I am afraid that some people who run this newspaper do not fully appreciate my contributions.
I say this because of an e-mail I received from one of the managers. It was an ad for a job opening at Raytheon Polar Services. Somehow, I took it as a hint.
“Seeking a unique adventure as well as employment?” the ad from the Centennial-based company reads. “How would you like to be one of the few people on the planet to … live and work at or near the geographic South Pole?”
The job involves 13 months of exile in the coldest, darkest, driest, most remote location on Earth. But on the plus side, almost everyone there is fully employed: astrophysicists, biologists, climatologists, geologists, glaciologists and plenty of other “ists” just toiling away.
I’m not qualified for any of these scientific positions. But Raytheon Polar Services has a contract with the National Science Foundation to hire about 800 support personnel every 13 months. The company will have a job fair at its Centennial headquarters April 7. (For more information, see www.rayjobs.com.)
Raytheon Polar Services is hiring administrators, bakers, carpenters, clerks, cooks, firefighters, housing coordinators, janitors, mechanics, nurses, plumbers, postal clerks, retail operators, welders – you name it. The pay is comparable to similar jobs in Denver.
But read the fine print.
“Some of the jobs are outdoors at remote field camps,” Val Carroll, a Raytheon communications manager, told me.
An ice sheet – 3 miles thick in some places – covers 98 percent of the continent. The wind howls, temperatures can dip below minus 120 degrees, and for six months straight there is only darkness.
But don’t worry, you’ll get a tent.
“Everybody goes through what we call ‘happy camper school’ before they are allowed to leave the station,” Carroll said. “That’s where you learn to erect a tent, build a snow cave, use the radio….”
Carroll also told me there are job openings at a newspaper called The Antarctic Sun. I downloaded a copy of the newspaper from the Internet.
A front-page headline informed, “Winter’s pull is strong for many.” The story quoted explorer Frederick Cook, who visited in 1898 and wrote: “The curtain of blackness which has fallen over the outer world of icy desolation has descended upon the inner world of our souls.”
The Sun had other useful information, such as, “One and only sunset: March 22 at 8:58 p.m. One and only sunrise: Sept. 21 at 12:53 a.m.” and “Last flight out tentatively set for: March 1.” One headline declared, without risking hyperbole: “The Mother of All Field Trips.” There was also a story about penguins.
Some people who work in Antarctica chronicle their lives on Web logs. Before applying at The Antarctic Sun, I wanted to see what the natives were saying. I found the blog “Nowhere To Go But Up” particularly enlightening. It’s by a 30-year-old named Neal from Colorado Springs.
Neal writes that through a series of unfortunate events, he lost his job, his house and his girlfriend, so he took a job in Antarctica as a research associate.
He is delightfully enthusiastic. “Even the boring moments here are memory-makers because of the uniqueness of where I am,” he wrote. He also posts photos, including one of him standing shirtless on the South Pole on a nice, warm, minus-3-degree day (See his blog at www.nowhere-to-go-but-up.blogspot.com).
“Tonight was the official opening of the South Pole Bar,” he wrote. “Our bar/smoker’s lounge was constructed from the remains of the old gym. … There’s no bathroom so you … have to brave the -60F temperature on the walk to the can back at the power plant. The band played for over three hours, a buddy & I polished off a couple of six packs, and almost every female resident of the South Pole passed through (10 [out of] 13 ain’t bad).”
Antarctica started to sound interesting. But Carroll warned me not to get my hopes up. “The journalist team that’s in place right now – they’ve all three expressed interest in returning next season,” she said. “And I already have a good half dozen strongly qualified people who’ve been applying for a couple years. So, I’m just telling you.”
Al Lewis’ column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Friday. Respond to Lewis at , 303-820-1967, or alewis@denverpost.com.
