After a difficult day of training, I slept 4 miles from base camp in a shelter made of snow. Because nature can be so ferocious, people are required to stick close to camp when they're not conducting research. As a result there's always a touch of cabin fever in the air. That's especially true at America's main research complex, McMurdo Station, where 1,200 people crowd into the cafeteria every day. McMurdo is more like a town than a camp, and its personality is shaped by a curious blend of 3 distinct cultures.
Scientists make it feel like a college campus.
Pilots make it feel like a Navy base. Cooks, mechanics, and other support personnel make it feel like a frontier town. The 3 groups rarely mix and sit apart during meals. About the only time they do sit together is in church. That's where assistant chaplain Simon Eckleton conducts Catholic mass beneath a stained glass image of a penguin.