Virtual Tour - Summer Camp

Welcome to Summer Camp

Many people come down for the Austral summer (Nov-Feb). This is primarily a place for all these extra people to stay. Lots of extra fuel, supplies, and construction equipment are stored here as well.

An older (1997; left) and a newer (1998; right) view of Summer Camp. Photos courtesy Robert Schwarz

Elevated Dorms

The elevated dorms are a relatively new design for buildings at the South Pole. They were designed as part of the effort to upgrade living conditions at the Pole and to solve an interesting problem: For buildings like the dome that sit on the ice directly, the blowing snow tends to drift onto the structure and slowly bury it. But, in the case of the elevated dorms, the snow blowing along the surface of the ice blows right through the legs of the dorm and doesn't accumulate.

Three views of the elevated dorm:

Right now, space in the elevated dorms are reserved for senior staff visiting the Pole. Eighteen people fit in the dorm, two people per room.

This new design has been so successful that all the new buildings at the South Pole will be built in this model, above the surface of the ice. Any heavy equipment will be stored below the surface.

Besides the drifting anow, another interesting problem facing designers of buildings at the Pole is that the "ground" is flowing! The South Pole is a true continent, meaning that there is rock deep below, but there is three miles of ice on top of it. This glacier flows steadily downhill (note the direction of ice flow on the first pole map) at a rate of 10 meters/year, or 1.1 inches/day(!). It's impossible to build traditional foundations for a building on a moving surface!

This is looking back at the dome from the elevated dorm.

Jamesway Tents and Hypertats

Jamesway tents are not traditionally shaped tents -- here are two from the outside:

This is what they looked like from the inside a few years ago. Now, each bed is surrounded by a plywood cubicle, with a curtain over one end. In addition, the heating system is different -- in this picture, the metal box on the right is the heater, but, as this is obviously a safety hazard, the Jamesways are now centrally heated.

Jamesway tents are made up of smaller sections that fit together - each section is 4 feet long. You can see the partitions in the picture of the inside above-- each "panel"-type thing is a section. Finished Jamesways can be of any length, but the tents at the Pole range from about 40 feet to about 60 feet.

Another view of the Jamesways -- you can see the elevated dorms in the background. Photo: CARA/R. Landsberg

The very latest (1998) Jamesways. Photo courtesy Robert Schwarz.

Another kind of living space is being tested. These things are called Hypertats, and might replace Jamesways. Photo courtesy Robert Schwarz.

These hypertats have been moved closer to the emergency power plant in 1998. Photo courtesy Robert Schwarz.

People don't live in these tents in the winter, so at the end of the summer season, the tents are 'secured', meaning that any windows are boarded up, anything that shouldn't be frozen is taken back to the dome, and generally the tents are cleaned up.

After 8 months of blowing snow, Summer Camp takes a while to dig out in prearation for the influx of summer people. Machines work for the large-scale efforts, but shovels are needed closer to the buildings. Photo courtesy Robert Schwarz.

Go back to the map of the pole to explore some more.