Just a heads up, Patrick is the badass of all badasses check out his full blog
CalvinBall, make sure you become a "follower".......
Thank you for the opportunity to be a guest blogger on your site. I've always been more than a little jealous of your job, and skills as a photographer. You've been a major influence in several of my new activities since moving to Boulder four years ago. The major two areas being learning the joys of rock climbing, and finally taking the necessary steps in order to push my photography to a new level. I also have my girlfriend, who's knowledge helped guide my camera (the Canon 5D you were using at the time) and lens purchases, to thank, so you don't get ALL the credit. Sorry...
To bring some people up to speed: My name is Patrick Cullis and I am currently working at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station here in Antarctica. I work for NOAA in Boulder, and one of the positions I showed interest in was for the year long position we fill here at one of our baseline station. With Antarctica, and the South Pole specifically, being so far from population and pollution sources, it makes this an ideal location for collecting and monitoring the atmosphere. I can say that I've had the desire to come here for several years, but it still wasn't an easy decision. The 43 inhabitants on station now are literally stuck here for the eight months of winter because it's too cold to even land planes. With temperatures dipping to -100F and having to suit up in extensive layers of clothes, it basically feels like we are on the moon, but without the shiny helmets. It's a good time to be here though with the recent completion of the elevated station.
This massive undertaking has replaced the old iconic "Dome" station and basically feels like a ridiculously advanced hotel on stilts. There's a state of the art kitchen, bedrooms for 150 people, a TV theater (no cable,) and gymnasium. If I didn't have to go outside every day, I could easily forget that I'm in one of the harshest environments on the planet. But, for me at least, I do need to go outside everyday. I work in a smaller building a quarter of a mile out in the "Clean Air Sector." 
Antarctica is basically a gigantic, continent size, pile of snow. We are almost positioned at the top of this 9,000 foot pile which creates some pretty stable and predictable winds. Air settling over the center of Antarctica picks up speed as it moves towards the coast, where storms can be massive and devastating. But, here at the top, we rarely see winds over 25 knots, and 95% of the time they come from a single 140 degree wedge. This makes it perfect for us to monitor. The "Clean Air Sector" sits in this wedge, upwind from the station generator and thousands of miles from the nearest source of exhaust. We sample air here in order to find out what it's made of when you get as far away as possible from humans, their cars, aerosols, leaking refrigerators, and general dirtiness. Not to rip on humans, but we DO spew a lot of nasty stuff in to the air. Some of that nasty stuff creates the ozone hole each year, which lets me have a lot of fun each week launching huge balloons. 
These ozone instruments fly to 100,000 feet while measuring the ozone present at each altitude. Most ozone measuring instruments, ground based and satellite, use the sun in their measurements. The good thing about these balloons is that they work just as well in the dark of winter as the 24 hour daylight of summer. The only thing is that it's much colder for the volunteers used to help launch them.
As well as the "Clean Air Sector," there is also a "Dark Sector" which is populated with some massive telescopes, and a "Quiet Sector" where the vibration of vehicles is prohibited. 
Life here is altogether pretty normal. We work, eat three meals a day, watch some TV, and play sports together. The main difference is that you can't really go anywhere to get away, you miss family and friends, and you don't see the sun for six months. Not to say people don't get a little stir crazy, or TOAST, but we get by. The chefs are excellent, and we definitely don't go hungry. We have a state of the art growth chamber which produces our only source of greenery. We're still trying to work out the tomato issue that has plagued South Pole for all time, but lettuce, radish, jalepeno, kale, basil, and all sorts of herbs are churned out like they're growing in fast forward. 
On holidays, we get together for fancy dinners. Our next one is the midwinter celebration where we will take a deep breath and know in our hearts that the sun is coming back to us. 
I get out of here in November. Until then: I'll play some ping pong...
climb some routes in the cave...
and enjoy the beautiful and amazing night sky. 
Thanks for letting me write this. It's been fun. I'm going to enjoy the rest of my time here, freeze my gear a bunch more, and then be ready to soak in the color, smell, and sound of nature when I get back. Can't wait to hit the slopes, climb some routes, and take some pictures. Later Rich.
I am an engineer working here in Antarctica keeping our instruments running, NOT a PhD scientist. Everything I write is for a blog and for entertainment purposes. A lot of the info presented are major generalizations and should be taken with a grain of salt.
Patrick
The 
Ben and I took the gals out for some bouldering they did more talking than bouldering but no big deal because Ben and I found some new stuff to focus on. I had scene this traverse over the water that I had to try, ended up dipping a foot in the water. (i think i did it backwards) Ben decided to follow me and of course got wet too. It was after our long approach, 5 feet from parking lot, to the Gil Boulder so the wet shoes were not a problem.
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