Ice and Darkness: Why New Zealand’s Antarctic crew love the winter

Last Thursday, the crew of 12 people at New Zealand’s Scott Base in Antarctica said goodbye to the sun.

It barely rose in the sky before it dipped below the horizon on a windy day as they prepared for the base’s Anzac Day celebrations. The sun won’t appear again until August 19. That’s six months of icy darkness literally at the end of the earth with scant opportunities to leave (unless there’s a major medical emergency).

And that’s just how many of the crew like it.

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The Scott Base research station, a direct line 3,500km south of Dunedin, buzzes with over 100 people during the summer when temperatures can rise to almost zero and the sun never sets.

In the winter, the base shrinks to a skeleton staff including an engineer, a carpenter, a chef and a technician who keeps year-round science projects going. There is a high demand for most of the positions with applicants keen to experience something money can't buy. This year, the majority of the crew are on at least their second winter rotation.

“There’s hardly any light pollution down here so the stars, the moon, the aurora - they’re incredible down here,” said Blaise Pehi-Neho, 33, the base’s paramedic and cleaner. Most people have dual jobs in the winter.

“And then I’m super introverted so it suits me being down here with just a small group of people as well.”

Pehi-Neho first came to Antarctica in October 2022, spending almost a year “on ice” as living on Scott Base is referred to. The summer flashed past with the busyness and energy of the standard Scott Base six-day work week. Then, the last summer staff left in March of 2023 and Pehi-Neho bunkered down for the winter with 16 other people.

Not long after the last sunset of the summer, Pehi-Neho fell in love with the Antarctic winter. She was heading to the Square Frame, a container hut about 5km from the base that staff can book for a night away. Like others who have been to Antarctica, she was taken by the indescribable silence.

“...I was walking there in the dark and it was just silence around me and the stars were in the sky, the moon was up and it was so quiet - no wind - and I was just plodding along, walking out to this other incredible place where I could stay and look at the stars and be by myself for a bit, and I was like ‘Yeah, this is really special'."

Chef Paddy Rietveld is on his third winter season at Scott Base. It is the winter when “Mother Nature is at her strongest when we can have temperatures that go below -50 and storms that can rock the base at hurricane speeds which is something to witness [and] feel.”

The small group there to maintain the base becomes a close family, he said.

“It is a long time away from home where you do miss your friends and family but there’s something pretty unique about having the privilege to be one of the few selected people who get to witness this stunning place where photos can only do so much justice.”

Despite the darkness, the crew can go for walks or cross-country ski with headlamps and radios to constantly check in with the base. They go for drives in the Hägglund, a dual-cab vehicle with rubber tank-like treads.

There are fat tyre bikes for riding on the snow. The much larger American base, McMurdo Station, is a 40-minute walk and the crew goes over for Fourth of July celebrations.

Other traditions include each crew member designing and setting up a mini golf hole inside the base. There’s also a climbing wall with a crash pad. Activities are part of the strategy to keep the crew emotionally and physically healthy in an almost alien environment.

“They can organise anything they like really on base and they do,” said Megan Nicholl, who does communication and human resources for Antarctica New Zealand, the government agency that runs the base.

“Some of the fun things they have done - and I love this one - is hide and seek, which just cracks me up that you’ve got this group of 12 people playing hide and seek around a base in Antarctica but it’s quite neat.”

Humans have lived continuously on Scott Base since its first iteration was built and opened by Sir Edmund Hillary in 1957. Over those 70 years, Antarctica New Zealand has learned how to care for its staff in the extreme climate, says Nicholl.

They hire a careful mix of introverts and extroverts. All potential staff go through psychometric testing which examines personality traits and emotional intelligence.

Vitamin D tablets and light therapy lamps are on hand to mimic what human bodies need from sun exposure. Before the season, staff are hammered with the importance of establishing a sleep routine instead of relying on normal cues of the sunrise and sunset to form a schedule.

Ahead of the winter in 2023, Scott Base started using Starlink internet so the crew could call friends and family from their bedrooms rather than book a conference room with a video linkup.

Staff are trained to be aware of the symptoms of seasonal depression and Polar T3 syndrome, where a lack of stimulation can cause forgetfulness and mood disturbances.

Life coach James Laughlin is also on hand to support the team. He met them down at the base in February and will do regular check-ins throughout the winter via video calls.

Laughlin, the mental skills coach for Canterbury Rugby and host of the Lead on Purpose Podcast, prepared for the unusual job of Antarctica crew support by researching astronauts.

“NASA has done some quite amazing studies and research around what it's like to head to space, and it's the nearest example of living on the ice in Antarctica.

“It's very isolated. It's long term. There's obviously a lot of different issues around light and connection with others.”

One aspect of the studies that jumped out to Laughlin as a crossover strategy for the Scott Base winter crew is establishing rituals and routines.

“The highest performers in any industry, you look at their daily routine. God, it's so predictable. But that's what makes them functional and that's what helps them navigate the tough times.”

When Laughlin met with the winter crew, he worked on increasing their self-awareness, helping them plot out projects, goals and rituals for the long dark season.

“What does exercise look like for your mental health, physical health, and what does connection look like? What does solitude look like because you're in pretty close quarters with 12 people for 9 months.”

Martin ‘Molly’ Meldrum, 55, isn’t in Antarctica this year but he has survived and thrived in eight winters at Scott Base first as an electrician and then as its engineering supervisor. He contrasted the summer there as busyness, adventure and light compared to winter’s “solitude and togetherness of team".

“Some people, you know, find it a real challenge to exist. I think it very much depends on your personality.

“Most people who end up on the ice for a winter, you know, they're generally suited to that sort of environment. They’re often a little bit alternative.”

He made it through each winter by setting goals of what he wanted to witness.

“The last sunset, being snowed in, auroras, the mid-winter dinner. Things you look forward to instead [of] looking towards the daylight.”