NGA Tent City, South Pole, Antarctica by Ella Derbyshire

Nikon D80's

Most of the people who are at the South Pole work here, but since Christmas arrived with warmer weather, there has been a pretty steady stream of visitors to the Pole.

Some tourists fly here in small planes. Others ski in from grid west, which is from the general direction of South America. A few ski in from grid north, which is from the direction of New Zealand. Lately we have been getting quite a few last degree skiers. These athletic vacationers get dropped off by planes at 89 degrees south latitude and then ski in the remaining 60 statute miles to the Pole. They seem to take 10 days or so to complete the trip. Some folks with more time and more energy will opt to ski the last 2 degrees to the Pole. The real adventurous ones will come from the coast 700 miles away, and some will make the journey alone.

We've had some bad weather here lately, and with the flight delays, there is a nice colorful collection of tents in front of the station. The camp looks like its floating. All of our beautiful sustrugi and all the blue of the sky are lost in a sea of homogeneous milky white.

You see quite a few people milling about. These campers are on Chilean time, with their watches set for Patriot Hills and Punta Arenas. We are 16 hours ahead of them, so they are often awake while we are sleeping on station, and for them it is still January 14. Right now they seem to be socializing, perhaps sharing stories of their recent accomplishment.

The 15 images of this panorama were photographed with a Nikon D 80 and stitched with Autopano Pro.