Happy Camper!

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Technically known as Field Safety Training Program (FSTP- pronounced “F-Stop”) Snow School, I had the amazing opportunity to attend “Happy Camper” this week to learn all the “how-tos” and “what-ifs” of surviving on this beautiful, harsh climate. Our 2 instructors were both formerly mountaineers on Denali (aka Mt. McKinley) in Alaska and both ladies were therefore highly qualified to teach such a course. First we had to show up bright and early with ALL of our ECW (extreme cold weather) gear packed- we were going “Delta-camping” (like car-camping but in a huge vehicle that looks like this: Delta Whenever any vehicle leaves McMurdo it is required to radio check-out and carry a complete “survival bag” for every occupant on board, thus it is imperative for those of us planning to leave town to know how to use (and, if need be, rely on) this equipment (a backpacking stove and fuel, a sleeping bag, tent, dehydrated food, shovel, ice pick, etc). After a morning of lectures about preventing hypothermia and frostnip/bite and maintaining warmth in below-zero conditions (including the sleeping bag burrito and sleeping with warm water-filled Nalgene bottles in strategic areas on the body) we were on our way.
We drove out to the remote location on the flat plateau of snow in the shadow of Mount Erebus and our loaded our gear onto sleds for our instructors to Ski-doo (snowmobile) out to the choice patch of fresh snow where are true “instruction” was to take place. We quickly got to work learning how to set up Scott Tents (the classic, work-horse tents of Antarctica that weigh 80 lbs and might very well be the tents the original explorers used: Scott Tent) and mountain tents (these look just like your weekend fishing-trip tents and even have the mesh screened door- why you would need such a device in bug-less Antarctica I’m not sure) and staked them into the compact snow ground by burying bamboo sticks deeply and tying the ropes on these “snow deadmen” to keep them from blowing away. We also built some more resourceful shelters- first we piled all of our sleepkit bags on a mound, covered them with a tarp, and piled and compacted about two feet of snow all over it. After letting it harden for about 2 hours, we dug out a tunnel into this mountain, pulled the bags out, and were left with a Quinzhee (or snow cave) which was roomy enough for 3 to sleep comfortably and warmly (I can attest). We also used saws to cut ice blocks out of a quarry to construct a wind wall to protect our camp from the relentless gale force winds streaming across the valley. It’s amazing that cutting 3’x2’x1’ blocks into the snowy ground with a simple handsaw, “popping” them out with a shovel, and stacking them brick-like in the north-northeast direction made a huge difference on the temperature, comfort and moral of our whole group- not only were we physically warmer from all the of sawing, lifting and stacking but were also more protected from the elements. Plus we felt like Eskimos- how cool! The densely compacted was perfect for cutting and carving and the artists in our group had unlimited material with which to work. The final shelter we learned how to make is the snow trench, in which one spends a few hours digging down deep enough into the snow, cutting out long, thin blocks of snow, and using them to create a vaulted roof over the hole. After topping this structure with more snow, one can become quite warm when snuggled in a heavy sleeping bag (ours were rated to -60*F) although the 24-hour sunshine is still relentless and any exposed skin is unnervingly numb in no time.
We then prepared our quarry to became the kitchen where we unloaded the boxes of snack foods and dehydrated dinners we had packed, fired up the single-burner gas stoves, and dove into a revolving cycle of eating food and guzzling warm beverages. In such extreme cold conditions the body burns 5,000-6,000 calories per day just to stay warm and thus the best way to heat up (besides exercising) is eating! The temperature fell to 14*F that evening, but the wind pushed the wind chill down to around 10*F. All in all it was a truly “happy camper” because we were comparatively lucky to groups who had gone out in previous weeks when the temperatures were over 50 degrees colder! The whole experience was a test of teamwork and strategic planning in a simulated do-or-die situation after one’s vehicle burns up or falls through the sea ice, one’s only tent breaks or blows away, or a scheduled airlift via helicopter or twin-otter plane doesn’t arrive as scheduled and we would potentially be forced to survive. Our group of 20 functioned fairly fluidly, considering the interesting mix of experienced scientists headed to self-sufficient deep-field camps, naive graduate student assistants eager to flex their muscles, veteran ice campers and mountaineers, and… me?
After an evening recreational hike to see the beautiful Ice Falls careening down the side of the glacier, I downed a vegetarian Mexican Beans & Rice dehydrated meal (reconstituted by melting snow in a pot over our stoves- don’t forget to start it with a little water or else the snow will actually burn), took a quick trip to the outhouse (a welcomed relief from the wind but annoying when wearing full long underwear, full fleece long underwear, 2 pairs of socks, insulated Carhartt bibs, another fleece jacket, my Big Red parka, glove liners, leather gloves, a facemask, neck gaiter, and hat), and debated my sleeping options. Although I was told that the Scott Tents are warmest (they’re made of insulated canvas) and mountain tents maintain fairly high temperatures (due to the unlimited solar radiation down here), I decided that my first night outside would be full-on. I opted out of the extra work of digging a snow trench and instead snuggled up in one of the Quinzhees and actually managed to get s few hours of shut-eye (the snow blocks out all sounds so I found everyone already bustling around breaking down our campsite when I finally emerged the next morning!).
We then spent a few hours in the heated instructor’s hut drinking hot cocoa and eating delicious grilled sandwiches (leftovers provided by the galley from the day before) while we learned about how to call in routine and emergency situations to MacOpps (McMurdo Operations) on the VHF (very high frequency) radios, practiced calling the South Pole station (800 miles away) on the archaic HF (high frequency) radio (but they were too busy communicating with incoming flights have an in-depth conversation with us), and did some simulations of emergency situations (including the infamous “white bucket head” search for a missing person in white-out conditions during which we wandered with white buckets on our heads around holding onto a rope while searching for our “victim”- the ensuing accounts and photos are hilarious!). Upon returning to McMurdo we did a short training about riding in helicopters and visiting the Dry Valleys before I raced back to my dorm to shower, stuff my face with “real” food and get a good night of sleep before my first day of work!

Random Antarctic quote: “Imagine a place bigger than the U.S. or Europe, sunnier than California, yet colder than the freezing compartment of your fridge. Drier than Arabia, higher than mountainous Switzerland. Emptier than the Sahara. Only one place in the world fits that description. It is Antarctica. The strange, but beautiful continent at the Bottom of the Earth.” -Joseph M. Dubert from “This is Antarctica”

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