Ed Stump is the author of The Roof At The Bottom Of The World, a history and exploration of the Transantarctic Mountains, the most remote mountain belt on Earth.
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In the 1970s and early 1980s having a family member accompany a member of a research party to Antarctica was a fairly common practice. If the question of nepotism ever arose, the National Science Foundation would counter that the lengthy time commitments to work on the ice led to many "Antarctic divorces." Giving a family member an opportunity to be a part of the program could thus be a preventive measure. Policies have changed and now a family member who joins an expedition must have specific qualifications that justify their inclusion, but in 1982 and 1983 I had the good fortune of being able to take my wife, Harriet, along as a field assistant. She was the best field assistant I've ever had.

With a mission of surveying the basement rocks of the Dry Valleys across the sound from McMurdo Station, Harriet and I used helicopter close-support and small camps to[...]

[Published in GreenNews - Read the original article]