wind

My motivation and enthusiasm from yesterday’s hike, well…took a hike today when I nearly froze my face off on a short hike after dinner.  The ambient temperature didn’t feel very cold, but when the wind blew, it blew with malice.  It was pissed off wind and it blew right through you.  I was wearing jeans, big red, gloves, hat, and hiking boots and I went with a guy that was just wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt and tennis shoes with no socks.  He wasn’t wearing gloves or anything.  He is crazy though and may be even more hot-natured than I am.  He tried to be tough, but eventually admitted how cold the wind was.  I took my gloves off to take a picture and I didn’t think my hands would EVER warm back up.  Needless to say I didn’t get many pictures and will have to do this hike again on a day that isn’t as overcast and windy and when I become a man.

Speaking of manning up, I am going to “happy camper” tomorrow.  It is actually a course called Snow Craft I.  I will be spending a night outdoors on the Ross Ice Shelf…getting a genuine taste of the Antarctic field.  It is intended to better prepare me for working out in the environment (which I rarely do)…and the potential, unexpected experience of getting caught out in it.  I am going to build a snow cave to sleep in and trap seals for food, just like I’ve watched Bear Grylls do a hundred times.  That last part is my imagination, but I have been told is the best experience is to cut my own trench to sleep in, so I’m going to try that I think.  There is a storm blowing in and the weather might turn ugly, I am actually really looking forward to it.

I realized something devastating today…this whole time, my camera setting’s haven’t been as high quality as I thought.  That really sucks for all the pictures I’ve taken, although you won’t notice since I’m only uploading small pictures, but still depressing that I won’t have the highest quality.  From here on in I’ll have better quality.  Dang.  I still haven’t made captions for the ice caves, but I have for the hike I took yesterday.  You can see them HERE.

I won’t be able to access the computer tomorrow, but will hopefully get some good, better quality pictures (but I’m afraid it’s going to be cloudy and maybe snowy…we’ll see).