the station leader
The winter station leader at the research station in Rothera is a former Edinburgh bar manager.
Matthew Phillips is on call 24/7 and, by the time he clocks out early in 2020, he will have been on duty in the coldest place on the planet for 14 months.
“We are the most southerly British outpost during the Antarctic winter and are very much on our own,” said Matthew.
“There are just 23 of us during the current winter months and I am responsible for the day-to-day running of the station.
“That means carrying a radio with me at all times. It even stays on during the night next to my bed.
“I make sure people get to work on time as well as everything that keeps an Antarctic station running.
“That includes taking snow depths around the station, deciding if it’s safe for people to go out skiing or climbing, working out how much food we need delivered when the supply ship comes in January.”
Matthew gave up pulling pints to train in outdoor education.
He was then a coxswain and mountain guide in Greenland.
But his route to the South Pole came while he was sailing boats off North Uist.
His boss at the time worked on expedition ships to Antarctica. Matthew was chosen to be a diver on one of them.
“As we sailed north at the end of the season I remember standing on the deck watching the land drop below the horizon,” he recalled.
“I had to hold back the tears and I’m not normally emotionally charged like that. That was February 2009.
“I’ve been hooked on the place since.”
The months of darkness don’t bother him.
“But it does play havoc with my sleep pattern,” he admitted.
The weather is a bigger challenge but he and the other Scots have acclimatised.
“There are lots of little things that need attention…like having to dig your way back into a building after a big fall of snow.
“There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.
“So we wear lots of gloves, hats and warm layers.”
One of the most unusual qualifications needed to manage the base is to be sworn in as a magistrate.
“The British Antarctic Territory is the largest of the overseas territories and being magistrate is part of my job,” said Matthew.“it is massively unlikely I’ll have to use any of those powers, though.”