This list was written down in my field notebook after returning from the major sledging journey of 1992 while waiting around on Scott Base.
Things I like about Antarctica:
incredible scenery, mountains
fossils, geology
Weddell seals
cooking/meals at Scott Base
helicopter travel
the roar of the primus
“independence” in the deep field
the historic huts
penguins
Mac computers at Scott Base
sunshine on windless days
Scott Base bar on a quiet night
getting in sleeping bags in polar tent
getting mail at Scott Base
24-hour daylight in the field
helos dropping-in in the field
Things I don't like about Antarctica:
getting up to urinate each morning outside the tent
frozen fingers, toes, ears
winds in excess of 20 knots
VXE-6 delays
skidoo thumb syndrome
double climbing boots
heavy packs laden with rocks
static shocks at Scott Base
defecating outside in cold winds
missing home (family)
waiting around at non-Aztec outcrops
having to right upturned sledges
steep ice slopes
poor visibility conditions
avalanches burying me
falling into crevasses
being tent-bound because of snow
Brush your teeth using a peppermint-flavored toothpaste. Spit out the rinse water into a clean fry pan (it must be spic and span, hygiene is of utmost importance), then leave it outside in −4°F to freeze (if you are not in the Antarctic, put it in your freezer). Take a frozen chicken from the food box and thaw it slowly by heating it in a camp oven with some hot water, then cut it into pieces. Fetch your fry pan from outside with the frozen toothpaste water and cook the chicken pieces in it, adding some oil, salt, and pepper to taste. Gives a delicious peppermint flavor. Margaret and Fraka both commented on how nice it was, but Brian and I would not reveal our secret ingredient to them.
Named after the Deception Glacier where we invented the recipe, and the fact that we were deceiving the drinker into thinking it was a real brand of Irish Cream liqueur.
Take a cheap and nasty brand of whisky. Ours was a particularly good value drop then available from the Scott Base bar that sold for about $NZ10 a liter!
Mix up about 2 cups full of full cream milk powder with about half the correct amount of water, thus making “mock cream.” Add about a half a cup of sugar dissolved in a little hot water and milk powder, then mix it all up with about 500 ml of whisky. Beautiful, can't be distinguished from any “genuine” Irish Cream (at least to us out on the glacier) but costs next to nothing to make.
Basically similar to Deception Irish Cream except that we mixed about five teaspoons of coffee with our powdered milk and sugar, dissolved it all in a slurry of hot water and added it to a good dose of cheap rum. Makes an excellent drink.