Music in Antarctica

When I arrived in Antarctica, on August 25th, 2004, I was lost. I had just taken an unplanned semester off from school. I had just returned home from a two-week road trip up the Eastern Seaboard. I barely slept at all during my two days in New Zealand. The next day was my birthday.

And there I was, working my first 10-hour shift of a six-month contract to wash dishes in arguably the remotest place on earth.

The first night, I laid on my bed and listened to this song, over and over and over. It is a perfect soundtrack for nighttime on the ice. Everything is quiet and deadly cold. And all you have with you, in the end, is your thoughts. (And, hopefully, an iPod.)

• Singtree by Orgship:

mp3