My bags are packed for the last time for a while (phew!) and I am certainly itching and ready to go. We had a great Thanksgiving here at McMurdo, with the highlight being the 5K Turkey Trot Race. I actually won the women’s division! The food tasted even better after the race! We had a wonderful spread of turkey, gravy, stuffing, crab legs, stuffed mushrooms, roasted vegetables, fresh rolls and tons of desserts (caramel apples, homemade chocolate truffles, pumpkin pie, ice cream, pudding and raspberry cheesecake!) There were even fresh strawberries and cherries! I certainly got my fill. Despite really missing my family, it was a great holiday! I am looking forward to Christmas and New Years out on the ice!

It was great to be here in McMurdo hiking and meeting people who work here and getting closer to those who will be my peers and colleagues out on the ice. Now the real challenge begins. We all have to say goodbye to daily warm showers, heated buildings, great internet connectivity and warm beds. At WAIS, life will be a challenge as we will be working non-stop, sleeping in tents and sleeping bags and have minimal heated structures to retreat to when it gets really cold! Thankfully we have all had lots of training now and were issued lots of gear so we will have the skills to survive and stay warm!
I can’t wait to send my next post from WAIS! I hope everyone had a very Happy Thanksgiving! Hopefully you’ll hear from me soon!

Here are some photos of the McMurdo area. I won’t be seeing any mountains or sea ice for a while. White will certainly become my favorite color quickly!

McMurdo Station is surrounded by beautiful mountains.

We camped out on the sea ice for survival training. Here is the area around the camp we set up.

Heidi holds up a block as she helps to build a snow wall that served as wind protection for the camp during an overnight survival training.

We took lots of hikes, including a walk over to Scott Base, the station for the Antarctica New Zealand program.

Heidi hiking around the mountains surrounding McMurdo Station.

Mt. Erebus and its volcanic plume blowing to the right.

Above Mt. Erebus was the sun with incredible sun dogs and a halo around it. This spectacle is caused by ice crystals in the atmosphere, and the north and south poles may be the best places in the world to see this effect.

Our instructor, Nick, said that we were in an excellent area for cutting up snow blocks for building structures (you use a saw). Some of my fellow campers tried to build an igloo (a major technological challenge, and they almost succeeded, but they gave up around 1:00 AM).

My fellow campers and their igloo.

Some built a duplex, and I built an ice cave but ended up sleeping in a Scott tent.

An ice duplex.

My ice cave.

Scott tents are famous for their durability in storms.

The next day we were debriefed on how the night went (the low was a balmy 24F, so we were all pretty comfortable during the night), and we then completed the course (the survival training course is good for five years of traveling in remote parts of Antarctica). Overall the course was a lot of fun, and very interesting!

Since I was on a cruise for the duration of my last trip, I never had to cross one of the unifying stepping stones of everyone who works here, be them firemen or astronomers: I didn’t go to snow school. Snow School, or Happy Camper, is an overnight trip to the ice during which those new to Antarctica learn basic survival skills and come to appreciate some of the subtle differences between camping in the Midwest and camping on an ice sheet. My trip began December 2, with 17 other students in tow. The morning was spent listening to lectures but in the afternoon we walked out to the Happy Camper supply shed and began to set up camp. Right as we headed outside, it began to snow again!

Posing in front of Erebus Volcano on the way to Snow School.

After we had learned the basics of different shelters one can build on the ice, we were left to our own devices. During that time, our only responsibility was to cook dinner in our snow kitchen. Building in the snow, it is easier to build down than up. We began by expanding the kitchen so that there would be benches on either side of the preparation area. In the end, the area was able to accommodate at least 15 people at a time, allowing them to sit out of the wind and enjoy a hot beverage or some re-hydrated meals.

Eating our re-hydrated dinners in the kitchen we built by digging down into the snow. I slept in one of the Scott Tents in the background.

The food at our snow camp was not at all fresh or good! Amongst our rations for the evening we found a chocolate bar that was dated 13 years ago!

Amongst our food rations, we found a chocolate bar that expired 13 years ago. Here, Tim smiles before trying the chocolate. He was not smiling after.

Another group of creative individuals decided to build an arch out of snow. I helped in the beginning, popping the blocks of snow out of the quarry and also was there to assist in placing the keystone block which supports the weight of the arch, but much of the work was done while I was off cross country skiing for the first time in my life!

Happy Campers putting the finishing touches on our snow arch. At about 11pm the sun came out and smiled its approval on our construction.

When the time came, I chose to sleep in a Scott Tent, the design of which is over 100 years old. Having recently read about the early Antarctic explorers during my layover in Christchurch, I thought I would try-on a piece of their lifestyle. The tent has 4 poles that form a square base and meet at the top in a pyramid. Unlike modern tents, the base is not attached. It’s just a tarp you throw over the snow after the exterior has been propped up. We learned how to dig into the snow to make anchors for the tent that would neither rip it nor let it blow away. I can’t say I was particularly warm in the Scott tent, but I wasn’t any colder than the last time I went camping in Pennsylvania in April.

Even if I get to return to the Ice and become a Happy Camper once more, it will never be the same. The people I spent the night playing in the snow with are pretty amazing folks. And this experience alone was worth coming halfway around the world.

Since I have only been camping a handful of times, I was naïve to think that living outside in Antarctica would be just as easy, but simply colder, than my previous experiences. Little did I understand what cold entails.

One of the unusual vehicles we traveled in.

Some other vehicles with characteristic wheels of Antarctica.

As we load our bags into a gritty cargo truck – with conveyor belt wheels as a military tank would have – a ladder shoots out the back so that we can climb into it, and we head down to ‘Happy Camper School’. We don’t go very far – just down and around the hillside where McMurdo is situated and past the distinguishable green Scott base (the New Zealand base). Then we continue onto the ice shelf and past sea ice. There aren’t any paved roads on this ice shelf, but the pathways are marked by bamboo poles with flags.

This is how ‘roads’ are demarcated on the ice shelf.

Also, I realize that in this general direction I can barely make out two airplanes in the horizon – this must be one of the airfields, and I believe it’s the one we landed on. So, the C-17 landed on an ice shelf, and we first step foot not on the continent but the ice shelf. Isn’t that amazing? We landed on an ice shelf – the plane lands and takes off on a floating piece of ice. It is anchored and connected to land at some point, but at that point, there is no land underneath. The ice is thick enough and strong enough to support huge airplanes and vehicles, and even the piercing steps of our weight.

When the ten of us and instructor get dropped off, we walked to the instructor’s hut about 400 meters away. We were walking on a flat stretch of snow with mountains in every direction which were the only features that had speckled areas of darkness – either bare land or on some of them shadows of peaks and troughs in the mountainside. Straight ahead, the closest mountain stood – Mt. Erebus with smoke fuming out of its peak as if it were coming out of a chimney.

Me with Mt. Erebus in the background. It is about 25 miles from where I was to the summit, as the crow flies.

Not ever having seen a volcano before I could immediately tell that the cloud-like formation had rapid movement and was escaping from the peak. How amazing it is that the mountain looks like any other – with the same amount of snow draped all over its side even though there’s live lava inside of it.

Crunching in the snow and making inch deep footprints with my big blue boots kept me warm, too warm in fact because my sunglasses began to fog up. This incident provoked my awareness to water’s first signs of unrest. Little did I know that I would be captured in this battle against water’s transformation, and there would be no end in sight.

At first all was going well. Inside the instructors hut we practiced turning on MSR stoves, which was simple enough. But then we had to start setting up everything outside – setting up tents, the kitchen, and the snow walls. To set up tents and to anchor it, you must dig. You dig what are called ‘dead man anchors’ and then you must tie the string tightly. This digging makes you warm and sweaty, and this causes your sunglasses to become foggy, once again. Now I could only see through a clear space about the size of a dime on each lens. Then, in order to grip the fine string to make taut knots, your gloves must be removed, but this leaves you with cold, hard hands after tying too many. So it was a constant struggle to do a lot, move fast, but not too much so that you overheat. Because then your sunglasses would fog up leaving you just seeing vague shapes of red and no texture of the ground.

Then to build a snow wall, we cut blocks of ice with a saw and shovel, and created half circles about four feet high around each tent facing the direction strongest wind. Our group of about ten people split up. Some of them were the ‘brick-makers’, some of them transported the ‘bricks’, and others were the masons, building the wall. The blocks were about 18 inches long, 8 inches wide and about 18 inches tall, but they were extremely heavy and hard to get a good grip on. I was mainly one of the transporters, so that required a lot of brawn that was being built at that moment. I had no idea that ice could be so heavy. The only way I could carry them was to position one side of it against my body and hug the sides. But especially if the corners were not cut straight and rigidly, they’d break or slide through my hands. I’d sweat a lot, which would make my glasses fog up, but by this time, my sun goggles had gotten warm enough to produce condensation on the inside. The water battle was raging, and the water was gaining on me in my weary state.

Then I made a fatal mistake – I took off my glasses and left them hanging around my neck. When I reached for them later they had a frozen layer of water on the inside: a contoured dotted layer of ice. I was defeated. Now I couldn’t see anything out of them (luckily I had another pair in my bag to use). But I smiled to myself as I held the glasses. This is a reminder to me that physical processes like water transformation of evaporation and condensation occur all around us everywhere. It’s too bad I have avoided seeing this until now.

In the tent at night it was cold, and I could feel the ice beneath my air pad and foam pad. I later learned that I wasn’t utilizing my sleeping gear correctly – the fleece is supposed to be lining between you and your sleeping bag, not just a layer between the ground and your sleeping bag. I woke up many times during the night (although this had been the case for the previous three nights since my arrival to McMurdo and 24 hour daylight). But at around 4 AM I awoke to a new sensation – the sound of whistling wind and a flapping tent and my toes freezing. When I returned people inquired about our experience and gave us their condolences for having had to sleep in -57 degrees with wind chill.

MCMURDO STATION, ANTARCTICA– As the Delta drove away after dropping off our group for Happy Camper School, also known as “Snowcraft 1” and survival training, I had a distinct mix of adrenaline excitement and nervousness.

The Delta driving away after dropping our group off for Happy Camper School.

The day was cloudy and gray. The wind was up. And it was cold. But this was my first real Antarctic experience, the first time away from McMurdo Station. I was energized to learn survival skills to endure the frigid Antarctic night and help my group set up a camp on the Ross Ice Shelf.

We walked quite a long way to where we would start our training, each of us alone to our thoughts bundled against the wind. I was actually happy to leave the relative comfort of McMurdo Station. This was one of the things I was looking forward to most when I came down here, the opportunity to experience Antarctica.

Walking on the Ross Ice Shelf to Happy Camper School.

Castle Rock came into view, and again I was reminded of those who came before me. The early explorers didn’t have training on how to live in this harsh environment. They were the ones who, by trial and error, passed down the knowledge that we have benefited from today. They went out seeking to comprehend the world around them as we do now, but they wrote the lessons of survival that we now follow.

Castle Rock in the clouds.

I turned and looked behind me toward what was familiar and saw Mt. Discovery shrouded in clouds behind Scott Base, the New Zealand scientific research facility. I made the decision to actively be engaged in my training to absorb everything I could. There is a deep respect I have for the extreme weather which can and does occur in the Antarctic. In order to feel confident about my own ability to withstand the potential difficult moments, times that would require a clear mind and deliberate action if they teetered on the edge of life and death, I had to fully learn how to cope with my surroundings.

Mt. Discovery shrouded in clouds behind Scott Base.

One of the first lessons our instructors taught us was how to use and fix a WhisperLite stove. We would later use them to make water from melted snow and to heat the water for meals, hot drinks, and to fill a bottle to keep in our sleeping bags as we slept to keep warm throughout the night. These stoves are very well suited to be used in such a cold environment because they can be lit with almost any type of fuel.

Learning to use a WhisperLite stove.

A snow shelter we were taught to make was called a Quinzee. It’s different than an igloo because an igloo uses carefully placed blocks of snow in its construction. A quinzee is made by hollowing out compacted snow. We piled up all of our duffle bags that contained our sleep kits (sleeping bags, fleece liners, and ground mats) and shoveled about 1 foot of snow on top of it. This was packed down by smacking the backside of our shovels against it. We then let it sit for about an hour so the snow crystals would lock together to form a solid structure. A hole was dug into the side of it, and the bags were removed. And what was left was a hollow mound of snow that protected against the wind and elements. The inside was excavated to make a flat sleeping surface, and it was ready to use. I chose to sleep inside of this later in the night.

Constructing a Quinzee snow shelter.

Our sleep shelters were finally constructed and laid out. We had 2 orange Scott Tents, the Quinzee, and several blue and yellow Mountain tents. It’s very important how a camp be set up, and one of the most significant things is to determine where the dominant wind is coming from. This will likely be the direction from where the most severe weather would come. All of the entrances to the shelters were placed away from the wind.

Our camp with 2 Scott Tents, the Quinzee, and several blue and yellow Mountain tents.

The next thing our instructors taught us after our sleep structures were set up was how to excavate snow blocks. We would use these to construct walls around our camp to prevent the full force of the wind from getting to us. We put them around the Mountain tents and the area where we would be setting up the stoves to melt snow for drinking water.

Learning to mine snow blocks for a wind wall.

After all of our hard work, the clouds mostly cleared out and it became a beautiful evening. Our camp was set up. Everything was secure. We ate dinner and warmed up with hot drinks.

Mountain tents protected from the wind by the snow block wind wall.

I was really tired after being outside the whole day in the cold. I set up my sleeping bag in the Quinzee and got ready to spend my first night out on the Ice in Antarctica.

Sitting in front of the Quinzee ready to sleep.

With a full belly and a warm water bottle to help heat my sleeping bag, I turned and looked toward one of the last sunsets on the continent for the season. I was amazed. I had made it. I was now in Antarctica!

Mt. Discovery and Black Island at sunset.