so seasonal operations are over. geological samples are gathered during the summer a loaded into containers. full water is drained from the station and windows are boarded up and filled in with. is given even the slightest chance to sneak in it will be impossible to dig it out of. the diesel generator was the last to be shutdown no one can survive without heat. the operation takes just a few hours to complete. the station is ready for winter. comfortable flying people.

are no good to see good to see you back here they told us you would come you're here and fortune is smiling upon us again everything's going to be great. i'm going to be eighty five in april now i only go to the doctor. and antarctica. i'm drawn towards it my wife isn't even aware of these expeditions in the last few years. rushes expeditions to antarctica set off from cape town south africa while the ship

stays in port for a few days the team members enjoy some time off. many of them want to take a tour to the cape of good hope. unfortunately there's not enough space on the bus so the polar explorers decide to draw lots to determine who gets to go. in the soviet era to get to antarctica it wasn't enough to just be lucky you needed a relevant experience with drift ice in the arctic as well as recommendations there was no other way to reach the southernmost continent today it's enough to send your resume to the arctic and antarctic research institute along with a clean bill of health. just two days ago both the new comers and both are heading to antarctica for the first time they get to spend the whole winter together at the novel gas station. me . i heard about it in the institute but i just put it on the back burner at the

time it wasn't what i was dreaming about constantly. i wasn't even thinking about antarctica six months ago. i was pretty scared about two days before we were meant to leave. i didn't feel that way but when you actually realize it's here when the data sets and your dream is ready to come true it's tough. so that's what's next i don't know we'll see if i like it i'll keep doing it but if. they will both flying to antarctica from cape town. the landing strips can only operate for short periods. the weather is too unreliable and the distance too great. for example even in early autumn the temperature at the station falls to sixty degrees below zero skids can get no traction when the snow is that cold. the academic field. the

food and fuel for the station. will spend the winter the ship is a floating headquarters. of the seasonal expedition. and the head of the winter team. right now i spend less time at home. of course my family is waiting for me back home but i think they get fed up with me after a while but. they are used to living with me that's just the way it is. gave me one toilet roll he told me it would be enough until i get home i said for a year and he answered when i say home i mean. those who are experienced are already used to it the newcomers have this mix of

romanticism and pragmatism. i used to be a bureaucrat. seriously but at some point i just started to feel better antarctica was the only thing that was true and real. from st petersburg and. i'm going to spend the whole year at the progress research station. time to clear things up and answer the main question who am i and what changes await us they'll probably happen. this is antarctica. kind of uncomfortable after the ship right. was one of the pioneers of russian antarctica there was nothing here except

a rock before the first generation of explorers with plenty of experience in the north pole landed here on the southern continent. i don't know how low. it was but the two russian stations from the ground up he spent almost every winter here our first joy decks position was number nineteen. this is a good keeping up with tradition of photographing each winter team it's really good. come to check up on the progress station after it's reconstruction it's recently been named the capital of the russian expedition. are you happy i can see that compared to other stations here this place is having. the most important event in the life of a station is stuff rotation. everybody.

twenty five people will be spending this winter at the progress station so. i'm johnny. the head of the station is like a ship's captain he is responsible for everything without his permission no one can leave the station a little later they'll be given a mandatory briefing although many of them don't need it this is not their first winter here. hello there. so who knows our place is dear i do. ok doctor so. you know your place is. david doctor says.

it will be your room. the same way they have. and a galley. the first expedition ship as a result. and everyone takes that. this is absolutely a second home. you don't have to feel that it's a temporary. when you're here you have to feel a year is a long time. it's not so easy to live here for a year. not yet i'm waiting on my partner he's probably busy with science right now. today is focused on the same job. brought in by helicopter from the i can.

together the winter team is made up of a few scientists a chef. and others responsible for maintaining the research station it's easy to see who's already spent a year here. there are no women here why should i. it's really difficult to spend a year with just. i never smoked before but i started to after a became the head of the station because they were always complaining. someone with their mouth open or someone doesn't wash their socks or someone snores or someone said something inappropriate about their wife or mother complaints every single day. women do not spend winter at the russian stations married couples were

brought here several times as an experiment but it didn't work out. they sent an engineer his wife was a cook it was hard work. to care or have a bags and lots of meat. of course she couldn't do it so he had to drop what he was doing and help her. he couldn't do his job because of that because he had to help her. and that's even touching the deeper psychological issue is you know. there are two cooks here the weather may change but lunch can never be postponed. here. steak with onions and mushrooms. frighten beef liver. sausages. i always say guys why do you love sausages so much

look we've got steak of france says liver oh these cutlets what is it with sausages . what they do is they put all the good stuff on one plates and then come back with another plate and take two more sausages it doesn't matter. after consulting with the cook the station has to buy food for example instead of buying lemons it's better to get limes they stay fresh longer experience has taught them ways to keep goods fresh for a whole year. eggs can be preserved for a whole year if you turn them every ten days that way the yolk won't dry up and go bad space should be left between bags to keep onions. but it's impossible to say how long a cabbage can stay fresh. so there's one time i peeled it all the way to the center and i wrapped each one in paper after like they used to an old timer but it didn't

help it kept going off i wrapped each a cabbage head but there were no changes so i don't know that is why it stays in its string bag now if it starts rotting we. eat it quickly. and antarctica teaches hills and breaks but it trains you as well. i'm much more modest now. this is my sixth winter here it's been nine years in antarctica already they ask me all the time why do you go there you idiot you saw it once ok twice there's nothing special about it. people change that's true they do. first of all when they go back home they're already dreaming of returning here again.

you might think that could be nothing more monumental and timeless than the view of this landscape. but it is only temporary over three days the view will change at least three times.

in effect got into can jump in anytime you want. on their way to antarctica the crew of the i can to make sure that if face many challenges. here you have to look out for yourself crashing on to rocks trapped in pack ice in extreme conditions anything can happen and dart to always comes up with surprises you have to keep your eyes open because there's always something going wrong the ship carries huge reserves of water food fuel as well as helicopters and people able to survive extreme conditions they're ready for anything even an apocalypse she's really an incredible ship. calling all antarctica stations this is academic a field that of radio check please respond. the

island is so small that for me it's the center see the center of the universe. on a tiny island the size of a football field in the middle of a lake stanza ruined monastery forty years ago to lovers decided to spend their honeymoon here. they had no idea that the island would change their lives forever and that they would change the fate of the island. and not never seen anything like this before it's going to come in a house. in the fortress of ice is grown in just one hour and it's only the beginning. secret lover a tour to mccurry was able to build

a new most sophisticated robot which on fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tunes mission to teach creation why it should care about humans and world this is why you should care only. mission free credit take free. for charges free. maintenance free. free. free. old free broadcast video for your media project for free r.t. dot com. i am. i am. just a few days remain for the summer team to hand over to their winter colleagues former bureaucrat johnny spent

a year studying magnets. really wanted to come to the antarctic every station has its own magnetic room there are no metallic objects in such rooms the temperature is kept stable at approximately twenty five degrees celsius a computer constantly records changes and time has to be accurate to the second clocks must be adjusted in a very special way. for three days we can only take note there's no time to make changes. dreamed about and talk to several years for example if we take it in russia it will show us north that way but if you take it here it will show north that way even though it's that way if we follow the compass as we used to do it in russia we won't end up in india is expected but in chile south america she. as a student he proposed geological. it was important to go to antarctica to collect the

data he needed. this i didn't find anything new for. here there are no influence like t.v. or anything like that this. year. just sit and think he's simply sitting in thinking. the station's eye on a sphere is to keep his instruments in a corner of the same room his job is to monitor high altitude conditions all the data he collects has to be sent to an institute in st petersburg and the equipment needs regular adjustment. in fact every polar job has its own specifics such details are handed down to each new generation of polar explorer. these balloons can rise to forty two kilometers. carry information to a console of the station. is very important we make aeronautical charts for

aircraft like how helicopters can fly for instance similar balloons are released all over the world at midnight g.m.t. russian polar explorers have long invented new ways to make the process more efficient such as how to make them easier to release. it is so short but we can still set up the balloon like this there is about fifty meters of rope here how to make it go. in a mixture of kerosene and benzene that. we came up with it makes it fly higher it can fly up to thirty kilometers. without it it will only go as high as twenty two. other countries don't care so much. and how to make it. through inflated with hydrogen. there is

a rope down there it's all reference point i can check the top point of the balloon by using that oh there we go. today none of the scientists remember who actually came up with these ideas. from arctic experience it was our own atmospheric scientists who invented them. not talk to has its own atmospheric scientist but all of them have a meteorologist he doesn't get the chance to get eight hours of sleep because he has to submit weather data every six months and he has to go to the weather station every day. has a sort of utilitarian value of what i think the weather data. you know. the data the prediction and work out. information from that any more.

generally almost all of the scientific. comes down to monitoring investigations in different processes. doesn't play the main role here. the main. sciences. have to make sure we have a claim here. at the progress station they can automatically get water from. the polar explorers don't like it. used to going to the remote. to taste better.

water here is the same after distillation and because of the lack of minerals polar explorers constantly suffer from dental problems. better to fill it. table and forget to take. any more. pull my teeth out all the time here i've lost four in this room alone it's my sacrifice to antarctica. it's been a month since our. station. just

but thankfully this month. medical emergencies. even started to study english computer here aleksei help me he installed a ton of different programs everything i've. usually don't have time for anything or to think. about anything seriously but here we have an opportunity to stop and think it's the first step was the most important thing to me. after a month the newcomers have settled into station life which works to a strict shed you will. there is one meteorologist one narrowing just one seismologist when geophysicist we still have plenty of work to do with the group no one will do it for you. kinks are worked out i was really impressed by that. doris swing and worked suddenly all of them to it means

the way to do you won't wrench it out of your hand fling it open. all the houses are placed in a room with a little tilt from east to west the wind here blows from east to west that's why all of the roads in maine trails have rails and ropes so you can hold onto them if it's windy. so i called our rooms suites and they burst out laughing. they said they were called cabins. well ok then the cabin is a cabin. after a month alexei has a little more experience and can do his own research main task is to investigate the earth's climate he has to make a range of observations of the sky researching lunar reflections. and solar phenomena today is the last day to check all the technical details with the help of

his predecessor. you have to change the filters here because of the bright moon so be easy take your time things have to be arranged in a proper way. tomorrow he'll leave with the rest of the old crew and the new will begin their winter tour of duty. we have a new group of specialists here now all of them are young how are they going to get along with each other. how old are you twenty years. i'm the youngest engineer here i'm twenty three i'm the youngest one here. or here by two months. these last few days before winter always the busiest. a year's worth of infantry they work all day long. so there's

a great deal to do and plenty of containers to unload. all of them are waiting for the last helicopter. in my heart i already feel here. only thing is to get along with the new guys that will be. take a month to get acquainted with and get used to them only after that i consider the beginning of winter. after fifty years of a russian presence in antarctica the definition of a polar explorer changed. there are things i've seen. in the movies and the things we have here now are completely different but we sit here now talking about today's watermelon which was not so tasty and then we retired to our european style rooms about some of this difference with the lives of those who built it all up from the

very beginning unconquered nature here were completely different for this book i felt that. xander. traditionally the last helicopter to leave will circle the station. the ship leaving on time to will sound its horn three times signaling the start of winter. before they still remember that feeling of the helicopter made its last farewell circling was off mark riley was the beginning of winter and only thirty two people were left i felt kind of. better for the roof. then the long pole and nights began along with inevitable depression because of six months absence of some exhausting snowstorms loan letters home and the desire to see friends and family but even after all that many will still dream about coming back fortunately there's plenty of work here in antarctica for many generations to come

. together and unsolved mystery for me. that is an interesting question. which is why does this place attract me so when i sold mine you know what that blowing already. three goodbye horns. the antarctic winter has begun.

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a terrorist so it was with them they wanted me to admit that i was a member of al qaeda the taliban that i felt with them. was not about time i didn't even know what al qaeda is nevertheless there are people all. brave enough to start a fight. something's going to be done that's going to be done by me to have a short amount of time to do it but it's going to impact me i'd be prosecuted but it's going to impact. the wife my daughter. the one time a trap. on our t.v. . to be told language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on. reporting from the world talks about steffi r.p. interviews intriguing story. are you. in troy.

for a visit or a big old boat called. breaking news in all sea russia's foreign minister says washington is trying to blackmail moscow the u.s. has threatened to suspend work on stewardess chemical design and if russia does not support a u.n. resolution that allows the use of. the sound a c. or it completes the first step of its chemical dissolve the planet while russia u.s. diplomatic progress on the issue is overshadowed by the friendship changers over there is to blame for last month's poison gas and top because. polls open in germany's parliamentary election which except to see chancellor merkel securing a said time to a growing social and economic difficulties and leave many as a nation. on the.