Peculiar Vehicles Of Antarctica

In this peculiar place, there are a variety of peculiar transportation options.  I would love to say that I have driven them all, but... alas!  I have not yet been able to sample all the fun ways to drive at the bottom of the world!

There is, of course, the old classic:  The Dog Sled

It served good ol' Roald well back in the day, and has a touch of fuzzy appeal to it.  Also, your transportation doubles as your mobile food supply on the way back if you need it to... though it might require tougher men than we make now days to travel The Ice that way...


















If light, fast transport is what you want, without a desire to eat it:

The Fat Tire Bike.  We have about a dozen of them at McMurdo.  You have to be lucky to get to the rec office when one gets turned in though, as with 860 people on station looking for ways to recreate outside of work, the bikes can go quick.






The Ski-doo:

 This is used for light duty tasks, mainly by the science teams in nearby field locations, like turtle rock (just north up the peninsula), or the penguin ranch about 4 miles out on the sea ice.

Or spies with UFO secrets on high speed chases.

The Van:

This one, I have driven.  Kind of boring really, but this is comfortable enough for tooling around on the rock or out on the ice roads to the airfields.











Good Old Ivan The Terra Bus:

This beast nearly everybody rides in either to or from the airfield when we get off or board the plane.  Would be comfortable as any standard passenger bus, except that it gets packed to the gills with folk who are usually carrying 50lbs. of gear and dressed for winter.  But old Ivan has been faithfully in service for nearly half a century.  And besides, Ivan is a more comfortable ride than -




The Delta:

 Which is like riding in Ivan, only much, much bouncier.  Sort of like being arctic pop-corn before the trip is over, since the heater is either off, or on full out human-roast.









The Mac-Track:

The ambulance is one of these.  They are made to go more rugged places than mere tire laden vehicles can.  I am not sure that it would be fun to have to drive one... but then it has treads... you know... like a tank.  Speaking of which -








The Nodwell:

 These are the RV of science teams and apocalyptic paramilitary forces on the continent.  Highly versatile, rugged on even crevasse rent snow and ice, the pod can carry any number of scientific suites, or anti-UFO laser cannons, and still have power for an espresso machine.







The Snow Cat:

This is sort of the Mac-Track's big brother.  They are meant to show the Mac how it's done in the big leagues.  They are a little faster and more agile than the Nodwell, but lack both range and the espresso machine.

Or laser cannons.








The Pisten Bully:

 The humble, uncomplaining tracked work-horses of The Ice.  They carry cargo hither and yon, with a utility bed, and attachment points for winches and other tools.  The seal teams might use these to abscond with seal pups to take back to the lab before returning them.

The seal moms and Heather (the team lead) seem to have an agreement, so it all works out.

Until those pups become teenagers... there might have been aquatic mammal joy-riders from time to time.  And they smoke in the cab too!


The Haaglund:

Ah the wonderful Hag!  Long range, good cargo capacity, and more agile than the Nodwell.  Still does not have the espresso machine, but these are part of the Traverse caravans, and are very busy near and far, and still cuter than the Pisten Bully.

For my money, I'd take the Hag if I were in the market to buy.