UMaine Psychologist Evaluates Volunteers for Antarctic Winter Service

Life in Antarctica can be daunting: ten hour work days, six days a week; extreme cold and dryness; isolation; and in the winter, no sunlight. Despite the challenge, about 300 people will spend the winter months there this year to maintain U.S. research facilities.

For University of Maine psychologist Janice Zeman, the chance to interview some of those people was an opportunity to apply her skills in an unusual setting. She was one of three psychologists who, at the invitation of a former colleague, spent two weeks in Antarctica in January conducting psychological evaluations for the federal government at McMurdo Station and the South Pole Station. The team's findings play an important role in selecting those who will stay in Antarctica during the upcoming winter season.

Zeman joined psychologists John Nicoletti of the Denver firm Nicoletti-Flater Associates; Antoinette Anker, forensic psychologist in the San Francisco area; and Kari Haska, administrative assistant for Nicoletti-Flater Associates. Their work was performed under a subcontract with the Raytheon Polar Services Company which manages Antarctic operations for the National Science Foundation.

Zeman says that she generally found the people who work in Antarctica to be adventurous and adaptable with interesting life stories. There was a common spirit of pioneering. Few of the people she interviewed were married or had children although many polar romances have begun on the Ice, as residents call the Antarctic, and culminated in marriage in the U.S.

Most of the people interviewed by Zeman and colleagues were support staff members including cooks, mechanics, electricians, air traffic controllers, fire fighters, and even hair dressers. Each psychological evaluation consisted of some paper-and-pencil questionnaires and an interview. The responses allowed the psychologists to assess the potential for the individual to have a successful over-winter experience.

“It's a very small community, and people generally seemed to be happy. Whenever we were in the Galley (cafeteria) or at the coffeehouse, there was a lot of camaraderie and joviality. People are very supportive of each other and talk about the family-feel to living on the Ice,” Zeman says.

In early January, Zeman flew to Christchurch, New Zealand where she waited for aircraft mechanical problems to be fixed in order to get a flight across the southern ocean to McMurdo. After the psychology team arrived, word traveled quickly. “People knew who we were within hours,” she says.

McMurdo accommodates about 1,200 people during the Antarctic summer when research activity reaches its peak, and another 200 people work at the South Pole where a new facility and power plant are under construction. Population drops like the temperature during the Austral winter. About 250 people stay at McMurdo, and 50 people keep the lights on at the South Pole Station. A New Zealand station near McMurdo hosts only 11 people.

The daily routine at McMurdo focuses on work during the week with various recreational activities scheduled for evenings. The schedule includes colorful titles such as “stitch and bitch” and “guts and butts” in addition to the more routine science and history lectures, yoga and competitive sports.

Since Sunday is the only day off, Saturday night becomes a time for relaxation and parties. Much of that activity occurs in one of the three bars at McMurdo, although there is also a significant number of non-drinkers who gather in other areas. There are occasional gatherings with people from the New Zealand base that is about five kilometers away.

“While we were there, the Kiwi base hosted a `skirt party,' which we weren't able to go to. People are very inventive with their costumes for these types of parties and apparently, Halloween is a big occasion,” Zeman says.

In addition to their work, Zeman, Anker, and Nicoletti had time for a midnight hike in full sunlight to an observation hill behind the station where they had a panoramic view of the ice-covered Ross Sea and Mt. Erebus, an active volcano. They also had a tour of a nearby hut built a century ago by explorer Robert Scott and his crew. The huts have been preserved in the same condition that Scott left them.

One of the highlights for Zeman was a three-hour flight to the South Pole in the cockpit of a transport plane flown by the New York Air National Guard. Conditions at the Pole are more austere, she says. Water and fuel are precious, and workers are allowed two two-minute showers a week. Adjustment to the altitude and dryness is also an issue. The South Pole's altitude is 9,318 feet.

Accommodations at the Pole are very cramped with many people during the summer months living in rooms the size of a prison cell with bathroom facilities in another building. People at the Pole often go to McMurdo for their vacations.

“While I was at the South Pole, I stayed in the two-bed hospital,” says Zeman. “Two Danish men arrived after a 60-day skiing expedition. Because of NSF policy, they slept outside in their tent by the ceremonial Pole. They didn't seem to mind at all. They were very regular types of men who had routine jobs as a pilot and computer expert most of the year, but they take a few months every year to do some extreme type of adventure. There seems to be something fundamentally different about people who do this type of activity that separates them from the rest of us,” Zeman adds.

Back at McMurdro, Zeman was able to call her family frequently and use e-mail for communication. The federal government makes the cost of a phone call from McMurdo equivalent to the cost of calling from Washington state.

“People on the Ice live with a lot of uncertainty. The weather can change quickly, and plans have to be set aside. They have little control over certain aspects of their lives. For example, when we were ready to leave, we had to wait until the weather was right and there was room on the outgoing plane. That can depend on who's coming and going and their priority listing. VIPS, the scientists, and medical emergencies were given top priority with staff and contract workers given lower priority. They give you about 12 hours notice before you leave although you can get bumped moments before a scheduled departure.”

“Except for reading about Ernest Shackleton's expeditions, I did not have much time to read about Antarctica before I went down. It was a great adventure. The experience has broadened by horizons and given me a new perspective on my profession and the multitude of ways that people can lead their lives,” says Zeman.

Return UMaine Today Research home

Site managed by Christopher Smith, Department of Public Affairs, University of Maine, Orono, ME, 04469-5761, 207-581-3744.

Revised: 01/31/08

Information in this web site is provided purely for educational purposes. No responsibility is assumed for any problems associated with the use of products or services mentioned in this web site. No endorsement of products or companies is intended, nor is criticism of unnamed products or companies implied.