amundson wisely used huskies to pull his sleds across the ice.de it back alive. the south pole. what you might not know or be prepared for is the south pole is high, like 9,000 feet above sea level and it's cold, real cold, but you knew that. you feel the altitude. today, the base at south pole has the feel of a space station, a warm comfortable bubble in the middle of well, the great void. it can be incredibly harsh out there with winds reaching as high as 50 knots and temperatures regularly dropping below negative 50 degrees fahrenheit. about 200 scientists and staff work here during the summer season. chef bryan denham is responsible for keeping them all fed and happy. he's been coming here for about five seasons, wintering for over three of those. again one makes a lot with a little. what do you think the likely common thread between all of the people who choose to come to this place? >> stuart: everybody's got a spirit of adventure here. it's pretty cool because you think oh i've done some really cool things, and then you talk to someone els

jason amundson calculate how much melted ice is flowing into the ocean. >> when the glaciers are actually in retreat, the one thing they do is ththey contribe to sea level rise, but they also affect atmospheric circulation patterns, which propagates downstream. it affects other things. the changes in the amount of freshwater runoff into the ocean, which will affect the ocean properties, which could affectct the marinine life. >> the e global seaea level is g to rise, and it will rise by varying amounts depending on where you are in the world, and the cocontribuonon froglacaciers is kekely to be s significantnt >> > digginsnsnow ps hahas been useful for almost 60 years on the juno icefield, but when these snow pits are paired with new ground-breaking technologies, the science becomes even more susuccessful. salvatore candela is using a powerful ground-pepenetrating radar, or gpr as it's known, t o get information from m the vast areas between s snow pits using the pits themselveses as a reference e for his readings. >> the d digging of pits and usg ground-penetrating g radar realy ties wel