Blogs from Antarctica, Antarctica - page 28

Tuesday morning, we woke up early so that we could make sure that we had time for breakfast. We were warned that we would need as much fuel as possible to keep ourselves going during Happy Camper School. At about 9am, we met the Field and Safety Training Classroom on the second floor of the science support center. We were introduced to our two instructors Trevor and Cecilia (CC), and then went around the room and introduced ourselves and our previous camping activities. We went through some discussion on staying warm and handling cold injuries. At about 10:15, we packed up a hagueland (amphibious tracked vehicle) and a Piston Bully (tracked vehicle). We took these vehicles out to the instructors hut (i-hut), which is located out on the McMurdo Ice Shelf near Williams (Willie) Field. Once ... read more

The 26th and 27th we have had an opportunity to learn how to survive on the ice. It is called Safety and Survival School or "Happy Camper" school. It is hard work and learning, but is quite informative and gives us great practice in the skills we will need in the remote field camp. ... read more

This morning Joel and I tackled Ob Hill. The hill has an elevation change of about 750 ft. This does not seem like much, but it was quite steep. Halfway up, the annual Obs Hill Race occurred and I was passed by about 18 individuals that were in much better shape than I was. Their times spread from about 7-13 minutes. I took about 30-40 minutes, but I made it none the less. At the Summit, I took some photos of the camp below. From the hill, I was finally able to get a glimpse of Erebus. Since it was overcast, however, I could not capture Erebus very well in any of the photos. The white snow covering the mountain blends quite well in the bright white sky. At 5pm, our team attended the Christmas Dinner. ... read more

Joel Plummer and Richard Stansbury climbed Observation Hill outside McMurdo today. This moderately steep climb generally takes people 1-2 hours to climb. There was also an uphill race today. The winner ran up this hill in about 7 minutes! Wow - that is conditioning. The guys shared their photos for this blog. ... read more

A look at what we saw when we explored Discovery Hut and Hut Point. Robert Falcon Scott in 1902 established the camp at Hut Point using a prefabricated large hut made in Australia. Scott chose to winter in McMurdo Sound at the end of Hut Point Peninsula on Ross Island because this area is one of the ice-free areas of Antaractica. He originally was just going to have a small party go winter ashore, but because the building turned out to be unsuitable, the party ended up staying on the ship. The hut is built of Scots Pine and Douglas fir, but being of tropical design was too hard to heat. They spent nearly 3 years exploring from this point after the Discovery became immersed in ice. Before the expedition left in 1904, they built a ... read more

After a nice breakfast, Jennifer, Joel, Jerome, and I took a guided tour of McMurdo Station. It took us about an hour. The tour introduced us to the various buildings that we may need to visit during our stay. One of the highlights of the tour was finally seeing Scott's Hut from a distance. After the tour, we attended a Outdoor Activites briefing, which informed us of the various routes about camp that we can hike, ski, etc. There are a suprisingly large number of hikes. However, many are now off limits due to the weakening sea ice. Apparently, our landing at Pegasus Field was the last of the season. In the afternoon, I visited the cargo building and turned over my excess cargo (parts for rover). We then went next door to pick up our ... read more