Hunter,
After you have been down on the ice, try reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s “Antarctica”. He was a science fiction writer that got a writer’s grant to go to McM. The NSF dolls out a couple a year to artists and writers to help them get the “feel” of the place. His takes place in the near future after the expiration of the Antarctic Treaty. It is full of McM tidbits and will bring you back as you read it.
As to the rest. You get slammed from all sides with Antarctic History once you are down there. Visiting the old huts is more awe inspiring than reading the books. It’s one of those things where you have to be there to understand.
mike