
Returning from a Year of Isolation in Antarctica - op03
https://www.rd.com/article/isolated-for-a-year-in-antarctica/
======
blakesterz
This was the part that surprised me the most:

"Viruses do not live in Antarctica. When I was in the harsh and bitter cold, I
was perfectly healthy. When I returned back home, I picked up every virus in
Australia. I was totally unprepared for the way my immune system reacted."

I didn't know that our immune system could change so much so fast.

~~~
latchkey
Absolutely. I moved to Vietnam from San Francisco. Spent 4 years there. Got
reliably food sick off and on solid for a year and then it eventually just
stopped. I could eat anything and not get sick. Hardly got any 'colds' while I
was there.

Came back to the US end of January (terrible timing considering the way things
are going) and ended up getting sick with flu (not covid thankfully) and lots
of digestive issues again. Now, heading into July... I haven't gotten sick
again (likely from the isolation) and the digestive issues went away.

Our bodies are complex beings.

~~~
harikb
Wait! Are we becoming less immune with this isolation :o

~~~
latchkey
Yes. :o

Even worse, people aren't getting their flu shots (and other elective things)
because they don't want to risk going to the doctors.

So when we get out of this covid jail... get ready for some interesting charts
from the CDC.

~~~
irrational
Do you still trust the CDC? One unfortunate side effect of the pandemic is
that my trust in the CDC went from absolute to non-existent. They’ve shown
themselves willing to bend to politics instead of siding with science.

~~~
losteric
Well, I blame this administration generally seeking appointments that will
bend the knee over science.

Plenty of prior administrations appointment science-bound officials that held
the line.

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m-i-l
My dad spent much of 1958-1965 in Antarctica, overwintering at places like
Halley Bay, and including a period as scientific leader at Scott Base (for
which he was awarded the Polar Medal). That was in the days when overwintering
meant no supply ships or aeroplanes or any contact with the outside world
beyond radio contact for 7-8 months. Anyway, there are a few things he
mentioned about leaving Antarctica that aren't mentioned in the original
article:

\- the smells: "In the cold atmosphere of Antarctica your sense of smell has
become acute and now, wafting in through the door of the aircraft, is the
smell of tarmac on the runway, green grass, hundreds of flowers and dozens of
different scents ... for the first time ever you can smell your Antarctic
clothing. The heat has brought out a hundred different smells, seals, huskies,
penguins, kerosene and many more."

\- the flies and other insects

\- and perhaps one of his main and lasting experiences, the spirit of
international co-operation brought about by the "common problem of survival in
Antarctica"

On that last point, the last 2 sentences in his book were "The nations of the
world can just as easily work on a common problem outside the Antarctic as in
it. Let us hope this understanding by common knowledge and experience will not
fail us now."

I had hoped the current pandemic would help people realise that we are all in
this together on the same planet, that it is better for everyone to work
together rather than to fight.

~~~
ideashower
Is his book available for purchase anywhere? Sounds fascinating.

~~~
m-i-l
Thanks. It is available at
[https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1704809576/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1704809576/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_w6A1DbM6GTGFK)
. It wasn't actually published in his lifetime. In fact, I only discovered the
manuscript last year, and decided to self-publish primarily for the benefit of
surviving relatives. I have a post about the whole process on my personal site
if you're interested in that as well.

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subsubzero
I found alot of the bulletpoints insightful and most seem to be related to
covid-19 lockdowns but a few stood out:

>Life felt like it was suddenly zooming by (after leaving Antarctica)

I feel like right now in quarantine time is just flying by, I don't know
really why this is, maybe its the fact that both me and my wife are extremely
busy with our jobs while raising a toddler and no daycare makes every day seem
the same/very busy with the weekend having little demarcation from the work
week. Maybe if we weren't working and just sitting around this would be
different. But it seems almost the opposite from what was mentioned.

~~~
amatecha
Yeah that's interesting, I feel the same way. It absolutely blows my mind that
it's about to be July. I feel like I've actually been _more_ busy being at
home every day!

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analbumcover
It's interesting to read her experience but I can't get past a few things.

> Because I was leading the expedition, I couldn’t have any physical contact
> with anyone else—zero. There were no handshakes, no flirting, and no hugs.

No handshakes? This behavior is so far outside the norm it's hard to believe
her experience is in any way relevant to the general populace when it likely
reflects her bizarrely anti-social approach to leadership. Apparently she
gives lectures on leadership now? That is terrifying.

Also, as an avid alpinist, this is absolutely not the kind of person you want
to be in a dangerous environment with, let alone be subordinate to. She
refused to touch people and had apparently only seen the snow once before
arriving in Antarctica.

~~~
jedberg
The very next sentences:

"I couldn’t afford for a simple gesture of empathy, such as a hug or a placed
hand on the shoulder, to be misinterpreted as a sign of romantic interest. It
went against my natural desire not to comfort someone who was distraught with
a big hug, but it’s what I had to do to maintain professional boundaries."

~~~
analbumcover
I read that. Restrictions on sexual relationships given an uneven power
dynamic are common, but an inability to shake someone's hand or put a hand on
a shoulder? That's not maintaining professional boundaries, it's paranoia.

It is also a standard that she is clearly imposing on herself, which is what
makes it so bizarre. She wasn't just conforming to some overbearing rule of
the organization, she thought this was a necessary component of effective
leadership. Which makes me question her judgement in general.

~~~
jedberg
Ask some women in leadership positions what they think about this. You’ll
probably be surprised at how many agree with her.

~~~
analbumcover
I wouldn't be surprised. But who is going to put up with that kind of aloof
and standoffish behavior? You're probably going to come across like a monarch
that doesn't want to come into contact with the common folk.

~~~
nicthesailor
As a female seafarer (26 years at sea), I know exactly where she's coming
from. Never mind touching, the times I've sat and talked about anything other
than work (non-sexual, just friendly) have invariably resulted in at least one
or two crew members either taking it as an invitation to harass me or assault
me, or caused friction with the rest of the crew.

In my experience, I can be friendly, but I have to stay distant for safety
(mine) and discipline (the whole crew).

~~~
analbumcover
This is interesting, were you the captain for many of those years? I could
totally understand a crew member being antisocial, but it seems like the crew
would resent a leader who acted this aloof even if they were doing it for the
reasons you mention. It just seems very different than the usual distance that
hierarchy creates.

I've only done a few casual sailing trips where everyone got nude as soon as
we were out of sight of land and it was so cramped you'd have to be a
contortionist not to touch anyone. A tanker ship or something would be vastly
different, but it still seems like there would be plenty of situations, e,g,
rough weather, where you need you need to be willing to touch other people. I
doubt you'd get on a crab fishing vessel if other crew members refused to
touch you.

~~~
nicthesailor
No, I worked my way up from deckhand to chief mate on deep sea cargo ships.
Got my master's ticket in January (finally).

The crew don't generally resent it - I'm friendly and approachable, just
distant. I shut them down when they ask personal questions, but I listen if
they want to talk about their problems. In a public area. With the door open.
The rest of the time, I study, work, eat and sleep. It helps that I'm usually
on 00:00-0600 & 12:00-18:00 watches, so I'm working during two meals and
sleeping during the third.

Where there's a practical reason for physical contact, of course I touch
people. Apart from anything else, I'm often the medical officer, but there's a
difference between, "Help me with this mooring line," and, "I'm having a bad
day, can I have a hug?" Even if I really could do with a hug.

And the types guys who do get in a huff about it? They're invariably the same
personality types that make that rule necessary.

------
caiobegotti
"Because I was leading the expedition, I couldn’t have any physical contact
with anyone else — zero"

Wait, what? I would love to get more details about that because that sentence
(no matter the rest of the paragraph) makes it sound way too much World War I
kind of cold leadership with no rational reason.

On the noise aspect of her isolation I think it's quite more nuanced than that
IMHO. I've been to Antarctica too and I've been working alone from home for
the last 5 years as well, and isolation during pandemics is nowhere similar to
the isolation in Antarctica. The silence there is beautiful, not frightening.
They are just different beasts and even the noise from the street outside is
enough to break the monotony but not actually going out hurts more. I think
she tried her best to be empathic but 1 year in the ice is much harsher, kudos
to her.

~~~
bacon_waffle
Everything about living on the Ice is more intense; it often feels like the
station and crew is the entire world. Romantic relationships are a perpetual
source of tension and conflict, and little squabbles can grow to have truly
outsize effects.

A silly example (from the US program several years ago) - we had summer-season
emergency response drills be completely derailed because the leads of the two
main groups were a couple and had squabbled the night before - one had their
people simply not show up. Never mind that these two people's main roles were
exactly to be in charge, one was completely unqualified for that role,
discipline/replacement would be relatively easy for either, and everyone knew
what was going on.

So, I can see why the rules would stipulate that the leader can't become
romantically involved with a crew member over winter. But of course rules like
that have no teeth, so it's really up to the integrity and ability of the
leader.

~~~
darkarmani
> I can see why the rules would stipulate that the leader can't become
> romantically involved with a crew member over winter.

And i guess some people think a pat on the back is romance. ;) It seems easy
to clear up any misunderstandings, but maybe it was because she was tempted?

~~~
bacon_waffle
This is not about whether the author thinks a pat on the back is romance, nor
about her temptation.

Imagine a scenario like that emergency response drill, but where higher-ups
took notice and decided to make a rule to prevent it from happening again.
Since those higher-ups had authority over hiring both individuals, they're not
likely to lay blame on the immature (to put it nicely) behaviour of the
couple, but instead on the romantic relationship. How do they encode "station
managers can't start dating crew members" in bureaucrat? So, a stupid rule
gets added to the books, which doesn't really solve the problem, and
upstanding managers have to pay attention to it forever more.

------
etrabroline
This happened 15 years ago, December 2004 to February 2005. The headline and
editor's insertions about SARS-coronavirus-2 made it seem like she returned in
the middle of the pandemic.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachael_Robertson_(writer)#Rob...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachael_Robertson_\(writer\)#Robertson's_year_in_Antarctica)

~~~
Jaruzel
She says early in the copy text that she was in Antarctica in 2005. To me the
article read like she was recounting her experiences and her return to
civilisation as a mechanism to explore how others will come out of Covid
lockdown, therefore the references to coronavirus did not seem out of place.

------
sammalloy
> After being in isolation, the noise in the outside world seemed louder.
> Noise will be huge after lockdown. I think about how New York City is a
> cacophony of sounds and now the streets are empty. Gosh, it took me about
> six months to get used to how noisy life is.

Noise pollution is a huge, mostly overlooked problem in urbanized areas and is
often thought to exceed the recommendations for residential areas with little
room for easy remediation or enforcement. Many of us remember the days before
leaf blowers took over and flooded the natural morning landscape with 100 dB
in all directions, in areas that are still limited to 50-60 dB. The impact on
human and non-human health is well known.

------
scottlocklin
>After I emerged from isolation in Antarctica, I wrote two best-selling books
and became an international motivational speaker. Being in isolation as the
leader, without anyone telling me what I was doing right and what I was doing
wrong, meant I had to do a lot of self-reflection.

These two sentences don't go together very well.

------
StillBored
A bit off topic, but the audio book "Ice Bound: A Doctor's Incredible Battle
for Survival at the South Pole" about the Dr who got cancer while serving at
the base is quite an interesting ride. That book kept me wide awake on a long
road trip a couple years ago and the couple people I lent it to had nothing
but good things to say about it too.

~~~
cycomanic
Another slightly off topic remark, there is the famous case of this Russian
doctor taking out his own appendix while stationed in antartica:
[https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32481442](https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32481442)

------
jwilber
Maybe it’s versus I’ve been reading up on the torture of solitary confinement,
but “Leading 18 strangers around the clock for a full year” - is not what I
would consider as isolation.

She does go on to qualify it further: “As the youngest and only second female
expedition _leader_ at Davis Station”, but it still feels like a huge stretch
in my opinion to consider that a year of isolation. How many leaders has Davis
Station even had?

~~~
watwut
It is small group of people isolated from rest of society. If you notice her
points, none of them is about being alone and all of them are about being away
from rest of us.

------
amaizhe
Slightly off topic, she had a book out in February called "Respect Trumps
Harmony", which said out loud in 2020 seems a possibly ambiguous title for
what turns out to be a book about group dynamics rather than a glowing
assessment of a certain President.

------
seesawtron
Interesting to see an article about Antarctica that doesn't mention the
effects of global warming on the ice sheets. Kudos to the writer for keeping
the story focused on the personal insights in cold, isolated world instead of
the usual decrying (which is of course important but an off-topic to this
story). So I do believe that the writer gained sheer amount of focus.

~~~
NotSammyHagar
Why Kudos? Do you not believe in it's reality?

~~~
seesawtron
Did you not read the entire comment?

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nicemancool
My life already looks like isolation all time here at canada after moving from
India for masters program. So no big deal.

------
simonebrunozzi
I'm not trying to be funny, but I'm sure the author is wishing that he started
his year of isolation... a year later. Like, in March 2020. That would have
been great timing.

~~~
jwilber
Author was a female

