Long Dark Winter at the South Pole

Few people have traveled to the South Pole since Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott reached the bottom of the world in the austral summer of 1911-12. Fewer still stay for the six months of darkness in the winter at the South Pole. The first crew to winter at the South Pole was in 1957, but only 1,267 people have spent the winter (in the parlance of the U.S. Antarctic Program, “wintered over”) through 2009.

Other Antarctic winter-over milestones include:

• Number of people with six winters: 4 (Robert Schwarz, Johan Booth, Barry Horbal and Steffen Richter)
• Most consecutive winters: 5 (Joseph Gibbons, a.k.a., Jake Speed)
• Most winters by a woman: 5 (Heidi Lim)
• Number of women who have spent winter at the South Pole: 162
• Oldest person to winter: 65, as of September 2008 (Dr. Malcolm Arnold)
• Youngest person to winter: 19, as of Jan. 19, 2008 (Andy Titterington)

Source: www.southpolestation.com