This week's speaker at Rotary was Nick Lewis. Nick is originally from Wales and a British Antarctic Survey alum. He has an extensive climbing background and oversees mountain and guiding operations on Vinson and in the Ellsworth Mountains as well as coordinating seasonal staffing. He currently is a partner at Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions, which provides support to scientific teams as well tours for interested parties. They have a staff of 150 people from 30 different countries. Some funding for scientific support does come from various governments, and other comes from the private expeditions and adventurers such as trips to see penguins or climbing the highest peak. These trips are not cheap.  

 

Nick began his speech by giving us an idea of what Antarctica is like. It is the coldest continent, it has the highest peak in the world at Mount Vincent, it is the driest continent being mostly desert, and it is the windiest place on Earth. There are no native inhabitants. The entire continent is managed by the Antarctic Treaty which protects the continent and designates it as a place for research. Nick showed us a map with the existing scientific outposts. Most of these stations are on the coast for obvious reasons. Another image during the presentation showed the relative size of the continent, which is roughly the size of the continental United States plus Mexico. Antarctica holds 90% of the world's ice and 70% of the world's fresh water. It has lakes under the ice and not surprisingly the coldest temperature ever record at -128.6 degrees.

 

It's a relatively quick trip to get there compared to his first trip, which was about two months of sea travel. Ships can get stuck in the ice. Nick now work in the interior access by aircraft. Because of the nature of the organization, they are not allowed to have a permanent structures so everything is tents. Nick showed us the tents and other living quarters that are in use today, as well as some older, permanent structures. While the camp is mostly powered by solar energy, some other fuels are brought in. 

 

They are proud to provide support to scientific researchers, specifically geologists and environmental scientists, and they also serve as guides. Some groups study the ice itself. For example, the Polar Earth Observation Network run by the Ohio State University answers questions about ice sheet behavior, especially in the face of climate change. Glaciologists drill down into the ice to get a sense of past climates. They can now assess the climate from 800,000 years ago and drill down up to 2 miles deep. Astronomy is studied there and the environment is the closest to the surface of Mars, so NASA studies there. Deep space can also be studied there with massive telescopes. 

 

And, yes, he did share photos of penguins. 

 

 

There was a whole table of visitors to see our speaker, Nick Lewis. Alyse Grimm from Things to Do in Salem was a guest of Jason Consalvo, and Ed Scott attended with his wife, Joanne.  Kelsey Guilmartin was also a guest and she clearly got her good looks from her mother.

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