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Our Southern-most Members
Mariah Crossland and Erik Richards are our most southern USAPL members. They are stationed at McMurdo Station, in Antarctica. The train in "Cold's Gym" at McMurdo, and plan to compete in the Spring (November), in Australia. Erik is from Alaska, and Mariah from Montana.
Mariah Crossland:
I have been working in Antarctica since 1992-the last 6 years doing computer
support. I like to hike, bike and ski, but the weather down here is not
always suited for that. I have lifted weights off and on for the last 20
years- never very seriously. But when I'm home in Montana I do enough
building, rock-hauling and gardening to keep my strength up pretty well.
Friends call me when they need couches and iron bathtubs moved.
I really should do more aerobic workouts, but the indoor treadmills and
stair-steppers bore me to tears and I've gotten fairly addicted to lifting.
Last October I started some light-weight high-rep conditioning and then
worked up to some heavier benching. The recreation department announced in
December that they would hold a 3-event competition in January. I signed up
and started deadlifting and squatting, neither of which I'd ever done
before. I didn't really have anyone to show me how to do it properly until
the meet. John Richards and Loreen Locke, both competitive power-lifters
stationed at the South Pole, were here in McMurdo just in time to be our
judges. Several people benched, but only one man and I did squats and DL
and it turned out to be a pretty good coaching session where they gave us a
lot of tips.
My contract continued into the austral winter but the people I had been
lifting with left the ice in February. So I was pretty thrilled when Erik
Richards arrived and agreed to be my lifting partner. We have met at the
gym 3 times a week for the last 6 months. He has taught me a lot and I've
increased my strength substantially in all 3 lifts. Having a physical
escape from the dark and cold helped me get through the winter sanely. Now
the sun has come up again and my contract will end in October. Erik and I
are training for a power lifting meet in Sydney Australia in November. I
have never competed, or even been to a real meet before but he says it's
great fun. I'm looking forward to it, and it doesn't hurt anything that it
will be very sunny and warm there! I'll be competing in Women's Masters 1
(I'm 43) SHW and would like to break 900 total; squatting 320-350,
benching 210-230 and DL 320-350.
Erik Richards:
My first competition was the Alaska State Meet back in 1989 held at
Lathrop H.S. in Fairbanks. The meet was run on 2 platforms, and being a not
so large 17-year old, I lifted with the women. Things have progressed over
of the years and I have competed in 12 to 15 meets mostly in Alaska and one
down in Oregon. I met Ben Brent around 1994 through my mother (Rita St.
Louis, whom he was coaching at the time) and spent the next several years
learning as much as I could from him. My lifts have steadily improved over
the years with my main goal, like most power lifters, to better my last
total. The last time I competed was at the Alaska State meet in early 1999
before coming down to McMurdo Station Antarctica (located 2,500 miles south
of New Zealand on Ross Island). I have done 3 contracts down here with
Honeywell working at the NASA satellite tracking station and so by the time
I leave this coming October I will have spent 28 out the last 36 months
here.
During the last 3 winters I have spent a fair amount of time in the weight
room keeping myself occupied during the 6 months we are locked in during
winter (there are no planes in or out from the end of February through the
end of August). This year when I was looking for a workout partner I met
Mariah who had done some lifting but had never competed. Around March we
started talking about doing a meet in New Zealand or Australia when we leave
the Ice, and after some searching we found the meet in Australia. Training
has been going well with my only real problem being that since all my
lifting gear is in storage in Fairbanks I had to order all new stuff from
Titan and it failed to make it down to New Zealand in time for the last
plane of Winfly. (After the first sunrise which typically is around August
19th the station opens for 5 flights from New Zealand that bring in an
additional 200 people to help get the station ready for the summer science
season (we wintered with 230 people this year) as well as bring in the first
fresh food and mail we would have seen since February.) That means that
I'll only have a couple of workouts to train with my new stuff since the
next planes aren't due until October 1st. I suppose that's the price one
pays living and working in Antarctica, for as the local saying goes, "it's a
harsh continent." So if all goes well and my job replacement arrives on
time then I hope to do the following in Sydney: Squat 480-500, Bench
300-315, and Deadlift (550-575).
"Cold's Gym" where Erik and Mariah train:
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