We all Need Travel and Adventure
The Ellsworth Mountain Range in Antarctica
If I were a betting man, I would bet on a forthcoming widespread release of pent-up desire to travel and explore as the pandemic wanes into a memory. I would further wager that work as we know it has changed for good. With modern technology, a lot of work deliverables can be accomplished from almost any location at almost anytime of day or night. That can often allow “workers” to ski, mountain bike, surf, and hike when conditions are inviting and perform their work at alternative times. With mobile phones and laptops, we can Zoom, talk, text, and email from almost anywhere. I suspect that employees will be looking for jobs that provide such flexibility and employers will be wise to embrace these concepts. Companies in the cruise, airline, adventure, and travel industries must be ready - the travel demand surge is coming.
Perhaps we all have places we dream to visit. Antarctica is on my list. That dream started as a teenager. Please allow me to tell the story.
When I was in high school, satellite phones did not exist and anyone finding themselves in some remote part of the world relied on shortwave radio for communication. My father worked in the technical side of radio and television broadcasting and he constructed an impressive ham radio station in our home with a large tower and antenna in our backyard. I had to learn morse code and was licensed to operate all of this equipment at an early age. I talked to people all over the world including middle eastern princes, missionaries, seagoing vessels, and Antarctic explorers. Our station was equipped to provide “phone patches” where we could allow someone in the remotest places of the world to to talk to family and loved-ones via radio connected to a phone line. On some occasions, these communications provided urgent medical support. The band conditions had to be just right for communications to occur and that was typically late at night.
The family Ham Radio station was a window to the world - Photo by Danny Smith
I fell into a niche of providing these phone patches for U.S. Antarctic bases, ice breakers, C130 Hercules flights across the continent in support of Operation Deep Freeze, and even a remote research camp in the Ellsworth Mountains of Antarctica. U.S. Navy radio operators would schedule calls on their end in 5 minute intervals and we would sometimes work those lists for several hours. It was cool to regularly talk to a wide range of locations including the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, McMurdo Station on the coast, Palmer Station, various icebreakers, and a research camp located near Vinson Massif, one of the “Seven Summits”, in the Ellsworth Mountain Range.
Pat Rowe operating the research camp radio station KC4USX in the Ellsworth Range, Antarctica
I provided a lot of phone patches for Pat Rowe, the U.S. Navy radio operator at the Ellsworth camp, and I ended up sending him a few rolls of film for him to take some photographs and mail them back to me. A year or so later there was a knock on our front door late one night and we found two scruffy looking guys who had traveled all of the way from Antarctica with my undeveloped rolls of film in hand. It was quite a surprise! With the exception of the photo of our home station, all of the photos in this post came from those rolls of film.
While I have climbed a glaciated mountain, backpacked in extremely cold conditions, traveled all over the world, and even skied in sub-zero Fahrenheit temperatures, I still have never set foot in Antarctica to experience it’s dry coldness and sense of isolation. I even have a neighbor who is an Antarctic researcher, Dr. Jim McClintock, and I have envied his trips to the ice. I have also read “Endurance”, the survival story of Sir Ernest Shackleton and all of that has kept my dream alive. Perhaps, the Lord willing, a visit will still happen.
Where would you like to travel? What will the world of work and personal adventure look like going forward?
My advice is to explore and enjoy the world wherever you find yourself. Experience other cultures. I think those things make you a much more productive and creative person in the world of work.
P.S. I recently caught up with Pat. He owns Midwest ROV LLC that provides observation class Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) services ranging from underwater marine research to ship hull and propulsion system inspections. His sense of adventure in work continues. See: http://www.midwestrov.com
The Ellsworth Mountain Range, Antarctica