IamA I don't have a lot of time, but Network Engineer and Glacier Search and Rescue team member working in Antarctica, AMA!

Have you ever watched The Thing? If so has it ever scared you about going to Antarctica?

Great documentary

Hi S. We miss you at group!

Hi person that I miss but don't know which one yet! I miss you guys a lot too

Lol, which version is your favorite?

1984 1982, of course.

edit: I've shamed my family and my country

There was another AMA from an Antarctic research that said it was a base tradition to watch The Thing right after most people make their exodus for the winter, leaving the base minimally occupied.

I've been in McMurdo for 2 1/2 months now and still haven't seen The Thing. shhhhhh!

burn the witch

What is the strangest thing you have witnessed in Antarctica?

Probably how fast the weather can change. One hour it will be crystal clear skies and no wind, and the next it's suddenly 60kn winds and crazy ice storms.

If i had to really really pee while away from base camp, what's the protocol?

Everyone is required to pee in bottles carried with them, then bring it back to station for disposal.

Why not just piss on snow?

Violation of the Antarctic treaty

What sense does that make to have put in a treaty?

Antarctica is a specially protected area, set aside for scientific research, so the idea is to, as much as possible, not impact the environment in any way. That includes spreading human urine in places that it didn't previously exist.

Even the women have to pee in a bottle ?

yup

Are penguins as cute and awesome as they seem to be?

Absolutely

Do their poop stink really is the worst smell in the world as I often heard that ?

Absolutely, it's terrible.

Any pokemon there from the pokemon go app?

Only a couple but they're literally just out of signal range which drives our lab manager crazy

which drives our lab manager crazy

/backs away slowly from that situation

smart man

Any tips for people trying to get a position down there, even if only for a little while?

Sure! I think outside of having a baseline of professional experience in your field, the #1 most important thing is persistence. I applied three years in a row before hearing anything, as did many of the people working down here. It's often just luck of the draw - there are very limited positions on "the ice" and a lot of people trying to get them. But people drop out all the time, or fail PQ (physical qualification), or don't pass their psych eval (winter-overs only), etc, so you just never know.

Most contracts are either Winter (5-7 months), Summer (3-4 months), and "Winfly" (~1 month, "winter fly-in") which is a big logistics operation to prepare South Pole Station for the next season.

What was your PQ test like?

At least three urine tests, blood test, EKG, HIV/AIDS, a bunch of shots, TB skin test, vision test, dental exam, etc. Basically the full gamut to make sure you're 100% ready to go.

Is there a strong demand for IT/tech personnel for winfly duty? I've always wanted to work in Antarctica, but a 3-7 month tour is hard to swing with a wife and kid at home.

/u/Julisan said no. You can't come just for winfly, because the contract is for the summer, and it just depends whether or not you come in early (winfly) or with the main body of summer personnel (after winfly). But there is no "only winfly" contract. Sorry :/

The good news is, there are married people down here who managed to work it out with their spouse to spend a single season down here.

What's your opinion on Antarctic tourism? I've always wanted to see the "weirder" corners of the world and an Antarctica cruise is high up on my bucket list, but I'm not sure what the impact is on the pristine environment there.

A lot of cruise ships visit the station during the summer months, but we didn't have any this winter season. Antarctic tourism is a little tricky I think. For one, it's great to let people see the continent, it's very beautiful and pristine, and a great experience, and can in some cases inspire people to start working or researching here. On the flip side, increased tourism always brings a bigger effect on the environment, in the form of altered wildlife behavior, trash, etc. Limited, careful tourism is probably fine, but as the industry gets larger it becomes more and more difficult to do it carefully. There's my rambling thoughts on that.

Have you had any cruisers as tourist. (Sailboats travelling the world) I know there are a few cruisers out there on well build aluminium sailing yachts. That occasionally sail in the arctic circles.

We haven't this season, no, but our station manager who has spent a lot of seasons down here said they do come in every so often, though almost exclusively in the safer summer months.

I love it when people barf out their souls, when on a cruise for the first time in their lives.
Can you describe the last days of your journey to the whitelands?

I haven't actually been on one of the tourism cruises, but the first time I saw Antarctica in the daylight took my breath away. It looked fake, like something out of a movie.

HI /u/vocatus! How much has your development of /r/TronScript been impacted while you've been there? You still seem to post fairly regular updates. Thank you for all your hard work on it by the way! I love it and use it regularly!!

Hi /u/0110010001100010, thanks for the message!

It's been more challenging for sure, especially with the limited bandwidth, but I've been fortunate enough to be able to keep up development of it during some of my free time. Glad it's useful for you!

here b/c as soon as I saw the title, I knew it was the tron guy

*waves hello

Can you send and receive actual mail? I find the idea of a letter being able to make it all the way there rather cool

McMurdo station and South Pole station have intermittent official mail service, but our station does not. The closest thing we have is people can send small packages or letters to the ASC headquarters in Denver, CO, and a staff member will hand-carry it down on the next resupply ship. Our station has no air service.

Hm, so no prime now. Sad.

We're still on the "Amazon 18th century mail service" plan.

Sometimes adversity makes us stronger, sometimes the struggle makes us weaker. Does an Antarctic tour increase most people's fitness?

It seems to just exacerbate whatever people's original fitness was. So people who don't really work out tend to gain a lot of weight over the season (long periods of darkness, alcohol, and surprisingly good food contribute to this), while people who are generally fit end up making time to work out in spite of the environment.

What was your best meal there?

Probably lobster tail. Our chef is incredible.

Lisa is great, she was awesome to meet at McM even if for just a short time.

I am still in love with her.

I got to spend 3 weeks in Greenland as part of my grad school research. Always appreciate hearing about other people spending time in the icy areas of the world! Have you had any fun/interesting experiences with the animals down there?

I have! Seals and sea lions regularly come up and lay around station. Sometimes they get in the way of cargo ops, but for the most part they're fun to see. Lots of penguins around too, they're always hilarious to watch.

Do penguins come up to people or are they shy?

They generally don't come up to us because they're mostly on the nearby islands, but they aren't too shy if we're in the same area.

Have you seen any bears or foxes?

None. Polar bears are only in the Arctic (north) and not Antarctic (south). Lots of whales though.

Please share a funny penguin incident

One time I saw one slip and fall into the water while it was trying to hop from rock to rock. Made me laugh.

What's the female situation like down there? People getting busy or what?

There tend to be less females than males, though that fluctuates heavily depending on what science groups are here. For example, marine biology seems to have a higher concentration of female scientists than, say, atmospheric research. As far as hooking up, people are people, and it happens here about as much as anywhere else I suppose.

Thanks for answering. On a completely unrelated note is watching the movie The Thing frowned upon down there?

Not only is it not frowned upon, it's encouraged. I think we've already watched it three times this season.

It is my dream to get the opportunity to work in Antarctica at some point in my life. I am studying for a degree as a Network Engineer but with a focus on security. Been working on systems for 10 years now so I got some experience, just need the degree to back me up. Any recommendations on what a recruiter might be looking for? I'm under the impression that working in Antarctica is a temp job, am I wrong?

Hi /u/ShadowSt, thanks for the question. You're on the right track - my background is Systems Administration and my bachelors was a BAS in "Cyber Security." I think anything you can do to gain wide experience on different networking and systems equipment is valuable. There's quite the odd conglomeration of IT equipment down here, so wide experience is very useful. Just keep at it, and I'd say you could even start applying now, you never know when a position will open up.

Antarctica is technically a temp job, yes. That being said, many people return year after year because rehiring preference is often given to people who have already been to the ice, since they know the systems and environment and are already "in the system," so to speak. The Summer network engineer at our station is on his 11th year down here, I believe. Having zero expenses allows you to save up quite a bit of money and "float" between seasons (or travel, if that's your thing).

I actually know someone who went to Antarctica, not sure if it was a tourism thing or worked there. His desk is two down from mine has pictures of his time on a boat. Where do you apply at? I'd love to look more into it.

I'm also working on a BAS in Cyber Security.

Google "Leidos ASC contract" and go from there, they're who handles all ASC contract positions. Good luck!

Have you met Dawson yet? He's a buddy of mine who is currently over there too.

I haven't met anyone named Dawson, sorry!

...can't believe that went right over my head.

Tell Laura she's a beautiful stellar sea cow

done

1) Have you got a mixed bag of vendor networking equipment, or do you tend to stick to one (Cisco, Fortinet, Juniper, PA?)? Any special customizations that have to be made given the environment you work in?

2) Can you explain the networking setup there? Are you given your own IPv4 block, or just have a couple addresses with heavy use of NAT'ing? More specifically: what sort of connection to the outside world do you have?

I can't go too in to depth due to info sec and all that, but we have a wide smattering of equipment. Lots of Cisco, some Riverbed SteelHead WAN optimizer stuff (heavy QoS on the satellite link), etc. Our connection out is a 3 Mb/s satellite link with backup Iridium satellite phones (in case of outage). The U.S. Antarctic program has it's own IPv4 block, I think you can look it up in IANA. No NAT to speak of for the most part, except in a few special circumstances. I just finished IOS upgrades on the station edge routers recently and that is always a nerve-wracking experience :)

Cool. I'd imagine that you must be using TDRS (and maybe something from Iridium?) and have a certain schedule for when you can do things...such as this IAMA. Assuming this is true, I'd be curious to know how you plan for these windows, or any related horror stories.

edit: Looks like I might be right: https://www.usap.gov/USAPgov/technology/documents/SPSAT%2020161015.pdf

Our station is north enough that we actually have constant LOS to our bird (barely). We do get solar outages (had three this week actually) but for the most part our connection is stable.

South Pole is a different story entirely, they have revolving windows of availability vs. blackout.

Did your time in the Army/NSA prepare you for the job you are doing now? What experiences from them do you feel assist you most in what you are doing now?

They did somewhat. While Antarctica is much different from those places, I felt the Army in particular helped because of some similarities between them. Things like long periods away from home, exposure to a harsh environment, having to live in tight spaces with people you may or may not like for extended periods, and little separation between personal and professional life.

How's the internet? What is the ping at www.google.com?

Ping is a constant 500-700ms RTT, like any satellite connection. Internet is pretty slow, 3Mb/s shared among the whole station.

What is your favorite thing to snuggle when you get cold?

A cute girl!

Or my cat, but he is a long, long, long ways away from here..

You seem to imply that the cute girls are not.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Thomas misses you I am sure!

poor little guy

Have you ever experienced a very dangerous situation where you thought "that's it, I might die today"?

Nothing near-death, although I was a little nervous a few times on the glacier with the snowmobiles. They can be dodgy in some conditions and I nearly rolled one in a disguised drop-off my first time out.

The only other time was when myself and another GSAR team member had to rope off and go outside the flag line, which is a series of marker flags indicating the edge of the "known safe" area of the glacier. We had to extend the flag line to make a hasty airstrip to support an emergency medical evacuation from the South Pole, so we roped off and I went first, probing for hidden crevasses with my ice axe.

I went first, probing for hidden crevasses with my ice axe.

That sentence made me very anxious. Have you ever found a hidden crevasse using that method?

Not yet, fortunately!

Whats the best advice you can give to someone if they find themselves trapped down a glacial crevasse?

If they don't have rope or crampons and there's absolutely no way out, stay put, try to stay warm, and wait for rescue.

On our station people have to sign out with destination, start and return times when going out to the glaciers, and if they miss radio check-in we'll first attempt to find them on station (people often forget to check back in), then deploy the GSAR team to find them.

Is it true you can't work there if you haven't had your appendix and wisdom teeth removed?

I believe that's only for South Pole and only for winter-overs, but last I heard they may have waived the requirement.

Hey there :) Just saw this and thought I'd do a drive by post since I'm the South Pole network engineer. We do NOT need our appendix out or our wisdom teeth removed as long as they are healthy.

Finally, an authoritative answer!

Current temperature in kelvin? 296.48K here.

273.15K. Winter is ending and Summer is starting so it's been getting much warmer lately.

Does it snow year round?

Pretty much, yeah.

Have you ever kicked a penguin?

Ha ha, can't say that I have.

What are the official/working guidelines regarding animal interaction?

The Antarctic treaty governs most of our actions down here, but in general the rule of thumb is "if the animal is reacting to your presence, you're too close."

What's the work structure like? Do you have a traditional manager, meetings etc?

It varies hugely by position and station. Since ours is pretty small it's just myself, the sys admin, and the satcom engineer, and we report directly to our boss in Denver.

I've heard there are non technical jobs one can get in the research communities in Antartica, is this true? If so, how does one go about applying to them.

Absolutely. Think of everything you'd need to make a small city or town run, and that position probably exists down here. Waste management, electricians, carpenters, chefs, general assistants, painters, mechanics, etc. The general trades are in heavy demand.

Google "Leidos ASC contract" and go from there, they're the ones who handle all Antarctic support jobs.

painters?!!

Buildings need paint :)

Fellow network engineer! What kind of stuff do you find yourself doing? At such a small and secluded place I can't imagine there's a lot of networking stuff to be done.

You'd be surprised, actually! Due to the large amount of specialized scientific equipment, I spend time doing firewall rules, VLAN configs, traffic shaping tweaks, etc. And when I'm not doing that, I'm also a general "help desk / manual labor" person.

Did you like working for the NSA? Were you an officer or enlisted in the Army?

I'm a Chief Warrant Officer with the Army (still in the Reserves at the moment).

I enjoyed a lot of aspects of working with the NSA, particularly being around very smart and talented people, and getting to work on some very interesting projects from a technical standpoint. Also had fantastic benefits and vacation policy. Unfortunately I didn't really agree with a lot of what they were/are doing from an ethical and personal conviction standpoint, and while there's not much I could do to change it, I knew I at least didn't want my life work contributing to it, so I left to pursue opportunities elsewhere. I don't regret the time there but don't think I'd ever go back.

And now you are "snowed-din" ;-)

Oh, you

Do you get a feeling of statelessness down there? Or does it still feel like the US?

I do sometimes, yeah. It's a surreal place in a lot of ways, not the least because you're so far from real civilization and Antarctica technically isn't anything (e.g. not a country, state, territory or province).

What was your MOS?

255A Information Services Technician, CW3. I'm still in the Active Reserve currently.

Just curious--I'm a network engineer as well, but what type of industry certifications do you have?

CISSP, CCNA, and A/N/Security+. I also have a current TS/SCI w/ full scope poly, but that will be expiring soon as I'm no longer in a position that requires it.

Cool, thanks! What was the requirements for the position? I've seen random postings for positions in Antarctica, and I find it intriguing.

Hard to say, just gotta go look at the Leidos listings yourself! Google "Leidos ASC jobs"

How are the tinder matches down there?

Pretty sparse :)

How do I concatenate two strings in perl?

Sell one pearl and use the money to buy a second string.

How many people have you murdered?

I'll PM you

Have any interesting stories of rescuing people? How often do have to rescue someone?

It depends what science groups are on station and how often they're out either on the glaciers or on the water, boating to the different islands. I've only personally "rescued" one group from the glacier, when they got caught in a sudden ice storm that was a complete white-out. I think there's a picture of us returning to station on the snowmobile in the album I linked in the original post.

Hello I have a question about climate change.

I don't know if anything there is readily apparent where you work, but - What do you think about the planets average co2 levels raising above 400 ppm? I wonder if there is some insight to be gained from that area or from that line of work that maybe the general populous would overlook. Do you think that the human story is ending?

I'll confess I don't have too much in-depth knowledge on climate change, though I do spend a lot of time around people who do. Just anecdotally I can say the glacier behind our station is retreating very fast, a visually noticeable few feet per year. As the ice sheet recedes, it uncovers various islands that we didn't know were there, which is a bittersweet bonus to it melting.

I tend to be an optimist and so no, I don't think the human story is ending, we still have a long way to go, and the future is very hard to predict.

How does a person get to Antarctica without having some scientific or military reason? Are there boats that regular Joes can hop aboard?

It's tricky (and expensive), but in general your options are

a. Catch a ride on one of the tourist cruise ships. Prices range from $5,000 at the absolute low end to $25k and up on the higher end. Downside: You're with a giant mass of people and you won't get to spend much time on the ice.

b. Private yacht or cruise ($$$$$)

c. Sightseeing flight ($$)

d. Come down as a scientist or contract worker

First AMA I'm very interested in! I was a network engineer but my resume in that field isn't nearly as impressive as yours. However, As a fellow vet that is a 11 year firefighter (between military and civilian), medic, and more, I would LOVE to come out and be a part of the team you're on. I do still have enough knowledge to function as an engineer but I'd be much stronger on the fire rescue side. How do you get into something like this? How long are your tours? I'm still in the military as a reservist, would it be better to try and go on operation deep freeze, or as a civilian?

Hi /u/aidinfrost, good to meet you!

OK, so I think the #1 thing in coming down here is persistence in applying. I applied 3 years in row before hearing anything, and a lot of times it depends on the luck of the draw. So keep at it, I think you're more than qualified to work down here.

Your military and firefighting experience is very valuable. You couldn't be a full-time firefighter at this station because it's so small there's no dedicated fire personnel, only people assigned to the SCBA brigade, but you could be full time fire at McMurdo (the largest U.S. station).

Summer contracts are generally around 3-4 months, winterovers are generally 5-8 months, and Winfly ("winter fly-in," major logistics operation delivering cargo in preparation for the season) is about 1 month.

I am still military (Army Reserve), and got a special waiver to come down here. Unless you're part of the Air National Guard I don't think there's really any way to come down here in a military capacity - most of the military is gone and the only ones left are generally those flying the cargo aircraft to South Pole and McMurdo.

To get started, Google "Leidos Antarctica jobs." They handle all the contract work for the U.S. Antarctic program.

Good luck!

Whats life like out there? Do you enjoy it?

Pretty varied, honestly. I spend about 40-60% of my time doing IT work, and the rest of it doing all sorts of other things. Trauma team, firefighting team, search and rescue team, shoveling snow, helping with food and science cargo offload when the ship is docked, etc. And I love it!

Personally, I'm training for the Ironman triathlon during my free time here, as a way to pass the hours during the slower months.

I've heard that you go the first time for the adventure, the second time for the pay -- and after that because there's noplace else for you other than there. Do you think there's anything to that?

Also - quite the party crowd, or so I hear.

/u/Julisan answered pretty well. This is only my first season but it seems to be a pretty good rule of thumb.

Is the cold in Antarctica hard to adapt to?

For me it definitely was. I live in Phoenix, AZ in the states where it's routinely 115 F, so coming to a place with a nearly 200 degree difference in temperature was a big adjustment.

Are you the most extreme version of snow bird? (I love in Phoenix as well)

Never thought about it, but now that you put it that way, I suppose I am ha ha. I can't wait to get back home and feel the awesome Phoenix winter air. I love the city and the state so much.

What's the protocol in case of medical emergency (heart attack, stroke)?

Call the trauma team, get them to the doc, and see what he says. If they have to be evacuated, the absolute fastest the ship can get here is about 4 days. We're pretty far from help so everyone has to be pretty self-sufficient.

What is the hardest part of being away from America for extended period of time?

I'm sure it's different for a lot of people, but for me it's missing family and friends back home. I love, love, love being here, but always miss them and after many months you start to feel it.

How can I learn how to filter layer 4 and layer 7 reflective attacks against a server that has every port open?

I'll let you in on one my engineering secrets, as long as you promise not to tell anyone else. It's this little-known website called www.google.com, it has some great answers sometimes.

What is a good way to go about finding a job in Antarctica?

Google "leidos ASC contract" and go from there. Leidos is who handles all the Antarctic support jobs.

What's the down time like? Also how well does the team get along?

Also are you supplied your personal equipment / clothing or is it issued?

Down time, assuming nothing is going wrong on station (e.g. no emergencies) is pretty open. You can go to the bar, play board games, read, play computer/video games, watch movies in the lounge, hang out in the hot tub or sauna, etc. Weekends you can go up the glacier or go out in the Zodiacs to the nearby islands, weather permitting.

ECW gear ("extreme cold weather") is issued upon arrival, although everyone brings personal gear as well.

The team has gotten along pretty well this season. Of course it always depends on personalities and how well they mesh, and you'll always have one or two people who aren't as easy to get along with, but for the most part it's gone pretty well.

I know glaciers need saving, but do we really need to search for them? Don't we already know where they are?

They're pretty clumsy and frequently get lost

Is the bowling alley at McMurdo Station still in use down there?

I'm not sure, I've never been to McMurdo.

What is your adult beverage of choice in the Antarctica?

Probably wine. We don't have too many quality beers (e.g. craft beers) and wine is nice to sip on while relaxing in the hot tub.

Given that it's Antarctica, couldn't they just have called it "Search and Rescue"?

Well, there's also an OSAR team (Ocean Search and Rescue).

What's the networking situation that you are working with? How many sites/offices are there and are they all connected?

I can't go super into detail because of info sec etc, but all the U.S. stations talk back to Denver headquarters (sort of our "mission control") via various satellite shots. There's no fiber to the continent.

How is the wifi?

Fantastic. Of course I'm the one responsible for it so I may be a bit biased

Hey ! Here is my question : can you find me a job here ? :-)

Ha ha, sorry can't do that, but you can find one yourself!