Polar Regions

Due to the extreme tilt of the planetary axis, nearly 60 degrees, both polar regions experience wide ranges of temperature. For a substantial part of the year one is in complete darkness while the other is in perpetual sun. During the hot season temperatures soar without respite and even the most tolerant creatures burrow deep below the surface or migrate away. When the cold season arrives temperatures plummet and trace moisture in already dry air freezes into long, delicate crystals of ice.
These temperature extremes result in upheaveal of the ground as it expands and contracts every year. The polar landscape is rocky and boulder-strewn with low, craggy mountains.
Despite the harshness of the environment, the pre-holocaust technology allowed for construction of compounds by the wealthy. Many such retreats persist, relatively untouched by time. Used primarily as vacation homes, most saw little use except by staff to oversee their upkeep. After the collapse they are now virtually impossible to reach.
What roads existed are buckled, twisted and hidden under rock slides. Unpredictable winds and conditions make conventional aircraft into deathtraps. The wealthiest had private underground tramways, but without maintenance even those would have collapsed long ago.
Because of the sparceness of the population here, there was little reason to direct widespread destruction to the area. Most of the fallout that collected in the polar areas was carried by the wind and covered up by further blown dust and sand.
There are legends amoung the Amerites about the stunning cold season skies and hunting for the great crested rock lizards. Many expeditions have been attempted into the polar regions to look for these compounds. The very reason they were constructed in such inhospitable areas was the same for their failure. Forcing even the most determined to turn back. Whether due to equipment failure or an impassible rockscape.