Happy Camper

The sun shined all night through my dorm room window, and I still had no trouble sleeping. And luckily so, as I needed some rest before my first day of Antarctic Survival School, aka: Happy Camper.


After a quick shower (water is a precious commodity in our community), I headed to the galley to grab some grub, and off to the chalet for training. Our group of 20 "happy campers" started out the day in the classroom, discussing hypothermia, frostbite, clothing, ect. Equipped with our ECW, "extreme cold weather" gear, we headed out past Scott Base (the New Zealand base) and out onto the Ross Ice Shelf, where we were all exposed to the frigid Antarctic air!



The trainings in the field were actually pretty informative. Taught by alpine climbing guides, Danny and Dylan, we covered a variety of topics. Starting with stoves, we learned how to start and ignite them in the unbearable temps (any use of bare fingers resulted in instant numbing!). I can now completely assemble, repair, clean, and dismantle our MSR Wisperlights piece by piece. So if something does fail, whether it be a fuel line freezing or an o-ring cracking, there is no need to worry (mom)...






Our training also covered radio communications. We set up an HF antenna (spanned about 30 feet), aimed it at a repeater on Black Island, and I contacted the South Pole Base-the temperature was -60degreesF! Next was Helo Safety, "condition 1 (whiteout)" search & rescue, and my most favorite, snow shelters!

There are two types of tents we will be using in the field (Scott and Mountain tents). The Scott tents have the same design Captain Scott used when first exploring the South Pole in the early 1900's! However, a few of us chose to dig and carve snow trenches for our overnight sleeping quarters. Corey (a fellow LTER member on the stream team) and I connected our shelters with a separate tunnel through the snow. Here's what it looked like: