Gone Camping

I just completed a two day class called Snowcraft 1, offered by the Field Safety Training Program (FSToP). This is a requirement for those who will be spending time in field camps or in the Antarctic wilderness. It began with a few hours of classroom instruction on hazards in the Antarctic field, and then we headed out onto the sea ice for further instruction and camping. There were about 20 folks in the class; some Raytheon employees and very many NSF grantees. We set up Scott tents, 4 season tents, cut blocks for a windwall, built a quince, built snow trenches, melted snow, tried to eat, tried to stay warm, and went to bed. I slept in a Scott tent, which is named for an early Antarctic explorer who happened to die in a shelter of similar style. It was a little chilly. The air temperature was -13, with 31 knot winds pushing the wind chill to -45. Our ECW gear works really well. I learned a couple of new tricks for setting up camp and staying warm.




We hit condition 2 for the first time since I arrived. That indicates a severity of weather defined by 30+ knot winds and restricted visibility. Condition 1 means that all travel ceases. If you are in the field then you must prepare to survive until weather changes; if you are in town then you may not leave the building you presently occupy.




Some of the grantees I spoke with have interesting projects. One group is studying sea slugs (and other invertebrate species), another penguins on Cape Crozier, and another is modeling petro spills in the Dry Valleys. He has to gather information on the permeability and porosity of ice in the glacial meltwater lakes to accurately model the spread of contaminants.

After camping we had camp broken down and packed up by 9:00am, as if to practice for a fictitious helicopter rendevouz. We went back to the outdoor classroom for a debriefing. Here we learned about various types of radio communication to use in the field. We set up the military HF radios outside and I attempted to contact Palmer Station and the South Pole Station. We only noticed too late that our antennae had become brittle and broke in the cold. This forced us onto a wavelength too short (and a correspondingly too high of frequency) to achieve communication at that distance.

We were back in McMurdo by 3:30 and were given background (i.e. had to watch a video) on safety procedures and protocols for loading and unloading helicopters. On the way back to town, we got to see a Bell 212 take off from the New Zealand base.

This is a strange world.



Last night the Banff film festival showed. It seemed the whole town was there. It was sort of interesting; I was able to stomach watching about 10 minutes of it. At home it is difficult to watch images. Doing so in Antarctica, of all places, seems like borderline insanity.