slap happy camper
Being the "science supporter" that I am would suggest that there is actually science happening here at McMurdo. With all of the socializing, recreating and partying that goes on at McMurdo we sometimes forget what we are really here for. When it comes right down to it, this is not college for adults but a research station. A research station on a harsh continent where many of the studies take place beyond our familiar, cushioned life in mactown. In order to prepare one for going out to field camps or boondoggles where the weather might close in and you would need to be prepared to handle the extreme conditions, there is SnowSchool 1, or better known on station as "happy camper :)." Since my fine work here is as a custodial artist, I am not a high priority candidate for happy camper. However, happy camper is also viewed as a "moral trip" for many people on station and if you're lucky, you'll get to go regardless of your job. My turn was up this past Tuesday and Wednesday...whew hooooooo...no toilet brushes or pubic hairs for two days!
After a couple of boring classroom lectures we set out in a Haggelund, a way cool Antarctic vehicle, at 10am Tuesday morning. Happy camper takes place at "snow mound city," where there are skeleton remains of quinzies, igloos and snow block walls left from past groups. After lunch we started on our own quinzy, basically a snow cave that you could build if you had to hunker down for the night with no tent. You could also build a simple trench which would be quicker and would at least get you out of the wind in an emergency. For the quinzey, we piled a bunch of our packs up and threw a tent fly over it and started shoveling. After the packs were covered and the walls were about 18" thick, we let it set up for about an hour and then proceeded to dig a hole into the side in order to get our packs out. Finally, we covered the first hole and dug another hole that actually went down a couple of steps or feet beneath the quinzy and dug a tunnel up and into the structure from the bottom. The reason for the second entrance is so that heat wont escape but will instead stay inside the quinzey. After that, we set up the one Scott tent we had which is the same style tent that Robert Falcon Scott used on his south pole expedition, hence the name. My favorite part was using the saws to cut out snow blocks and build a snow wall. The snow walls are used to put alongside your camp to block the wind.
The next morning we got up, made breakfast and tore down camp. After that we learned how to use HF (high frequency) radios which is something I had never experienced before. Instead of a very high frequency radio where the waves travel only between a line of sight (or you put up repeaters for the waves to bounce off of), HF waves bounce between the earth and its atmosphere. You could think of the waves like a rope that is being held onto at each end by two people and once person shaking it. That's what the waves do between the earth and the edge of the atmosphere. You can use HF radios to talk to someone across the globe! I chose to call the south pole to ask the temperature...a balmy -22 degrees with a -40 degree windchill.
Then it was time to use our skills and perform some scenarios. I had heard about one of the scenarios using some very high tech white-out simulators. Yes, we all put white buckets on our heads and had to figure out how we would go about finding someone who had wandered out to pee in a white out and had not returned. Surprisingly, the buckets were rather effective. The sound was muffled so it was very hard to hear one another and obviously we couldn't see so that was pretty realistic. Unfortunately, it was harder than it probably sounds and our victim died of hypothermia which is also probably be pretty realistic in an actual scenario.
Overall, it was a great time. We had fantastic weather, which made it hard to pretend we were in a life threatening situation. The only thing we truly had to worry about was putting on sunscreen regularly. Best two days of work I've had so far!
The Mighty Haggelund
Building the quinzey...
...and the finished product
the Scott tent, where I slept that night
some Antarctic groundhogs
cutting out snow blocks for the wall...
"surviving" Antarctica
After a couple of boring classroom lectures we set out in a Haggelund, a way cool Antarctic vehicle, at 10am Tuesday morning. Happy camper takes place at "snow mound city," where there are skeleton remains of quinzies, igloos and snow block walls left from past groups. After lunch we started on our own quinzy, basically a snow cave that you could build if you had to hunker down for the night with no tent. You could also build a simple trench which would be quicker and would at least get you out of the wind in an emergency. For the quinzey, we piled a bunch of our packs up and threw a tent fly over it and started shoveling. After the packs were covered and the walls were about 18" thick, we let it set up for about an hour and then proceeded to dig a hole into the side in order to get our packs out. Finally, we covered the first hole and dug another hole that actually went down a couple of steps or feet beneath the quinzy and dug a tunnel up and into the structure from the bottom. The reason for the second entrance is so that heat wont escape but will instead stay inside the quinzey. After that, we set up the one Scott tent we had which is the same style tent that Robert Falcon Scott used on his south pole expedition, hence the name. My favorite part was using the saws to cut out snow blocks and build a snow wall. The snow walls are used to put alongside your camp to block the wind.
The next morning we got up, made breakfast and tore down camp. After that we learned how to use HF (high frequency) radios which is something I had never experienced before. Instead of a very high frequency radio where the waves travel only between a line of sight (or you put up repeaters for the waves to bounce off of), HF waves bounce between the earth and its atmosphere. You could think of the waves like a rope that is being held onto at each end by two people and once person shaking it. That's what the waves do between the earth and the edge of the atmosphere. You can use HF radios to talk to someone across the globe! I chose to call the south pole to ask the temperature...a balmy -22 degrees with a -40 degree windchill.
Then it was time to use our skills and perform some scenarios. I had heard about one of the scenarios using some very high tech white-out simulators. Yes, we all put white buckets on our heads and had to figure out how we would go about finding someone who had wandered out to pee in a white out and had not returned. Surprisingly, the buckets were rather effective. The sound was muffled so it was very hard to hear one another and obviously we couldn't see so that was pretty realistic. Unfortunately, it was harder than it probably sounds and our victim died of hypothermia which is also probably be pretty realistic in an actual scenario.
Overall, it was a great time. We had fantastic weather, which made it hard to pretend we were in a life threatening situation. The only thing we truly had to worry about was putting on sunscreen regularly. Best two days of work I've had so far!
The Mighty Haggelund
Building the quinzey...
...and the finished product
the Scott tent, where I slept that night
some Antarctic groundhogs
cutting out snow blocks for the wall...
"surviving" Antarctica
posted by PolarSweep at 4:52 PM
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