Day 12-13

October 20-21

HAPPY CAMPER

FYI- time zone. We are 4 hours behind California time, but one day ahead OR 20 hours ahead - however you want to look at it.

So Tuesday and Wednesday were very interesting days. Starting Tuesday morning and going to Wednesday afternoon I attended a course called Snowcraft I, or better known by its nickname "Happy Camper." This course is sort of a survival course in which students are taught safety and awareness of working and being at locales that are not near McMurdo Base. Thus if we are caught in harsh conditions, we have the knowledge, experience, tools of how to survive and how to stay warm. Some of things that we were shown:

• MSR Whisperlite Stove (a backpacking stove, how-to-use, how-to-maintain)
• Safety/Awareness/Ways to Prevent being cold-frostnip-frostbite
• Proper personal gear to wear (PPE of sorts)
• How-to-build shelters in the ice and how-to-erect mountain tents and Scott tents (more on this later)
• Use of VHF and HF (like a Ham radio) radios
• Went over some safety videos for boarding/deboarding helicopters

Me personal geared out.

Three instructors led the twenty students in the class to an area maybe 30 minutes from McMurdo. This area was on the sea ice, i'm guessing 3-4 miles from the base. Sort of seemed like a valley amid mountains, although in the late morning when we arrived the visibility was poor and we couldn't see any of the surrounding mountains. (wikipedia defn of Sea ice - is largely formed from ocean water that freezes. Because the oceans consist of saltwater, this occurs at about -1.8 °C (28.8 °F). Sea ice may be contrasted with icebergs, which are chunks of ice shelves or glaciers that calve into the ocean. Icebergs are compacted snow and hence fresh water.). When we got there, we had lunch...which consisted of stiff sandwiches and hard candy bars. We then were prepped for camping out the night on the ice - thus "Happy Camper." The instructors gave us some directions and showed us some techniques for creating shelters and a camp and then left us to our own devices while they went over to stay in an enclosed tarped "Jamesway" type shelter that was heated - this was maybe a half mile from where our camp was.

Things we did/learned how to do...

More traditional shelters:

Put up Scott tents - Teepee like shelters but with 4 corners, fairly large. Put up Mountain tents - Normal 4-season backpacking type tent

Less traditional shelters:

Create a Kwinzi - Native american origin, sort of ice cave, igloo-like, shelter Create ice trenches - trench/passageway underground to try and stay out of wind/trap hot air. (You could get creative with these, but were a lot of work digging.) Create ice blocks - simple to do, but a decent amount of work. For use in shelter construction and creation of walls for wind blocking. Hand saw and a shovel are only tools needed.

Other things:

• Hold water bottle inside jacket and upside down to help prevent freeezing
• Best methods for cooking
• Best methods for staying warm (minimizing sweating, layering, moving around, looking out for each other, Sleep with a hot water bottle, fit as many people as possible into shelter, venting tent to prevent ice crystals from forming inside, not consuming alcohol contrary to popular belief) Changing socks to avoid trench foot
• Safety plans
• Pee bottle - a nalgene that you can pee in so you don't have to go outside. For women there is some sort of attachment or funnel that you can use. Is awesome for not having to go out in cold. I haven't had need to use yet though. Clearly Marked with a P on the lid and PEE written on the outside so not to get confused with drinking bottle.

I slept in the Kwinzi with four other people. I have a video of the overall camp that I'm trying to post but it hasn't worked yet...

Night
So, the night. Went to sleep early around 8:30ish, although I wasn't tired, but unless I was moving around my feet and hands would get real cold. So decided to go to sleep - I climbed into the Kwinzi, tucked into a fleece blanket and then into a mummy bag that was sitting on two mats (for insulation), wearing just my baselayers, switched to clean, dry socks, pulled on my beanie and tried to go to sleep. In the Kwinzi, i had one of the spots that was close to the wall so the walls of the cave were a little tight on me. I few times I tried to sit up and adjust my laying down position and my head would scrape the top of the wall and chunks of ice would fall on me. It actually was decently warm in the bag, it was in no way comfortable though. But passable. I don't feel like I slept at all, but had my eyes closed for many hours. At least two of my Kwinzi-mates slept well though, b/c I could hear their light snores within 10-15 minutes.

Morning

The morning. Upon wake up, the camp plan was to make and boil water for hot drinks and oatmeal and then pack up camp. But upon exit of the Kwinzi we found that the visibility was really bad, it was crazy windy, and really, really cold. So alternate plans- everyone starting just packing up camp - there wasn't really anything else you could do. This was a mess. Things were blowing around, vis sucked, there were all kinds of little potholes in the ground from our camp that people would step in and fall, and it was really, really cold (did I already say this?). One of the worse parts was trying to remove the rainflys from the mountain tents. These were attached by little black plastic clips that have to be squeezed on both sides and then slid out (normal type of clips on backpacks and tents). With big gloves on this was impossible, so you would have to remove your big gloves and then just wearing liners try to do this. But this was hard to do even with just liners on. I tried to squeeze one and I had to take multiple tries and had to use lots of effort just to pop off this small little clip. This was b/c the coldness had stiffened up my hands really bad. It was really, really cold. Clothes, neck gaiter, gloves, etc. would stiffen if they were wet at all. Chunks of ice would get stuck on your eyelashes. It was quite a scene and a mess. But we managed to get it all packed together and put away into the storage units adjacent to the campsite. During this morning fiasco, I wasn't wearing goggles because they had gotten a little condensation on them and then the condensation had froze making the visibility thru them horrible. But I was wearing a full balaclava that covered my nose and mouth and head (with the exception of some breathing/vent holes) to protect my face. Near the end of the cleanup someone noticed that I had some whiteness on my cheeks (an early sign of frostnip), and I was given someone else's goggles to don for a while. My cheeks were definitely cold, but there had been no other signs that caused me much concern. The ice chunks on my eyelashes sucked and the winds blowing in your face sucked, but I wasn't losing any sensation or anything. But my feet and hands hurt a lot from the cold. (Note: the next day, the tips of two of my fingers are a little hard and kind of numb - some light frostnip effects I guess)

Here's a pee block (Urinal for the males) that is outside and next to the outhouse. Kind of disgusting.

Anyways we got it all done and completed our training, but here's a picture of my frostnip/windburn (it's actually a lot darker then it looks in the pic):

No one else really had this problem...and as if I didn't stand out enough already (being asian and with long hair). HA! It sort of just feels like a sunburn right now (dry, tight skin, and a little sore). Happy Camper was an awesome experience...

If I can get the video to post...First you can see the mountain tents and some people cooking in the established kitchen and eating area and then the two tall (teepeeish) Scott tents and then me entering and then exiting the Kwinzi that I slept in.