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eTrex Summit® goes to the South Pole
 Recently
I returned from the U.S. Amundsen-Scott Station, located at the
South Geographic Pole, Antarctica. This year I took with me my
Garmin® eTrex Summit, and for fun photographed it being held above
the south pole marker.
Because the 4 kilometer-thick ice (approx. 2.5 miles) beneath
the south pole is moving horizontally about an inch a day, the
exact position of the pole needs to be occasionally remeasured
to determine its current whereabouts on the ice surface. The US
Geological Survey undertakes this job each Austral summer and
places a new pole marker in the exact current position of the
pole on January 1 of each year.
The photo shows my eTrex Summit above the January 1, 2001 pole
marker. The LCD display in this image shows a latitude of 89 59'
59.3", but if one waits at the marker for awhile, you can
occasionally see 90 00' 00.0" flash by
on the screen. But due to an ambient temperature of -44ūC, this
photo was taken in a hurry!
Thanks to Scott Burgett and Frances Chen for their prompt attention
to my query regarding eTrex Summit's altitude measurement.
Cheers,
Andre
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