Antarctica! Here I am, I am here, no doubt. Sometimes I feel a little giddy, I let myself to be carried by a voice telling me “It is not true, it is not true!”, then it is enough to go out and breathe some fresh air and the one out there waiting for me brings me to reality…. If they call cold what I have known till now, here they should call it another way. I do not know how, maybe ipercold, ultracold, freeze or, better, you should find a new name, like antarctice. If you have any suggestions, please send me. It is an important matter.
Yesterday it was -29°, without considering the wind. I look for a sign letting you know, the clearest way, what means lesstwentyninedegrees and I find it at once: the doors! I think you recognize something familiar in the photo. Have you ever entered the kitchen of a restaurant or the backs of some butchers’ shops? No? Well, try; you will find cold stores. Places for the preservation of food at several degrees. About twenty years ago in every house there were freezers with a hook. They are still trendy and you can find them in some glamour houses on retrò freezers. Here in Antarctica the doors are like those ones. And I assure you they are not there for show.
They say during the first days you suffer more because the organism has to accustom itself. Well, I say: let’s hope so as, for the moment, I admit, I quite suffer cold… It seems to me there is really nothing you can wear to feel a little better and leave the cold out of your body, far away. I can try to wear one of those doors…
Up to now, in two days stay at the base, I have been out there, in all, a quarter of an hour, not more. I assure you it is sufficient and more than that. Every time I go out and just before opening the door I secretely hope to be a bit more prepared than previously and every time I get immediately disillusioned. It is enogh to walk for some metres. And I wish I had already touched the door-handle. The cold comes from the end of my trousers, grazes my face, my cheeks, my ears and I feel it everywhere and instantly: strong, invincible, mysterious. Besides it has another ally here: dryness. In the air there is 1% humidity creating effects which I must speak of before long. For the moment, be satisfied with the noise of the snow under your feet.
The different places of the base are few metres away from each other and you have to dress and undress to go to one another. Let’s do the accounts. Outside -29°C, inside + 15°C: a difference of 44 degrees. It is as if you moved from the top of Mt. Cervino, in an evening of January, to a square in Agrigento at one o’ clock p.m. in mid-August. This happens every time you pass that door. Problem 1: how to dress? I would go around the base with a little trolley, ready to dress every time, but maybe it is not very practical…what do you think about? Then I try several combinations of strata, but no solution is satisfactory for me. Too much warm inside and, above all, too much cold outside. When I am there, beside clenching my teeth and cheating myself that next time it would be a bit better, I always have one fixed thought: past explorers, their wool cotton, leather and fur clothes, just seen at Christchurch Museum (you will be informed also about that). They used to spend several months at these temperatures, even whole winters, without any external help. I imagine them so much that I almost see them, in cotton tents, with red faces, crouching on wood stools with a metal cup of steaming coffee.
I get silent.
Antarctica has just started teaching me who it is.
I listen to it.
Silently.