Very Happy Campers

We could not have had better weather for Happy Camper School!

It was a balmy +9 Fahrenheit . Our group included people from the Firehouse, the Hospital, the Heavy Machine shop. the Electricians shop, and other science groups, so we got to meet people outside the Andrill group which was good. After a brief intro to the dangers associated with being outdoors in Antarctica we rode out to the 'Happy Camper' Base on the McMurdo Ice Shelf in a 'Delta' - it was initially designed for transporting people across the Canadian tundra we were told. We learned about stoves and the camping equipment, then we collected our equipment, and went out to set up camp.

We pitched two Scott tents, 4 mountain tents, and built a Quinzee. Some people (including Rainier, from the Andrill ARISE group) built trenches. We also flagged the route to the outhouse, built a protective wall, and set up the camp kitchen. Check out the other ARISE blogs to hear more about Happy Camper School.

Some people went cross-country skiing. I took pictures of the banners that I have from Talahi Community School in St. Cloud Minnesota, Friends School of Minnesota in St. Paul, and my Department (Earth & Atmospheric Sciences Dept., St. Cloud State University, Minnesota), with Mt. Erebus in the background.

We got buzzed by the helicopters that were flying past several times - that added some excitement. Then along with other 'campers' I carved the letters 'Andrill' from the quarry used for making the blocks for the snow wall. The 'R' took several attempts.

It was some time after 11pm when I finally turned in for the night after a cup of cocoa. After a warm night (there were four of us in a Scott Tent), it was still relatively warm in the morning, with a slight breeze.

There was low cloud, and it was quite dramatic-looking with the snow and ice on Hut Point Peninsula behind us.

We spent Saturday morning learning how to use the radios - our group radioed South Pole station to get the weather there! In the afternoon we went through a couple of scenarios. The first was searching for a lost person in a 'Condition 1' (i.e. a serious blizzard); our group of 10 spent a long time making our search plan, and we ran out of time, so we failed to find our lost person. We just had a rope, and we simulated blizzard conditions by putting buckets on our heads.

The second scenario was that we were in a vehicle that had burned, and we had managed to all escape with one survival bag, and there was 'Condition 1' weather approaching: we had to pictch a tent, build a snow wall, radio McMurdo, and boil a quart of water in 10 minutes. We radioed McMurdo, and boiled the water, and we almost got the tent pitched - we did not build the snoww wall - the snow was really difficult to quarry out, and the tools not nearly as nice to work with as the ones we had used the day before. I certainly feel much better prepared in case I should face a survival situation here - or anywhere.

ANSWERS TO FREQUENTLY-ASKED QUESTIONS:
Did you get cold when you slept?

No. This was for several reasons. Firstly, I changed into dry socks and long johns when I got in to the tent. They were damp from all the exercise I had gotten, and if I had stayed in them, I would have gotten cold. Also, there were four of us scrunched in a Scott tent, and that made it really toasty. If anything I was overheated - almost sweating, which was a bad thing, because sweating is bad because it produces moisture, which can freeze and cool one down too much. Being cold (especially my toes because I had had a previous frostbite injury on them) was what I had worried most about before Happy Camper, but this proved to be least problematic - helped in part by our beautiful 'balmy' weather, and the precautions I took to make sure I was appropriately warm.

Did I sleep?
Not much. It was horribly claustrophic in the sleeping bag, and very hard to move around. I must have dozed off at some point, because when I woke up I was horribly panicked about being 'locked' in my sleeping bag - I managed to undo the zip and all the drawstrings and calm myself down, and organize things so I could stay warm around my face and upper body without pulling all the drawstrings tight, after that I felt much better

Did I have to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night?

No. but I could hear people who did - the snow squeaks as one walks, so I could hear people walking to the outhouse, and I could also hear people walking around because they were cold, and I could hear all the snorers, as well as people getting in and out of tents to go to the the outhouse. Some people used pee bottles in the middle of the night, so they didn't have to go out.

Were my boots frozen in the morning?

They were very cold. I put handwarmers in to them and by the time I had sorted out my clothing in the morning, they were okay for wearing.

Tomorrow will be a Big Day!

Tomorrow I, together with Louise, Ken, Joanna, Rainier, and Graziano will head off to 'Happy Camper' School - which is an overnight 'Survival School.' Julia, Bob, and Robin have already completed it. We learn how to survive in antarctic conditions, and how to look after our teammates. We have been watching the weather closely, and I can't tell you how glad we are that the forcast for tomorrow looks like this:

By the way, we visited the Meteorology Office yesterday. One of the forecasters had predicted 'balmy' weather (on an antarctic scale), and people were teasing him about it. We also met one of the weather observers, Patricia Ballou - she showed us the radiosondes ('weather ballons' they send up several times a day. I will try to go and see them release one when I get time. In the meantime I need to go and get all my gear organized for happy camper. I won't be checking my email for a couple of days.

Patrician Ballou shows us parts of the Radiosonde

Here is the view out my office window at 9:30 pm this evening. You might note that there are two planes on the ground on the Ice Runway - we don't often see two at one time, and they often seem to head straight back to Christchurch - maybe they are just loading them and they are about to head off. I'll have to wait until morning and see, I'm heading off now!

Surving Survival School

A Rite of Passage in Antarctica, for anyone who leaves McMurdo Station for any reason, is to attend a two day Happy Camper School. Happy Camper School is a friendly name for Survival Training Class, where you learn how to survive outside in Antarctica with the bare minimum of supplies.

I just returned from my Happy Camper School. I am happy because I lived to tell the story! It started off on Friday morning with the class, a group of 20 people with all different roles (carpenters, researchers, snowmobile mechanics, recreation coordinators, students) all talking and watching powerpoint presentations which focused mainly on the hazards of the cold climate here in Antarctica. We learned about what is in a Survival Bag, and how you must ALWAYS have one with you when you leave McMurdo. In Antarctica, conditions can change quite quickly and you never know when you will be stranded with no visibility and you need to set up a tent right where you are. So we learned about the contents of the survival bag, and we discussed the dangers of cold weather, including hypothermia and frostbite, and how to avoid them.

We then gathered materials and food, and headed out for a 40 minute drive or so, out past the New Zealand Base called Scott Base, to where Happy Camper School is located. There is a teaching hut there with chairs gathered around a nice heater. Once there, we discussed more strategies for survival – like how to operate the little stoves in the Survival Bags, how to look for frostbite or frostnip on one another, and so forth.

Then it came time to SURVIVE the cold! We put on all of our Extreme Cold Weather Gear and went out into the field. It was a gorgeous day with the sun out and, thankfully, very calm. But it was still around minus 20 degrees! We learned how to put up Scott tents, and secure them in the ground under the snow. We also learned how to put up Mountain Tents. Together, we built a snow dome called a Quinzie, and we also built a number of trenches in the snow.
Then, with an ice saw, we cut bricks of snow and made a beautiful wall to protect our camp from the wind.


All of this exertion made us quite hot, and we had to take off layers to keep from sweating too much. But as soon as we stopped exerting, we had to pile layers back on to keep ourselves warm! It was a constant struggle to bare our fingers enough for dexterity to tie knots, fill stoves with gas, and zip zippers – but to protect our hands from the biting cold at the same time. Likewise, sunglasses, desperately needed for protection from the strong sun and reflection off of the bright snow surface, fogged up instantly. So we needed to wear goggles to protect our eyes and prevent fogging.

We worked on our camp until about 7:00, and then we started to set up stoves, melt water for cooking and for drinking.



As the sun got lower and lower in the sky, the temperature got colder and colder. We ran around a great deal, did jumping jacks, or just simply dug holes to try to stay warm. Eventually though, with the sun still relatively high in the sky, everyone chose a place to sleep and grabbed a sleeping kit to go to bed. We had packed up the sleeping kits, which included a sleeping bag, 2 foam pads, and a fleece sleeping bag liner. I chose to set up my bed in one of the Scott Tents with two others.

To my dismay, I discovered that my sleeping bag zipper was broken. As soon as I crawled into my bag, the zipper split and would not close again. I struggled all night to stay warm, trying every sleeping position I could to be on top of the broken zipper to stop the cold, cold air from flowing in. But I was not very successful. It was just a long, long night – no way around that! I ate frozen raisins, chocolate, and nuts all night to try to help my body fight the cold. We had a 5 gallon jug of water that we took into the tent, and it was frozen solid within a very short time.

But... I learned a tremendous amount about how to survive. I also saw how incredibly important it is to operate as a team, and to watch outfor one another.

When we got up in the morning, we cooked breakfast and took down allof our shelters. Exhausted, we put all of the gear away - and spentthe rest of the day discussing what worked and didn't work, and working through some realistic scenarios of survival. One scenario was that we were out in the field with one other person, a storm kicked up, and we were stranded. We had nothing but our survival bag and a radio. We had half an hour to get up our survival camp and contact either the South Pole or McMurdo Station by radio. Working together, we did it! The other scenario was that one of our teammates got lost in whiteout conditions and we had to rescue that person. We figured out that the best way to look for that person, who may be unconscious, was to have one person tethered to a building, and the rest of us to spread out on a rope - with buckets over our heads to simulate whiteout - to locate our lost teammate.
Good training, as these scenarios are very realistic!

So I was thrilled to experience Happy Camper School, and delighted to come home to a warm bed when it was all over.

My departure for the deep field has been delayed - and we do not know when we will be taking off. A reconnaissance helicopter survey of the route out to the field location has shown some big cracks in the sea ice. So we will need to do some further investigating before taking off for the field.

On the bright side, the ANDRILL drill rig will likely pull out its first sample from the seafloor tonight. So the work on the core is about to begin. Stay tuned for news on that!!! And please check out the blogs from my fellow ARISE teammates who will be working directly on the core when it is retrieved.l

Happy Camper!

Living and working in the coldest, driest, windiest place on Earth can be very dangerous. In my short time here, I've heard may stories of adventures that went seriously wrong. As a way of minimizing the danger, everyone down here must attend cold weather survival training. The first course I took was Sea Ice Training. Not everyone needs to take this course, but since I will be living on sea ice for five weeks I'm glad I had the opportunity to learn more about my future home-away-from-home. We learned to recognize signs of ice cracks that form throughout the season and how to test the thickness of the ice to make sure it's safe to travel on. Very important skills to have!

The second course is the one that every first time McMurdo resident must take is called Snow Craft Training, but most people refer to it as Happy Camper School. This course involves an overnight camping trip out on the ice shelf far away from town. Most people get very anxious about this course because you have to sleep in tents or snow shelters out there and boil water on small camp stoves to make dehydrated food for dinner. Most people don't get much sleep and some participants get frost nipped or frost bitten fingers or toes or noses.

I must admit, I've been feeling nervous about Happy Camper School ever since I found out I had been selected for the Arise team. That's almost five months spent being a little scared. I feel so much better now that it's over and I know I can survive a night in a tent on snow and ice in sub-zero temperatures, -17degrees F to be exact!


Even though the course was challenging I can say that I was a fairly happy camper. The group of twenty of us made a very good team. We enjoyed each others' company, everyone pitched in, and all the work was done well. Together we learned to quarry snow building blocks to construct a wind wall, put up tents with special anchors buried in the snow, dig sleeping trenches that reminded me of rabbit burrows, and make a snow hut. I spent most of the afternoon and evening digging a snow trench intending to sleep in it, but realized as the evening was becoming night, that my trench wasn't quite big enough to keep an insulating layer of air around me. My muscles were already telling me they were tired and it wasn't smart to keep up the effort, so I climbed into one of the yellow pyramid shaped Scott tents. I slept a little, shivered much, and was very glad when one of my tent mates said it was time to get up and break down the camp.
I was very, very glad when we drove back into town on one of the many red people movers and could finally use a real bathroom instead of the freezing cold outhouse! With the really useful courses behind me, I think I'm ready to head out to our field camp. Or at least I will be, after I do my laundry.