actually writing this from my dorm room at McMurdo, without big delays getting off the ice, I’ve got less than three weeks left. In total, I’ve spent 3.6 of the past 4 years down here and I’ve come full cycle.
What was once the unknown—a new adventure, became the comfortable, and is now the uncomfortable again. Only now it’s time to get really uncomfortable and step into the unknown again. It’s scary for sure. But, I know that intentionally stepping out of my comfort zone is when the growth happens and I’m craving growth.
The World is Wide and it’s time to go exploring again!
Thanks for following along,
Annemarie xo
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