"Happy Camper"

I headed out on Tuesday morning for “Happy Camper” training.  Right off the bat, the forecast for the day was a high of 0 degrees, and a low of –35 with the wind chill…Dammit!, not a good start.

Before we actually headed out to the camping area, which is basically in the middle of nowhere, we met up in a classroom for a couple of hours to go over all the different types of risks, safety, what to expect, etc.  Our instructors were both very knowledgeable and experienced.  They have both been down here for several years and they did their best to get us prepped for the night ahead. 

After our class work was done, we loaded up all of our gear on to one of the “Deltas”, similar to what I took to Cape Evans.  We made one last stop at the dorms, and we were off.  It only took about twenty minutes to get to the area where we would be camping, which is just east of the New Zealand Antarctic base (Scott Base).  As soon as we arrived, the twenty of us were basically herded into a small tent-like structure called a “James way”, where we were given some lunch and some more instructions.  Once we were done with lunch, and all other class work, (a couple hours later) we were then issued our sleeping kits, which included a sleeping bag, blanket, and two sleeping pads. 

Our instructors then gave us a quick overview on the stoves, how to set up the two different types of tents, the proper way to make water from snow, and a few other necessities.  We basically had two options.  We could either choose to sleep in one of the tents that were provided, or we could choose to build our own snow shelter to sleep in.  Out of the twenty of us, about 5 of us decided to go for the snow trench! Myself included.  Our instructor gave us a quick demo on how he usually goes about building his snow shelters, but it was ultimately up to us, after all we would be the ones sleeping in them.

So at 6:30pm the instructors gave us one last talk before they headed out, and we were left to fend for ourselves for the night in the middle of Antarctica, which is a little intimidating I have to say.  Before we could construct our snow shelters, all of the tents had to be set up, and we had to create a wall out of snow blocks, to block the wind.  We used saws and shovels and were able to cut and stack good sized blocks, and within about an hour or so we had a nice sized wall constructed, and we were then able to put up the tents.  Finally, around 8:30pm or so, I started on my snow shelter.  The snow is very solid and heavy, but easy to work with and can be molded into blocks using saws and shovels.  I dug out a rectangular trench about six feet long by 3 feet wide, and approximately 3 and a half feet deep.  After I had this done I started cutting blocks to make a roof, which was pretty challenging.  All the while it is below zero temps, and the harder you work, the more you sweat.  This is a bad thing because as your clothes get damp, they literally freeze within a few mins, but luckily the wind wasn’t blowing too hard and we all had brought along dry clothes to change into.  Anyways, by the time I finally had my shelter ready, it was about 11:00pm, but still bright daylight outside.  I curled up in my sleeping bag with several layers of clothing and headed to bed not really knowing what to expect.

Well, talk about a LONG night.  Within a couple of minutes of getting in bed I quickly realized that my socks were damp from all the work I had done, which is bad news.  My toes started freezing pretty quickly, so luckily I had some toe warmers with me, and I was able to stuff them into a pair of dry socks and change them out.  After that, it was okay for a while, but still pretty uncomfortable with the cold all night long, and every hour or so I found myself waking up to make small adjustments.  My shelter did do a good job blocking the wind and actually, the reason it was so hard to sleep had more to do with the light than the cold.  When you wake up and look at your watch and its 3:00am but the sun is shining in your face, it totally messes you up!

Anyways, I just realized that I am basically writing a novel here, so to make a long story short, I survived the night!  Come to find out, it never got down to –35, but we radioed the station this morning and they say it did reach –22 F, which is still COLD, believe me!  While it was a cool experience to be able to actually go camping in Antarctica, At this point I am just happy to be back to my dorm with all my fingers and toes in tact.  I am pretty much exhausted physically and mentally at this point and could probably use a day to recharge, but of course I have to get up bright and early for work…oh well, better be off to sleep.