I first went down to Antarctica in 2006 to study why get really big. I fell in love with the , which are weirdly big and weirdly all over the place. In Antarctica, they鈥檙e bigger than a dinner plate. In the rest of the world, they鈥檙e the size of a quarter.
We go in October, early in the austral spring. The sea ice is solid then, which helps us get to our dive sites. Normally, it鈥檚 between minus 5 and minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit. The winds get up to 60 miles per hour.
The biggest danger is frostbite. I won鈥檛 brag about being tough. I have fairly poor peripheral circulation. A couple times, I got frostnip on my nose. You don鈥檛 feel it. That鈥檚 the danger鈥攜ou don鈥檛 feel anything. Usually someone else notices it: a waxy, whitish patch on your skin. It feels really stiff, as if it鈥檚 frozen, which it is.
The gives us two giant duffels of gear, including super-warm pants, boots, and a giant jacket we call Big Red. It has a padded hood with fur that zips up to a tiny hole around your face. It鈥檚 the warmest jacket I鈥檝e ever worn.
On a diving day, we drive PistenBullies鈥攖hey鈥檙e like little tanks鈥攐ut to the dive site. We drill a hole through the ice, which is about six feet thick. We put a hut over it so we鈥檙e out of the wind, and we have a propane heater. It鈥檚 pretty cushy.
Once you鈥檙e in the water, it鈥檚 a race against the cold. Our typical dive is 35 minutes. For the first 20 minutes, you feel pretty good, and then your hands become harder and harder to use. It takes some serious stoicism and concentration. It gets easier with time. You come to expect the pain of the cold, and it bothers you less.
We dive with these burly regulators that don鈥檛 freeze, and we wear drysuits, so we鈥檙e totally dry on the inside if everything goes well. Under that, we wear two sets of heavy-duty long underwear and a high-loft suit. We have a 12-millimeter hood for our head. Your face is exposed around your mouth, but that skin goes numb really fast.
The water is 28 degrees, the freezing temperature of seawater. In shallow water, there鈥檚 a lot of anchor ice鈥攂ig ice crystals that form on the bottom. We鈥檙e almost always diving deeper than 50 feet, sometimes down to 130. Light does come through the ice. It鈥檚 sort of gloomy down there, but the visibility is usually 600 feet.
We did a couple dives 80 miles away from . A helicopter flew us out. We were about as far from civilization as you can get, diving in ice cracks that Weddell seals use. We had no warming hut. We were at the mercy of the weather and the wind. It was exhilarating.
We鈥檙e always eating when we鈥檙e on the surface, usually leftovers from the station galley鈥攑izza, burritos, and sweet desserts. The snacks aren鈥檛 healthy, but they pack a lot of calories, and that鈥檚 what you need.
It鈥檚 one of the best scientific experiences I鈥檝e ever had. It鈥檚 like you turned back the clock a hundred years and you鈥檙e doing discovery science. By going to an extreme place and doing stuff no one has ever done, you鈥檙e almost guaranteed to find something interesting.
Interviewed by Jacob Baynham.