NEWSLETTER

FOUR MEN WHO WORK IN ANTARCTICA - PART 3

INTERVIEWS BY ROCCO CASTORO, PHOTOS BY CHRIS LINDER, WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION

A geology team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution prepares for a day in the field.

Gifford Wong, helicopter technician

Vice: What brought you to the great white abandon?

Gifford: In ’97 I was working in Denver for AmeriCorps and I saw an advertisement for a program in Antarctica. Right away I knew it was something I needed to do when I had a free winter, so I applied and kind of forgot about it until the interview. I was lucky enough to land a gig as one of the general assistants for operations. They hire about nine or ten assistants each year who are basically the muscle for McMurdo station. One day you might help the waste department sort through recyclables and the next day you’ll be with the science group helping them bag and tag 550-pound seals. It was a totally awesome job and I thought it was a cool place, so I’ve been back six of the seven last austral summers.

Do people ever get so fed up with all the isolation and perpetual daylight and bleached landscape that they just flip out and party for days on end?

I’m not a big partier so I can only say what I’ve heard. There’s one building where the work group is known to be very fun and outgoing, so they always have parties. They go on till at least 2 or 3 AM. It doesn’t get too outrageously raunchy or anything, but there’s a lot of loud music and lots of dancing. This particular place always has costume parties, and it’s amazing how quickly that costume box is gravitated toward. Antarctica, as you may or may not know, has a long history of cross-dressing.

Holy shit. Are you kidding?

No. A lot of the original explorers were British, so they would bring down “culture,” if you will. They put on some Shakespeare plays and, being that they were all men, the guys playing the female roles had to dress the part. Since then it’s become historically Antarctic. Everyone laughs when you’re at a dance party because it’s like, “What is it about Antarctica that makes all the men dress up in skirts and leopard-print pullovers and prom dresses that are way too small?”

There are rumors that everyone in Antarctica fucks each other all the time out of sheer boredom. Any truth to that?

Some. People are social animals by instinct and that can sometimes lead to social pairings that you may not normally see in the real world. It’s like summer camp, so in that regard it can be rather innocent. There aren’t as many females there so I’ve had some friends who are girls say it was the first place they’ve ever had so much attention. Some people can grow from it and take advantage of it, and some people let it go to their heads and maybe become a little off-centered until they hit the real world again. But I do know a lot of people who have come off the ice and ended up getting married.


CONTINUED
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