When most people think of Antarctica, they imagine vast white nothingness, frigid temperatures, and maybe a few penguins. But for Colorado-based architect Rod Kazenske, the frozen continent became the site of a once-in-a-lifetime professional adventure. Kazenske, the owner of Yardstick Studio and a seasoned designer with over 35 years of experience in architecture and construction, recently spent nearly two months at McMurdo Station assembling a series of high-tech mobile modules for the South Pole Traverse Program, which serves as a supply route to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station.
The modules Kazenske helped design and build aren’t your average trailers. Outfitted with kitchens, bunk rooms, freezers, power generators and even incinerating toilets, they’re self-sufficient survival pods engineered to endure one of the harshest environments on Earth. Working with Hamelmann Communications under a National Science Foundation contract, Kazenske joined the U.S. Antarctic Program’s logistical effort to support scientific research in one of the most remote locations on the planet.
Though Kazenske never made the full trek across the ice, his time at McMurdo was transformative. He speaks about life in the dorms, the camaraderie of the people stationed there—from forklift drivers to PhDs—and the surreal beauty of the landscape. Even with constant safety training and a 14-hour medevac window to the nearest hospital in New Zealand, he says he’d jump at the chance to go back.
In this week’s 5 Questions, we talk to Kazenske about what it takes to work in Antarctica, how the project came together and what the rapidly changing landscape says about the state of our planet.
How long were you in Antarctica, and what were you doing there?
This was my first time in Antarctica. To be honest, Antarctica wasn’t really at the top of my bucket list until I became involved in the project. And then, my excitement grew as the project developed. Toward the end, as our deployment date neared, that excitement turned into a bit of anxiety. The fact that I was going to be leaving for two months, to one of the most hostile environments on the other side of the world, started to sink in. But that all went away the minute we were on the flight from Denver. After that, every moment was just excitement for having the opportunity to be part of a project like this.
I was deployed in McMurdo Station, which is located on Ross Island, Antarctica, for seven weeks. I was there as part of the team doing the final assembly for a new set of modules that I designed for a program called SPoT (South Pole Traverse) Program. The program is part of the United States Antarctic Program and the National Science Foundation operations that deliver fuel and supplies to our US Scientific Research Stations at the South Pole.
I didn’t think the journey was too bad. We flew commercial from Denver to San Francisco (about three hours) and then from San Francisco to Christ Church, NZ (about 14 hours). We then had a couple of days in Christchurch, where we were assigned our cold-weather gear, had a few training courses, and waited for our deployment flight to McMurdo. That was about a six-and-a-half-hour flight on a C-130 operated by the Royal New Zealand Air Force. The flight on the C-130 was a bit tight but a very smooth flight.
How did you get involved in designing modules for the South Pole Traverse?
I was contracted through Hamelmann Communications, primarily, which is a communications company that had done some communication installations in Antarctica in years past. Leidos is the company that held the contract for the SPoT Module Project and is who Hamelmann contracted through. To be honest, I never did figure out the entire chain of command through all the agencies. Throughout the project, we had weekly meetings that regularly included people from the USAP and the NSF.
I had done some previous work with the owner of Hamelmann Communications. These modules were outside their normal type of project, since they had dwelling space requirements as part of the scope of work. After discussing the project, we decided that combining our areas of expertise would be a good fit. Our team was there to complete final assembly of the modules, which were fabricated here in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, and Aztec, New Mexico. We performed our work about three miles outside of McMurdo Station, out on the Ross Ice Shelf, where the SPoT Program is staged. They literally call it SPoTSA for South Pole Traverse Storage Area.
We had to go through a fairly rigorous application and approval process prior to deploying – including passing physical qualification requirements (PQ) and background checks. That process took about six months. Additionally, we were required to take quite a few online and in-person training courses prior to deploying, and then had several in-person training courses once we arrived in McMurdo that ranged from cold weather survival training to vehicle operation training. So, I felt very prepared and safe completing our workout on the ice.
The South Pole Traverse Program is called the southernmost road in the world. What is the scale of the journey like, and did you feel safe making it?
So, first off, I did not make the trip from McMurdo Station to the South Pole. That is done during the Antarctic summer months by the SPoT team members, which currently consists of ten people.
There are three trips made from McMurdo Station to the South Pole and back each season. A journey of about 1100 miles each way, which, depending on the weather, can take up to two months round trip. There are two sets of three modules for the program. Each season, one set will make the first and third trip, and one set will make the second trip. And then, the next season the module sets will switch to even out the wear and tear of the module over time.
Each set of modules includes: a Kitchen Module, which contains a kitchen, dining/team meeting area, a bathroom, a laundry room and an office area for communication equipment; a Generator Module, which includes two generators to provide power and heating to the modules as well as maintaining the block heaters in the tractors while the team sleeps, a walk in food storage freezer, two incinerating toilets (because there is no pollution or waste left behind in any of the USAP programs) and a full shop with all the tools and supplies necessary to make repairs to any equipment along the journey; and Dormitory Module, which consists of an entry vestibule and seven bunk rooms with two beds each sleeping up to 14 persons allowing for future expansion of the program to include more team members.
What was life like in McMurdo Station, and do you plan to go back?
We were housed in Building 155, which is a large dormitory building and also includes several other support spaces, such as The Galley, where everyone on station eats. Each day, we would suit up in our cold-weather gear, pack lunches, and drive out to SPoTSA in a large-wheeled passenger van, where we would usually work for eight to 10 hours each day. Out on the ice, we did have a warming hut at our work area, which allowed us to get warm when necessary.
McMurdo is a bizarre and incredible place. First, it exists in a place where it looks like nothing should exist. And then second, it is filled with an eclectic population of the most interesting and vibrant people I’ve ever met in one place.
On the one hand, there are two airfields and a port, so much of the personnel are there carrying out logistics for those operations – forklift and crane operators, truck drivers, shuttle drivers and operators of other crazy heavy equipment unique to the Antarctic environment. And then, on the other hand, there are researchers, professors, graduate students and PhDs that are all there to do their research. All these people with extraordinary backgrounds, doing all these various jobs, are there for the support of science.
And then, every day, they come together in the Galley for meals and sit with one another and talk about all this stuff that’s happening. You’d sit at a table and there’d be a researcher talking about what they are discovering with their research, or a crane operator talking about how challenging their work was that day because of the weather conditions. And everyone is excited to hear about the others’ experiences. Mainly, I think, because everyone is there to support one another.
The other thing I really liked was that the walls of the hallways, especially at the Crary Science Center, were covered with scientific work and discoveries. I loved walking through the halls after hours and just stopping to learn about what someone had done or what they were working on. Everywhere you went, there were examples of people that were excited and passionate about what they were doing. And that was inspiring.
Oh yeah, if I ever have the chance to go back, I would definitely do it again. I’d love to go back.
From your observations, what is remarkable about Antarctica, and how is it changing?
Antarctica is such an amazing, pristine place. The air is so clear that judging distances is actually difficult. Mountains that are hundreds of miles away appear as if you could reach out and touch them. In fact, judging relative size was difficult all around. The environment is so vast and empty that without any objects for reference, it was difficult to judge anything until you were very close.
I feel as if describing the characteristics just doesn’t adequately capture the feel of the space when you’re there. It’s one of the driest, coldest, and windiest places on the planet. We were told in one of our classes, “Remember: everything here is trying to kill you. So, don’t rush, be aware of your surroundings, be aware of yourself and don’t take risks. Work safely.”
While there are medical staff on station, the closest hospital is in Christchurch, NZ. Best case scenario is 14 hours away, even if they can get a plane down and back to take you. I think that’s what makes it feel so special. It’s a place that is so peaceful and beautiful, but at the same time so dangerous.
As far as how it’s changing, there are probably several dozen researchers and scientists who can delineate just how quickly and drastically the environment there is changing. But from my observations, you didn’t have to go any further than looking out our dorm room window to see the change.
I believe the Ross Ice shelf had receded this summer season back beyond where anyone there had ever seen it in the past. In fact, it had receded back to where the access point from the ice onto Ross Island, a place called “The Transition,” was in jeopardy of breaking away. Luckily, that did not happen, and we were able to get out to do our work while there, but it is a pretty clear example of how things are changing.