Some time before my departure, I had the opportunity to spend a week in Plouzané on the premises of the French Polar Institute (IPEV), the organisation that manages the logistics for my mission to Dumont d’Urville (DDU).
There I met the future overwinterers from the Antarctic bases (DDU and Dome C at Concordia) and the Sub-Antarctic (Crozet, Amsterdam and Kerguelen). The IPEV institut offered us a mix of activities and presentations, which gave the future overwinterers, including myself, the chance to ask the last questions they had.
Most of them are civic service volunteers (VSC). Many of them are the versatile little hands of scientific work on the bases. Like astronauts, they collect data and carry out experiments in hostile environments. They are paid very little for their skills. Then there are the technical staff without whom the base cannot function: the cook, the baker, the heating engineers, the carpenter, the mechanics, the toolmakers, etc., the station manager and the doctor. And then there are us, the 3 Météo-France employees. In total, there will be 24 overwinterers, including 7 female this year for the 74th mission to Dumont d’Urville.
Finally, this meeting was an opportunity to meet the staff who help with the administration and logistics of our missions.
At Dumont d’Urville (DDU), we will be completely self-sufficient during the winter. In summer, we won’t be relying on packages either. My trunks are my personal belongings for a year. They’ll leave before me (in July) and I’ll get them back at DDU (in November).
I’ve been packing for a year. I’ve been reading blogs by former overwinterers, interviewing DDU veterans, measuring my own consumption, and so on. I find it a good exercise. I like rationality and sobriety. But I risk being excluded from certain activities if I don’t have the adequate equipment. I risk being disabled if I don’t have the right materials.
Size and volume
You’re allowed to take 120 kg with you, but the trunks must not exceed 40 kg. Generation after generation, winterers opt for a set of 3 trunks (100, 90 and 80 L). That way, when at the end of our stay we’ve lost some of our stuff, left behind the books we’ve read (or not) and eaten our comfort food supplies, we can put them one inside the other. It’s more practical.
Clothing and equipment
“We think too much about clothes and not enough about food”.
Emmanuel Linden, winterer, TA72
At the moment, I eat oats in the morning. Why not take my oats with me? Because 110g of oats a day is 40kg a year. So that’s a whole trunk just for part of breakfast. You can see the problem. You’re going to have to make sacrifices.
You also have to admit that food is linked to the thorny question of weight. In Antarctica, you change your diet. On the one hand, it’s colder and you spend more energy doing things you wouldn’t do in Europe, like shoveling snow. But on the other, we’re much more sedentary. So you can’t have too much comfort food either.
I plan for festive moments: a regional meal, my birthday, Christmas, New Year’s Day… It’s perfect timing! I come from a region (Aveyron) that produces this kind of food.
Hygiene and care products
You take your daily hygiene products with you. The air is very dry, but the water freezes. So you need moisturiser, but you have to choose carefully: it may contain a lot of water, which could freeze on the skin. Then there’s the hole in the ozone layer. Sunscreen is provided, as are anti-UV lip sticks. And then there are the hygienic supplies. Of course! They don’t provide them. That must be a lot of boxes of tampons… Once again, we see the superiority of the menstrual cup.
There’s a doctor on site, but you have to bring your own medicines if you need treatment. In particular, you need to bring a year’s supply of contraceptive pills.
Hobbies
You’re at DDU to work, but you’re also free for almost half your time. The on-site library is well-stocked. But you might as well take a few books; you don’t always read them, but you like to have them with you, and then games, films and music on an external hard drive. When it comes to technology: cameras, e-readers, etc., I prefer to have them with me on the Astrolabe.
A little more space ?
And last but not least, I take small gifts for people’s birthdays (to make them happy).
Believe me, I hope I haven’t forgotten anything
If I discover that I’ve forgotten something between July and November, I can always take it with me on the plane (within the weight limit). Besides, I’ll have everything you need for a week in a temperate environment.
In any case, I intend to take stock of the situation when I get back: what was missing or in excess, what I found on the spot and what I was finally able to do without.
I have been dreaming of Territories since I was a little girl. I joined Météo-France out of a love of meteorology and Austral Lands, as Météo France is one of the few employers to send staff to the Poles.
Many of my colleagues went to Dumont d’Urville. Some I personally know left a few years after graduating from ENM. For my part, I was lucky enough to complete a Phd-thesis, and to get a position at the CNRM research center working on ambitious projects. Now, the projects I’ve been working on for several years are reaching maturity. At 38 years old, it’s the ideal time for me to leave.
So in November 2021 I applied for the position of meteorology station manager at Dumont d’Urville. And while I was expecting to be in the queue for a few years, I was taken on as a substitute on my first application in February 2022. And now, I am ready to go.
