Life Raft - Alone in Antarctica: The First Woman to Ski Solo Across the Southern Ice - page 113

strict boundaries. It doesn't matter if you have flown into the
South Pole on a private jet for a photoshoot or skied alone
across the continent, there is no access to the station or to the
people that work there beyond an organised tour of the station
building that can be arranged on request. Medical staff at the
station would not hesitate to provide assistance to anyone in
need in an emergency but expeditions are told not to expect
or to ask for any kind of support including use of facilities or
any top-up of supplies. Quite rightly, expeditions are obliged
to look after themselves.
An area a short distance away from the South Pole and the
main station building had been set aside for visitors arriving
who wished to camp while they waited for flights back to
the coast to basecamps like Union Glacier. This was where I
expected to find the resupply bag I had prepared for myself
and where I knew it was likely I would see other expedition
teams that had either just finished their journey or were
waiting to start.
The rules surrounding my arrival and departure from the
South Pole dictated my route (I was asked to follow the line of
longitude 132 degrees west) but also my ablutions. Forming a
circle 200 kilometres across, the last degree of latitude around
the Pole is a strict no-poo zone. All human waste has to be
deposited in special bags and carried away. I had been making
deposits into ziplock bags for the past week and had them
safely stowed, frozen, in the bottom of my sledges under the
sledge bags. Within the boundary of the South Pole station it
is also a no-pee zone. I'd been told to carry a pee-bottle with
me as I approached and to deposit the contents later at an
appropriate facility within the station compound. However, as
the oblong got closer it occurred to me that I didn't want to