happy camper

Well, as I said yesterday, I survived.  When I said that, I didn’t mean that it should come as a surprise because the weather was so horrendous.  The weather was not bad at all, it was nice in fact.  The instructors couldn’t remember a better day of Happy Camper, but I’ll get back to that in a minute.  For me, the relief was because there were times I didn’t know if I’d survive with both my nipples still intact.  That needs some explanation.  You see, the night before I left, I realized that the “windpants” I was issued in Christchurch were pretty crappy.  Pretty much a glorified version of a ski bib.  They were awkward and uncomfortable, not to mention dumb looking.  So, last minute, I decided to trade them in for some heavy duty Carhartt work overalls.  They are a hot commodity here and so I was lucky to get a pair.  The selection was limited, but I thought I had a pair that fit.  Turns out they were a little too short.  The shoulder straps were extended as far as they could go and it was tight in the crotch and the buttons were right at nipple-level.  Well, as it got hotter, I shed more layers until I was in just my overalls and top base layer.  I was hot from working, but the air was still cold so my nipples were rock hard.  Long story short, the act of digging requires repeated and rough scraping of that particular area.  Still very tender.  But enough about that.

So about the day yesterday.  We started off in a classroom where they taught us basic, but essential, survival skills for the harsh Antarctic environment where everything (not just temperature) could change in a matter of minutes.  They stressed the extremity of our surroundings and took us through various scenarios, real and imaginary.   Eventually we piled into a Delta (that thing with enormous tires that happen to be 66" tall x44" wide) and rode about 35 minutes out of town.  The site was relatively established and had been used for “Happy Camper” for years, but it literally changes daily.  Walking through the snow was very tough.  There were flat drifts that looked just like everything else, but that you could step down in up to your thigh.  Unpredictably.  It was hard walking and we did quite a bit of it.  We started in an “I Hut” which is a somewhat permanent building.  The taught us how to use the camping stoves and various other little lessons and pointers before taking us to the camp site.  They showed us how to set up the variety of tents (mountaineering and Scott tents) and provided pointers as to how to build snow walls/burms to block wind, melt ice to produce water, layout a campsite, and build a variety of snow made shelters.  Then they left us on our own and went back to the i-hut for the night.  It was about 6pm I guess.

Everyone split up to accomplish different tasks and everyone worked together to get things done.  A kitchen area was quickly set up and a few people immediately started melting snow and boiling water, both for drinking water and for our dinners, which were dehydrated packs that just required hot water.  Others finished up securing the tents and campsites while a few others started creating their ice shelters.  Before the instructors left they had us pile up all the “sleeping kits” (each filled with a sleeping bag, 2 sleeping pads, and a fleece sleeping liner; pretty huge bags) and pile snow on top of the pile.  We put about a foot and a half of snow over all the bags and packed it in.  We left it for a few hours and it created a “quinzhee”.  The packed snow hardened over the bags and later that afternoon we were able to remove the bags and there was room enough for 3 people to sleep comfortably in there.  So that wind and snow couldn’t blow into an opening, they were told to dig a hole under and up into the hut.  That took them considerable time and effort, but sounds like it was well worth it.  They said it was warm, dark, and quite in there.  As it turns out, it was strong enough that someone walked on top of it the next day and large enough to hold about 8 people hunched in there in the case that the weather got bad.  Pretty neat.

Others, including me, that wanted to sleep outside were left to build snow trenches.  That is basically a hole dug in the snow and mine eerily resembled a grave or mausoleum.  The idea was to cut a thin layer of snow that you would put back over the hole, on ledges, and save them to create a cover.  You would be surprised at how cleanly and precisely you can cut these snow blocks or boards with a snow saw.  Unfortunately with the snow in the condition it was, it was rather hard to be gentle enough with the snow to keep it from cracking and breaking.  That was INCREDIBLY frustrating when that happened.  I mean it pissed me right off.  I’m actually reliving the feeling now and getting angry because I put so much care and time into getting it right.  Well, as it turns out, I was able to keep 3 of my top blocks intact and salvaged 2 more into an angled cover.  Not enough to cover me totally, but I was really just concerned about trying to get some shade because the weather was not threatening and was not forecast to change (luckily).  I set up my broken blocks around the ends of my trench into a Icehenge.  Everyone commented on how straight my edges were and how it looked like I had used a laser.  I’m a perfectionist, what can I say.  Apparently that even comes out in a “survival” scenario.  Here is a picture of me standing in my trench (I can answer any questions about it if you want to email me, but I have talked about it enough).  In the picture, you can see a corner of a “sun dog” I talked about before, a passing Delta, and the Kiwi wind mills. 

Well, about the weather, it was incredibly nice.  Of course it’s all relative (the high for yesterday was 32 and the low was 14 with wind chill) but for Antarctica, it was awesome.  As I’ve mentioned peviously, more important than the temperature was the fact that there was no wind.  That is absolutely unheard of and rare in Antarctica.  We were very lucky.  The instructors kept talking about how harsh it was and unpredictable, but we just didn’t see it.  I know I should count my blessings, but it wasn’t really a good way to learn about surviving the harsh conditions when they were so favorable.  It did make for an awesome view of Mt. Erebus and Mt. Terror.  I am so lucky.  I took pictures but haven’t uploaded them yet.  I am falling behind on the pictures, but I will get to them when I can.  I am trying to take advantage of nice days (like today) to do stuff outdoors.  I went on a pretty cool (and tough) hike today after work and took even more pictures.  You will see them sometime.

I slept outside on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.