Every year the winter-overs get to design and build the next season's Geographic South Pole marker. The marker design is kept secret until it is unveiled and installed on January 1, when the previous year's marker is retired and moved inside the South Pole Station. Below is the marker that was designed during our winter. This was a very special marker since 2011 marks the 100th anniversary of Roald Amundsen first reaching the Pole in 1911.
From the
Antarctic Sun, January 3, 2011:
The new bronze marker is in the shape of a sextant, an instrument used for navigation in the Age of Exploration. There are 47 individual degree marks on both sides at the bottom of the marker, representing the number of people who wintered at the South Pole in 2010.
In addition, a free-spinning “medallion” sits in between the angled arms of the bronzed sextant, which rests on a pedestal that displays the names of Amundsen's crew. On one engraved side is a well-known image of Amundsen and three other men admiring a tent flying the Norwegian flag at the South Pole. On the other is an engraving of the modern South Pole Station.
Winter-over machinist Derek Aboltins fabricated the 2011 marker based on the design by fellow winter-over David Holmes.
Photo credit Robert Schwarz.
3 comments:
Hay Chuuk,
Abolitins is speld Aboltins,
Tanks mate,
Derek ;)
Oh! Sorry dude! I knew that but I guess the Antarctic Sun people didn't. That part was a quote pasted from the Antarctic Sun article. You should email them, but I'll change it in my post now.
How did the bike race go?
Hi there - any chance you can connect me to Derek Aboltins? I'd love to ask him some questions regarding the work he did at the pole.
Please could you email back via my gmail account, username: cinnamonman?
Thank you! Andre
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