A nice mornig at pole, only -39,5 F outside. Buuut....13-15 knots of wind quickly adjusts that to the usual windchill temp og about -52. Well-well.

5 norwegians start out by trying(!) to calculate fuel consumption while our US colleages hit the piles of crates and pallets together with a list of what SHOULD be there.
But aaa.. How much fuel did that big generator use? Do we have to use 2 heaters for the tent? How many miles per gallon are those vehicles going to give us after we have modified the drivetrain?  The rest of us dont envy John verry much as he is trying to put all kinds of variables into his excel sheet.
 
Svein, Kjetil and me, we are mechanics. Our big task starts when Camp Winter is up and running, so now our fingers are itching a bit.

Today Kjetil and Svein are lucky! Four small generators have to be adjusted for 11000ft elevation AND NOW THEY HAVE GAS!! A little tinkering at first (but that's what we live for), and then; vrrrooom! One more important piece in place: we have power as soon as we jump of the plane in the middle of nowhere.
 
Myself I got to work with my specialty: TL6 parts (www.berco.eu). There is a lot more than oil- and dieselfilters on the list I begun in April. Antarctica demands solutions for vehicles that nobody can deliver, så ourselves and the vehicle manufacturer make the road as we go.
Now all of this is piled up in 3 tonnes of pallets and crates at he bottom of the world, amazing. Everything is actually here! Counted, crosschecked on lists, pallets broken down to smaller crates and new lists made. Now we can actually get the cargo into the airplane and, not to forget; get it out again by hand at Camp Winter!
 
After a long but productive day we all gather for dinner as usual. A summary meeting is needed, specially now that we are going out with a Twin-otter first to prepp the skiway for the larger Basler! Maybe tomorrow already...
 
We close the evening with a 2 hour lecture by Bill Spindler, overwintering in 1977, with lots of pictures!! about the discovery of the pole and the stations built here. amazing! His website: www.southpolestation.com

A long but productive day today. Photo: Rune Svendsen/NPI