Here is Siple’s account of his return to Antarctica on the Second Byrd Expedition. He’s lost a little of his Boy Scott adolescence but is still a young man filled with wonderment at his good fortune of being asked to return, and at the lack of wonder among some of his new colleagues.
p. 7, on returning to the mostly buried Little America: Four years ago I remembered that we had been given orders that we would each be allowed only one duffle bag full of our personal possessions and whatever we could carry on our backs. A nasty inventory of our stock had brought rapid decisions to toss old papers, books and useless gadgets.
p. 8: In the library that adjoined the larger room was the big box of light fiction that had been packed to take back, but, by necessity, later abandoned.