Showering at the South Pole
brr.fyi
Showering at the South Pole
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Re: Showering at the South Pole
#2If you get .75 gallons per day I might prefer to have a warm bath once every few weeks and a sponge bath once or twice per week.
Re: Showering at the South Pole
#3I wonder if there’s a side market trade of shower minutes. Some people will feel more strongly about cleanliness than others, perhaps they’d be willing to sell or trade shower time..
Re: Showering at the South Pole
#4How does this work if you're a medical or sanitation worker and require more cleanliness? Are there exceptions for that type of staff?
Re: Showering at the South Pole
#5The best part of this blog post is the mathemetical rigor and accuracy he's undertaken to illustrate the hardships of showering "at the bottom of the world."
Re: Showering at the South Pole
#6Am tickled to see this here, having done these calculations myself in the same place several years running (due to summer visits at the Pole for work from 1997-2011).
The author doesn't mention workouts. There are good gym facilities at the Pole, and there's nothing like a half-minute shower (the author's "Option 2") after using them. Now that I know there is an appetite for shower recipes, I'll share mine from 2011[1].
I will say that living under tightly constrained conditions...
- incredibly cold temperatures, typically -30F in the summer
- at times, relatively infrequent "freshies" (fresh vegges/fruits)
- spotty Internet bandwidth
- the water constraints under discussion
- ...
... give one a renewed appreciation for the common luxuries one typically has in "the real world."
The biggest surprise luxury when getting off the Ice at Summer's end? Nighttime.
(I only deployed in Summer -- daylight all the time at Pole.)
[1] http://johnj.com/posts/shower-instructions/
(edit: formatting, and fix gender assumption)
Re: Showering at the South Pole
#7If you get .75 gallons per day I might prefer to have a warm bath once every few weeks and a sponge bath once or twice per week.
The post says water is the metered commodity, but I imagine temperature is what's actually subject to restrictions. You can have all the subzero water you want - it's just lying around on the ground.
If heating weren't a concern, the obvious way to get around tight limits on water would be to take communal baths.
The post is also oddly concerned with "potable" water when that isn't a concern for showers.
Re: Showering at the South Pole
#8Why take showers at all? A large bath filled with warm water that could be sterilized regularly would be far more luxurious and last quite a long time.
Also pro tip: to maximize water you need a mister type shower head that sprays smaller droplets, which gets you far wetter and is more efficient than a regular rain type shower. Bladerunner 2049 featured such a shower and I think a longer running version of that for Antarctica would be fantastic.
Re: Showering at the South Pole
#9...why not just have a nuclear reactor to provide an infinite heat source? Submarines at the bottom of ocean have more shower time than south pole stations.
Re: Showering at the South Pole
#10Can you hoard your water rations and have a hot, gloaty bath?