Hut Point: The Coolest Place When I'm Drunk.

"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut."
-Ernest Hemingway

While Winfly is still in effect there are the perfect amount of people on station, everyone pretty much gets along, and everyone kind of wants to hang out. It's a wonderful thing but it can keep you from getting out and seeing the scenery because the bars are fun, people are fun, and drinking is fun. The ideal situation would be to combine these two right? Not quite, well, at least it isn't good in theory. We're talking about someone intoxicating spending at least 30 minutes exposed to the harsh conditions of Antarctica. That's a recipe for disaster, for sure but it doesn't stop any of us.

The first time I decided to go to Hut Point was a suggestion from someone else. We were having a 5:31 Break (work ends at 5:30) where we tried out the first ever Shot-Mop. Someone had attached 4 shot glasses to the side of an unused mop giving the rare opportunity of janitor-themed group-activity drinking. So, needless to say, we all got annihilated before even getting to the bar. The details aren't all there but I don't think we actually made it to the bar and just hung out in a lounge putting some mileage on our new favorite drinking implement.

Well, after however much time had passed I told a friend that I hadn't been out to see any of the scenery yet and she thought that was completely unacceptable and told me to run to my room and get some warm clothes on. I obeyed these commands like any good boy would and we started trekking away from Station. See, this is where things get bad because once you leave station you realize what the weather is really like but when you're drunk there's no turning back. The winds were tossing us back and forth, we were cold IMMEDIATELY, and it was dark (the sun didn't set until 11pm so you know it was late). This is EXACTLY how people lose toes to frost bite and why you're suppose to let someone know you're going out. We were lucky on this adventure and didn't lose our natural balance to the weather and snow.

Getting to Hut Point should have made the adventure worth the risk but not today! We got to the spot and couldn't really see much. There was a small strip of light in the distance but the sky was covered by clouds, restricting our vision to nothing. It was also windy, so windy! There's a huge cross set out to commemorate someone who had lost their life in Antarctica and we sat underneath it to hide from the wind. It really didn't help at all so we just sat on the ground shivering and unable to see anything.

This journey only takes about 20 minutes of walking to get to Hut Point and became a regular occurrence in my drunk adventures.