Reflections from time on ‘the Ice’

• MCMURDO STATION, Antarctica
Dec. 3, 2006 | 4:15 a.m. ET
Men in skirts and rugby on ice — granted, not your run-of-the-mill activities. But here at McMurdo Station, the main U.S. base on Antarctica, those are part of the master plan to recreate — as in kick back after a long day or week using whatever you’ve got.

Other opportunities for the 1,100 people here this summer include yoga (sometimes in the chapel), indoor rock climbing, cross-country skiing on part of the Ross Ice Shelf, snowboarding (after first trudging up a hill), the “gerbil gym,” and the southernmost bowling alley in the world — dating from 1961, no less.

McMurdo has built this recreational infrastructure out of necessity: While scientists have access to parts of the wider continent, the support staff who spend months at a time here are not allowed to wander far — just a bit along the coast and ice shelf, and to the store and bar at nearby Scott Base, run by New Zealand.

McMurdo’s seven-person rec office (which, by the way, also runs the three bars here) plans free activities for each day. Sunday is the busiest day, as it is the one where most folks have a full day off.

Choices range from movies to scientific lectures to live music and local outings; the latter is a crowd pleaser.

“Everyone loves to get out of town and see what Antarctica’s about,” says staffer Erin Popelka, adding that a favorite organized outing is to a hut built in 1910 by explorer Robert F. Scott and his expedition.

There is also some delicate timing. Fridays are big party days among individual groups, says Sean Corkery, another rec staffer. But Saturdays are about structured events so as to keep the individual partying from getting out of hand.

On this Saturday, McMurdo helped organize a “skirt party” at Scott Base, requiring all men to dress appropriately for the occasion — echoing the days when all-male exploration teams would entertain themselves by cross-dressing and dancing.

Scientists and support staff, men and women, bounced to hip-hop and pop — interrupted only by a very hairy, scary beauty pageant.

The U.S.-New Zealand ties go beyond partying and include rugby games on the ice and a championship toward the end of each summer season. New Zealand almost always wins, but that doesn’t stop 20 or so Americans training hard — even when the wind picks up, sending temperatures plummeting.

The oldest, organized recreation at McMurdo appears to be the bowling alley, which some call Flintstone Lanes due to the rickety, warped, wood floors. All two lanes are hand operated — that means two people behind the pins manually reset them.

The alley is a popular place to rent for parties, and there’s even a bowling league. But don’t expect to have improved your game once you leave Antarctica, says Kevin Field, a regular who helps out behind the pins occasionally. “Once you’ve bowled here,” he says of the wacky lanes and leaky roof, “it’s hard to go back to the real world.”

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