SURVIVAL TRAINING (aka Happy Camper)

HAPPY CAMPER (AKA SURVIVAL TRAINING)...

Below | Ready for the Happy Camper survival training. We head out in a giant vehicle!

Below | We unload and prepare to set out for an adventure on the sea ice. Red. Red. And more red. It's easier to spot in a place with such little color in cases of emergency or just to visually identify a bag, a person or a vehicle on a daily basis out in the field where a storm (blizzard) can set in rather suddenly. 

Below | The VERY long walk to a classroom lecture (a trailer in the middle of nowhere) carrying a significant amount of my own weight. I filled a very large thermos full of (heavy) hot water to sleep with that night in a tent on the sea ice for warmth. Also included were several changes of socks and extra bits of food to munch on for calorie burning throughout the night.

Below | Boomerang Bag Tromp! The "boomerang bag" is named as such due to a potential "boomerang flight". On the initial flight from New Zealand to McMurdo Station, everything we have is checked in except for what we carry in this bag, which we bring on our person as we board the C-17 - like a normal carry-on. If there is any disruption in weather - even if we've flown the entire way (6-ish hours) the flight will then "boomerang" back to Christchurch without having landed, for a total flight of up to 11 or 12 hours, rather than take the chance of landing in a blizzard (compromised visibility) or on ice that may have shifted or for any other reason that may cause a safety concern. This is why there has been a 100% success rate in landing. I've heard the record for consecutive boomerang flights was something like 12 flights - all the way (or partially) there and all the way back for 12 consecutive days in a row. Could you imagine? Torture! And you just have to go as you are scheduled until you can land successfully and these flights are often scheduled very early in the morning. Point being, all of your possessions are already packed up and stored so whatever you put in your "boomerang bag" is all you'll have available to you for however long it takes to get there. I've not experienced a boomerang flight yet and hopefully never will!

Below | Marissa Lee - NSF (National Science Foundation) bag-tagged! It's a very proud feeling knowing that your name and your party are associated and sponsored by such an incredibly impactful institution as I'm reminded here just by my bag tag sitting out on a field of snow covering a sheet of ice floating on top of the ocean in the middle of a very, very southern part of the world.

Finally, we arrive for a survival lecture in some kind of trailer classroom... I'm not sure what else I would realistically expect. The fire is blazing and the setting does the trick. 

I'm clearly doing exactly what I should be ...

I love Colleen.

TOOLS for use...We are literally going to cut out blocks of snow.

Below | One huge, heavy, dense block at a time - we build this BEAUTIFUL wind breaking wall by actually sawing through the thick, dense icy snow, carefully shoveling it from it's place and carrying it over (I used a sled) to it's new rightful location as a part of this highly necessary wall. It's difficult to describe just how windy it can get here and how suddenly it comes on. This wall was a great protector for us throughout the night.
 

Below | Brian demonstrates how to dig a trench in the snow to sleep in. Survival Trench!

Scott Tent demo - I think I slept in that one! This tent is specifically designed to endure such extreme weather.

Below | Our 'camp ground' on the sea ice layered with snow on top of the Ross Sea... in Antarctica. It's just madness to me.

Laura and Colleen being hardcore (and simultaneously adorable) women warriors, as usual. 

Below |The sunset. Oh, wait - actually the sun doesn't set, it just kind of goes around in circles. This is how far we had to walk to use the "bathroom" - or rather an ice hole with a strategically placed pretend toilet seat over it. Or you could use your "pee bottle" (a water bottle that looks like your normal water bottle only it says "pee" on it) from which I get mixed reviews. Accidents have been said to have happened.

Below | This is a box in the middle of nowhere that says "SOUTH POLE" on it. Guess where it may be headed...

Below | "HC" = Happy Camper. Dan and I prepare to jump the 4' fall to glory.

Some are more successful than others.

Below | Darren continues to to amaze us with his caveman skills - or snow-caveman skills rather (this is a complement). Oh yes, he slept in that trench. A true adventurer.

Oh, Antarctica...

Shortly after...

My zipper froze,,, 

The sun continued to circle the sky as the night ended. 

The next day, after more training, we wait for transport.

In the Delta!!!

We crowd in and cozy up after our survival bonding!

Sticker culture is alive and well within many of the vehicles.

A map of Ross Island and beyond - we were somewhere sort of out near that red dot you see. Kind of.

HAPPY CAMPER CONCLUDED!!!

TREK TO BUILDING 155

BUILDING 155

Above | View from my dorm. I have to walk from here to that blue building everyday for some grub @ The Galley!!!

Below: The walk begins. It look so close but it feels SO FAR.

Machines are always lined up here - until they are used - usually daily.

This is what happens when vehicles are parked for not that long actually. This is along the same walk to my left.

BUILDING 155!!!!

FISH FRIENDS AND OB HILL

FISH FRIENDS AND OBSERVATION HILL

Fish Friends in the holding tank... (first catch).

Self-made cages to separate fish for temporary holding.

 Ob Hill and Such

Below you can get a good idea of the elevation rise here... and our final destination behind Dan way up at the tippy top - or close enough to it.

McMurdo from the start of the hike:

A lovely view of McMurdo from a partial climb up Observation Hill. 

Another view of McMurdo Station just a bit further up perhaps.

We keep getting higher!

An evening of celebration... 

MAC OPS AND FISH.

Mac Ops Training

McMurdo Station - aka Mac Town is full of an array of operations that require communications. For those of us in the field, anywhere off of or on the base, radio communication is a distinct part of daily life. This is a family picture of us in the Mac Ops (McMurdo Operations) headquarters completing our communications training.

An image from inside Mac Ops below. A very old school military-esque sort of set up. For non-familiar civilian scientists such as myself it's quite impressive actually.

Below | A conversation regarding relay towers and appropriate channels of communication depending upon location. Again, fascinating and applicable information that I'd likely never have come across elsewhere. It seems obvious that a mountain range or a glacier or a volcano as a physical body would be able to block radio waves, but the consequences have literally never occurred to me until now, when I realize that particularly in an emergency, we need to know where we are, what relay station is nearest and what radio channel to access accordingly in order to contact our only line back to rescue teams and civilization at large. 

After Mac Ops training we head out for our first fishing trip to a Hut just off of the station. It's a 'short distance' but actually quite physically exerting getting there with our huge, heavy, awkwardly fitting extreme weather clothing, required extra gear and fishing implements carried by hand or on our person. 

 Le Sock! My Big Red matches is hair.

I caught my first fish EVER, the first on the team - and I believe, the first of the season - in Antarctica!!! That is a typical Bernie as we call them - Trematomus bernacchii.

 Below | Gone fishin' ... this is the inside of one of the huts, Hut 19, I believe, near the Observation Tube (below the ice in the ocean) about 20 feet away or so, just off of McMurdo Station in the jetty. Four or five people can comfortably fish with these lines around a dive hole of this size without getting too mangled and tangled.

Below |This is a dive hole that was melted previously. Sometimes, seals come up for a breath of air scaring the fish away - or eating them. You can see the bottom of the plastic tube almost reaching the water's surface. There is a heat supply in the hut, hot air rises and the idea is to let the fan at the top of this tube suck in the warm air and blow it down to the ice hole in an attempt to keep it open. Despite this attempt, you can see it slowly closing up, but it helps to dramatically slow the pace. Before dropping lines, we have to use a net to scoop up the ice formation on the top of the water, which also helps to keep the fish from injury as they are exposed to the uppermost layers upon capture. Believe it or not, the water found below, is actually much warmer than it often is on the surface. The ice crystals found as this air/water/ice interface attempts to heal and enclose is quite a dangerous exposure for the fish species below. Clearing the ice constantly forming at the surface of the water not only helps to keep the hole open for longer and makes it easier for fishing, but is also safer for the animal upon collection.

Above |  The view from the hut including a lovely United States Antarctic Program (USAP) water bottle.

Below | How we keep the huts warm. It's oh, SO lovely when these puppies are working... and oh, SO cold when they aren't.

Isaac and Dan headed back with our transport vessel - a cooler containing ice cold sea water and ice cold fish.

Below | me enjoying the reflection of the sun on the crisp icy snow. 

This is the vehicle speed limit in town. And yes, McMurdo Station is often referred to as a town by those that occupy this space for whatever period of time. It's very difficult to maintain the roadways with the weight of the vehicles. Going much faster than 5 mph (speeding!) quickly degrades the quality and function of the roads, which are an everlasting source of work, cost and frustration for those who attempt to maintain them for functional use.