Week 1 Recap

Oct. 11, 2005, McMurdo Station, Antarctica

Arrival in Antarctica

:In my last update we were on the USAF C17 headed to McMurdo station. The plane ride was quite comfortable and, with lots to eat and drink, the 5 hour ride passed fairly quickly. A plane that big (140 passengers and a lot of cargo) took a long time to skid to a stop on the ice runway. We landed on the Ross Ice Shelf (ice runway) which, as the name suggests is ice on top of the Ross Sea! After unloading the cargo, all the passengers, dressed in ECW gear rushed off the plane to the awaiting buses. The buses looked like normal shuttle vans but with really big tires.

Arrival in McMurdo
We trucked into McMurdo station and went to the first of many orientation classes we would have this past week. After the orientation, we were given our room assignments and dragged ourselves to our new homes. The rooms are like university dorm rooms with 2 single beds, 2 bed side tables, 2 small closets and a small desk. Not much to look at but it is comfortable enough.

Happy Camper and other training classes
The first week in Antarctica was essentially filled with training courses. Since this is such a unique environment with hazards that would be found in very few (if any) places in the world, we are required to be trained in virtually all aspects of life here. We had training classes in waste disposal, snowmobiles, helicopters, vehicles, sea ice, radio communications, lab orientation, outdoor safety and, if you are in Antarctica for the first time like I am, "happy camper" school.

Happy camper school is field survival training to the extreme! You actually have to survive the night out on the sea ice with what is supplied to you in a field survival bag. We spent the first few hours in classroom training. We were then transported to our "camp area". The camp area is really in the middle of no where. The thought of surviving a night in the middle of the frozen desert is as scary as it is exciting!
Location of Happy Camper school. The green buildings are the New Zealand Research Station. Notice how the snow and skyline are almost indistinguishable.
To make a difficult situation worse, a terrible storm blew in as we were arriving into camp. The storm, called Condition 2 (See condition descriptions below) made the walk almost impossible. In the "white out" you could look in any direction and only see white. It is very easy to become disoriented in a situation like that!
Happy campers walking to camp in condition 2
White Out!
Setting up camp in that storm was terribly difficult. The biggest priority is to stay warm without sweating. If your clothes get wet you can freeze very quickly. We set up 2 Scott tents, 6 mountaineering tents and a snow wall to protect us from the wind. Normally when you set up a tent you would put stakes into the ground but out there you have to dig a hole and bury your stake (called a "deadman") to prevent your tent from blowing away. When we finally finished setting up camp the storm had passed!
Condition 2 (high winds, poor visibility, -62C with the windchill!)
After camp was established, we set up our little single burner and boiled water to prepare our dehydrated meals and a hot drink. It was quite beautiful out there and we were able to eat our meal while watching a beautiful sunset (I had Sante Fe black beans and rice. It was not as delicious as it sounds!).
Tents set, snow-wall built, storm passed and sun setting.
After eating an enjoyable "meal-in-a-bag", we went for a short walk to get warmed up and then climbed into our tents to spend the night at -48C with the wind chill. It was surprisingly warm all wrapped up in the sleeping bag! Climbing out of the sleeping bag and back into cold clothes and boots was extremely hard though!

We spent the next day learning other survival techniques such as how to use a high frequency (HF) radios. We contacted the South Pole station and asked them what the temperature was there. They told us it was nice to hear from us and the current temperature was -60C (-81C with the windchill)!!!!

Overall, it was quite an experience. The course taught us a tremendous number of secrets to stay warm in cold environments and also how to survive in case we were ever stranded out in the Antarctic environment for a few days. It also made you appreciate your little room and a hot shower when you got back!

Now that all our courses are done and the permits for our work are in we can now head out to the field, experiments can begin!!

Weather Condition Terms in Antarctica
Condition 3: defined as having winds less than 89km/h, wind chills warmer than -59C and visibility greater than ¼ mile.

Condition 2: defined by one or more of the following: wind speeds between 89-102km/h, wind chills between -59C and -73C or visibility less than 400m.

Condition 1: by one or more of the following: wind speeds greater than 102km/h, wind chills colder than -73C or visibility less than 30m.

Polar Science
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